It was a gift that enabled her, in a career that lasted into the 1970s, to produce lyrics that were not only fresh and sophisticated but also genuinely current. Thus, the twenty-three-year-old who in 1928 wrote, "Gee, I'd like to see you looking swell, baby" (from "I Can't Give You Anything but Love") was also the sixty-year-old lyricist who in 1966 declared (in "You Should See Yourself," from
Sweet Charity),
You're a blockbuster, buster,
You got class,
And when you make a pass,
Man, it's a pass.
Because of her ear for current slang, Fields was, in fact, the only lyricist among her contemporaries to remain a viable commodity well past the arrival of rock and roll. Toward the end of her career, she reflected on her craft: "Sounds and rhyming can be beguiling only when they state exactly what you should say. Don't fall in love with what you believe is a clever rhyme--it can throw you. Think about what you want to say and then look for the most amusing or graceful way you can say it."
Tall, with dark hair and eyes and a slim appearance, Fields remained a beacon of impeccable grooming and taste throughout her life, representing the urbane wit that epitomized creative circles in New York during the Jazz Age.
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