RIP Jerry Leiber

September 1, 2001 - I was sitting in the audience of the Hey City dinner theater in Minneapolis waiting to experience a well-intended gift from my mom.  My mom is very thoughtful.  Sometimes she hits the mark and sometimes she completely misses.  So as I sat at my table in the darkness, uncomfortably dressed for a "fancy" Minnesota night on the town, surrounded by middle-aged suburban Minnesotans, I had to wonder, which will this be?  She bought us the tickets because she and my dad had gone to see this show and had REALLY enjoyed it.  That was a hint this probably being a miss.

The show was "Smokey Joe's Cafe", a traveling version of the Broadway retrospective of the music of Leiber & Stoller.  I was expecting a storyline with the music but it was more like a music review.  I felt like that was kind of a drag. 

If there were ever songs perfectly suited for a Broadway musical, it's the music of Leiber and Stoller (and perhaps the music of Pat Benetar).  The lyrics of Jerry Leiber told engrossing, sometimes mystical stories.  They painted a vivid picture of the difficulties and excitement of city life of the 1950s and early 1960s.  It was all at once gritty, dirty and yet filled with romance and anticipation.  Leiber and Stoller could make a person stomp on the dance floor all night long and then sweep them up to the stars on a symphony of soul.  More importantly however, their music often had a message.  As the civil rights movement was just beginning to simmer, Leiber & Stoller called their audience to action.   Many of their songs seemed to say, "Are you tired of this unjust system?! Disenfranchised people across the country, REVOLT!"  The songs and production of Leiber & Stoller encouraged people to overcome their often degrading struggles of everyday life.  Fight on!  REBEL!  RIOT!  It's a message that still rings true today.   In fact, I can't think of a more relevant right now than their song "Rat Race" by the Drifters.


There are many 20th century songwriting teams who are given credit for writing "the great American songbook" - George & Ira Gershwin. Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn, Rogers & Hart, Cole Porter and himself and so on.  Leiber & Stoller belong on that list.  Had rock 'n' roll and r&b not been so looked down upon in the 1950s, Ella Fitzgerald would surely have recorded the Leiber & Stoller songbook.  I have no doubt in my mind about that.

Getting back to "Smokey Joe's Cafe".  My disappointment quickly changed to shear joy.  The performances were incredible! As often happens when I experience a tremendous performance, I became rather emotional.  TEARS.  These were tears of joy AND sadness- Sad because I realized this was probably the closest I would ever come to experiencing these songs performed live in their original style (both visually and musically). But thanks to my mom I got to have at least that.
The experience was so meaningful to me, I've carried around the coaster and ticket from the show in my DJ bag for 10 years.