"Mountain Greenery," FULL SONG, Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart 1926 Broadway hit

"Mountain Greenery" is an early hit by Rodgers & Hart, originally featured in the revue The Garrick Gaieties, a Theater Guild fundraiser that became a 1926 Broadway hit and saved Rodgers & Hart's fledgling careers. This is the full song, including all verses, choruses, and the patter section! Please also watch my video of Manhattan, the major hit song from The Garrick Gaieties:
• "Manhattan," hit by Ri...
While "Manhattan" demonstrated Rodgers & Hart's ability to write a contemporary romantic ballad with clever wordplay, "Mountain Greenery" is a more brash uptempo number, featuring one of Hart's most audacious rhymes:
Beans could get no keener re-
ception in a Beenery,
Bless our Mountain Greenery home!
The 2nd chorus contains the fine parallel:
We could find no cleaner re-
treat from life's machinery
Than our Mountain Greenery home!
No American-born lyricist wrote like that--Hart's only peers were English lyricists W.S. Gilbert and P.G. Wodehouse (though Noel Coward and Cole Porter would soon join the ranks of great theatre lyricists). The whole lyric for Mountain Greenery is a treat, a real bit of 1920s nostalgia (May 1 was traditionally lease end date in old New York, and the song's narrator advocates taking this opportunity to get out of the city entirely), and Hart manages to work in a poor man's application of Omar Khayyam.
The song is part of the great American songbook and has been recorded by many American singers, including Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, and The Supremes.
#1920smusic #broadway #richardrodgers #lorenzhart #musicaltheatre #musical #roaring20smusic #roaring20s #jazzage
Lyric:
On the first of May
It is moving day
Spring is here
So blow your job
Throw your job away
Now's the time to trust
To your wanderlust
In the city's dust you wait
Must you wait?
Just you wait
In a mountain greenery
Where God paints the scenery
Just two crazy people together
While you love your lover let
Blue skies be your coverlet
When it rains, we'll laugh at the weather
And if you're good
I'll search for wood
So, you can cook
While I stand looking
Beans could get no keener re-
-ception in a beanery
Bless our mountain greenery home
Simple cooking means
More than French cuisines.
I've a banquet planned which is
Sandwiches and beans.
Coffee's just as grand
With a little sand.
Eat and you'll grow fatter, boy,
s'matter, boy?
'Atta boy!
In our mountain greenery
Where God paints the scenery
Just two crazy people together
How we love sequestering
Where no pests are pestering
No dear mama holds us in tether
Mosquitoes here
Won't bite you, dear
I'll let them sting
Me on the finger
We could find no cleaner re-
treat from life's machinery
Than our mountain greenery home
When the world was young
Old Father Adam with sin would grapple
So we're entitled to just one apple
I mean to make applesauce
Underneath the bough
We'll learn a lesson from Mister Omar
beneath the eyes of no Pa and no Ma
Old Lady Nature is boss
Watching dishes
catching fishes
In a running stream
We'll curse the smell 'a
Citronella
Even when we dream
Head upon the ground
Your downy pillow is just a boulder
I'll have new dimples before I'm older
But life is peaches and cream
And if you're good
I'll search for wood
So, you can cook
While I stand looking
Beans could get no keener re-
ception in a beanery
Bless our mountain greenery home