“The ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” Most people remember “Teddy Bear’s Picnic and can sing the words. Despite its popularity and familiarity, few realized the “It Ain’t Necessarily So” is a picnic song from Porgy and Bess’s American opera. The songs are remarkably different; one is a song for children, and the other, a satirical song for an annual church picnic.
Jimmy Kennedy’s 1932 lyrics for “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic” were written for John W. Bratton’s 1907 instrumental tune “The Teddy Bear Two Step,” which no one has danced to in almost a hundred years. If it were not for Kennedy’s lyrics, the tune would be a hidden relic, but the lyrics capture the essence of picnics and childish fun and games:
“If you go down to the woods today
You’re sure of a big surprise
If you go down to the woods today
You better go in disguise
For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain because
Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic.”
“Teddy bears’ Picnic” is all such supervised fun, and when the time comes, at six o’clock, the dear little critters are retrieved by “mummys and daddys” and taken home and to bed. The idea of the song is so powerful that we build into it our image of a picnic; pleasant forest grove, lots of grass, lots of food on a blanket, none of which is mentioned. It’s a picnic with food.
“It Ain’t Necessarily So” is an adult song full of sarcasm, sexual innuendo, and Christian hypocrisy. It’s among the memorable, upbeat songs in Porgy and Bess with music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin based on Dubose Heyward’s novel. Because it’s so amusing, it’s an effort to remember that it is sung by Sportin’ Life, a drug dealer and pimp, at a church picnic on Kittiwar Island for the residents of Catfish Row.
When Sportin’ Life sings, the picnickers are seduced:
“It ain’t necessarily so
It ain’t necessarily so
De things dat yo’ liable to read in de Bible
It ain’t necessarily so.”
It is only when Serena admonishes the group singing and dancing that the song is halted
“Shame on all you sinners,” she angrily tells them. “You call yourselves Church-members, you goes on a decent picnic of The Sons an’ Daughters of Repent Ye Saith the Lord. An’ when the Christians turn their back, you start behavin’ like Sodom an’ Gomorrah.” Chastened, the picnickers relax, but as they begin packing to leave.
It’s then that Bess wanders off into the palmetto grove, meets her old lover Crown, and runs off with him. When Bess meets Crown, there is a powerful rush of sexual tension and the potent aroma of lust. Bess cannot resist Crown and so betrays Porgy.
For those expecting that a social history of picnicking will be all light-hearted, keep in mind “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.” If it’s amusing satire, and if you want to sing with Sportin’ Life’s your man.
See Henry Hall and Orchestra, Val Rosing vocal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZANKFxrcKU; Porgy and Bess began as DuBose Heyward’s novel Porgy (1925), then as a play, coauthored by Dubose Heyward and Dorothy Heyward; a musical drama Porgy and Bess (1935), with the book by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin; and (See Featured Image) Otto Preminger’s Porgy and Bess (1959). It was first staged in 1963 as an opera in Vienna.