What if The Man on the Flying Trapeze was Jazz
Once I was happy but now I'm forlorn,
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What if The Man on the Flying Trapeze was Jazz
A jazz trio can turn a comedy into a confession. This track takes a Victorian music-hall number — a young man loses his girl to a trapeze artist — and sets it down in a small club at closing time. The words stay exactly where they were; everything around them changes. The jaunty original becomes slow, smoky small-combo jazz: an upright bass, sparse piano, a muted trumpet answering each vocal line, and a dry, close-sung baritone that tells the story as though it still stings.
The words are George Leybourne's 1868 lyric, and nothing in them has been changed, cut, or modernised. The song still opens on "Once I was happy but now I'm forlorn" and still closes on "And that's what's become of my love," spelling quirks and all. 1 The song sheet itself was printed in 1868. 2 Words and music have been out of copyright for a long time. 3
Play it late, with one lamp on and the rest of the room dark. It suits the end of a slow Sunday, a long drive home after a night out, or the moment someone at the table starts telling a story they have already told.
References
- 1The Flying Trapeze (1868) — George Leybourne, Wikisource
en.wikisource.org
- 2
- 3What is Copyright? — U.S. Copyright Office
copyright.gov
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