More Truth Than Poetry

Poet and lyricist Fran Landesman occupies the ironic territory between Dorothy Parker and Edna St Vincent Millay. Fran's work combines pathos and humor and glows with the tough wisdom gleaned from a lifetime of riding in fast convertibles and hanging out in smoky bars. As an art student in New York in the early 50's, she was part of the Kerouac-Holmes-Ginsberg scene on which she based her lyrics to the Broadway musical, The Nervous Set (1959), a wicked satire on the Beat Generation.From that musical came one of her most famous songs, The Ballad of The Sad Young Men. Other lyrics, including jazz standard, Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most, have been enjoyed by millions through the recordings of Ella Fitzgerald, Roberta Flack, Shirley Bassey, Mabel Mercer, Sharah Vaughan, and Tony Bennett.Fran is performing her own material now in such places as The National Theatre, Ronnie Scott's JAzz Club, The Edinburgh Festival, Young Vic and in America at Bradley's Bar in New York and the Washington Square Bar & Girll in San Fransisco. She is a frequent guest on radio and television in England where she has been living since 1964.She is the author of two other books of verse, The Ballad od the Sad Young Men and Other Verses, and Invade My Privacy. A musical Loose Connections, based on her verse, with music by Jason McAuliffe, produced by Bolen High, is slated for a New York production in the fall of 1981.