This is probably not news to any rock ‘n roll lover who didn’t spend the day frollicking in the wilds of Maine until 10:30 pm today, but I just read that rock ‘n roll lyricist extraordinaire Jerry Lieber died at 78. If you don’t know the works of Lieber and Stoller, it’s time you do. The New York Times‘ piece I just read has a good recap of their highpoints. Check out The Drifters’ “Spanish Harlem,” which stopped me in my chewing of a bean burrito when I heard it playing over the speakers in a healthy, hippified diner set in an old-time pharmacy in Camden, Maine. Like Lenny Bruce says in my favorite bit of his, “Equality”: “It’s so pretty, man…” I had to stop and simply cherish the beauty of that song. That’s the Sound of the City that I so miss in too much rock ‘n roll from the ’70s forward, with rare exceptions like some regional punk rock from my high school days.
I read “Hound Dog: The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography” a few months ago and enjoyed it, but since Mike and Jerry both speak in first person it is hard to remember who is who while reading it.