Gender Word Warriors (GWWs): Musical Challenges

May I have a man-to-man talk with gender word warriors (GWWs)?

Do you expect to jettison the lyrics to “The Man I Love”, a beautiful Gershwin song: “Someday he’ll come along
The man I love
And he’ll be big and strong
The man I love”

And what happens to another Billie Holiday hit “I Must Have That Man”? “Don’t want my mammy
I don’t need a friend
My heart is broken, it won’t ever mend
I ain’t much carin’
Just where I will end
I must have that man”

Dinah Washington will be another female whose work will require heavy pruning. She sang titles like “A man only does”, “Rich man’s blues”, “My man’s an undertaker”, “Juice head man of mine”, “The man that got away”, “Ask a woman who knows”, “Make the man love me”, “Lover man”, “It’s a mean old man’s world”, “No one man”, “The blues ain’t nothin’ but a woman crying for her man”, “Mad about the boy”, “Old man’s darlin'”, and “Salty papa blues”,

Will Harry James’s version of “The Man with the Horn” be banned?

Will “Old Man River” become “Old Person River”?

Julie London and many others will find “Can’t help lovin’ dat man” renamed. Her work includes “Girl talk” and “Wives and lovers”, also on the chopping block. She sang “Nice girls don’t stay for breakfast”. What will become of “My heart belongs to daddy”?

Nat Cole’s “Nature Boy” will have to go. Buddy Greco’s “The lady is a tramp” will have to be revamped, and so will his “The most beautiful girl in the world” and his rendition of Duke’s “Satin doll”.

Chris Connor sang “Trouble is a man” and “Lonely woman” and “Poor little rich girl”. I suppose they all fall to the GWW censor’s axe.

“Mr. Sandman” won’t be allowed to soothe us to sleep. Anita O’Day’s work will be shorn of that and “An occasional man”, probably of “The wildest gal in town”, “Four brothers” and “Sweet Georgia Brown”.

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