Funny how these things happen.

Was sitting outside on an increasingly fall-like Manhattan day, still too damned muggy and hot, but the seasonal shift is palpable, when on streams Gershwin’s classic, “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” 

Started by hating him for being so damn clever. Then thought: maybe fun to use as a tongue-in-cheek thing—“the legendary Porgy and Bess Lectures in Modern Marketing.”*

Sudden realization: maybe we forego genuflection at the altar of Bill B. and the usual masters and, instead, listen to a Maestro, artfully expounding in 4/4 time.

Lesson the First. It ain't necessarily so/It ain't necessarily so/The things that you’re liable/To read in the Bible/It ain't necessarily so.

Received wisdom, lately known as “best practices,” is always seductive. Not just because the guidance is associated with “proven,” but, also because it’s hella easier to follow a rote recipe than think originally. George scores! 

Lesson the Second. Little David was small, but oh my!/Yes David was small, but oh my!/He fought big Goliath/Who lay, lay down and dieth/Yes David was small, but oh my!

If this gets you thinking about challenger brands and that painfully overused word “disruption,” you, friend, are obviously just as twisted as moi. That said, the lyric nails the distinction between a process and an event. Jeff Bezos, arguably history’s most prolific disruptor, borrows a Gershwin-era gem when he writes, “It takes 10 years to make an overnight success.”

Lesson the Fourth. Moses was found on a stream / Moses was found on a stream /Floated on water old Pharaoh's daughter/ Fished him she says from that stream.

Got to love this take on the hidden traps in both first-person testimonials and expert advice. Assuming, of course, that Bithia, said daughter, was more than a casual stream observer. I see no reason to doubt since there really wouldn’t have been much else fun to do around the palace, with everyone else occupied with pyramids and plagues. 

Lesson the Fifth. To get into heaven/Don't snap for a seven/Live clean/And don't have no fault.

You know “don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good?”  Maybe so, but in this telling “good” doesn’t get you to glory—for that you need great. Credit to Leo Burnett for making this practical: “you may not quite get them, but if you reach for the stars you won't come up with a handful of mud either.”

Lesson the Sixth. Now take me/I take that gospel/Whenever it's possible/But with a little grain of salt.

Favorite lyric, by far, in part because it’s so lyrically smart and rhythmically elegant.  Moreover, it’s the whole damn point of the song.  And this blog.

Lesson the Seventh. Methuselah lived nine hundred years/Methuselah lived nine hundred years/But tell me who, who calls that living/When no gal is given/To no man what's nine hundred years?

Sexism combined with ageism. Okay, I only included it because it’s funny. Draw your own conclusions.

Lesson the Last: That's why I say that it necessarily/ain't necessarily/ain’t necessarily so.

Thus endeth the lessons. Unless you want to talk about Jonah’s sea-going crib, why the Devil might not be such a bad fellow, or what Gershwin meant by “hoodle ah da wah dah, scatty way, oh yeah!”*

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*Fondly known, in academic circles, as “The Porgs.”

**And, yes, I know they’re vocalese, smarty.