Talk:Nature Boy/Archive 1

Published versions?
It mentions under the published versions that Gandalf did a version - but it links to Gandalf the fictional character - not the band. Shouldn't this be changed? And cited? Plasticmoth 14:12, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Shouldn't it be "recorded versions"? And what is the distinction between "prominent versions", "popular versions" and "other versions"? 210.193.178.201 (talk) 04:51, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds?
There's also a song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with the same name, but its not a cover of this song. Should it be mentioned here or somewhere else?203.118.159.145 (talk) 09:47, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
 * No, it should not be mentioned, because it has nothing to do with the song being discussed in this article. --- RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive'  16:17, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

What a mess...
This article is overweighted with information about all of the different people who have recorded this song, yet has very little factual information about the song itself, and the writing thereof. We do not need a chart of every single person or group who recorded the song. That is simply overkill. I am going to begin trimming it, firstly by removing everyone who has no Wikipedia article. After that, we need only list the truly significant recordings. And we need more information about the song. --- RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive'  16:22, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

to mess or not to mess?
Hi folks, there is another beautyful recording of that song on Till Brönner's Christmas Album. I like that Fusion Jazz Intro ... and I think it is worth being listed ...

Cheers 88.64.80.11 (talk) 16:24, 30 December 2008 (UTC) Sebastian December 30th 2008

it inspired Antonín Dvořák ?
I guess The melody of "Nature Boy" can be clearly heard in multiple passages from Antonín Dvořák's "Piano Quintet No. 2 in A, Opus 81" (1887). should be written the other way around no ? It's kind of misleading. --Leolwki (talk) 10:54, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

I edited this section to clarify Michael Lee (talk) 05:13, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

As Dvořák died only died in 1904, would the piano piece not still have been in copyright when Nature Boy was written? Was any compensation ever sought by his estate? 86.162.11.67 (talk) 16:05, 21 August 2015 (UTC)

sumac version?
Where did you get that Yma Sumac recorded a version of "Serutan Yob"? Please state your source for such a recording. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.69.251.42 (talk) 22:55, 10 March 2010 (UTC)  It must have been around this time that the rumors of her being a NJ girl  born as Amy Camus were started...

Film usage
In the French movie Peindre ou faire l'amour aka To Paint or Make Love (2005) the husband William puts on a record. The wife Madelaine goes to the record shelf, pics up the sleeve and tells to friends in the room 'This was the song they played when we met'. One can clearly see that it's Genesis': Wind & Wuthering sleeve she's holding in her hand. But the song we hear it's Nature Boy sung by a female voice... Kiujm (talk) 21:45, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Was it inspired by the Robert Schumann/Johannes Brahms/Anton Dvorak connection?
I think the song bears a strong resemblance to Robert Schumann's Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) for piano Op. 82 and Vogel als Prophet (Prophet Bird). Here is a link to Rubinstein playing it []. I think this strange magical bird is condemned to tell the truth, all the time, wise and all so knowing of the bearer of the question. There is some harmonic resemblance in the wide intervals, chromatic melody, shape or "melodic arch", key (G minor is close to the key of D minor), tempo. For comparison, here is Nat King Cole rendition of "Nature Boy" on youtube [].

The forest and Gothic is very prevalent in the German Romantic mindset. Certainly Dvořák would have been familiar with Schumann, as Brahms was a protegé of Schumann and Dvořák, of Brahms. Another piece with the same Romantic forest allusions, is "The Wild Dove" op. 110, []. This tone poem is about a woman who murders her husband for another lover and the spirit of the murdered man comes back as a wood dove with its startled motive running through the piece. Dvořák settings of his compatriot Karel Jaromir Erben's poems are similarly rather grim.

It seems to me that Eden Ahbez German Jewish ancestry and familiarity with the German psyche, would have absorbed this kind of influence. The song's contemporariness to the post war years might have been an oblique reference to the highs and lows of the German psyche - the collision between the Nature loving Romantic and the beast that inhabited the forests, committing the atrocities of the Holocaust, with the cries of spirits attesting to the murderous sins committed in the German forest. Indeed, the greatest gift you'll ever learn is to love and be loved in return. (Written by anonymous British Classical Musical scholar)

"The Wood Dove" From the site http://www.radio.cz/en/section/books/karel-jaromir-erben-one-of-the-greatest-of-all-czech-poets-now-at-last-in-english-translation

Time is flying, flying,

Nothing's as before;

What was not, is coming,

What was, is no more.

Time is flying, flying;

Hours, years, have their term;

One thing never changes:

Guilt alone stands firm.

Three years he's been lying

, The dead man, in his grave;

On the mound that marks it

Fresh green grasses wave.

On the mound, grasses;

At his head, a young oak grows;

On that young oak-tree sits

A small dove, white as snow.

There it sits,

there it sits

With its plaintive coo;

Everyone who hears it feels

His heart will break in two.

One woman, most of all,

Feels hers break this way;

From her head she tears the hair,

Calling in dismay:

'Do not hoot, do not call,

Dinning in my ears;

That cruel song of yours

Through my soul does pierce!

Do not hoot, don't accuse;

My head is spinning round:

Or hoot to make it fly

In pieces at a bound!'

Water's flowing, flowing,

Wave on wave is surging,

See there, among the waves,

A white dress emerging.

Here a foot goes floating by,

There a pale hand waves;

That woman, poor lost soul,

Goes to seek her grave!

They pulled her to the bank,

Secretly to lie

Buried where footpaths cross

In a field of rye.

She had no tomb at all

As her last abode;

Only a massive stone

Pressed her with its load.

Never, though, could any stone

Lie upon her frame,

Heavy as the curse whose weight

Rests upon her name!

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.28.169.112 (talk) 13:34, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

still more covers
There's a novelty version by (i think) Tony Randall, in which the singer sounds like he's gargling or underwater. —Tamfang (talk) 18:18, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

eden ahbez?

 *  "Nature Boy" is a song by Eden Ahbez, published in 1947. 

However, the rest of the article refers to "ahbez". Why the inconsistency? Pdfpdf (talk) 13:59, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Song form section - 3/4 time
The song form section is interesting, but I feel it's missed the most obvious point about this song: it's in 3/4 time. Certainly for modern pop songs this is rare - maybe it was more common when this song was written, but still noteworthy?

--smiler (talk) 15:37, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

Selective list of recorded versions?
The list doesn't appear selective to me at all. Unless there are any serious objections, I feel we should either establish selection criteria or simply limit the list to artists whose versions of the song received attention from third-party reliable sources. Thoughts? DonIago (talk) 12:44, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Nature boy
The score to this song was actually written by my great uncle Norman Stallard. All I know is that it was submitted for publishing and the next thing it was bought out with lyrics by Nat King Cole. A great injustice to my great uncle as he never received recognition or royalties for the music he wrote. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.55.212.14 (talk) 08:42, 11 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Do you have a reliable source? If you do, it can be included.  If you don't, it can't.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:33, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Sources for development
*Life magazine, 10 May 1948
 * Hollywood Dish: More Than 150 Delicious, Healthy Recipes from Hollywood's
 * Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish: Comparative Studies of Domestic Labor and..
 * Our L.A. County Lifeguard Family
 * The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire
 * Million sales
 * 1001 Songs: You Must Hear Before You Die
 * greatest song of 1948
 * Reasoning for Moulin Rouge usage

More to come. — Indian: BIO  · [ ChitChat  ] 16:42, 6 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Hollywood Dish... ??!!! Ghmyrtle (talk) 17:10, 6 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Background stories of movies. — Indian: BIO  · [ ChitChat  ] 17:12, 6 September 2014 (UTC)