Loewe was born in Berlin to Viennese parents Edmond and Rosa Loewe. His father Edmond was a noted Jewish operetta star who traveled considerably, to North and South America and throughout much of Europe. Fritz grew up in Berlin and attended a Prussian cadet school from the age of five until he was thirteen.
At an early age Loewe learned to play piano by ear and helped his father rehearse. He eventually attended a music conservatory in Berlin, one year behind virtuoso Claudio Arrau. Both won the coveted Hollander Medal awarded by the school, and Fritz gave performances as a concert pianist while still in Germany.
In 1925, his father received an offer to appear in New York, and Loewe traveled there with him, determined to write for Broadway. This proved to be difficult, and he found work playing piano in German clubs in Yorkville and in movie theaters as the accompanist for silent pictures.
Loewe began to visit The Lambs Club, a hangout for theater performers, producers, managers, and directors. It was here that he met Alan J. Lerner in 1942. Their first collaboration was a musical adaptation of Barry Connor's farce The Patsy called Life of the Party for a Detroit stock company. It enjoyed a nine-week run and encouraged the duo to join forces with Arthur Pierson for What's Up?, which opened on Broadway in 1943. It ran for 63 performances and was followed two years later by The Day Before Spring. One of Broadway's most successful partnerships had been established.
Their first hit was Brigadoon (1947), a romantic fantasy set in a mystical Scottish village, directed by Robert Lewis. It was followed in 1951 by the less successful Gold Rush story Paint Your Wagon.
In 1956 Lerner and Loewe unveiled My Fair Lady. Their adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion retained his social commentary and added unusually appropriate songs for the characters of Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, played originally by Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison. It was hugely popular and set box-office records in New York and London. Together with Lerner, he won the Tony Award for Best Musical. With My Fair Lady a smash hit, MGM took notice, and commissioned them to write the 1958 film musical Gigi, which won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Their next Broadway production, Camelot, received mediocre reviews when it opened. The director and producer arranged for stars Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and sing a few numbers from the musical, along with an appearance by Lerner and Loewe. The following morning the box office was swamped with requests, and Camelot became a huge hit.
Loewe then decided to retire to Palm Springs, California, not writing anything until he was approached by Lerner to augment the Gigi film score with additional tunes for a 1973 stage adaptation, which won him his second Tony, this time for Best Original Score. The following year they collaborated on a musical film version of The Little Prince, based on the classic children's tale by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This film was a critical and box office failure, but has become a cult favorite, with the soundtrack recording and the film itself back in print (on CD and DVD) after many years of being unavailable.
Loewe was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1972. He remained in Palm Springs until his death.
Why Can't the English?
Frederick Loewe Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Condemned by every syllable she utters
By rights she should be taken out and hung
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue
Aw!
Aw! Heavens what a sound!
This is what the British population
Calls an elementary education
Did I?
Hear them down in Soho square
Dropping h's everywhere
Speaking English any way they like
You sir, did you go to school?
What do you tike me for, a fool?
No one taught him take instead of tike
Hear a Yorkishman or worse
Hear a Cornishman converse
I'd rather hear a choir singing flat
Chickens cackling in a barn, just like this one
G'on!
G'on! I ask you sir, what sort of word is that?
It's aw and g'on that keep her in her place
Not her wretched clothes and dirty face
Why can't the English
Teach their children how to speak
This verbal class distinction
By now should be antique
If you spoke as she does, sir
Instead of the way you do
Why you might be out selling flowers too
I beg your pardon, sir!
An Englishman's way of speaking
Absolutely classifies him
The moment he talks
He makes some other Englishmen despise him
One common language I'm afraid we'll never get
Oh why can't the English learn to
Set a good example
To people whose English is painful to your ears
The Scots and the Irish leave you close to tears
There even are places where English completely disappears
In America they haven't used it for years
Why can't the English
Teach their children how to speak
Norwegians learn Norwegian
The Greeks are taught their Greek
In France every Frenchman
Knows his language from A to Zed
The French don't care what they do actually
As long as they pronounce it properly
Arabians learn Arabian
With the speed of summer lightning
And the Hebrews learn it backwards
Which is absolutely frightening
But use proper English, you're regarded as a freak
Oh why can't the English
Why can't the English
Learn to speak!
The song "Why Can't the English?" by Frederick Loewe is a satirical take on the English language and how its speakers are judged based on their accents and dialects. The song starts with a critical note on the "prisoner of the gutter," a person whose speech patterns and dialect have led to her condemnation. The singer then goes on to criticize Soho Square's residents for dropping their H’s and ends up pointing out how even regional dialects are looked down upon. The song continues to plead for an end to verbal class distinctions and the teaching of proper English to children. The song concludes by drawing a comparison with how other languages are learned proficiently, and if only proper English could be taught as successfully.
Line by Line Meaning
Look at her a prisoner of the gutter
See how this woman is trapped by her lower-class status
Condemned by every syllable she utters
Her accent and dialect are judged harshly by society
By rights she should be taken out and hung
She deserves severe punishment for not speaking "proper" English
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue
She is accused of killing the English language with her accent and dialect
Aw!
