Here is a little tidbit for you. Robert Preston sang the song at full volume while filming instead of just lip syncing like most actors. They recorded the sound track separately but he sang the song during the filming and missed nothing.
Except that there over a million people sneaking over the border every year to line up for bennies or take jobs or run drugs and there's a law against that which congress passed but politicians refuse to enforce. I call THEM con artists.
Robert Preston had strong, natural, intense sex appeal, on top of all that talent. Professor Henry Hill has to be to pull off seducing an entire town. Preston's got train loads of seduction, built right in!
Gregory Peck won for To Kill a Mockingbird. Also nominated, Burt Lancaster, Jack Lemmon, Marcello Mastroianni, and Peter O’Toole. So … at least some schlub didn’t win over him. But yeah, he was awesome and deserved an Oscar for it … if not the 1963 best actor Oscar. TMM was nominated for Best Picture (Lawrence of Arabia won.) And guess who was nominated for best supporting actor? Telly Savalas! But your comment is a very good one. Preston’s performance buoys you for days after seeing TMM in the movie theatre. And he doesn’t just act but sings and dances! So what’s that worth?
It's absolutely perfect the way he lowers his voice confidentially when he says "Now I know all you folks are the RIGHT kind of parents." That's when he's got the hook firmly set.
Lessons: 1. Someone who presents a problem may be trying to sell you a solution 2. Never trust someone in a better suit than yours 3. If the argument relies on a slippery slope, patriotic slogans, or "social degradation", its probably crap 4. No one who says "Think of the children" is thinking of the children. 5. Just because you don't understand the kids today doesn't mean they're doing something wrong
@@dungeonmaster6292 I know right, I use to think slippery slope was just a fallacy, but it can also be accurate, which is why I’m convinced we’re about 10 years off from it being legal for people to marry gourds.
@@allthenewsordeath5772 Well, honestly, why shouldn't it be? It's ludicrous, but what harm is there? It's not like there's any effect on tax law. The gourd doesn't have any income, and you can't suddenly become a head of household, because the gourd isn't a legal citizen.
@@TerryTWeiss The institution of marriage is on life-support as it is, I don’t think allowing people to marry in animate objects, or allowing people to become polygamists would help that matter. It’s bad enough we’ve allowed the oxymoron that is gay marriage to be a thing, marriage as an institution is meant for the rearing of children. Marriage therefore only makes sense in a situation where the couple both have a deep and abiding love for each other, and are open to procreation, thiss of course invalidates by nature any view of marriage which does not encompass one or both of these aspects. I realize this rather classical and sentimental view of the institution is not the prevailing view in this day and age, but if a societies main goals are to continue its existence, and provide for its posterity, I hold that it is the correct view.
The whole spiel is a lesson in looking carefully at *any* fast talker who's trying to sell you something, be it a boys band, stocks, the Brooklyn Bridge or some political idea.
I did this speech at a State competition and the only reason I won third is because the second-place winner was a Drama major who did the epic "Inherit the Wind" speech. I still remember every beat. I practiced this speech so much. I only won third, but I'm still proud that I made those judges laugh and applaud me as I paraded around the stage.
so that's kinda neat cause in the first draft this was a monologue and was almost cut until Meredith Willson realized he could make some slight changes and make it a song
One of my favorite memories: I’m shooting pool by myself in a bar at like 3:00 pm on a Thursday or something like that. Out of nowhere some man who was at least infinity years old comes up to me and puts his arm around my shoulder. Then he says to me, “Son, I can tell by the way you work that cue that you have not led a clean and virtuous life.” Best compliment ever.
My mom used to tell me that when she was a kid her older sister wouldn't let her listen to the song 'Aint no Mountain High enough' because of word "'aint" It's crazy how fast things change
When they were casting this movie, they originally wanted a bigger star than Robert Preston as box office insurance. Reportedly, they even approached Cary Grant, who promptly refused the role because he felt no one could do it better than Preston could.
@@oddish4352 Correct. Warner Bros. brass originally wanted to cast Frank Sinatra in the title role -- but when Meredith Willson (i.e. the writer and music composer) heard of this, he immediately told the senior management the following, according to Shirley Jones who played the librarian "Marian Paroo": "You WILL NOT make my movie without Robert Preston in the title role!" 😎
My dear old dad, who passed away today, used to sing this to me when I was a little boy. Mainly when he took me down the pub in Newcastle on a Sunday and bought me beer and played pool with me! True story. God bless you dad.
And here’s the general meaning of the specific dialogue in "Trouble". The film takes place about 1912. This synopsis should help with understanding the lingo and the morals of that time. Billards was considered a gentleman's game. Pool was the game of gamblers and men of poor character. From this Professor Hill works to convince the crowd that allowing a pool hall in the town will lead the youth to lower standards. Now that you've taken the time to read this I do hope the song is much more enjoyable to you. "Rubbering in".- Walking back and forth and looking inside. Billiards - Also known as caroom (or carom) billiards, played with three balls (one cue ball and two object balls) on a pocketless table Pool - Developed much later than billiards. Also known as pocket billiards, using a cue ball and 15 object balls on a table with six pockets "Iron clad leave to yourself from a three-rail billiard shot" - leave is slang for a favorable position for a stroke in billiards (circa 1850). Three-rail billiard shot refers to the fact that in caroom (or carom) billiards, the cue ball must contact at least 3 cushions before it hits the second object ball in order to score any points. This sentence seems to imply that the player has, through excellent strategy and difficult maneuvers, put the balls in such a position as to give him an excellent shot at making points. balkline - A line parallel to one end of a billiard table, from behind which opening shots with the cue ball are made. pinch-back suit - A suit jacket having a close-fitting or pleated back. "City Slicker" clothes to the rural crowd. Jasper - any male fellow or chum, usually a stranger Trotting race - A horse that trots, especially one trained for harness racing. Very genteel pastime. Horse race - With a jockey on the horses back, running much quicker than the trotting race. Dan Patch - (1897-1916) Most famous trotting horse ever, from Indiana. Dan Patch was a pacer, under his second owner he lost only five heats in 56 starts. Dan Patch had his own private railway car to travel in, and at home he lived in a huge barn that was so grand it was called the “Taj Mahal.” There is still a trotting competition named for him, and an historical railroad line because “Dan Patch was a famous race horse a hundred years ago, and the railroad was named after him because its tracks between Minneapolis and Northfield passed very close to his owner’s farm.” There seem to be whole districts in Indiana still named after this horse, and there was a movie called The Great Dan Patch (1949) Frittering away their time - To reduce or squander little by little; frittered his inheritance away. To waste. cistern - A receptacle for holding water or other liquid, especially a tank for catching and storing rainwater. knickerbockers - Full breeches gathered and banded just below the knee (which is why moving them above the knee is such a shocking thing to do) shirt-tail young ones - Children about 7 to 15 years old. Bevo - From Anheuser-Busch. A non-alcoholic drink that tasted like beer. “Anheuser-Busch introduced Bevo, its new nonalcoholic beverage, in 1916 and elsewhere the flood of cereal beverages (near beer) were introduced during the 1917-18 period.” Cubebs - the dried unripe berry of a tropical shrub (Piper cubeba) of the pepper family that is crushed and smoked in cigarettes for as a medicine for catarrh, an inflammation of the nose and throat with increased production of mucus. There were several cubeb cigarettes made-Marshall’s Prepared Cubeb Cigarettes are perhaps the best known. Tailor Mades - A tailor-made cigarette referred to any cigarette made in a factory on a cigarette making machine. A roll-your-own cigarette was made by the smoker from a sack of Bull Durham or the like. James Jones in From Here to Eternity mentioned tailor-mades being smoked by soldiers when they had money. Until 1883 cigarettes were handmade. In 1880 a 21 year old Virginian named James Bonsack invented a cigarette making machine that dramatically increased production. A skilled cigarette roller made 4 cigarettes a minute, whereas Mr. Bonsack’s machine turned out 200 a minute. These were called “tailor mades” to distinguish them from handmade cigarettes. NOTE: This section talking about the boys down at the pool hall means they are trying to mimic adults, and look as if they are drinking beer and smoking tobacco, although they are drinking fake beer and smoking fake cigarettes. Sen Sen - When a country swain went courting his rural sweetheart, he often carried in his pocket an unobtrusive little envelope of Sen-Sen. When his younger brother indulged in smoking behind the barn, he too, had use for the exotic little pellets. For Sen-Sen was to the 19th century what breath mints are to our time. Any country store worth its salt, prominently displayed a box of the handy little packets within easy reach of its customers. Rag-time - A style of jazz characterized by elaborately syncopated rhythm in the melody and a steadily accented accompaniment. corn crib - A structure for storing and drying ears of corn. Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang - Started in 1919 (too late for Music Man, but I guess Wilson wasn’t worried about that!). From the book Humor Magazines and Comic Periodicals, “Few periodicals reflect the post-World War I cultural change in American life as well as Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang. To some people [it] represented the decline of morality and the flaunting of sexual immodesty; to others it signified an increase in openness. For much of the 1920’s, Captain Billy’s was the most prominent comic magazine in America with its mix of racy poetry and naughty jokes and puns, aimed at a small-town audience with pretensions of ‘sophistication’” This publication was to the male adolescent culture of the 1920s what Playboy was in the 1960s. Quit publishing sometime from 1932-36. This magazine created the foundation for Fawcett Publications, the publishing company that later created True Confessions and Mechanix Illustrated. swell - (slang) excellent, wonderful, delightful (mid 19th century) so’s your old man - catch phrase from 1900. An exclamation, used as a retort to an insult or slur. The Maine - U.S. battleship sunk (Feb. 15, 1898) in Havana harbor, killing 260, in an incident that helped precipitate the Spanish-American War. The cause of the explosion was never satisfactorily explained, and separate American and Spanish inquiries produced different results. But the American jingoistic press blamed the Spanish government, and Remember the Maine became the rallying cry of the war. Plymouth Rock - Plymouth, Massachusetts, is the oldest settlement in New England, founded in 1620. Plymouth Rock is on the beach where the Mayflower landed. The Golden Rule - saying of Jesus, from the Bible - As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Evolved into modern saying - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
"pinch-back suit - from pinchbeck - serving as an imitation or substitute; “pinchbeck heroism” ..." Bzzzzt! Nope. A pinch back suit was a trendy fashion at the time, a jacket with a strap or pair of straps in the back that cinched the fabric to narrow the waist. Ironically similar to the belted jacket Hill/Preston is wearing in this scene. vintagedancer.com/wp-content/uploads/1900-tweed-plaid-suits-sport-men.jpg
Re your note on "Rag-time - A style of jazz". It would take a whole essay to go into it, but many people of the 1920s (and likely earlier / the timestamp of this story) were fearful that jazz culture was luring whites into hanging out with blacks and thus such whites would succumb to the temptations of sexual anarchy... note how his patter mentions (right after "ragtime") the feared "jungle animal instinct"; Hill is intentionally stoking the crowd's racist response. (This musical has other themes about prejudice too, such as the town's gossip that judgmentally assumes the librarian was 'loose')
I have others to consider like Steve Martin in “All of Me”, Peter Saarsgard in “Shattered Glass”, and Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford - but yes, I tend to agree ; Preston’s is one of the best, for sure.
