Posted on 04/15/2005 4:15:27 PM PDT by T. Buzzard Trueblood
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - A life-size bronze statue of Hoagy Carmichael will be erected near the Indiana University off-campus hangout where the songwriter composed "Stardust" almost 80 years ago.
The statue, depicting Carmichael seated at a piano, was designed by Bloomington sculptor Michael McAuley and is planned to be completed by May 2006. A ceremony announcing plans for the Hoagy Carmichael Landmark Project will be at Peoples Park on April 23.
"It serves a dual function, to recognize the music world as well as the music community, and it's very natural for us to be interested in being part of that," said Mick Renneisen, administrator at the Bloomington Parks and Recreation department.
Carmichael's son, musician Randy Carmichael, is expected to attend.
"It's wonderful that people want to do something for dad. ... I'm humbled that they want to do this," he told The Herald-Times for a story Thursday.
The project is sponsored by the nonprofit Jazz from Bloomington, which will maintain the statue at Peoples Park. The park is only a few blocks from the IU law school, which Carmichael attended, and from what then was known as the Book Nook, where he wrote "Stardust" in 1927.
Carmichael died in 1981.
Hoagy was also an outspoken conservative and patriotic Republican who once nearly got into a fistfight with Humphrey Bogart over politics at a Hollywood party. This was at a time when Hollywood was perhaps more leftist even than it is now. Hoagy couldn't stand FDR, whom he considered a rich man who confiscated and squandered other people's money. Hoagy Carmichael was a great American composer who left a legacy of beautiful songs we can all be proud of.
So, 80 years later and he gets an erection. Damn, these old time Republicans just won't quit.
Clearly, we are the testosterone party.
probably no cigarette on that statue.
Amen to that.
Maybe it's not too late to get them to add one on...
Chorus:
Sometimes I wonder why I spend
The lonely nights
Dreaming of a song.
The melody haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you.
When our love was new, and each kiss an inspiration.
But that was long ago, and now my consolation
Is in the stardust of a song.
Beside the garden wall, when stars are bright
You are in my arms
The nightingale tells his fairy tale
Of paradise where roses grew.
Though I dream in vain, in my heart you will remain
My stardust melody
The memory of love’s refrain.
***********************************
Musically and lyically, only the most perfect song ever written...
Oh man, there goes my Friday night...Thanks!
You got that right. Not that the opinion of some hippie pothead counts for anything, but Paul McCartney, when asked if there was any song that he wished he had written, named...you guessed it, Stardust.
Pretty decent actor too.
That he was. An old school entertainer, Hoagy did it all.
where is this "People's Park" located? Is that just a lefty renaming of Dunn Meadow?
Don't know, never been there. I don't think they'll have much success turning Hoagy into a lefty icon, if that's their intention...
People'spark is downtown next to the library on Kirkwood, it is where people with purple hair tend to hang out.
ah, thanks
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