An expression of shock or disgust
Aw! Heavens what a sound!
This woman's speech is so awful that it is literally offensive to the ears
This is what the British population
English people in general
Calls an elementary education
This is the level of education that this woman has supposedly achieved
Oh come sir, I think you picked a poor example!
The artist is being sarcastic, as if to say there are even worse examples of bad English accents out there
Did I?
A dismissive or defensive response, implying that the artist does not agree with the criticism
Hear them down in Soho square
Listen to the people in this trendy London neighborhood
Dropping h's everywhere
They are not pronouncing 'h' sounds in words where they are supposed to be pronounced
Speaking English any way they like
They are not conforming to standard English pronunciation and grammar
You sir, did you go to school?
The singer is questioning the education of the person they are speaking to
What do you tike me for, a fool?
This is a sarcastic response to being questioned, implying that the singer is being insulted
No one taught him take instead of tike
This person is not using the correct pronunciation of 'take,' which is indicative of a lower-class accent
Hear a Yorkishman or worse
Listen to someone with a strong accent from the north of England
Hear a Cornishman converse
Listen to someone with a strong accent from the southwest of England
I'd rather hear a choir singing flat
The singer would prefer to listen to a bad choir performance than someone speaking with a strong accent
Chickens cackling in a barn, just like this one
The artist is comparing the sound of bad English to the sound of animals
G'on!
This is a dismissive or sarcastic response, similar to 'get on with it'
I ask you sir, what sort of word is that?
The artist is ridiculing the use of non-standard English words or phrases
It's aw and g'on that keep her in her place
This refers to non-standard English words that this woman uses, which keeps her in a lower social class
Not her wretched clothes and dirty face
This woman's social class is defined not by her appearance, but by her accent and dialect
Why can't the English
The singer is posing a rhetorical question, questioning why English people cannot do something
Teach their children how to speak
The singer is criticizing English parents for not teaching their children proper English pronunciation and grammar
This verbal class distinction
This refers to the way that people's social class can be inferred from their accent and dialect
By now should be antique
This social class distinction should no longer exist in modern times
If you spoke as she does, sir
The artist is addressing someone directly, asking them how they would feel if they spoke with a similar accent to the woman in question
Instead of the way you do
The singer is suggesting that the person they are speaking to has a better accent than the woman in question
Why you might be out selling flowers too
The singer is saying that if the person they are speaking to spoke with a lower-class accent, they would be in the same social class as the woman in question
I beg your pardon, sir!
This is a formal way of saying 'excuse me,' as if the artist has inadvertently offended the person they are speaking to
An Englishman's way of speaking
This line describes how an English accent denotes someone's social class
Absolutely classifies him
This is a definitive statement- someone's accent can completely define him
The moment he talks
As soon as someone with a distinctive English accent opens his mouth, others are able to form opinions about his social class
He makes some other Englishmen despise him
There is a sense of snobbery amongst some English people when it comes to accent and dialect, and someone may be looked down upon because of it
One common language I'm afraid we'll never get
The singer is being pessimistic, implying that English people will never agree on pronunciation and standard grammar
Set a good example
The singer is suggesting that English people who speak 'proper' English should be setting an example for those who do not
To people whose English is painful to your ears
The singer is addressing those with non-standard accents and dialects, and saying that their way of speaking is unacceptable
The Scots and the Irish leave you close to tears
The accents of Scottish and Irish people are difficult for some English people to understand or accept
There even are places where English completely disappears
This line is suggesting that some areas of England do not speak English at all
In America they haven't used it for years
This is a joke- of course Americans speak English
Norwegians learn Norwegian
This line is pointing out that people in other countries learn their native languages, which English people should do too
The Greeks are taught their Greek
Greek people are taught to speak their native language with proper pronunciation and grammar, just as English parents should teach their children
In France every Frenchman
This is pointing out that French people take their language very seriously
Knows his language from A to Zed
French people are taught the correct pronunciation and grammar from a young age
The French don't care what they do actually
This is a humorous line, implying that French people do care about their language- so much so that it could be considered obsessive
As long as they pronounce it properly
As long as French people pronounce their language properly, they are satisfied
Arabians learn Arabian
This line is making the same point as earlier, stating that people from other countries learn their languages with proper pronunciation and grammar
With the speed of summer lightning
Arab people learn their language very quickly because they are taught it from a young age
And the Hebrews learn it backwards
This is a joke, as learning Hebrew backwards is an impossible task
Which is absolutely frightening
This line is a humorous way to end the verse, poking fun at the difficulty of learning Hebrew backwards
But use proper English, you're regarded as a freak
The artist is saying that if someone speaks with proper English pronunciation and grammar, they are seen as an oddity
Oh why can't the English
The singer is again posing a rhetorical question, questioning why English people cannot do something
Learn to speak!
This is a call to action- the singer is urging English people to learn proper English pronunciation and grammar
Contributed by Ella S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.