Robert Preston had presence. He was so powerful in this role. The orchestration in this song is perfect, accenting and augmenting. What a great musical Meredith Willson wrote. Great Americana.
Preston's Hill is a perfect combination of fast talking con man and evangelistic revival preacher. He gets you on his side and you never leave it. Such a great actor.
The songs in this musical fascinate me because they reflect the rhythm of a small, early-twentieth century town in the midwest. This one is part auctioneer/square dance caller/backwoods preacher. The first number brilliantly mimics a train, the Wells Fargo Wagon has a galloping sound, the music lesson song mimics playing piano scales, and Pick-A-Little Talk-A-Little is all fussy, clucking hens. Meredith Wilson was a genius, and yes, this was one precursor to rap, although it had probably been around for eons before that.
Andy Porter Today, it seems more applicable to a liberal message rather than a wholly conservative one. There are politicians the exact opposite of Harold Hill in the worst ways today.
They would not know how to react, I think. Some of our "bad words" are hundreds of years old, and spelled the same way then as we spell them now. However, some words did not even exist until the 20th century, and first appeared between the two world wars.
It's not Liberty men, he says, Libertine men. It's hard to understand I know. In fact the song is filled with words, products and activities that are no longer used.
He is not singing it he is acting it. That is what most other actors fail to understand. It is not a song, it is a monologue. He is totally in character.
And to think that Jack Warner wanted to cast Frank Sinatra as Harold Hill. I was a great fan of Mr. Sinatra, but he could not have pulled it off like Robert Preston.
Sinatra would have done a good job, because Sinatra would never do a bad job, but he would not have done a great job. The movie is memorable because of Preston. And apparently Meredith Willson (the composer) agreed, because there are reports he told Jack Warner that Robert Preston got the lead, or the film wouldn't be made.
This is one of the all-time great musicals. Wish they would show “The Music Man” on TV once in a while. The original, not the remake. Nobody can hold a candle to Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. They were superb!
Sorry to say the Matthew Broderick remake left much to be desired; a very lukewarm performance by that actor. The hundreds of Broadway performances by Preston couldn't help but make him the #1 actor for the Harold HIll role. Will be interesting to see what verve and energy Hugh Jackman will be able to inject in an upcoming movie version of this almost-perfect-material musical.
@@artbagley1406 Best review i saw of the "new" Music Man is that Jackman "spends so much time trying to NOT be Robert Preston that he never figures out who his character is."
@@heatherkelly2580 this song is arguably the first broadway rap song, which is rather interesting, fundamentally rap is just rhythmic speech over music or a beat, and given who relatively monotone this performance is from Preston it does feel more like a rap than a typical broadway song
@@heatherkelly2580 Yeah, actually this song 100% meets all the requirements to be considered a rap song. Any good rapper should know this absolute banger.
"The Last Starfighter" is an unrecognized classic. The one flaw, to my mind was Centari's (Robert Preston's) rejuvenation. He should have remained a deceased hero. "It'll be a slaughter!" "That's the spirit!" "Terrific! I'm about to get killed a million miles from nowhere with a gung ho iguana!" Wonderful lines.
@@gispel7058 I've seen a bunch of people do this bit, and while most of them recite it well, even reverently (Matthew Broderick and Seth McFarlane both come to mind here), none of them run around, wave their arms, or bug their eyes out when they should. Has Jack Black ever done this? He might well pull off the physicality of this thing.
As a man of the theater, I consider Robert Preston's performance in this film to be one of the glories of the art of acting that we have on record. (The only other actor who ever played Harold Hill with comparable brilliance was Hugh Jackman, who is the same type of performer as Preston). Look at how light on his feet he is when he runs around the circle of spectators! Or his razor-sharp diction as he articulates those intricate lyrics! He easily fulfills the essence of any performer who plays a con artist: he leaves you, the audience member, unshakably convinced that you yourself would fall for his pitch if you were in that crowd. WHAT an actor!
I met Mr. Preston in a bar in Knoxville many years ago. We had a lengthy conversation, not about movies or my profession but life in general. At the end as I was departing he said to me "William me boy, after I;m gone and from time to time and now and then would ye bend an elbow for poor old Bobby Preston?" I assured him that yes I would and still do though I do not drink alcohol any longer. Fine man.
Matthew did the best he could playing Harold I thought he did a good job. I don't think anyone did better at this song than one another. One of my best friends played Harold in a school play and he did just as good as Robert and Matthew so everyone who plays Harold is good in their own way.
I have to agree with Michael Mullis on is that No One can do this song like Robert Preston. The music and songs that Robert Preston did in the Music Man were written for him. Matthew Broddrick destroyed this song in the version he did, when they remade the Music Man that they should either got someone better that could sing long Robert Preston or should have just left the movie alone. I couldn't even watch the one with Matthew because of the songs were way off, not only the version that Matthew was in didn't flow as well.
Preston lived the role. I mean, he did it for years, perfecting it endlessly. A con man needs to reach out and grab people, and Preston did it beautifully. Mathew on the other hand cruised in, read the script, slept walked through the filming, and moved on. Thats how it appears to me anyway. His energy level seemed almost purposefully low, like it wouldn't have been cool to act overly excited. But how can you con anyone that way? I like Mathew in his other movies, but casting him here was nonsensical. In the early 60's, Hollywood could still convince you it understood Americana because at least many of the actors grew up knowing it. The Music Man, with Preston, is the perfect tribute to Americana. With Mathew, it is just a tribute to the ubiquitous Hollywood remake scam.
My middle school music teacher had us watch this and i been looking for it ever since then. I finally found after all these years!!!! So grateful i grew up with awesome elementary, middle, highschool music teachers that exposed us to many different cultures!!! Bring back our music and art programs please!!!
Amen to that! One that stuck with me into modern times is Don Gato by Margaret Marks. That nugget of creepy weird 70s elementary school awesomeness was introduced to me by Mrs. Lackey in Mauldin, SC. She also got me to realize that reading was a thing worth doing. She was one of the greats.
Yep. We had music class to learn instruments, mine was the French horn, singing class where we learned classic folk songs, wood working for the boys, plus the standard 3 R's. There was no special ed classes since there was no jabbing going on. In high school, it was a continuation of grade school with the addition of gym classes. Compared to today, it was like we lived in a golden era where people were honest and hard working without interference from the medical mafia and government dictates.
A pool table, don't you understand? Friend, either you're closing your eyes To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated By the presence of a pool table in your community Well, ya got trouble my friend, right here I say, trouble right in River City, why sure, I'm a billiard player Certainly, mighty proud I say, I'm always mighty proud to say it I consider that the hours I spend with a cue in my hand are golden Help you cultivate horse sense and a cool head and a keen eye Did you ever take and try to find and iron-clad leave for yourself From a three-rail billiard shot? But just as I say It takes judgement, brains and maturity to score In a balkline game, I say that any boob Can take and shove a ball in a pocket And I call that sloth the first big step on the road To the depths of deg-ra-day I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon Then beer from a bottle And the next thing you know Your son is playing for money in a pinch-back suit And listenin' to some big outta town jasper Hearin' him tell about horse race gamblin' Not a wholesome trottin' race, no But a race where they set down right on the horse Like to see some stuck-up jockey boy Settin' on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil Well I should say Now friends, let me tell you what I mean You got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table Pockets that mark the difference between a gentleman and a bum With a capital "B" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool And all week long your River City youth'll be fritterin' away I say, your young men will be fritterin' Fritterin' away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too Get the ball in the pocket, never mind gettin' dandelions pulled Or the screen door patched or the beef steak pounded Never mind pumpin' any water 'Til your parents are caught with the cistern empty On a Saturday night and that's trouble Yes you got lots and lots of trouble I'm thinkin' of the kids in the knickerbockers Shirt-tail young ones, peekin' in the pool hall window after school You got trouble, folks Right here in River City, trouble with a capital "T" And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool Now I know all you folks are the right kind of parents I'm gonna be perfectly frank Would you like to know what kinda conversation goes on While they're loafing around that hall? They be tryin' out Bevo, tryin' out cubebs Tryin' out Tailor Mades like cigarette fiends And braggin' all about how they're gonna cover up A tell-tale breath with Sen-Sen One fine night, they leave the pool hall Heading for the dance at the Arm'ry Libertine men and scarlet women, and ragtime, shameless music That'll grab your son, your daught with the arms of a jungle, animal instinct Mass-staria Friends, the idle brain is the devil's playground Trouble (oh we got trouble) Right here in River City (right here in River City) With a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool (That stands for pool) We've surely got trouble (we've surely got trouble) Right here in River City (right here) Gotta figure out a way to keep the young ones moral after school (Our children's children gonna have trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...) Mothers of River City, heed that warning before it's too late Watch for the the tell-tale signs of corruption The minute your son leaves the house Does he re-buckle his knickerbockers below the knee? Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger? A dime novel hidden in the corn crib? Is he starting to memorise jokes from Cap'n Billy's Whiz Bang? Are certain words creeping into his conversation Words like, like "swell"? (Trouble, trouble, trouble) And "so's your old man? (Trouble, trouble, trouble) Well if so, my friends, you got trouble (oh we got trouble) Right here in River City (right here in River City) With a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool (That stands for pool) We've surely got trouble (we've surely got trouble) Right here in River City (right here) Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule (Our children's children gonna have trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...) Oh we got trouble, we're in terrible, terrible trouble That game with the fifteen numbered balls is a devil's tool (devil's tool) Oh yes we got trouble, trouble, trouble (Oh yes we got trouble here, we got big, big trouble) With a "T" (with a capital "T") Gotta rhyme it with "P" (gotta rhyme with "P") And that stands for pool (that stands for pool)
This sequence belongs in the company of the greatest scenes and speeches in American drama. As central to American culture as the figure of the confidence man is, Harold Hill is part of a fraternity that includes Jay Gatsby, Elmer Gantry, and Herman Melville's titular "Confidence Man" Thank God that this GREAT role was created, and preserved on film, by an actor who was such a perfect fit for it.
