Songs at the Bar

I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby

This is the song playing at the bar when Emily and Lorelai first walk in together. It’s a jazz standard with music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, introduced by Adelaide Hall at the Blackbird Revue in New York, 1928, which later opened on Broadway.

Come Fly With Me

This is the song which is announced as a “salute to the Chairman of the Board”. It’s a 1958 song with music by Jimmy Heusen and lyrics by Sammy Cahn. It was written for Frank Sinatra, the title track of his 1958 album, and became part of his concert repertoire.

Fly Me to the Moon

This is the song which plays when Chad, the “silver fox”, asks Emily to dance. It’s a 1954 song by Bart Howard, originally recorded by Kaye Ballard the same year. Frank Sinatra’s 1964 version is the best known, and became associated with NASA’s Apollo missions to the Moon. “Fly Me to the Moon” was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 1999.

Someone To Watch Over Me

Previously discussed. This is the song which Emily and Chad dance to. It’s a sign that Emily desperately needs Lorelai to watch out for her – which she fails to do.

Stayin’ Alive

The song which plays while Emily and Lorelai argue about whose fault everything has been. It’s a 1977 song written and performed by The Bee Gees for the soundtrack to the film, Saturday Night Fever. The song was a smash hit around the world, going to #1 in the US and multiple other countries, and #4 in the UK. Considered one of the best songs of all time, it was one of the Bee Gees’ signature songs.

The songs at the bar are performed by Marty and Elayne (Roberts), a famous husband-wife lounge act who performed at The Dresden Room, a Hollywood landmark, for 38 years. They also make an appearance in the 1996 film Swingers. Marty passed away in January of this year, aged 89.

Thailand

EMILY: This is either the greatest steak I’ve ever eaten, or I’m so hungry, I’m delirious. Pass the horseradish, please.

LORELAI: I never knew you were a spicy girl.

EMILY: Oh, believe me, I can handle my heat. One summer when we were first married, your father and I stayed at this little village in Thailand where we spent two weeks eating viciously hot chillies and skinny-dipping.

Emily and Richard would have visited Thailand in the late 1960s, considered to be during the Golden Age of Tourism in Thailand. Westerners had been travelling to Thailand (Siam) since the 19^th century, but it was only in 1947 that the first flights from the US to Bangkok began, when Pan Am offered it as part of its around the world ticket. By the 1960s, flights to Bangkok were cheaper and shorter.

The “little village” the Gilmores stayed in was almost certainly Pattaya – originally a fishing village with a perfect crescent of beach, only 99 miles from Bangkok, on a decent road. That made it very attractive to tourists, and by the early 1960s, some development had already begun. Today it is a modern city of more than 120 000 people with a very seedy red light district, and a major pollution problem. The once-pristine beach is now considered poor quality due to sewage dumping.

It’s interesting that Emily remembers skinny-dipping with Richard for two weeks, as he later has quite a different recollection. It is just possible that it was on this summer vacation in Thailand that Lorelai was conceived – she was born in late April 1968, meaning that she could have been conceived in July-August the previous year.

Note that Emily’s enjoyment of hot horseradish on her steak parallels Rory eating her French fries dipped in pepper and hot sauce. (And her love of Indian curry!).

[Picture shows Pattaya in 1965].

Jane Austen

PARIS: Typical guy response. Worship Kerouac and Bukowski, God forbid you’d pick up anything by Jane Austen.

JESS: Hey, I’ve read Jane Austen … and I think she would’ve liked Bukowski.

Jane Austen (1775-1817), English novelist, previously mentioned as the author of Emma, amongst others.

As previously hinted at, Jess has read some of the English Literature classics, as well as American counter-culture icons. Unlike Dean, he wouldn’t have needed prodding to read Jane Austen.

But in what possible universe would Jane Austen have liked Charles Bukowski, as either a person or a writer? She lived in an era when it was deeply shocking, even violating, for a man to address a woman without an introduction – how would she have coped with Bukowski’s vivid description of his own penis and his offer of it to a female friend, with instructions as to its use?

Jess is saying that a nice, genteel girl like Rory can still appreciate a crude but intelligent bad boy like himself. Rory and Jess? For sure. Jane Austen and Bukowski? Not a chance.

National Enquirer

PARIS: [The Beats] believed in drugs, booze, and petty crime … That was not great writing. That was the National Enquirer of the fifties.

National Enquirer, tabloid newspaper founded in New York in 1926, known for its sensationalist reporting and flimsy journalistic ethics.

