It's only a paper moon
村上氏の作品にはジャズも多く出てきますが、今回はこれ。
この曲ができた経緯が面白いので少し紹介します。
"(Rose) called and said, 'We need a song here for guy who's a Coney Island barker. A very cynical guy who falls in love and finds that the world is not all Coney Island-- not papier mache and lights and that sort of gaudy stuff. But it's got to be a love song.' Well, I tried to think of a cynical love story, something that this kind of a guy would sing. But I could never really be cynical. I could see life in all its totality, its reality." (Interview with Max Wilk, 1973)
Coney Islandというのは、ニューヨークにある島で、20年代に遊園地ができて、観光地だったそうです。今で言うディズニーランドでしょうか。
そこで、しょせんこの世ははりぼてさ、というような冷めた男が働いている。しかしその男が恋に落ちる。そして世の中は決して張りぼてなんかじゃないと知る。そんな舞台で、さて、その男にどんな歌を歌わせようか・・・。
というような経緯だったそうです。
Harburg and Rose finally hammered out some lyrics together to the number they called "If You Believed in Me."
Say it's only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But, it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in meUnfortunately, the show was a flop. Audiences instead were flocking to see Ethel Merman in Take a Chance at the Apollo, literally right next door to the Selwyn. This Nacio Herb Brown musical was such a hit that Hollywood rushed its version into production, taking several actors from the cast with it (but not Merman. She'd be replaced with Lilian Roth). One of the cast members who went to Hollywood was June Knight. And she was given a new song to sing with Charles "Buddy" Rogers that she hadn't done on Broadway-- a song from the show next door, newly retitled "It's Only a Paper Moon."
そうしてこの歌詞が生まれたんですね。
ただその舞台はまったくヒットせず、隣でやっていたTake a Chanceに客は行っちゃったそうです。その人気を見てハリウッドが映画製作に入ったわけですが、なぜかそこで使われたのがこの歌、そしてこのタイトルがつけられたそうです。