I remember Robert Preston most for his role in "The Last Starfighter". Where he portrayed an alien huckster out to recruit "Starfighters". "Yes we got trouble! Bad trouble! Right here in Alpha Centauri!"
Love this movie. First watched it on a small b&w television on Independence Day and it's been an annual tradition since (along with 1776). And Robert Preston broke the mold. So far no one has equaled his performance in the role.
As paranoid as this may sound, he’s not wrong. Tell me this is not the world we find ourselves in today. It’s called the slippery slope effect. When you let one moral standard slip another will sure enough follow. Look around you. The best example is the Senate dress code situation…I rest my case. 😐
Look up patter singing - it has roots going back to ancient greece. This is a fairly recent example, it's from 1957. Gilbert and Sullivan were responsible for the resurgence in popularity of patter song almost a hundred years before this, check out Modern Major-General from Pirates of Penzance for the most popular of their work. Definitely not the "first white rapper".
MrDizzizz I'm told that Dave Ross, one of today's best G&S pattersingers, was supposed to play Harold Hill, but had to back down when his second child was born. According to one of his daughters, he still singsthis song at home to this day. I'd love to hear him do it.
Patter songs had been used in musicals for quite a while. Gilbert and Sullivan used them, most notably 'I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General.'
@@GrainneMhaol I do take your point, but Gilbert and Sullivan did assign actual notes to each syllable whereas there are a number of phrases uttered by Robert Preston that have no association with any musical notes, they're just utterances, rhythmic though they may be.
@@DavidWilsoninnefl His performance choices don't change the nature of the song. I chose Burn from Hamilton as my showcase performance in a musical theatre class. My teacher told me to speak, not sing several lines, 'Do you know what Angelica said?' etc. Didn't make the song a rap number.
@@DavidWilsoninnefl each syllable still has a pitch, though --- even when you speak normally. so it's a matter of whether you wish to write it down on a score sheet or not
Fun fact: The whole thing was written as a monologue. The idea to turn it into a song was Robert Preston’s. He delivers it great (even though it’s dubbed)!
That is not correct. Meredith Wilson was considering removing the monologue from an early draft of the play, but realized it sounded like a lyric and so wrote the song. The play had not been cast at the time, so Robert Preston would not have had any involvement.
@@seikibrian8641 Right. You can't get away with a monologue that goes on for several minutes in drama. Either shorten it, cut it all together, or turn it into a musical number.
Fast, flawless and fiercely entertaining. Try reciting this word for word if you ever need to stop being depressed. He was no spring chicken when this was filmed. Preston and Astair were hoofers first and formost. Love the way he looks, really looks at his cast and really tries to convince them. He made everyone up their game.
You know what's amazing about this song? Given that it's a song about how easily parents can be convinced that totally innocuous things they don't understand are corrupting the youth, it only gets more hilarious the more dated everything becomes, but _for the same reasons it was hilarious before._ This song ages like fine fucking wine.
OMG! The first RAPPER!!!! Meredith Wilson was soo ahead with this musical! No wonder The Beatles honored this genius by covering his"Till there was you"on "With the Beatles"
I was just thinking that, I scrolled the comment to see if anybody else thought that this sounded like rap, and wallah, I came across your comment, Bravo.
+BlackOut1962 "We got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, pockets in a table. Pockets that mark the difference.....between a gentleman and a bum, with a capital B and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool!"
Friend, either you're closing your eyes To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated By the presence of a pool table in your community . Well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here in River City. Why sure I'm a billiard player, Certainly mighty proud I say I'm always mighty proud to say it. I consider that the hours I spend With a cue in my hand are golden. Help you cultivate horse sense And a cool head and a keen eye. J'ever take and try to give An iron-clad leave to yourself From a three-reail billiard shot? But just as I say, It takes judgement, brains, and maturity to score In any balkline game, I say that any boob kin take And shove a ball in a pocket. And they call that sloth. The first big step on the road To the depths of deg-ra-Day-- I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon, Then beer from a bottle. An' the next thing ya know, Your son is playin' for money In a pinch-back suit. And list'nin to some big out-a-town Jasper Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin'. Not a wholesome trottin' race, no! But a race where they set down right on the horse! Like to see some stuck-up jockey'boy Sittin' on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil? Well, I should say. Now, friends, lemme tell you what I mean. Ya got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table. Pockets that mark the diff'rence Between a gentlemen and a bum, With a capital "B," And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool! And all week long your River City Youth'll be frittern away, I say your young men'll be frittern! Frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too! Get the ball in the pocket, Never mind gittin' Dandelions pulled Or the screen door patched or the beefsteak pounded. Never mind pumpin' any water 'Til your parents are caught with the Cistern empty On a Saturday night and that's trouble, Oh, yes we got lots and lots a' trouble. I'm thinkin' of the kids in the knickerbockers, Shirt-tail young ones, peekin' in the pool Hall window after school. Ya got trouble, folks, right here in River City. Trouble with a capital "T" And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool! Now, I know all you folks are the right kinda parents. I'm gonna be perfectly frank. Would ya like to know what kinda conversation goes On while they're loafin' around that Hall? They're tryin' out Bevo, tryin' out cubebs, Tryin' out Tailor Mades like Cigarette Feends! And braggin' all about How they're gonna cover up a tell-tale breath with Sen-Sen. One fine night, they leave the pool hall, Headin' for the dance at the Arm'ry! Libertine men and Scarlet women! And Rag-time, shameless music That'll grab your son and your daughter With the arms of a jungle animal instinct! Mass-staria! Friends, the idle brain is the devil's playground! People: Trouble, oh we got trouble, Right here in River City! With a capital "T" That rhymes with "P" And that stands for Pool, That stands for pool. We've surely got trouble! Right here in River City, Right here! Gotta figger out a way To keep the young ones moral after school! Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble... Harold: Mothers of River City! Heed the warning before it's too late! Watch for the tell-tale sign of corruption! The moment your son leaves the house, Does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee? Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger? A dime novel hidden in the corn crib? Is he starting to memorize jokes from Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang? Are certain words creeping into his conversation? Words like 'swell?" And 'so's your old man?" Well, if so my friends, Ya got trouble, Right here in River city! With a capital "T" And that rhymes with "P" And that stands for Pool. We've surely got trouble! Right here in River City! Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule! Oh, we've got trouble. We're in terrible, terrible trouble. That game with the fifteen numbered balls is a devil's tool! Oh yes we got trouble, trouble, trouble! With a "T"! Gotta rhyme it with "P"! And that stands for Pool!!!
@@steeevealbright (quietly) Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble. (Loudly) Oh we've got trouble! We're in big big trouble! with a capital T that rhymes with P that stands for POOL! Stands for POOL! Gotta keep the young ones moral after school!
He's like media since always. It's just now, there's a whole lot of it coming from all sides, and you can't keep your nose out of it even if you wanted to.
So glad that Warner Bros cast Robert Preston for the Tony Award-winning role he did on Broadway. Warner Bros was going to cast Frank Sinatra. What a BIG mistake that would have been. Meredith Willson demanded Preston to re-create his award-winning role or else he will cancel the movie production. Wilson won out.
Robert Preston from what I'm told by many was one of the must gregarious/warm and easy going people you could ever know.Meredith Wilson seemed to write Harold Hill like he knew a Robert Preston was going to come along one day and make this part iconic.I think this role and the Booze swilling/nempho doctor in SOB might be his best work and VVictoria.
This wonderful song came down to us as a direct descendant of the Gilbert and Sullivan 'patter' tunes. Requiring a really articulate actor/singer, and that takes an ear, as well as a talented tongue. I simply adore this. Preston had it nailed!! With a Capital P.....
So I'm currently trying to learn this for a local play in two weeks. This song is quite possibly the hardest song I've ever tried to learn. The rhythm is incredibly chaotic to me. It's like if George Carlin took up rapping. 🤣 It's so difficult but damn it's gonna be worth it. 😌 Day 5 Update: so finally got the basic cadence down and most of the song memorized. Sang it last night for the first time in front of others and they loved it. Progress indeed for a song that quite frankly terrified me.
Just find an old--fashioned metal trash can and bang on it with a barrel stave (if you can find one of those, either). This is at least as painful to listen to as anything on Magic 104 . . .
One of the most catchy tunes in all of musicals. Did Robert Preston get any awards for this movie? Because he should have he was magnificent. Also catch the scene where he is trying to get the band kids to play Minuet in G. All classic stuff.
Boocher 147 I'm singing this song as fast as he can , I have my own little paperback of The Music Man with ALL the lyrics at the back of the book, and besides the story it has black and white photos from the movie itself, including a photo of Marian and the other ladies/ they are singing a Pick a Little reprise,saying to Marian they LIKE her books. I think I saw this scene in the movie at Torrance Drive -In around 1963 or 64, and its been cut out ever since.
I am mesmerized by this performance. I know it's a movie and he might have had multiple takes, so I would Marvel even more at a stage play where an actor would have to get through that entire scene without flubbing or forgetting a line. It's brilliant!
