OK I was listening to Judy Garland’s version of the song “Chicago,” and I was trying to figure out the lyrics to a certain part of the song.
Now I Google’d the lyrics but they aren’t coming up very accurate at least in my opinion
The part I want is actually only one word, but I can’t figure it out.
Now this is what I’m hearing…
Now the next link is causing my trouble
I’m thinking along the lines
You know fleeced as in overcharged. For those who don’t know the Pump Room is a resturant in the Ambassador East Hotel. Both the hotel and the resturaunt were very exclusive in their day, not so much anymoe.
Anyone know what that line is?
As I said I Google’d around but I wind up with lyrics like “Punk Room?”
I’m pretty sure that’s what she’s singing. It’s also referenced in the Wikipedia entry for The Pump Room, not that this is exactly authorative.
Annoyingly most of the other versions don’t include that line, since they go off of the Sinatra version that just repeats the first verse. Which is too bad, because if Sinatra had sung that line, we’d hear it loud and clear.
I’m tired of debating this with people for the past almost 50 years.
Yes, it’s “how now” and “Pump Room” and “breast of squab” and “fleeced.”
Now. What do you think the second-last line of the song is, the one that most people think is “I’m in this city”? Whatever it is, it should rhyme with “windy.”
Writers in the old days were pretty careful about getting rhymes, but they would use “close enough” if they absolutely had to.
City and windy are somewhat close and the phrase, “I’m in this city for a wonderful windy…TIME” does sound decent.
The writer may have used a “close enough” rhyme, because the ending is the word time, so the singer slurs into that.
It’s like the song “The Other Woman,” by Ray Parker Jr. Virtually nothing in that song actually rhymed but it all was very close to rhyming, which was a cool way to write something.
