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CD Review by Jack Nichols
Funny, but I didn't once see the producer's note telling how perfect reproductions of the old songs on this album are not to be hoped for. It was Marlene Dietrich, alright, that's all I cared about.
Discovering this album with its rare cuts of Dietrich's late nite tones at their very best—and observing their being on a CD—satisfies. The legendary star's 'late night' quality exudes, in the German cuts particularly, an unsurpassed richness: relentless romanticism reigning; Dietrich's resigned passion, wise and knowing in tone. What else need there be?
Dietrich once said that world-sadness is a necessary component of beauty. But woe to any contender who took as a sign of weakness the larger face of tragedy that Dietrich could project. Behind that nearly sad nod-to-reality was a fierceness in direct combat. On many occasions Dietrich went into actual battles right to the front lines where World War II America fought Hitler. There she entertained and entranced U.S. troops, a beautiful German-American woman using the energy and magnetism of her well-crafted personality in the struggle against the Third Reich. How she must have infuriated Hitler projecting against the might of the Fuhrer her warm, seductive persona.
Outside the barracks, by the corner light I'll always stand and wait for you at night We will create a world for two I'll wait for you, the whole night through, For you, Lili Marlene, for you, Lili Marlene. It was once the most popular of songs sung during World War II among both Germany's and America's troops. Both the German and English versions are among the selections on this CD. The last verse, as Dietrich sang it, remains, in my view, one of the great love-song lyrics of the 20th century:
 When we are marching in the mud and cold
And when my pack seems more than I can hold My love for you renews my might I'm warm again, my pack is light, It's you, Lili Marlene, It's you, Lili Marlene. Dietrich, by standing up to Hitler, demonstrated in real life what she'd shown in her films, a refusal to curtsey before anyone at all. She spoke up against the racism and the fascist fundamentalism that Hitler represented. Also, closer to home for me, she spoke up for same-sex romance and even practiced cross-dressing, entertaining in a tux. Dancing so in one of her films, she kisses a woman in her audience. Her daughter's biography of her (Marlene Dietrich by Maria Riva, Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1993) reveals that such happenings took place in the course of her off-stage life as well. Dietrich knew the power of tones. She was a great projector of attitude. How else could she have posed thusly in (Cut 13) her signature song, Falling in Love Again: Men cluster to me like moths around a flame And if their wings burn, I know I'm not to blame. There has seldom been a woman admired by so many who emitted such confidence in herself. At the same time, she was one of the reigning queens of glamour, the most expensively costumed star in Hollywood. She grew old still beautiful, the media dubbing her "America's sexiest grandmother" in the early 60s. When she decided she was no longer glamorous she refused to be photographed, and later, to be seen, so eager was she to maintain an unblemished legend for her beauty. Her art, in great part, was her life too. As a performer she had gone to lengths to protect an image, part of which, she knew, was lighting. Such details she refused to leave to stagehands and, before a show, she arrived early to fix the lighting herself to her best advantage. That's my kind of performer. Think as you listen to this CD how this woman crafting a unique image, sultry and provocative, still casts today her long ago spell, transcending decades. What is it about her that allows her to live on?
The second cut, Mean to Me, is the best version of this American song extant, even if it's in German. And cut number 5, Time on My Hands, is the essence of the romance-sound in deep, throaty splendor. Taking a Chance on Love (cut 6) encourages just such a leap into coupling.
Dietrich's German accent may figure in her French treatment of La Vie En Rose but to an American this counts little while the caberet-type singer lends the song her soulful awareness—her sense that indeed: we mostly see life through rose colored glasses. If you seek instrumental excellence in tandem with a deep-going sultriness, a world-weary beauty sighing and mixing those sighs with some of song's best poetry… and if you want romance at its source: Dietrich offers herself shamelessly as the Mistress of the mystery. She haunts. She seduces. She reminds us of our inner states. Nobody's going to fool her. She's a step ahead. As a late night background against which quiet, intimate communication blossoms, therefore, this album is very hard to beat. Information about The Cosmopolitan Marlene Dietrich is available through: Legacy—Art Deco Radio City Station P.O. Box 1526 New York, New York 10101-1526 |
Marlene Dietrich by her daughter Maria Riva
© 1997-99 BEI