Robert Preston DID play Harold Hill in the original stage play and then was cast straight into the movie, which is kind of a rarity. Shirley Jones was cast as his romantic partner Marion the Librarian and Shirley wanted to use her star power to refuse to dance in the movie, as a mysterious double had been previously supplied for her in the movie Oklahoma. But the powerful lady choreographer (I dont recall her name) of the movie, The Music Man FORCED her to dance! The lady was so strict, she even tried (and alas, ultimately failed) to get the super chubby Buddy Hackett (who you might remember from the original Love Bug movie) to perform successful bell kicks. When Shirley did her showcase dance piece for the movie, the professional chorus (ensemble) dancers sympathized with her greatly for not being the best dancer by literally carrying her through some of the most difficult dance moves of the scene. This full scene is unfortunately not available for free online. The song is affectionately called: Marion, Madam Librarian davidjamesshaver.online popu.photo
He's literally the outta town jasper in the pinch back suit talking about horse race gambling that he's warning them against
it really is a great musical in many aspects, that is but one
that's the joke
@Roy G Biv nope it was the last pres..thank god he's gone.
Eric B Looks like someone’s brainwashed
Attention Eric and Roy you are wrong. You are the problem.
with sick rhymes like these he could absolutely sell me on investing in a monorail
Monorail....monorail....monorail....monorail....monorail....monorail....
@@MercuryChild MONORAIL!
@@Marcusml333 But Main Street's still all cracked and broken!
As mayor of North Haverbrook, I, for one, am intrigued.
Is there a chance the track will bend?
Why does my town never break out into showtunes?
Because they don't have trouble with a capital T
Masaz Which rhymes with P and stands for Pool ;D
+DublH And also Porn.
YEP
I've been thinking about doing this all of a sudden in a crowd. I learned the words to it.
The guy that owns the pool hall just trying to make a living: 👁👄👁
HAHAHSJFJBAHEG
It's the town's mayor who owns the pool hall. He's not exactly hard up for cash or status or any of the other good things in life.
Some people are really slow ......
It was a billiard hall not a pool hall. He said nothing bad about the billiards tables just the new pool table. They are two different things.
U fogot the morale of the story. He is the music man and the most popular thing he is attacking for his own gain
Here is a little tidbit for you. Robert Preston sang the song at full volume while filming instead of just lip syncing like most actors. They recorded the sound track separately but he sang the song during the filming and missed nothing.
Only one Robert Preston!!
Judy Garland would do the same thing in A Star is Born
Original Gangster
He also didn't have formal voice training like so many of them. Pure natural talent!
Rex Harrison did the same in all his musicals
Child: it’s a *swell* day outside!
Parents: 😱
Lol
XDDD
...So's your old man.
WE'VE GOT TROUBLE!
Oh boy so vulgar
every political campaign ever
"You got a Crook folks, right here in DC."
"Crook with a capital 'C' and that rhymes with 'E' that stands for Emails!"
***** :-))
Wedgewood Productions More like C and that rhymes with T and that stands for Trump.
Timeless!
Except that there over a million people sneaking over the border every year to line up for bennies or take jobs or run drugs and there's a law against that which congress passed but politicians refuse to enforce. I call THEM con artists.
This man just gave you a crash course in how to start a moral panic into manipulating the afraid and ignorant.
Aw man, so glad I know how to do this now
Republicans were taking notes.
Actually, this is one of he subtexts of the show. If there are no problems, you can always create some.
There’s a straight line from pool halls to onlyfans
Anthony Faui?
Ya gotta give it to Robert Preston, he owns this role/performance.
Got that right. Matthew Broderick's version is pathetic.
+Raymond Maurer The producers wanted Sinatra. But it went to the stage master, Robert Preston.
Preston was an amazing actor! He could sing, dance, emote! Plus has that legendary voice!
there are very few musicals where i label one actor as "the best" but I think no will be able to equal or top him as harold hill
Robert Preston had strong, natural, intense sex appeal, on top of all that talent. Professor Henry Hill has to be to pull off seducing an entire town. Preston's got train loads of seduction, built right in!
How did Robert Preston NOT win an Oscar this? Because he wasn't even nominated. One the greatest overlooked performances ever.
He was amazing and under appreciated
Gregory Peck won for To Kill a Mockingbird. Also nominated, Burt Lancaster, Jack Lemmon, Marcello Mastroianni, and Peter O’Toole. So … at least some schlub didn’t win over him. But yeah, he was awesome and deserved an Oscar for it … if not the 1963 best actor Oscar.
TMM was nominated for Best Picture (Lawrence of Arabia won.)
And guess who was nominated for best supporting actor? Telly Savalas!
But your comment is a very good one. Preston’s performance buoys you for days after seeing TMM in the movie theatre. And he doesn’t just act but sings and dances! So what’s that worth?
Omg I know if you were walking behind him you would slip and fall on the confidence that is dripping off him
Same way Austin Butler didn’t win the Oscar for Elvis. It’s crazy because both os them are geniuses
1963 was a very competitive year for Best Actor.
It's absolutely perfect the way he lowers his voice confidentially when he says "Now I know all you folks are the RIGHT kind of parents." That's when he's got the hook firmly set.
I think it's hilarious he basically told his old sales buddy Mars what he was gonna do but Mars got fooled, too.
Lessons:
1. Someone who presents a problem may be trying to sell you a solution
2. Never trust someone in a better suit than yours
3. If the argument relies on a slippery slope, patriotic slogans, or "social degradation", its probably crap
4. No one who says "Think of the children" is thinking of the children.
5. Just because you don't understand the kids today doesn't mean they're doing something wrong
Slippery slope is legitimate and we see it all around us. Especially when it comes to degenerate lifestyles.
@@dungeonmaster6292
I know right, I use to think slippery slope was just a fallacy, but it can also be accurate, which is why I’m convinced we’re about 10 years off from it being legal for people to marry gourds.
@@allthenewsordeath5772 Well, honestly, why shouldn't it be? It's ludicrous, but what harm is there? It's not like there's any effect on tax law. The gourd doesn't have any income, and you can't suddenly become a head of household, because the gourd isn't a legal citizen.
@@TerryTWeiss
The institution of marriage is on life-support as it is, I don’t think allowing people to marry in animate objects, or allowing people to become polygamists would help that matter.
It’s bad enough we’ve allowed the oxymoron that is gay marriage to be a thing, marriage as an institution is meant for the rearing of children.
Marriage therefore only makes sense in a situation where the couple both have a deep and abiding love for each other, and are open to procreation, thiss of course invalidates by nature any view of marriage which does not encompass one or both of these aspects.
I realize this rather classical and sentimental view of the institution is not the prevailing view in this day and age, but if a societies main goals are to continue its existence, and provide for its posterity, I hold that it is the correct view.
well put
This kills me. POOL. He's convinced them that POOL is what will corrupt their kids. "Swell" and "so's your old man". Truly vulgar.
the young men will be frittering. FRITTERING!
well no trouble here *puts in a pool table* JIMMY PACK YOUR BAGS WER ARE MOVING BECAUSE WE GOT TROUBLE *breaks into song out of no where*
They said the same about Pokemon...
Erasmus the blasphemous I see what you did there...
"oh golly gosh!"
*Gasp*
"The city ain't in any trouble".... "then we'll have to create some" LMAO!!!! He should have run for president.
He'd be worlds better than what we've got.
The whole spiel is a lesson in looking carefully at *any* fast talker who's trying to sell you something, be it a boys band, stocks, the Brooklyn Bridge or some political idea.
Must be a Democrat.
too bad we can't use the "Think Method" right now! Right?!!! Think ourselves right out of this mess!!!!!!!
Let's go fill Moominvalley with crime.
That actor has such an announcer voice lol.
That's the late Robert Preston.
SiliconDogwoods The fabulous Robert Preston.
barbaro267 MERLIN 😍😍😍😍👍
Robert Preston was the best thing in almost every movie he appeared in.
Centauri!
I did this speech at a State competition and the only reason I won third is because the second-place winner was a Drama major who did the epic "Inherit the Wind" speech. I still remember every beat. I practiced this speech so much. I only won third, but I'm still proud that I made those judges laugh and applaud me as I paraded around the stage.
What a nice memory! I would have voted for you to win first place!
Who won the first place?
Only third? Third is amazing! Be nicer to yourself 😊
so that's kinda neat cause in the first draft this was a monologue and was almost cut until Meredith Willson realized he could make some slight changes and make it a song
Incredible. STORY
One of my favorite memories: I’m shooting pool by myself in a bar at like 3:00 pm on a Thursday or something like that. Out of nowhere some man who was at least infinity years old comes up to me and puts his arm around my shoulder. Then he says to me, “Son, I can tell by the way you work that cue that you have not led a clean and virtuous life.”
Best compliment ever.
Lemme guess?.. You were playing one pocket for $500 a game?..
Watch his hands... This is a Master Class in physical acting.
what about the master race? if this man worked for nazi propaganda wed all be speaking german.."Volks we got a problem! and it starts with a J!" lol
Too right! An awesome physical performance as well as a musical one on this song.
Well, he DID make a contribution to the world of physical exercise. (At the suggestion of President Kennedy.)
I cannot see Matthew Broderick in this role, he just looks like such a babyface. Robert Preston has the look, the moves, the energy...
That's why he fit in with the method boys and girls. No back foot acting.
I love how the group of adults seemed so flustered to the word "SWELL!".
Back then it was the equivalent to saying f***. :l
Evan Rafalski Really? Times really have changed haven't they?
My mom used to tell me that when she was a kid her older sister wouldn't let her listen to the song 'Aint no Mountain High enough' because of word "'aint" It's crazy how fast things change
Whiteauroara Whaaaat??!
***** It makes you think doesn't it?
Many people have played this part, but no one does this song like Robert Preston. A truly legendary performance from a true artist.
When they were casting this movie, they originally wanted a bigger star than Robert Preston as box office insurance. Reportedly, they even approached Cary Grant, who promptly refused the role because he felt no one could do it better than Preston could.
