The Tune We Need for Today: “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

One of the saddest, most haunting songs of the 20th century. Written in 1936 by Irving Berlin for the film Follow the Fleet, it features Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in one of cinema’s most celebrated dances. The lyrics gives me goosebumps every time I listen to them. It’s the 1930s. The world is teetering on the brink of war. Shit’s about to get bad. Real bad. Nobody yet knows about the atrocities of Hitler’s concentration camps, his “Final Solution,” and the millions of deaths that are just around the corner, but there’s a feeling of dread in the air. Astaire is a sailor on leave, about to be shipped off to battle, when he meets up with Rogers. He sings:

There may be trouble ahead
But while there’s music and moonlight and love and romance
Let’s face the music and dance

Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill and while we still have the chance
Let’s face the music and dance

Soon we’ll be without the moon, humming a different tune and then
There may be teardrops to shed
So while there’s moonlight and music and love and romance
Let’s face the music and dance

It’s coming. The bad times are coming. But before they do, let’s just enjoy one last moment of happiness.

From Wikipedia:

The dance is filmed in one continuous shot lasting two minutes and fifty seconds. During the first take, Ginger’s dress, which was heavily weighted so as to achieve a controlled swirling action, hit Astaire in the face midway through the routine, though the effect is barely discernible. He nonetheless selected this take out of twenty overall for the final picture. The set – designed by Carroll Clark under the direction of Van Nest Polglase – is frequently cited as a leading example of Art Deco-influenced art direction known as Hollywood Moderne.

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