Welcome to this week's edition of Mark Steyn on the Town. I'm weekending in the oblast of Kharkiv or, according to taste, Kharkov, where last night we suffered what a local lovely tells me was the heaviest Russian bombardment since the war began - and mostly in residential areas. Not as bad as Dnipro, where five are dead in a direct hit on an apartment house.
Then came the dawn and it seemed to end ...but started up again at 8am.
When the small hours are incendiary night after night, there is understandably an inclination to sleep in. So, at my hotel, breakfast is served at any hour of one's choosing between 10am and 11am. I have gotten used to such impositions, but today I was informed that, due to a shortage of coffee, clients would be restricted to one cup per person. That usually suffices at home, followed by a second after lunch. But on the road I prefer to have two in the morning, as one never knows how elusive the lunchtime cup may prove. So, if I sound cranky today, as I did on our Clubland Q&A, you'll know why.
However, with so many ongoing Russian blasts across the oblasts, I thought we'd enjoy a few extra Ukrainian blasts across the oblasts, with a brief detour into the good old days of the Polovtsian empire - a well-known source of smash hits - plus a cavalcade of classics by the biggest hitmaker to come out of Kiev. You'll know the songs, as performed by a diverse range of artistes from Herbert von Karajan to Nina Simone, but did you know their Ukrainian roots?
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~Thank you for all your kind comments on last week's show. Cara, a New Jersey member of The Mark Steyn Club, says:
Dear Mark,
Beautiful On the Town today.
Thank you and God bless you on your journey and always.
Cara
Bless you too, Cara. John Barrett, a Steyn Clubber and a fellow Granite Stater, writes:
Hello Mark,
Great show - listened twice trying not to miss anything. The unlikely theme - weaving Ukrainians into the American songbook - was masterful. And how on earth did you produce it from a hotel room in Lviv?
Stay as safe as you can.
John
Actually, I was in my room in Kyiv, John. In Ukraine, it pays to keep moving. For Joe Cressotti, a First Week Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, our opening number was the highlight:
Thanks for a great show, Mark. It was very moving to listen to, not just because of the quality of the songs and your thoughtful commentary but because of the circumstances in your producing it. The use of "Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darling" was especially poignant. God bless you and your work.
Josh Passell, a First Weekend Founding Member, also enjoyed our curtain-raiser:
I confess that at the beginning I thought that Ukraine was a long way to go for a show theme. But you made it worth every drone strike and air raid siren. Just do not forsake us, oh our darling, and come home safe.
"He made a vow while in state prison
Said it would be my life or hisn'"As long as it's not yourn.
That is a great rhyme - by Ned Washington, on whom we have a word after today's opening number. David Thackray liked it too:
Mark Steyn on the Town from Ukraine was a corker. I hadn't realised The Ballad of High Noon (music by Ukrainian Dimitri Tiomkin) was such an atmospheric masterpiece. That eerie, unsettling opening still captivates 75 years on. I'd assumed it was made by some kind of 'wom-pom' muted percussion signifying an Indian uprising or maybe the sound of the sleepers as that fateful train looms into view and still can't quite accept that it was actually some form of primitive synthesizer. The vocal is just right, too. Some young matinee idol singing the theme wouldn't have worked and Frankie Laine would have sounded too upbeat but Tex Ritter's doleful lament nails it. And Ned Washington's marvellous lyric is the icing on the cake:
"He made a vow while in state prison
Vowed it would be my life or his'n"
For Nicola, a Mark Steyn Club member from francophone Ontario, the oblasts were an eye-opener:
Who knew what an oblast is? And who knew that To Sir With Love was an Ukrainian song? Wish I had had Sidney Poitier as a high school teacher.
What kind of flowers among the damaged buildings there? Here the crocii and snowdrops are out and so much rain the Ottawa River threatens.A Ukrainian Canadian sent me pictures of beautifully dressed Ukrainian women for their Christmas. So feminine but most will never marry as so many men killed. So tragic.
There's almost any kind of flower, Nicola. Especially in Kharkov, but also in points west, the only booming retail sector is the florist's - for the obvious reason, as touched on in your final sentence.
Jake, a Steyn Clubber in the English West Country, also enjoyed "To Sir with Love":
Mark could play To Sir, With Love back-to-back, week after week and I'd still never tire of Lulu's perfect performance. I wonder if she ever recorded a songbook?
Lonely Town was the business, though. A simply gorgeous arrangement - those French horns! - and a sound world that gives me the shivers - so well recorded/engineered. And quite possibly Sinatra's finest ballad performance. He didn't over-egg the heartache - he was a good actor - but pitched his vocal just right. The mood reminded me of that brilliant Robinson Crusoe quote from The Apartment: "I was alone, shipwrecked in a city of 8 million people. And then one day I saw a footprint in the sand; I looked up and there you were."
One more from Gary Alexander, a West Coast member of The Mark Steyn Club:
Another great show. In the pop vein, Ukrainian-born Dmitri Tiomkin had a great melodic gift. On his upcoming birthday, May 10 (same natal day as Austrians Max Steiner and Friedrich Austerlitz/Fred Astaire, with Russian-born Irving Berlin born the next day, on May 11), it would be great hearing Tiomkin's string of movie hits, beyond High Noon, like "Friendly Persuasion" and "The High and the Mighty" or "The Green Leaves of Summer" (from the Alamo) or his haunting "Wild is the Wind."
Tiomkin was especially eloquent in Western film scores, saying the U.S. prairies resembled his childhood memory of the Steppes, saying in his autobiography, "A Steppe is a Steppe is a Steppe" (a potential hit song title?)
I would agree with Mr Tiomkin there, Gary. In eastern Ukraine, the steppes get pretty serious, especially on a bitterly chill day, as Friday was. I spent the whole day singing:
Zaporhizya!
Where the wind comes sweeping down the steppes...
~On the Town is my weekly music show on Serenade Radio every Saturday at 5pm Greenwich Mean Time - that's 6pm in western and central Europe or 12 noon North American Eastern. You can listen from almost anywhere in the world by clicking the button at top right here. We also post On the Town at SteynOnline every weekend as a bonus for Mark Steyn Club members. You can find all our previous shows here.
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Mark Steyn on the Town can be heard on Serenade Radio at its regular times:
Saturday 5pm London time/12 noon New York
Sunday 5am London time/9am Los Angeles
