Cole Porter’s Anything Goes

Times have changed
And we’ve often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.

If today, any shock they should try to stem,
‘Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them.

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
Now heaven knows, anything goes.

Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four letter words
writing prose
Anything goes.

This is the title song to Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. I’m reading a biography of him and have learned there’s a lot of education, thought and pattern behind his snappy, fun and sometimes naughty lyrics. Porter was always interested in music; he sang in the glee club at Yale, studied music at Harvard and traveled the world enjoying the words and rhythms he heard. This song celebrates the free spirits in America in the 1930’s. Reading, or singing, his lyrics it’s easy to understand how much he loved playing with words.

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