The National Enquirer already existed in the 1950s, so I’m not sure how The Beats are “the National Enquirer of the 1950s”. Surely the National Enquirer was the National Enquirer of the 1950s? For a supposedly smart character, Paris says some remarkably silly and ignorant things.

“I’m not allowed to have mac and cheese”

PARIS: I’m not allowed to have mac and cheese.

RORY: Splurge.

Paris is allergic to dairy products, which was introduced in the episode, “Concert Interruptus” (Lorelai ordered her a cheese-free pizza). Someone eating something they’re allergic to isn’t a “splurge”, it’s a potential medical emergency!

Paris asks if Stars Hollow, a town of less than 10 000 people, has a 24-hour pharmacy in case she has a severe allergic reaction. Unbelievably, they do! In real life, the nearest 24-hour pharmacy to them would be in Waterbury or Hartford.

Rory may simply be lying, eager to keep Paris there so she is not left alone with Jess. If so, she’s taking a bit of a risk with Paris’ health in the process.

Dinner at the Spa

EMILY: They certainly do like their tofu here, don’t they?

LORELAI: And the word steamed. Well, they have dessert at least. Cookies sweetened with sprouted mung bean.

Tofu ends up being the villain of the piece, once again. Vegan food nearly always seems to be treated as some sort of disgusting torture on Gilmore Girls! The cookies would be made from sprouted mung bean flour, and I have seen them spruiked as a healthy detox snack. The recipe said they taste like peanut butter cookies without the peanut butter. So um … like nothing???

I don’t actually think it’s very believable that a luxury East Coast spa would serve only this kind of food for dinner. They exist to pamper people, and the ones I saw were handing around cocktails and glasses of wine while people were having pedicures in their robes – exactly the sort of thing Emily and Lorelai would have enjoyed. It seems more like something a Californian health and wellness sort of spa would serve. However, we need an excuse for them to leave to get a steak dinner, so this is it.

Vicious Trollop

EMILY: That’s a pretty colour. What is that?

LORELAI: It’s called Vicious Trollop.

A fictional shade of lipstick, a joke based on the sometimes bizarre names chosen for lipstick colours. It appears to be a MAC lipstick, Lorelai’s favourite make-up brand, and according to the Gilmore Girls Instagram page, it’s a dark red matte colour.

You can now buy “Vicious Trollop” lip balm on Etsy, but apart from not being actual lipstick, it’s nowhere near the right colour.

“Dressed in a clown suit”

PARIS: I tried to stay home and study myself but I can’t. I don’t know what anything means anymore. I mean, I can’t even read my own handwriting. What does this say? The person who wrote this should be dressed in a clown suit, stuffing bodies under their porch.

Paris is referencing John Wayne Gacy (1942-1994), serial killer and sex offender who assaulted and murdered at least 33 boys and young men. Gacy regularly performed at children’s hospitals and charitable events as “Pogo the Clown” or “Patches the Clown”, personas he had devised. He became known as the “Killer Clown” due to his public services as a clown prior to the discovery of his crimes. He buried most of his victims beneath his house, usually in the crawl space.

His conviction for thirty-three murders (by one individual) then covered the most homicides in US legal history. Gacy was sentenced to death in 1980, and executed by lethal injection in 1994.

Paris talks about her work as if it looks as if it was done by a mental case, but although he pleaded insanity, John Wayne Gacy was deemed to be sane and in complete control of his faculties when he committed his crimes.

(This is yet another mention of clowns on Gilmore Girls).

[Picture shows John Wayne Gacy dressed as a clown].

Birch Grove Spa

EMILY: I wanted to know if you’d like a gift certificate for a weekend at the Birch Grove Spa.

A fictional spa. In real life, there are several luxury spas in Connecticut where Emily and Lorelai could have gone. The Mayflower Inn in Washington Depot, which provided inspiration for the Independence in Stars Hollow, has luxury spa facilities [pictured], but I think they were introduced at the inn a year or two after the date of this episode.

What a Wonderful World

This is the song which plays at the end of the show, when Luke interrupts Jess to knock a hole in his apartment wall. The song has been used before in the show, but the original version by Louis Armstrong, previously discussed.

This version is sung by Joey Ramone, former lead singer of punk band The Ramones, from his debut album as a solo artist, Don’t Worry About Me. It was released in February 2002, not long before this episode aired. (The music video for “What a Wonderful World” was directed by Debbie Harry from Blondie).

It was released posthumously, Joey Ramone having died in April 2001. The album peaked at #21 in the US, and was warmly reviewed.

Notice that this episode ends with an allusion to Mayberry, an idyllic fictional town, “It’s a Small World”, and “What a Wonderful World”, to impress on us the perfection of this little world they have created for us.