@@oddish4352 Correct. Warner Bros. brass originally wanted to cast Frank Sinatra in the title role -- but when Meredith Willson (i.e. the writer and music composer) heard of this, he immediately told the senior management the following, according to Shirley Jones who played the librarian "Marian Paroo":
"You WILL NOT make my movie without Robert Preston in the title role!"
😎
Robert Preston was the original Professor Harold Hill. He was the first person to ever play the part. And he does an awesome job!
@@Wesley_Peter_Redmond The original and the best.
Seth MacFarlane did amazing
1910s:
_"so's your old man"_
2010s:
_"ur mom"_
Lolllll
2020’s:
“Yo.”
I keep thinking about this
That makes way too much sense...
@@MissPopuri
'literally'
My dear old dad, who passed away today, used to sing this to me when I was a little boy. Mainly when he took me down the pub in Newcastle on a Sunday and bought me beer and played pool with me! True story. God bless you dad.
Yay! Newcastle!
He bought u beer when u were a little boy?
@@uglygymrat6024 I mean it is Newcastle
Hope that 2 years later, what you have now is good memories
What a great memory
And here’s the general meaning of the specific dialogue in "Trouble". The film takes place about 1912. This synopsis should help with understanding the lingo and the morals of that time. Billards was considered a gentleman's game. Pool was the game of gamblers and men of poor character. From this Professor Hill works to convince the crowd that allowing a pool hall in the town will lead the youth to lower standards. Now that you've taken the time to read this I do hope the song is much more enjoyable to you.
"Rubbering in".- Walking back and forth and looking inside.
Billiards - Also known as caroom (or carom) billiards, played with three balls (one cue ball and two object balls) on a pocketless table
Pool - Developed much later than billiards. Also known as pocket billiards, using a cue ball and 15 object balls on a table with six pockets
"Iron clad leave to yourself from a three-rail billiard shot" - leave is slang for a favorable position for a stroke in billiards (circa 1850). Three-rail billiard shot refers to the fact that in caroom (or carom) billiards, the cue ball must contact at least 3 cushions before it hits the second object ball in order to score any points. This sentence seems to imply that the player has, through excellent strategy and difficult maneuvers, put the balls in such a position as to give him an excellent shot at making points.
balkline - A line parallel to one end of a billiard table, from behind which opening shots with the cue ball are made.
pinch-back suit - A suit jacket having a close-fitting or pleated back. "City Slicker" clothes to the rural crowd.
Jasper - any male fellow or chum, usually a stranger
Trotting race - A horse that trots, especially one trained for harness racing. Very genteel pastime.
Horse race - With a jockey on the horses back, running much quicker than the trotting race.
Dan Patch - (1897-1916) Most famous trotting horse ever, from Indiana. Dan Patch was a pacer, under his second owner he lost only five heats in 56 starts. Dan Patch had his own private railway car to travel in, and at home he lived in a huge barn that was so grand it was called the “Taj Mahal.” There is still a trotting competition named for him, and an historical railroad line because “Dan Patch was a famous race horse a hundred years ago, and the railroad was named after him because its tracks between Minneapolis and Northfield passed very close to his owner’s farm.” There seem to be whole districts in Indiana still named after this horse, and there was a movie called The Great Dan Patch (1949)
Frittering away their time - To reduce or squander little by little; frittered his inheritance away. To waste.
cistern - A receptacle for holding water or other liquid, especially a tank for catching and storing rainwater.
knickerbockers - Full breeches gathered and banded just below the knee (which is why moving them above the knee is such a shocking thing to do)
shirt-tail young ones - Children about 7 to 15 years old.
Bevo - From Anheuser-Busch. A non-alcoholic drink that tasted like beer. “Anheuser-Busch introduced Bevo, its new nonalcoholic beverage, in 1916 and elsewhere the flood of cereal beverages (near beer) were introduced during the 1917-18 period.”
Cubebs - the dried unripe berry of a tropical shrub (Piper cubeba) of the pepper family that is crushed and smoked in cigarettes for as a medicine for catarrh, an inflammation of the nose and throat with increased production of mucus. There were several cubeb cigarettes made-Marshall’s Prepared Cubeb
Cigarettes are perhaps the best known.
Tailor Mades - A tailor-made cigarette referred to any cigarette made in a factory on a cigarette making machine. A roll-your-own cigarette was made by the smoker from a sack of Bull Durham or the like. James Jones in From Here to Eternity mentioned tailor-mades being smoked by soldiers when they had money. Until 1883 cigarettes were handmade. In 1880 a 21 year old Virginian named James Bonsack invented a cigarette making machine that dramatically increased production. A skilled cigarette roller made 4 cigarettes a minute, whereas Mr. Bonsack’s machine turned out 200 a minute. These were called “tailor mades” to distinguish them from handmade cigarettes.
NOTE: This section talking about the boys down at the pool hall means they are trying to mimic adults, and look as if they are drinking beer and smoking tobacco, although they are drinking fake beer and smoking fake cigarettes.
Sen Sen - When a country swain went courting his rural sweetheart, he often carried in his pocket an unobtrusive little envelope of Sen-Sen. When his younger brother indulged in smoking behind the barn, he too, had use for the exotic little pellets. For Sen-Sen was to the 19th century what breath mints are to our time. Any country store worth its salt, prominently displayed a box of the handy little packets within easy reach of its customers.
Rag-time - A style of jazz characterized by elaborately syncopated rhythm in the melody and a steadily accented accompaniment.
corn crib - A structure for storing and drying ears of corn.
Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang - Started in 1919 (too late for Music Man, but I guess Wilson wasn’t worried about that!). From the book Humor Magazines and Comic Periodicals, “Few periodicals reflect the post-World War I cultural change in American life as well as Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang. To some people [it] represented the decline of morality and the flaunting of sexual immodesty; to others it signified an increase in openness. For much of the 1920’s, Captain Billy’s was the most prominent comic magazine in America with its mix of racy poetry and naughty jokes and puns, aimed at a small-town audience with pretensions of ‘sophistication’” This publication was to the male adolescent culture of the 1920s what Playboy was in the 1960s. Quit publishing sometime from 1932-36. This magazine created the foundation for Fawcett Publications, the publishing company that later created True Confessions and Mechanix Illustrated.
swell - (slang) excellent, wonderful, delightful (mid 19th century)
so’s your old man - catch phrase from 1900. An exclamation, used as a retort to an insult or slur.
The Maine - U.S. battleship sunk (Feb. 15, 1898) in Havana harbor, killing 260, in an incident that helped precipitate the Spanish-American War. The cause of the explosion was never satisfactorily explained, and separate American and Spanish inquiries produced different results. But the American jingoistic press blamed the Spanish government, and Remember the Maine became the rallying cry of the war.
Plymouth Rock - Plymouth, Massachusetts, is the oldest settlement in New England, founded in 1620. Plymouth Rock is on the beach where the Mayflower landed.
The Golden Rule - saying of Jesus, from the Bible - As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Evolved into modern saying - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
"pinch-back suit - from pinchbeck - serving as an imitation or substitute; “pinchbeck heroism” ..."
Bzzzzt! Nope. A pinch back suit was a trendy fashion at the time, a jacket with a strap or pair of straps in the back that cinched the fabric to narrow the waist. Ironically similar to the belted jacket Hill/Preston is wearing in this scene.
vintagedancer.com/wp-content/uploads/1900-tweed-plaid-suits-sport-men.jpg
your comment is very long so I just screenshotted it but can you tell me what year this was
was it like the late Edwardian era?
@@raspberrycrowns9494 The movie is set in 1912, and it was made in 1962.
I'd kill for some sen-sen.
Re your note on "Rag-time - A style of jazz". It would take a whole essay to go into it, but many people of the 1920s (and likely earlier / the timestamp of this story) were fearful that jazz culture was luring whites into hanging out with blacks and thus such whites would succumb to the temptations of sexual anarchy... note how his patter mentions (right after "ragtime") the feared "jungle animal instinct"; Hill is intentionally stoking the crowd's racist response. (This musical has other themes about prejudice too, such as the town's gossip that judgmentally assumes the librarian was 'loose')
Robert Prestons performance here is the best one ever NOT nominated for an Oscar.
I have others to consider like Steve Martin in “All of Me”, Peter Saarsgard in “Shattered Glass”, and Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford - but yes, I tend to agree ; Preston’s is one of the best, for sure.
"So's your old man," precursor to your mom
He's saying Is your old man also saying Swell, Not is your child saying So's your old man
@@die-brot-frau so’s your old man basically means “the same to you!”; used as a retort to an insult, originating in playground slang
Hammy Boi11 Wrong. “So’s your old man” was a phrase back then. OP is right it’s basically the same spirit as “your mom”.
@@ImJustSayin2014 yep
It's kind of a combination of that and "That's what she said."
Robert Preston had presence. He was so powerful in this role. The orchestration in this song is perfect, accenting and augmenting. What a great musical Meredith Willson wrote. Great Americana.
Shirley Jones also turned in a tour de force performance as Marion Paroo.
@@allenjones3130 She was also a couple months pregnant during shooting as well, so they had to creatively shoot around that.
@@briansilva3344 So I heard!
I saw Hugh Jackman do this on Broadway and he did it absolutely full justice too.
It reminds the viewer that the craziness of our age is nothing new. This has been America for a long time now.
This guy is unbelievable. Crushed it.
ikr
Thumper17 Ikr. Wish I could talk/sing that fast and that confidently.
He starred in the original stage play.
Yes, and he did this on Broadway for over 880 performances.
Thumper17 So are these lyrics. Whoever wrote these lines is/are fucking brilliant as well
Preston's Hill is a perfect combination of fast talking con man and evangelistic revival preacher. He gets you on his side and you never leave it. Such a great actor.
The songs in this musical fascinate me because they reflect the rhythm of a small, early-twentieth century town in the midwest. This one is part auctioneer/square dance caller/backwoods preacher. The first number brilliantly mimics a train, the Wells Fargo Wagon has a galloping sound, the music lesson song mimics playing piano scales, and Pick-A-Little Talk-A-Little is all fussy, clucking hens. Meredith Wilson was a genius, and yes, this was one precursor to rap, although it had probably been around for eons before that.
