Anglophiles on this side of the pond had to get up awfully early this morning to witness the pageantry across the sea. We hope and presume that Prince William did not have this week’s featured sheet music in mind as he awaited his bethrothed. Composer Clarence Gaskill bleakly portrays married life as “no wining and dining. ” The singing dandy further laments, “Mister Carnegie, Oh hear my plea/Save a medal for me,” in reference to philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who in 1904 established the Carnegie Hero Fund.
Gaskill’s best known song may be a number first popularized by Russ Columbo (who co-wrote it) and later revived by singers from Perry Como to James Brown: “Prisoner of love.” One senses a curious leitmotif in Gaskill’s oeuvre. But a life of matrimony need not be the ball and chain of song, and In the Muse wishes the royal couple a grand start to what is already a fairy-tale adventure.