Is That All There Is?

Has there ever been a song that encapsulated the human experience more beautifully?

http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DVF9mVi2KQXg



• Campy and depressing at the same time!

• Is that all there is? Is that all there is? If that's all there is, My friends, Then let's keep dancing... Let's break out the booze, And have a ball. If that's all, There is... I'm having this played as my body is receiving the Shake-n-Bake treatment

• You sad old queens who gorge at the trough of all the old 60s and 70s camp are a sorry bunch.

• Why, R3? Because you don't know what they're talking about?

• To me it's not so much 'depressing' as the voice of experience. It's saying, "yes, life is disappointing--there's no heaven or hell, no meaning, no big dramatic revelation--but that's all the MORE reason to break out the booze, have a ball and keep dancing." It's certainly not a youthful "yippee! Life is beautiful!" but neither is it a "life is awful so put a whole in your head" sentiment either imho. The camp factor is another matter, but I love it love it love it either way.

• btw: For fans of the song... after it was a hit, Peggy Lee recorded a less-famous album of similar material by the song writers Lieber and Stoller called "Mirrors." It's a very strange but fascinating collection of similar "high-concept" songs (not sure what to call them. Art songs? Camp disasters?). Anyway, the original album didn't have "Is That All There Is?" on it since it was a hit earlier, but reissues place it on there as the first track and it's a great album.

• I remember Homer singing this on "the Simpsons."

• And r3, the most decrepit queen in the world lingering on the oldest, campiest bullshit ever is STILL less pathetic than the queen trying to gain a bit of mileage by making bitchy comments about it. (That'd be you btw).

• Amy Winehouse should have covered this before she expired.

• Cristina's cover was brilliant.

  Anonymous