Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

“Beloved composer of ‘I Love You Truly‘ . . . and a hundred other heart songs that express the loves and longings, sadness and gladness of all people everywhere . . . who met widowhood, conquered hardship, and achieved fame by composing and singing her simple romantic melodies. She was America’s gallant lady of song.”

President Herbert Hoover,
of Carrie Jacobs-Bond

[Note:  I sure hope someone appreciates this post.  I've spent about 6 hours total putting this together, including over 4 1/2 hours today!  Sheesh!  Sometimes I just can't help myself, wanting to do quality, well-crafted work on interesting topics.  I even (just now) edited this note, for goodness sakes!]

Imagine being a young woman trying to build a music career in a time when there was no such thing as music videos, CDs, iPods, iPhones, internet, YouTube, world wide instant communication – not even radios!  Radio broadcasts would not begin commercially (the first in Philadelphia) for another 30+ years, and then, only for those close enough who had electricity and enough money to buy them.

This was the world of Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946), who began as a struggling young widow of 26 in the early 1890s in Janesville, Wisconsin,* then Chicago, trying to make enough for she and her young son to live on with her talents as an accomplished singer, pianist and writer.

In a time long ago and radically different from our own, Bond scored three greatest hits** known far across our land and Europe, one becoming an “anthem“# of American troops in both World War I and World War II – “A Perfect Day.”  (See last post.)   She traveled extensively across the U. S. and Europe in World War I , performing many concerts for the troops, singing and playing “A Perfect Day,” herself.

While she had only three “hits,” she wrote and published nearly 200 pieces of popular music  in her lifetime and ended up a multimillionaire, the first made by the time her most popular song, “A Perfect Day” (for which 25 million copies of the sheet music were sold), was published in 1910, when she was 48.  She was known as a singer’s songwriter and countless artists sang and recorded her top three songs.

This fact is amazing, considering the hard times she endured, beginning as a young child when her father died.  By 26 she was widowed, and she and her little son survived on one meal a day, living in one room with no furniture.  Further, she had no formal training as either a singer or pianist (other than a few childhood piano lessons, long after she, a prodigy at age four, could play and perfectly mimic others’ songs).

We think of these times being the times of firsts in many areas for women, yet Bond had many “firsts” of her own.  She was the most successful composer of her time, became the first woman in the U. S. to own her own sheet music publishing company (formed in 1896, when male-dominated publishers in Chicago refused to publish her work) , to earn over $1 million dollars in music royalties and the only woman to own full rights rights to every song, word and piece of sheet music she created, plus all royalties.

While Bond enjoyed many successes, she endured much tragedy and suffering in her 84 years.  She suffered from debilitating rheumatism for years, which for a professional pianist must have been exceptionally difficult. The warm climate was one reason she was at Mission Inn (an exquisite inn/hotel still) in Riverside, California in 1909 when she wrote “A Perfect Day.”

She wrote the lyrics after watching the sun set over Mount Rubidoux from her 4th floor room,  and the tune three months later while touring the Mojave Desert.   Within a year, 8 million copies of the sheet music were sold and 5 million recordings of the song.  The carillon of Mission Inn, home of a vast collection of bells, rang out with “A Perfect Day” at the end of each day for many years. Mission Inn has even named a 4th floor suite in her name.

In what must have been the saddest event in her life, Carrie Jacobs-Bond’s son committed suicide in 1932, at 53, while “A Perfect Day” was playing on the phonograph in his room.

So, it must have been for her, in the end, as well as all who’ve ever heard and loved her “perfect” song, the most meaningful and poignant song of all.  We can only imagine her memories at age 84 of her son and of the thousands upon thousands of young soldiers in two World Wars for whom her song was their anthem.  Those who loved and were lost, those who remained with memories of perfect days together in the past to keep them going on.

I leave you with the renowned Paul Robeson singing “A Perfect Day,” which he recorded just before World War II, no doubt partly for the troops to come in the vast war being thrust upon them.  Take the time to listen and remember.  You’ll be glad you did.

*Read her fascinating story here in Wisconsin Hometown Stories.

**The three were “A Perfect Day,” her most popular song, published in 1910, and her most enduring song, “I Love You Truly,” and “Just Awearyin’ for You,” both published in 1901.

#Read and listen to a recent (August 29, 2009) Weekend Edition of her life on NPR, which shares many of the details of her storied life and career, especially during the two world wars.