Andy's Anachronisms
Time Travel Songs


It's All Right With Me
Cole Porter

Disclaimer:
In case I accidentaly offend any fans let me say that this is only an interpretation of the song and not necessarily what the artist or anyone else, besides myself thinks the song means.

I first heard this Cole Porter tune on a tribute album called "Red Hot and Blue". The song, originally from the Cole Porter musical Can-Can, is sung on this tribute album by the gravelly voiced Tom Waits.

Waits' mournful wailing makes it all that easier to believe that the lyrics are those of a time traveler whose finds himself in an alternate universe and realizing that the love of his life in this world is the same person but different in a number of subtle ways.

Let's take a look at the lyrics and I think you'll see what I mean:

It's the wrong time, and the wrong place
Though your face is charming, it's the wrong face
It's not her face, but such a charming face
That it's all right with me

It's the wrong song, in the wrong style
Though your smile is lovely, it's the wrong smile
It's not her smile, but such a lovely smile
That it's all right with me

You can't know how happy I am that we met
I'm strangely attracted to you
There's someone I'm trying so hard to forget
Don't you want to forget someone, too?

It's the wrong game, with the wrong chips
Though your lips are tempting, they're the wrong lips
They're not her lips, but they're such tempting lips
That, if some night, you are free
Then it's all right, yes, it's all right with me

Discovering that the person he loves is changed from what he remembers, he desperately wants to accept her, but feels a sense of loss knowing that he will never see his true love again.

If you do hear this song seek out Tom Waits version. It is superior in my opinion to Frank Sinatra's version as featured in the movie Can-Can. The Red, Hot and Blue album is also worth a listening for other treats such as Talking Heads front man David Byrne singing "Don't Fence Me In"


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