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The Merry Minuet—The Dance Goes On


An “anonymous” Friend of Geography recently repeated the quip by Alphonse Karr (1849) that “The more things change, the more they stay the same” (Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose), and he backed this up by proceeding to quote part of “The Merry Minuet,” written by Sheldon Harnick and popularized by the Kingston Trio in 1959. Considering the current turmoil in Africa, unemployment in Spain, Hurricane Sandy (etc.), record drought conditions in the American southwest, concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, and the usual quota of international animosity, it seems appropriate to reprint the lyrics (a You Tube audio version is available here) 50+ years on:

The Merry Minuet

They’re rioting in Africa, they’re starving in Spain.

There’s hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.

The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.

Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.

And I don’t like anybody very much!

*

But we can be tranquil, and thankful, and proud,

For mans’ been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud.

And we know for certain that some lovely day

Someone will set the spark off, and we will all be blown away.

*

They’re rioting in Africa, there’s strife in Iran.

What nature doesn’t do to us, will be done by our fellow man.

Editor’s note: Sheldon Harnick prefaced “The Merry Minuet” with the quip, “There are days in my life when everything is dreary / I grow pessimistic, sad and world weary. / But when I’m tearful and fearfully upset / I always sing this merry little minuet.” Harnick (born April 30, 1924) is an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as “Fiddler on the Roof.” In 1960, he shared the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his lyrics to “Fiorello!,” a musical.

Article by Bill Norrington



 

Editor’s note: Sheldon Harnick prefaced “The Merry Minuet” with the quip, “There are days in my life when everything is dreary / I grow pessimistic, sad and world weary. / But when I'm tearful and fearfully upset / I always sing this merry little minuet.” Harnick (born April 30, 1924) is an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof. In 1960, he shared the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his lyrics to “Fiorello!,” musical.
Image 1 for article titled "The Merry Minuet—The Dance Goes On"
“From the Hungry I” LP, 1959 – The Kingston Trio’s first in-concert album. The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds. It rose to international popularity, fueled by unprecedented sales of 33⅓ rpm long-playing record albums (LPs), and helped to alter the direction of popular music in the U.S. The Kingston Trio was one of the most prominent bands of the era’s pop-folk boom that started in 1958 with the release of their first album and its hit recording of “Tom Dooley”, which sold over three million copies as a single. The Trio released nineteen albums that made Billboard’s Top 100, fourteen of which ranked in the top 10, and five of which hit the number 1 spot. Four of the group’s LPs charted among the Top 10 selling albums for five weeks in November and December 1959, a record unmatched for more than 50 years, and the group still ranks after half a century in the all-time lists of many of Billboard’s cumulative charts, including those for most weeks with a number 1 album, most total weeks charting an album, most number 1 albums, most consecutive number 1 albums, and most top ten albums (Wikipedia: The Kingston Trio)

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