The Man That Got Away: The Life and Songs of Harold Arlen (Music in American Life)

About this book

"Over the Rainbow " "Stormy Weather " and "One for My Baby" are just a few of Harold Arlens well-loved compositions. Yet his name is hardly known--except to the musicians who venerate him. At a gathering of songwriters George Gershwin called him "the best of us." Irving Berlin agreed. Paul McCartney sent him a fan letter and became his publisher. Bob Dylan wrote of his fascination with Arlens "bittersweet lonely world." A cantors son Arlen believed his music was from a place outside himself a place that also sent tragedy. When his wife became mentally ill and was institutionalized he turned to alcohol. It nearly killed him. But the beautiful songs kept coming: "Blues in the Night " "My Shining Hour " "Come Rain or Come Shine " and "The Man That Got Away." Walter Rimler drew on interviews with friends and associates of Arlen and on newly available archives to write this intimate portrait of a genius whose work is a pillar of the Great American Songbook.