The Only Cover I Want

We read Neil Bartlett's Ready To Catch Him Should He Fall eight years ago (twenty years after it was first published in 1990). Serpent's Tail reissued it last year in a "Classics" edition—which it most certainly is—and with a "Preface: Nearly thirty years later..." All of which got me thinking about the Marks & Simons song "All of Me" (1931) which figures so prominently in this novel.

The first recording was by Ruth Etting. Many, many covers followed by lots of well-known singers. I generally despise covers, particularly of pop tunes from the 20s & 30s. Whatever they gain in artistry they lose in authenticity. But in trying to learn more about the lyricist Gerald Marks and composer Seymour Simons and how they got together and produced this classic song I stumbled upon Mark Steyn blogging about Sinatra's greatest hits.

"All of Me" — #13. Now I'm no Sinatra fan. If I've ever heard his cover of "All of Me" I've mercifully repressed it. (Less easy to be unable to imagine it!) And I'd probably be no Mark Steyn fan either if I knew more about him from watching the "Fair & Balanced" network. But Steyn does write a very informative backgrounder on this hit. And—finally to the point—includes this tidbit:

If I had to name a non-Sinatra live performance that has stayed with me, it would, somewhat improbably, be by the London playwright Neil Bartlett. At the Institute of Contemporary Arts' 40th anniversary bash in the Eighties, Mr Bartlett came out and sang "All Of Me" a cappella and without a shirt and, being gay and frankly somewhat cadaverous, he imbued it, without changing a word, with a topical and eerie Aids subtext:

    Take these lips
    I want to lose them
    Take these arms
    I'll never use them...

This would have been when Neil Bartlett was writing Ready To Catch Him Should He Fall or shortly thereafter. If "All of Me" wasn't already a Gay Song, it became one then! (Cf Ivri Lider's performance of "The Man I Love" in Eyton Fox's The Bubble—my favorite heard cover.)