God Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song by Sheryl Kaskowitz (review)

Abstract

Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song. By Sheryl Kaskowitz. New York: Oxford Uni- versity Press, 2013. [xiii, 210 p. ISBN 9780199919772. $29.95.] Music exam- ples, illustrations, companion Web site, bibliography, discography, index.Irving Berlin's Bless is an ideal popular song: memorable, easy to perform, and capable of supporting a vari- ety of interpretations. In Bless America: The Surprising History of an Iconic Song, Sheryl Kaskowitz presents a thorough inves- tigation of the song's history and the con- tested meanings ascribed to the work by different audiences throughout the last century. Far more than a study of a single song, the book addresses everything from ideas about the role of the com- poser and performer in popular music to intervention and war, assimilation and ac- ceptance of outsiders, the rise of the ideo- logical Right, rifts between generations, and definitions of Americanness itself (p. 4).Kaskowitz begins by contextualizing the song's history in the popular traditions of the Victorian parlor and the Tin Pan Alley ballad, as well as the repertoire of unofficial national anthems (pp. 5-6). She suggests that the song's effectiveness and stems from Berlin's use of famil- iar expressive schemas that portray a com- munal American identity. From there, the author unpacks the mythology surrounding the song's creation. Originally written in 1918 for a revue with an all-soldier cast, Bless was cut from the show and remained in Berlin's trunk until he re- vised it for Kate Smith's 1938 premiere. The song's subsequent led to ongoing conflicts between Smith (repre- sented by her manager Ted Collins) and Berlin that exemplify problems of owner- ship, creation, and the underlying ten- sions between composer and performer in American popular music (p. 7).The next chapter thoroughly investigates the song's compositional history, shedding light on the intersection of Berlin's musical craftsmanship and business acumen. Berlin was acutely aware of how changing geopo- litical tensions would influence the song's reception: the circumstances surrounding the 1918 version's associations with inter- ventionism had changed by 1938, and Berlin consequently tempered lyrics and musical gestures appropriate for a country at war (p. 36) with alterations that in- cluded the addition of a first verse. This verse casts the as a hymn and reflects the anti-interventionism prevalent in pre- World War II American cultural life. In the final revision (one week before Smith's pre- miere), Berlin changed lyrics, added a new C section (from the mountains. . . .), and alter[ed] the climactic center of the song by shifting the final line's emphasis from America to God (p. 40). These changes, coupled with the deletion of the first verse, reveal the drastic swing in American public opinion from staunchly anti-interventionist to interventionist, while paradoxically re- moving Bless from any spe- cific historical context. Kaskowitz suggests that this adaptability made the timeless, no doubt contributing to its on- going popularity (p. 42). Kaskowitz em- phasizes the influence of Smith's perfor- mances and the arrangement on the song's initial popularity, which both continued the shift away from pop tune sensibilities that Berlin's revisions had begun (p. 43) and positioned the as a hymn or an- them, solidif[ying] the song's associations with group singing (p. 48).The remainder of the book concentrates on the song's reception and popularity. After its premiere, Bless functioned like an unofficial national an- them, which, Kaskowitz argues in chapter 3, was possible because of the song's style (hymn- or anthem-like and not popular), singability (becoming a vehicle for public expressions of patriotism and community), and timing (appropriately expressing senti- ments widely held both before and during World War II). …