Which river is Moon River of the Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer song from the movie Breakfast At Tiffany’s?
There is a Mun River – pronounced Moon River – in the Northeast over here, but I doubt that’s it.
Something always made me think it was the Mississippi (“wider than a mile”), but that’s just speculation. I suspect it’s an imaginary river, analogous of wanderlust and freedom.
I think it is metaphoric. But an inlet near Savannah, Georgia, Johnny Mercer’s hometown, was named “Moon River” in honor of this song, according to wiki.
You’re taking the song too literally. There’s no reason to think that it refers to any particular river. I suppose that the term “huckleberry friend” could be taken as a reference to Huckleberry Finn and hence to the Mississippi River, but there’s nothing in the whole atmosphere of the song that suggests that it’s about a particular river.
Not the intent from the movie and the writer but:
It could refer to the Mississippi River as the Character Holly-Go-Lightly is from the South and there is the line
My huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.
Maybe someone has a more definitive answer from Mercer himself, but I doubt there is one.
Jim
It’s a a song of romantic longing. Moon river doesn’t have to be any particular river, though I would think it to be the Mississippi . Write a song with a generalities and the listener can reminisce about a lovely place. It loses the romance and longing, when you sing Mississippi River, wider than a mile.
Not to mention the scansion!
Here’s what Wiki sez:
HIJACK:
I love Wikipedia. I read about Moon River, then clicked through to the Johnny Mercer Article, then to the Hoagy Carmichael article (I’m a fan, and went to college in Bloomington, Ind.), and found out that Ian Fleming described James Bond as resembling Hoagy. Then I clicked through to the Bond article, and the passages where he’s described that way are right there. Wikipedia = awesome.
I loves me some Wiki too, but the “Moon River” article didn’t say why the song is associated with JFK, as I’ve heard before. Anyone know the connection? Just an accident of timing?
‘Harmonious Discord’ mentions “romantic longing.” I agee, but not in the boy/girl sense, like most pop music. (I know you don’t mean it that way, of course, ‘Harmonious Discord.’)
Thanks for the wikipedia article, ‘DrDeth.’ I didn’t know it existed. Interesting – Audrey Hepburn picks up a Huckleberry Hound mask in one scene.
‘Elendil’s Heir,’ I am unaware of any association of the song with President Kennedy, but such a connection could exist since it took the Oscar for ‘Best Original Song’ in 1961. The only Kennedy associations that come to mind are songs from Camelot.
I agree with ‘jjimm’s’ off-the-cuff assessment, “I suspect it’s an imaginary river, analogous of wanderlust and freedom.” I would add ‘striving’ to that list.
I laughed out loud at ‘jayjay’s’ witticism.
A few months ago I asked “which river is Moon River?” at another website (minidisc. org) in the midst of a discussion about this song. One respondent said the song’s wistful, longing nature reminded him of Oh Shenandoah, another song about two rivers (Shenandoah and Missouri).
With the mention of two rivers, please allow me to give my ‘take’ on this enigmatic, evokative song.
“Wider than a mile” and “my Huckleberry friend” call to mind the Mississippi. But the song was written for Breakfast At Tiffany’s. That fact, and “you dreammaker, you heartbreaker” point to the Hudson, also wider than a mile. “I’m crossing you in style some day” introduces striving, desire, dreams of success.
“Whereever you’re going I’m going your way” indicates a journey, and a passive journey. Same with “Two drifters off to see the world” (Huckleberry Finn and Jim floating down the Mississippi).
“We’re after the same rainbow’s end, waitin’ round the bend … .” The Mississippi winds but the Hudson does not. Huck and Jim float down the Mississippi on a raft but the Hudson is always crossed – “I’m crossing you in style someday.”
The masterful lyrics are ambiguous and noncommital, as a few respondents pointed out. But I don’t think there are more than two choices, if a choice has to be made. Personally, the song always comes to mind winding down the helix to the Lincoln Tunnel. Among Moon River’s many attributes, it’s a soundtrack for that skyline a mile across the Hudson River. It’s a New York song.
According tothis, Johnny Mercer had a house on the Back River in Savannah, now called Moon River. One could reasonably assume it was the inspiration for the song (descriptions such as “wider than a mile” need not be any more literally precise than the name of the river itself - it’s art, not geography).
And according to this - which comes across as quite authoritative, and provides specific sources which could be checked - “huckleberry friend” has nothing to do with Huckleberry Finn or Huckleberry Hound, but rather comes from nostalgic reminiscence of picking huckleberries with friends. See the post in red, about halfway down.
Online Etymology Dictionary:
huckleberry
1670, American English, probably an alteration of Middle English hurtilbery “whortleberry,” from Old English horte. Technically the fruit and plant of Gaylussacia, but also colloquially applied to the closely related blueberry. Slang meaning “person of little consequence” is attested from 1835.
Johnny Mercer:
Mercer was going to call the song Blue River, but learned that there were several previous songs with that title, so he changed it to Moon River instead.
Driving around central Illinois with my family, I will sing it out lustily as Spoon River whenever we cross the stream of that name. I encountered the song and Spoon River at about the same time, so I had them confused at first. Mom corrected me, but I couldn’t let that stop me!
Hey, I’m pleased to know that there really is a Spoon River!
I’ve known about “huckleberry friends” for a long time. That’s probably where Huckleberry Finn got his name or nickname. If Mercer didn’t know that at least sub-consciously, I’d be surprised.
A recent biography of Johnny Mercer indicated that part of the Savannah River that flows by Bonaventure Cemetery where Johnny is buried has been renamed “Moon River.” I checked the last time that I was there and didn’t see an official sign anywhere. But Savannah is like that. They will keep you wondering and guessing. I think they all pretend that they are just not certain, but they think it’s on the next island or just down a few blocks. The answers are a little like this thread and that’s just fine.
God, I love Savannah. Prettiest, sweetest city you ever saw.
‘Gary T’ writes:
[QUOTE=Gary T]
descriptions such as “wider than a mile” need not be any more literally precise than the name of the river itself - it’s art, not geography).
A good number of your much-appreciated responses lean in this direction – that it is no particular river, so don’t overanalyze. I agree “it’s art, not geography” but would turn that assumption on its head. Johnny Mercer’s boyhood and family home surely influenced his writing, but those influences were only building blocks used artfully to evoke a real place, Manhattan. He would not aspire to cross his Georgia river “in style,” nor was it a “dreammaker” or “heartbreaker,” and had no “rainbow’s end.” Moon River is autobiographical, I agree, but in the sense of being the poetic expression of Mercer’s own aspirations for rising to the pinnacle of his profession. Mancini’s also – listen to the longing, striving quality in the melody and chords. They were two artists perfectly collaborating to evoke New York.
To evoke New York?
So, it is art. It’s not geography.