The publication notice of this book confused me because Edward Jablonski wrote a biography of Harold Arlen in 1961. And it wasn’t just any biography either; it has remained the defninitve book on Harold Arlen for thirty-five years (Happy with the Blues, which is still available as a reprint from Da Capo Press). I assumed Rhythm, Rainbows, and Blues was a new edition of the old work, but I was wrong. This is a new biography, and thus represents a rare instance of someone writing two biographies of the same person, thirty-five years apart.

Jablonski wrote this second biography for two reasons. First, his friendship with Arlen limited what he could say in 1961. Even though Jablonski was not an "authorized" biographer (in that no one told him what to write), his friendship with Arlen kept him from discussing sensitive matters--Arlen’s troubled relationship with his father, his relationship with Marlene Dietrich, his wife’s emotional problems, and his own drinking problems. Secondly, several crates of Arlen memorabilia, including letters and documents (some of them dating back to his boyhood) were discovered in 1985. These crates revealed significant new information. Thus, a new biography.

The difference between the new biography and the old is like the difference between a three color print and a four. The pictures are substantially the same, but the four color print has greater detail and nuance. In the first biography, for example, there is nothing about Arlen’s conflict with his father. This conflict was not highly dramatic--there was no child abuse or neglect--but Arlen’s father was a Jewish cantor who ran a strict household. Seeing his son drift into the world of jazz and nightclubs, and abandon the family name of Arluck for "Arlen," created stresses that Arlen did not acknowledge late in life. They are important to consider, however, because they affected several of Arlen’s early career moves, which Jablonski identifies and insightfully discusses.

Most importantly, however, the second biography thoroughly re-evaluates Arlen’s later career. Arlen’s wife, Anya, suffered from emotional and neurological disorders for two decades and was, for some years, institutionalized. That is not mentioned in the first biography but is dealt with substantially here. Clearly, Anya’s problems affected Arlen’s lifestyle and work. Some of Arlen’s late career disappointments, with shows like Jamaica and Saratoga are in part attributable to difficult personal circumstances. But they are also attributable to production, direction and cast problems. Jablonski discusses all of this more openly in the second biography, and it’s all important, for the failure of such shows has condemned several good Arlen songs to relative obscurity. In short, the second biography is informative, even for those who have read the first.

For those who haven’t read the first biography, and perhaps have never read a biography by Edward Jablonski, this would be a good one to start with. Jablonski is my favorite musical biographer because he so effortlessly re-creates the milieu in which these composers and lyricists lived and worked. A key to writing good biography is to sketch, in a few clear strokes, the important personalities that helped shape the subject’s mind and career. Jablonski is good at that. We come away from this book not only knowing Harold Arlen, but having clearer insights into Ted Koehler, Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Johnny Mercer and Truman Capote, among others. In short, we come away knowing a lot more about American popular music.