Speak Low (Billie Holiday)

June 23, 2007 9:28 PM

A friend in Shanghai asked me how I can bear to listen to the kinds of music I am drawn to. “It’s so serious. It’s so heavy. It’s so sad….”
I beg your pardon, young lady.

I was listening to Billie Holiday tonight, singing the Kurt Weil/Ogden Nash classic, “Speak Low,” after a sweltering day on the streets taking pictures that ended in a diluvian downfall - pardon the neologism. Billie didn’t write this song, but if you’ve ever heard her sing it, you know she owns it

Here are the lyrics:

Speak low when you speak, love
Our summer day withers away too soon, too soon
Speak low when you speak, love
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift, we’re swept apart, too soon
Speak low, darling, speak low
Love is a spark, lost in the dark too soon, too soon
I feel wherever I go that tomorrow is near, tomorrow is here and always too soon
Time is so old and love so brief
Love is pure gold and time a thief
We’re late, darling, we’re late
The curtain descends, ev’rything ends too soon, too soon
I wait, darling, I wait
Will you speak low to me, speak love to me and soon

Read "Speak Low"

Posted at 9:28 PM

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