It's a patter song: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patter_song
@@error.418 re: Gilbert and Sullivan 75 years before.
@@johnprovince5304 Yep, G&S were great at patter songs. And they date back well before G&S.
yes i guess your correct.
Willson!
Just a mesmerising performance. Every movement is so precise. And still so relevant. Beware the politician who creates fear and has the solution.
Andy Porter Today, it seems more applicable to a liberal message rather than a wholly conservative one. There are politicians the exact opposite of Harold Hill in the worst ways today.
These people would die if they heard what people said today ef
They would not know how to react, I think. Some of our "bad words" are hundreds of years old, and spelled the same way then as we spell them now. However, some words did not even exist until the 20th century, and first appeared between the two world wars.
The uncouth words of Chaucer! Rabelais! Bal-zac!
I play pool almost everyday, and I even bowl as well.
DancingMockingjay Or laugh. Just like we would probably be confused if we heard how they swear fifty years from now.
***** "bastard" and "shit" sound nice but are swears...
"He's Flim!"
"He's Flam!"
"We're the world-famous Flim-Flam Brotherrrrs!"
"Traveling salesponies nonpareil!"
Someone had to make My Little Pony reference.
using words like swell and so's your old man. harsh, vulgar language. tsk tsk tsk. for shame....
Back in those days it was
+richard courchene That was the real innocent beauty of those days.
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/libertine
It's not Liberty men, he says, Libertine men. It's hard to understand I know. In fact the song is filled with words, products and activities that are no longer used.
IS A WHITE GANGSTA RAPPER of the old times!
when the Roaring 20s hit this town everyone's brains are going to explode
MONORAIL.
MONORAIL.
wait
Mono!
+Zulu Romeo doh!
homer and bart: monorail monorail monorail
sorry mom the mob has spoken
Monorail
Who here after Spamton?
0:48
it all makes sense now
HOW does he talk that fast!?!? Can you say TALENT!?!?
He is not singing it he is acting it. That is what most other actors fail to understand. It is not a song, it is a monologue. He is totally in character.
Laceykat66 they didn’t even call him a singer in this comment crazy lady.. calm your tits down please :/ nobody cares
TALENT! Right here in River City-
Because it's rhythmic monologue, the hardest part is mesmerizing the words I can do it too. Literally it's easy when you know the whole monologue
@@theretep6494 he is but this is just rhythmic talking, it's easy
The first rap in a movie.
+Nathan Applegate Incorrect. That happened earlier in the film with 'Rock Island'.
but he doesn't know the territory?
+Risa Green what dya talk , wadaya talk
He's a what? He's a music man!
It is called "patter" Go listen to some Gilbert and Sullivan. It is all over the place.
And to think that Jack Warner wanted to cast Frank Sinatra as Harold Hill. I was a great fan of Mr. Sinatra, but he could not have pulled it off like Robert Preston.
No way way Sinatra does this, just doesn't fit. Frank was great in Man with the Golden Arm around the same time though.
Sinatra would have done a good job, because Sinatra would never do a bad job, but he would not have done a great job. The movie is memorable because of Preston. And apparently Meredith Willson (the composer) agreed, because there are reports he told Jack Warner that Robert Preston got the lead, or the film wouldn't be made.
@@nancypine9952 good thing Rober
Preston got this part. This part just suits him so well!!
Sinatra was available but, to his credit, he turned the role down.
@@eroupopper He played basically the same character in the eighties in 'The Last Starfighter'.
This is one of the all-time great musicals. Wish they would show “The Music Man” on TV once in a while. The original, not the remake. Nobody can hold a candle to Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. They were superb!
GOATS
Sorry to say the Matthew Broderick remake left much to be desired; a very lukewarm performance by that actor. The hundreds of Broadway performances by Preston couldn't help but make him the #1 actor for the Harold HIll role. Will be interesting to see what verve and energy Hugh Jackman will be able to inject in an upcoming movie version of this almost-perfect-material musical.
@@artbagley1406 Best review i saw of the "new" Music Man is that Jackman "spends so much time trying to NOT be Robert Preston that he never figures out who his character is."
I agree, but Ferris Bueller did a much better Harold than I anticipated.
NBC shows the original every summer.
Don’t call yourself a rap music fan unless you know this classic.
I hope Lin Manual Miranda is a fan of this oldie but a goodie
"RAP"? YOU ARE KIDDING AE YOU NOT?
@@heatherkelly2580 this song is arguably the first broadway rap song, which is rather interesting, fundamentally rap is just rhythmic speech over music or a beat, and given who relatively monotone this performance is from Preston it does feel more like a rap than a typical broadway song
@@heatherkelly2580 Yeah, actually this song 100% meets all the requirements to be considered a rap song. Any good rapper should know this absolute banger.
@@tomhemming9236There is a piece in Porgy and Bess that beat this by a few decades. However, I love them both.
i LOVE this musical. loved it before i performed the musical and love it even more now that i did it on stage. thanks for posting this
heya. I didn't know that you watched this as well.
Did you by any chance film it?
I also was in my high school production of the musical. I unfortunately got sick right before the night performances and couldn't sing
OMG IM BIG FAN OF U FAMILYFUNPACK!!!
I'm performing it this year
Fearmongering has never sounded so catchy!
From "The Music Man" to "The Last Starfighter" Robert Preston was a genius talent!
He sure was
Centari was written specifically for Robert Preston with The Music Man in mind.
"The Last Starfighter" is an unrecognized classic. The one flaw, to my mind was Centari's (Robert Preston's) rejuvenation. He should have remained a deceased hero.
"It'll be a slaughter!"
"That's the spirit!"
"Terrific! I'm about to get killed a million miles from nowhere with a gung ho iguana!"
Wonderful lines.
I saw the Last Starfighter and Victor Victoria before I got down to this one
Seen many versions ... Robert Preston is, was, and always will be the Gold Standard for Professor Harold Hill
Saw John Davidson do the Hill role on stage. Ho hum.
@@gispel7058 I've seen a bunch of people do this bit, and while most of them recite it well, even reverently (Matthew Broderick and Seth McFarlane both come to mind here), none of them run around, wave their arms, or bug their eyes out when they should. Has Jack Black ever done this? He might well pull off the physicality of this thing.
@@BrutishYetDelightful some interesting possibilities there Brutish.
No one can compare Robert will own this role for all time
Harold Hill: With a capital B and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool!!
Me: Well, I can’t argue with that logic.
Salesmanship...pure salesmanship...
1958 Tony Award for Best Musical, beating West Side Story.
Robert Preston won 1958 Tony for Best Actor in a Musical.
Brilliance of Conan O’Brien is that he took this, distilled it into two minutes, and gave it to Phil Hartman, who elevated even further.
Really, who was even half as charming as Robert Preston? Always connected to his audience in a way that made you wish he were a member of your family.
Ikr
He was GREAT. Perfect.
Yeah and Hugh Jackman is gonna do great on Broadway
Someone saw some opportunity in this community.
It took me a minute but I got it xD
Ha! Exactly why I'm here.
Precisely why I'm a brony. Also why AJ is best pony.
Cider!Cider!Cider!Cider!Cider!Cider!
As a man of the theater, I consider Robert Preston's performance in this film to be one of the glories of the art of acting that we have on record. (The only other actor who ever played Harold Hill with comparable brilliance was Hugh Jackman, who is the same type of performer as Preston). Look at how light on his feet he is when he runs around the circle of spectators! Or his razor-sharp diction as he articulates those intricate lyrics! He easily fulfills the essence of any performer who plays a con artist: he leaves you, the audience member, unshakably convinced that you yourself would fall for his pitch if you were in that crowd. WHAT an actor!
I did not see Hugh Jackman but I'm delighted to hear he did a comparable job to Mr. Preston - some great American Theater performances !!
Don’t think I can ever be duped again
I met Mr. Preston in a bar in Knoxville many years ago. We had a lengthy conversation, not about movies or my profession but life in general. At the end as I was departing he said to me "William me boy, after I;m gone and from time to time and now and then would ye bend an elbow for poor old Bobby Preston?" I assured him that yes I would and still do though I do not drink alcohol any longer. Fine man.
This always was my favorite song from this movie.
Mine: Til there was you.
Gary indiana
Gee Trieste the feel when your foot gets caught in the door
Derric awright Love that I myself.
Mine too
Nobody. NOBODY did it like Robert Preston. I couldn't even finish watching Matthew Brodderick do his best to butcher this song.
You should listen to some real Gilbert & Sullivan patter songs. You'll hear people that put Robert Preston to shame.
Give Mandy Patinkin's version a shot and see what you think.
Matthew did the best he could playing Harold I thought he did a good job. I don't think anyone did better at this song than one another. One of my best friends played Harold in a school play and he did just as good as Robert and Matthew so everyone who plays Harold is good in their own way.
I have to agree with Michael Mullis on is that No One can do this song like Robert Preston. The music and songs that Robert Preston did in the Music Man were written for him. Matthew Broddrick destroyed this song in the version he did, when they remade the Music Man that they should either got someone better that could sing long Robert Preston or should have just left the movie alone. I couldn't even watch the one with Matthew because of the songs were way off, not only the version that Matthew was in didn't flow as well.
Preston lived the role. I mean, he did it for years, perfecting it endlessly. A con man needs to reach out and grab people, and Preston did it beautifully.
Mathew on the other hand cruised in, read the script, slept walked through the filming, and moved on. Thats how it appears to me anyway. His energy level seemed almost purposefully low, like it wouldn't have been cool to act overly excited. But how can you con anyone that way? I like Mathew in his other movies, but casting him here was nonsensical.
In the early 60's, Hollywood could still convince you it understood Americana because at least many of the actors grew up knowing it. The Music Man, with Preston, is the perfect tribute to Americana. With Mathew, it is just a tribute to the ubiquitous Hollywood remake scam.
My middle school music teacher had us watch this and i been looking for it ever since then. I finally found after all these years!!!! So grateful i grew up with awesome elementary, middle, highschool music teachers that exposed us to many different cultures!!! Bring back our music and art programs please!!!
