Steve Allen

“This Could Be the Start of Something Big”* 1983

* music and lyrics by Steve Allen

Steve Allen, LA 1983

What are the musical influences in your life?

I am a melody freak. Consequently, I’m almost always annoyed these days when I see a modern musical. I was overjoyed several months ago when I saw Showboat, because that score has, as I recall, eight great melodies. Today, the average musical has no great melodies. It may have other musical virtues, maybe great music for dancing, but where the hell are the melodies? I love the great composers, like Jerome Kern, Sigmund Romberg, Victor Herbert, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin. These people are gods to me. They had the gift of melody.

Is that what is missing in modern popular music?

We’re talking about a matter of degree, and every so often a lovely song does come along. Henry Mancini gave us eight or ten lovely tunes. Burt Bacharach gave us eight or ten lovely songs. Jim Webb—six or seven terrific songs. Anthony Newley, The Beatles—six or seven terrific songs. Michel Legrand is my favorite contemporary composer. Anyone who wants to know how to do a musical should see The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It’s pure opera from beginning to end and yet any nine-year-old can enjoy it. It’s not arty or over the heads of people, and there is one glorious melody after another.

If you were suddenly stranded on an island with no audience, but you had a piano…

If I had a piano, I’d be perfectly happy—I’d eat the piano—no, but I’d be perfectly happy because 90% of my piano playing has never been heard by anyone but me. It happens here in the house or wherever I may live. I’m addicted to piano. I have to have a piano the way you have to have food or sex or liquid or alcohol. I must experience the piano frequently. Whenever I am in a situation where I can’t get at one for a few days, I actually start looking for pianos, the way a guy would start looking for a fix or a drink. So, if I were under a palm tree with a piano, forgetting the fact that from the moisture the piano would be out of tune, I could be very happy, because I love to play and I love to hear the stuff. I’d rather hear Oscar Peterson play—if he was on the island that would be even better.

Would you consider yourself eccentric?

In some ways, yes. In certain ways, at least, I perceive myself as a very normal, average person, but I recognize in other ways that I’m peculiar. One way would be in what I do professionally. I didn’t plan to do 14 things for a living, but I guess the fact that I do is odd. I certainly joke and horse around more than the average person.