Amen to that! One that stuck with me into modern times is Don Gato by Margaret Marks. That nugget of creepy weird 70s elementary school awesomeness was introduced to me by Mrs. Lackey in Mauldin, SC. She also got me to realize that reading was a thing worth doing. She was one of the greats.
Yes please, art classes getting straight A's was the only thing that kept my grade point average up in high school. Math was a close second.
Had to add this quote on my frig. THE EARTH WITHOUT ART IS JUST EH!!!!
The only thing that lasts the test of time.
Yep. We had music class to learn instruments, mine was the French horn, singing class where we learned classic folk songs, wood working for the boys, plus the standard 3 R's. There was no special ed classes since there was no jabbing going on. In high school, it was a continuation of grade school with the addition of gym classes. Compared to today, it was like we lived in a golden era where people were honest and hard working without interference from the medical mafia and government dictates.
Good music teachers are golden.
A pool table, don't you understand?
Friend, either you're closing your eyes
To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated
By the presence of a pool table in your community
Well, ya got trouble my friend, right here
I say, trouble right in River City, why sure, I'm a billiard player
Certainly, mighty proud I say, I'm always mighty proud to say it
I consider that the hours I spend with a cue in my hand are golden
Help you cultivate horse sense and a cool head and a keen eye
Did you ever take and try to find and iron-clad leave for yourself
From a three-rail billiard shot?
But just as I say
It takes judgement, brains and maturity to score
In a balkline game, I say that any boob
Can take and shove a ball in a pocket
And I call that sloth the first big step on the road
To the depths of deg-ra-day
I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon
Then beer from a bottle
And the next thing you know
Your son is playing for money in a pinch-back suit
And listenin' to some big outta town jasper
Hearin' him tell about horse race gamblin'
Not a wholesome trottin' race, no
But a race where they set down right on the horse
Like to see some stuck-up jockey boy
Settin' on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil
Well I should say
Now friends, let me tell you what I mean
You got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table
Pockets that mark the difference between a gentleman and a bum
With a capital "B" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool
And all week long your River City youth'll be fritterin' away
I say, your young men will be fritterin'
Fritterin' away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too
Get the ball in the pocket, never mind gettin' dandelions pulled
Or the screen door patched or the beef steak pounded
Never mind pumpin' any water
'Til your parents are caught with the cistern empty
On a Saturday night and that's trouble
Yes you got lots and lots of trouble
I'm thinkin' of the kids in the knickerbockers
Shirt-tail young ones, peekin' in the pool hall window after school
You got trouble, folks
Right here in River City, trouble with a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool
Now I know all you folks are the right kind of parents
I'm gonna be perfectly frank
Would you like to know what kinda conversation goes on
While they're loafing around that hall?
They be tryin' out Bevo, tryin' out cubebs
Tryin' out Tailor Mades like cigarette fiends
And braggin' all about how they're gonna cover up
A tell-tale breath with Sen-Sen
One fine night, they leave the pool hall
Heading for the dance at the Arm'ry
Libertine men and scarlet women, and ragtime, shameless music
That'll grab your son, your daught with the arms of a jungle, animal instinct
Mass-staria
Friends, the idle brain is the devil's playground
Trouble (oh we got trouble)
Right here in River City (right here in River City)
With a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool
(That stands for pool)
We've surely got trouble (we've surely got trouble)
Right here in River City (right here)
Gotta figure out a way to keep the young ones moral after school
(Our children's children gonna have trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...)
Mothers of River City, heed that warning before it's too late
Watch for the the tell-tale signs of corruption
The minute your son leaves the house
Does he re-buckle his knickerbockers below the knee?
Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger?
A dime novel hidden in the corn crib?
Is he starting to memorise jokes from Cap'n Billy's Whiz Bang?
Are certain words creeping into his conversation
Words like, like "swell"? (Trouble, trouble, trouble)
And "so's your old man? (Trouble, trouble, trouble)
Well if so, my friends, you got trouble (oh we got trouble)
Right here in River City (right here in River City)
With a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool
(That stands for pool)
We've surely got trouble (we've surely got trouble)
Right here in River City (right here)
Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule
(Our children's children gonna have trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...)
Oh we got trouble, we're in terrible, terrible trouble
That game with the fifteen numbered balls is a devil's tool (devil's tool)
Oh yes we got trouble, trouble, trouble
(Oh yes we got trouble here, we got big, big trouble)
With a "T" (with a capital "T")
Gotta rhyme it with "P" (gotta rhyme with "P")
And that stands for pool (that stands for pool)
It's saddening that this rethoric is still used today in politics and people keep falling for it.
exactly why democracy doesn't work
Seth Macfarlane: "The closest song I know to rap is Ya Got Trouble."
Seth MacFarlane made a valiant effort, I liked it, but you can't beat perfect.
Martin White I thought I was the only one who came here because of his version. I think he did just as well 😊
@@goodnewsgeek42 I wonder if he would play a Harold if they ever do a remake? He got the look and voice. But what about charisma and charm
eroupopper oh he's got more than enough, he's wonderful
This sequence belongs in the company of the greatest scenes and speeches in American drama. As central to American culture as the figure of the confidence man is, Harold Hill is part of a fraternity that includes Jay Gatsby, Elmer Gantry, and Herman Melville's titular "Confidence Man" Thank God that this GREAT role was created, and preserved on film, by an actor who was such a perfect fit for it.
"Swell" and "so's your old man!" Boy, better not show them a typical 10-year-old's facebook page! Popped heads and heart attacks all around! :D
Why the hell would the parents let them go there in the first place lol
@@beansforsalewahoo morons just shove an ipad in front of their kids and expect it to raise them
Robert Preston was the absolute best.......RIP to the master
of the Music man.
I feel sorry for the boy at 3:44. He's now being scolded for...probably what his mother told him to do this morning.
I remember Robert Preston most for his role in "The Last Starfighter". Where he portrayed an alien huckster out to recruit "Starfighters". "Yes we got trouble! Bad trouble! Right here in Alpha Centauri!"
Oh, ya got trouble. Right here in Rylos City. With a capital T, and that sounds like Z, and that stands for Xur.
I love that movie
Holy moley! First kids say swell, next they'll be robbing their parents in the dead of the night!
PresidentOfSpace Well this movie was made in the 60s
I have to get a copy of Captain Billy's Whizz-Bang!
@@ajivins1 The particular magazine was racy for the time it was out,a little before WW I and afterwards.(Chuckle!)
What's it called? Monorail!
I hear those things are awful loud
@@davincent98 It glides as softly as a cloud.
@@treman722 Is there a chance the track will bend?
@@1upgamer959 Not on your life my UA-cam friend.
@@robertdegraaf8708 What about us braindead slobs?
Robert Preston was absolutely SPLENDID in this role!! Cheers
Might even say he was…. SWELL! 😂
idk if youre here because of stupendium but if you are props to you!
Absolutely brilliant. Preston is magical.
I came here because of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
+Ailín Herzkovich Too bad she didn't wear one of those swell hats
Yeah and so's your old man
so did i
Same
Ailín Herzkovich same
Love this movie. First watched it on a small b&w television on Independence Day and it's been an annual tradition since (along with 1776). And Robert Preston broke the mold. So far no one has equaled his performance in the role.
As paranoid as this may sound, he’s not wrong. Tell me this is not the world we find ourselves in today. It’s called the slippery slope effect. When you let one moral standard slip another will sure enough follow. Look around you. The best example is the Senate dress code situation…I rest my case. 😐
The first white rapper, folks.
Better than most rappers these days
Look up patter singing - it has roots going back to ancient greece. This is a fairly recent example, it's from 1957. Gilbert and Sullivan were responsible for the resurgence in popularity of patter song almost a hundred years before this, check out Modern Major-General from Pirates of Penzance for the most popular of their work. Definitely not the "first white rapper".
MrDizzizz I'm told that Dave Ross, one of today's best G&S pattersingers, was supposed to play Harold Hill, but had to back down when his second child was born. According to one of his daughters, he still singsthis song at home to this day. I'd love to hear him do it.
had better lyrics than eminem and vanilla ice >:)
MrDizzizz
You must be fun at parties.
The town square reminds me of the SImpsons.
Recognize this town square (updated) used in Back to the Future series?
+Forensource Except for the lack of jaundice.
And freaks with five fingers.
That's small town USA my friend.
An ISO-standard American town square. Lovely.
The first example of rapping in musical history! 😁
Patter songs had been used in musicals for quite a while. Gilbert and Sullivan used them, most notably 'I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General.'
@@GrainneMhaol I do take your point, but Gilbert and Sullivan did assign actual notes to each syllable whereas there are a number of phrases uttered by Robert Preston that have no association with any musical notes, they're just utterances, rhythmic though they may be.
@@DavidWilsoninnefl His performance choices don't change the nature of the song. I chose Burn from Hamilton as my showcase performance in a musical theatre class. My teacher told me to speak, not sing several lines, 'Do you know what Angelica said?' etc. Didn't make the song a rap number.
Actually there's an older example of rap in a song called Rock Island. About 20 minutes older to be precise (it's at the beginning of the movie).
@@DavidWilsoninnefl each syllable still has a pitch, though --- even when you speak normally. so it's a matter of whether you wish to write it down on a score sheet or not
Fun fact: The whole thing was written as a monologue. The idea to turn it into a song was Robert Preston’s. He delivers it great (even though it’s dubbed)!
That is not correct. Meredith Wilson was considering removing the monologue from an early draft of the play, but realized it sounded like a lyric and so wrote the song. The play had not been cast at the time, so Robert Preston would not have had any involvement.
@@seikibrian8641 Right. You can't get away with a monologue that goes on for several minutes in drama. Either shorten it, cut it all together, or turn it into a musical number.
And he’s not dubbed. Like Rex Harrison, he was mic’ed and sang it live to a soundtrack
Fast, flawless and fiercely entertaining. Try reciting this word for word if you ever need to stop being depressed. He was no spring chicken when this was filmed. Preston and Astair were hoofers first and formost. Love the way he looks, really looks at his cast and really tries to convince them. He made everyone up their game.
You know what's amazing about this song? Given that it's a song about how easily parents can be convinced that totally innocuous things they don't understand are corrupting the youth, it only gets more hilarious the more dated everything becomes, but _for the same reasons it was hilarious before._
This song ages like fine fucking wine.
Is there a chance the track could bend?
not on your life my Hindu friend
The ring came off my pudding can!
Well here'a pen knife my good man
danzyl Were you sent here by the Devil?
Bfdidc
No, good sir! I'm on the level!
OMG! The first RAPPER!!!! Meredith Wilson was soo ahead with this musical! No wonder The Beatles honored this genius by covering his"Till there was you"on "With the Beatles"
I was just thinking that, I scrolled the comment to see if anybody else thought that this sounded like rap, and wallah, I came across your comment, Bravo.
WE'VE GOT TROUBLE
RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY
WITH A CAPITAL "T"
+Turning Cooper THAT RHYMES WITH "P"
+Judy W and that stands for POOL
+Bob The Turtle WE'VE SURE GOT TROUBLE
Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock, and the Golden Rule!
+BlackOut1962 "We got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, pockets in a table. Pockets that mark the difference.....between a gentleman and a bum, with a capital B and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool!"
Friend, either you're closing your eyes
To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated
By the presence of a pool table in your community . Well, ya got trouble, my friend, right here,
I say, trouble right here in River City.
Why sure I'm a billiard player,
Certainly mighty proud I say
I'm always mighty proud to say it.
I consider that the hours I spend
With a cue in my hand are golden.
Help you cultivate horse sense
And a cool head and a keen eye.
J'ever take and try to give
An iron-clad leave to yourself
From a three-reail billiard shot?
But just as I say,
It takes judgement, brains, and maturity to score
In any balkline game,
I say that any boob kin take
And shove a ball in a pocket.
And they call that sloth.
The first big step on the road
To the depths of deg-ra-Day--
I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon,
Then beer from a bottle.
An' the next thing ya know,
Your son is playin' for money
In a pinch-back suit.
And list'nin to some big out-a-town Jasper
Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin'.
Not a wholesome trottin' race, no!
But a race where they set down right on the horse!
Like to see some stuck-up jockey'boy
Sittin' on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil?
Well, I should say.
Now, friends, lemme tell you what I mean. Ya got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table.
Pockets that mark the diff'rence
Between a gentlemen and a bum,
With a capital "B,"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!
And all week long your River City
Youth'll be frittern away,
I say your young men'll be frittern!
Frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!
Get the ball in the pocket,
Never mind gittin' Dandelions pulled
Or the screen door patched or the beefsteak pounded.
Never mind pumpin' any water
'Til your parents are caught with the Cistern empty
On a Saturday night and that's trouble,
Oh, yes we got lots and lots a' trouble.
I'm thinkin' of the kids in the knickerbockers,
Shirt-tail young ones, peekin' in the pool
Hall window after school. Ya got trouble, folks, right here in River City.
Trouble with a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!
Now, I know all you folks are the right kinda parents.
I'm gonna be perfectly frank.
Would ya like to know what kinda conversation goes
On while they're loafin' around that Hall?
They're tryin' out Bevo, tryin' out cubebs,
Tryin' out Tailor Mades like Cigarette Feends!
And braggin' all about
How they're gonna cover up a tell-tale breath with Sen-Sen.
One fine night, they leave the pool hall,
Headin' for the dance at the Arm'ry!
Libertine men and Scarlet women!
And Rag-time, shameless music
That'll grab your son and your daughter
With the arms of a jungle animal instinct!
Mass-staria!
Friends, the idle brain is the devil's playground!
People:
Trouble, oh we got trouble,
Right here in River City!
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "P"
And that stands for Pool,
That stands for pool.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in River City,
Right here!
Gotta figger out a way
To keep the young ones moral after school!
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...
Harold:
Mothers of River City!
Heed the warning before it's too late!
Watch for the tell-tale sign of corruption!
The moment your son leaves the house,
Does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee?
Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger?
A dime novel hidden in the corn crib?
Is he starting to memorize jokes from Capt.
Billy's Whiz Bang?
Are certain words creeping into his conversation?
Words like 'swell?"
And 'so's your old man?"
Well, if so my friends,
Ya got trouble,
Right here in River city!
With a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P"
And that stands for Pool.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in River City!
Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule!
Oh, we've got trouble.
We're in terrible, terrible trouble.
That game with the fifteen numbered balls is a devil's tool!
Oh yes we got trouble, trouble, trouble!
With a "T"! Gotta rhyme it with "P"!
And that stands for Pool!!!
SydneyTalks Remember, my friends, listen to me because I pass this way but once!
@@steeevealbright (quietly) Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble. (Loudly) Oh we've got trouble! We're in big big trouble! with a capital T that rhymes with P that stands for POOL! Stands for POOL! Gotta keep the young ones moral after school!
that must of taken like 5 minutes
SydneyTalks ...Dude...
“Words like-- swell.” 😲 😮😮 Making an innocent word seem like profanity. Lol
This guy is like the media nowadays.
He's like media since always.
It's just now, there's a whole lot of it coming from all sides, and you can't keep your nose out of it even if you wanted to.
You mean Fox News.
Yeah except he didn't kill 1 million Iraqi's.
It's the oldest trick in history, trick people into worrying about the youth to keep them from worrying about the real issues.
Orange man bad, no new wars, peace in the Middle East, now that’s trouble!
Iowa politics at it's finest.
FLIM FLAM BROTHER SUPER SPEEDY CIDER SQUESSY 3,000!!
I was listening to that song and yeah it sounds really similar.
6,000.
So glad that Warner Bros cast Robert Preston for the Tony Award-winning role he did on Broadway. Warner Bros was going to cast Frank Sinatra. What a BIG mistake that would have been. Meredith Willson demanded Preston to re-create his award-winning role or else he will cancel the movie production. Wilson won out.
I saw this in the theater as a kid and memorized the song, at 66 I can still sing it with only a few mistakes!
I also memorized this when I was a kid.
I know it all by memory, every word. It's my favorite!
@@garyparton8376 I used to shoot pool and must disagree with Professor Hill thay ‘any boob can take and shove a ball in a pocket’ 😁
The Music Man was the best musical in my opinion.. I still love watching the movie over and over again. I have the DVD.
Robert Preston from what I'm told by many was one of the must gregarious/warm and easy going people you could ever know.Meredith Wilson seemed to write Harold Hill like he knew a Robert Preston was going to come along one day and make this part iconic.I think this role and the Booze swilling/nempho doctor in SOB might be his best work and VVictoria.
This wonderful song came down to us as a direct descendant of the Gilbert and Sullivan 'patter' tunes. Requiring a really articulate actor/singer, and that takes an ear, as well as a talented tongue. I simply adore this. Preston had it nailed!! With a Capital P.....
So I'm currently trying to learn this for a local play in two weeks. This song is quite possibly the hardest song I've ever tried to learn. The rhythm is incredibly chaotic to me. It's like if George Carlin took up rapping. 🤣
It's so difficult but damn it's gonna be worth it. 😌
Day 5 Update: so finally got the basic cadence down and most of the song memorized. Sang it last night for the first time in front of others and they loved it. Progress indeed for a song that quite frankly terrified me.
How did it go?
It's all about reps. When you get it it flows.
@@waynemizer4912 it went awesome! They loved it! Took forever to get down, but man its one of those things you don't forget!
@@robreck6082 it definitely does!
Just find an old--fashioned metal trash can and bang on it with a barrel stave (if you can find one of those, either). This is at least as painful to listen to as anything on Magic 104 . . .
So THIS is what it's like to watch the news!
"The idle brain is the devil's playground ...".
He could have sold me anything!
One of the most catchy tunes in all of musicals. Did Robert Preston get any awards for this movie? Because he should have he was magnificent. Also catch the scene where he is trying to get the band kids to play Minuet in G. All classic stuff.
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0:46 - You can hear the transition between his normal voice and his 'politician' voice. Hilarious!
What kills me is none of the politicians we have now are anywhere near as slick as this guy. Could you imagine if they were? Yeesh.
That's where the soundtrack switches from the on-set dialogue to the song in the recording studio.
nice quality....the proformace itself is historic.
Worlds fastest talking man!
Boocher 147 I'm singing this song as fast as he can , I have my own little paperback of The Music Man with ALL the lyrics at the back of the book, and besides the story it has black and white photos from the movie itself, including a photo of Marian and the other ladies/ they are singing a Pick a Little reprise,saying to Marian they LIKE her books. I think I saw this scene in the movie at Torrance Drive -In around 1963 or 64, and its been cut out ever since.
Until John Moschitta, Jr.
I am mesmerized by this performance. I know it's a movie and he might have had multiple takes, so I would Marvel even more at a stage play where an actor would have to get through that entire scene without flubbing or forgetting a line. It's brilliant!
Robert Preston DID play Harold Hill in the original stage play and then was cast straight into the movie, which is kind of a rarity. Shirley Jones was cast as his romantic partner Marion the Librarian and Shirley wanted to use her star power to refuse to dance in the movie, as a mysterious double had been previously supplied for her in the movie Oklahoma. But the powerful lady choreographer (I dont recall her name) of the movie, The Music Man FORCED her to dance! The lady was so strict, she even tried (and alas, ultimately failed) to get the super chubby Buddy Hackett (who you might remember from the original Love Bug movie) to perform successful bell kicks.
When Shirley did her showcase dance piece for the movie, the professional chorus (ensemble) dancers sympathized with her greatly for not being the best dancer by literally carrying her through some of the most difficult dance moves of the scene. This full scene is unfortunately not available for free online. The song is affectionately called: Marion, Madam Librarian
davidjamesshaver.online
popu.photo
@@davidjamesshaver The choreographer was Onna White who also supersized the dances for "Bye, Bye Birdie" and the Oscar-winning "Oliver!"
He originated the role on Broadway, so by the time he came around to doing it on film he had it down cold.