Meaning of Is That All There Is?

Friend and I were talking about the meaning of "Is That All There Is" and whether Peggy Lee had ever discussed her take on this song.

Plain and simple the song is far from optimistic. To me it suggests that we seek pleasure where ever we can find it, because ultimately, life is nothing more than a meaningless series of disappointments.

I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say about this song. Peggy always seemed like such an upbeat person with a very realistic, but positive outlook on life. This song doesn't reflect that attitude, in my opinion.

Happy Holidays.

To me the song describes a feeling I've had from time to time, almost a dissociation, which no one else has ever addressed as perfectly as Peggy did in that song. No one else ever had the guts.

Mary

Sven,

The key word of the song is "if" - as in "IF that's all there is...".

The entire lyric is obtuse, and challenges us to ask ourselves what we truly feel - and what is the residual impact - of the catastrophic (the fire), the superficial (a circus), the short-lived (first love) and ultimately the entire life experience (is that all there is?, or do we want more - the hell with the outcome...)

Life is actually unfair to many people, so why not break out the booze and have a ball? What are the options? Wallowing in self-pity? Giving in to complete bitterness? There is something truly beautiful, innocent and profoundly inspiring in denying a life of misfortune by celebrating, and then saying "Is that all there is?" at the end of it. What could be more realistic and positive?

"Is That All There Is?" is a remarkably intelligent and perceptive song which gets to the very core of how we experience this thing called life.

I have puzzled over this song also. It seems to demonstrate the blandness of life and certainly is far from upbeat. Yet at the end, she doesn't really give up on life and says "Oh no, not me." I think it is one of the most fascinating songs I have ever heard. It might be interesting to find out from Jerry Leiber what his take on it is. We won't even discuss Professir Hauptmann's Performing Dogs. I haven't listened to that for years; I might just try it.

Have yourself a Merry Widdle Christmas,

Ruth

Hearing this song as a child, in the early 70's, is what made me fall in love with Peggy's voice. The song kind of made me laugh at the time and still does. But, I laugh because I think I try and cover up all the sadness that I relates to. Did all these things really happen to Peggy? No! The feeling I get is pure surreal and she can make any moment feel the way it's going to be at anytime. Check out a scene from a Martin Scorsese movie called "After Hours" with Griffin Dunne and Rosanna Arquette from 1985. Martin used the song to capture a moment. I miss you Peggy.

Beautifully expressed, Rick in Sydney, and the best critique of this particular song I have read.

I read many years ago that the song is based on a Thomas Mann short story, "Disillusion", in his collection, "Little Herr Friedemann". I read the story about 18 years ago and recall a discernible connection (or was I just finding what I wanted to find?).

Paul Brownsey

Peggy was often asked about the meaning of the song. I assume that Leiber meant the song to carry a nihilistic, negative message, per the Mann story on which he closely based it. But Peggy did not see the song that way, and the spent a lot of time thinking how she could stress the positive side of the lyrics, as she saw them. Her perspective of the song seems to have been closer to that of Rick, but even more positive.

For her, the song is not about failure or defeat, but about survival and growth. Granted that life may have many disappointments in store for you, you still have to learn from those disappointments, get past them and move on in contentment, never giving up the search for more.

In Peggy's own words, from an interview: "It's about the experiences you go through in life, necessary for growth... The attitude has a lot to do with how we survive. If you can love work enough to take the dues you have to pay, it's worth it. If not, there must be something else you can do to make you happy."

I've read that Peggy and Leiber & Stoller fought a lot over this song, so I imagine that their different perspectives accounted for some of the fighting. Peggy wanted to make the song humorous, but the songwriters would have none of that.

With a humorous approach nixed, she resorted to phrasing as a way to carry her intended meaning. Instead of emphasizing the "that" of the title line ("is THAT all there is") she stresses the first "IS," in the hope that the listener will think "no, there is MORE, and that's what ultimately matters, not the past, temporary disappointment." In other words, always look forward in hope. (Of course, this phrasing detail is too subtle a difference, and I doubt that many people hear the song the way she intended it.)

In live shows, freed from the requirements imposed by the songwriters, she would sometimes sing the song humorously, with some loony lines added, but the audience would regularly express discontentment -- they wanted the serious, downer treatment (which also has its humorous side, even if it is black humor... I certainly laughed in amusement the first 4 or 5 times that I heard it).

And Charles, all those things DID happen to Peggy. Or almost all of them. That was one reason why she became head-over-heels obssessed with the song when she first heard. She did experience a fire that burned down her house, of course she had her love woes, etc.

Ivan

Nnnaaa... I don't think that's it. Initially I agreed with you, but now I think it is more like "it will take a hell of a lot more than that to destroy me"... more survival type thinking.

The first time I heard the song I identified. Even as a kid, every time I'd experience a first something/anything I'd quietly think after it was all over, "That's all there is to it? There's not more?" And that includes going to the circus and after years and years of waiting having a tornado happen in my hometown of St. Louis. I was always looking for something terribly dramatic and exciting to break the utter predictability and monotony of life there--everyone and everything was so nice, so proper but so within boundaries. I never heard anything particularly witty on T.V., on radio, anywhere. And when that tornado hit, NO ONE IN MY JUNIOR COLLEGE EVEN TALKED ABOUT IT. Finally at lunch I couldn't stand it anymore and said to a girl, "Did you hear about the tornado last night?" "Oh, ya," she replied, eating away, "it took the roof off our house." Clearly, short of an atomic bomb, nothing was allowed to disturb the orderly progress of daily life. Hopeless. At the age of 24 I moved to Chicago and BINGO BANGO life changed totally cause, guess what after all. THERE WAS MORE! From what Miss Lee said, during her childhood she always had the feeling something was missing, though she couldn't say what. Eventually she sure found out, didn't she.

Interesting question.

I remember when the song first came out when I was much younger, weren't we all? I listened to it with my parents. Mom had known Norma in Fargo during the early years. I asked her take on it.

She said it didn't surprise her at all. She said something about a boyfriend that Norma had at the time she knew her and how he had broken her heart so. Of course Norma survived, as she survived other traumas growing up. She said it was a realistic song from a person who had felt great pain and great pleasure.

That sorta explained it for me. I have never heard another song that touches on life's bumps quite like "Is That All There Is?" either.

SKD

Leiber & Stoller talked about this song a couple of years ago for a PBS special. It aired around the time PBS showed "Smoky Joe's Cafe." Peggy was also interviewed for the special; it was probably one of her last filmed interviews. They tell a very funny story regarding the first time Peg heard the song; she called the duo and told them the song had to be sung by her and no one else. They said, "Sure, Peg, if you want it, it's yours." And Peg said, "You don't understand. If anyone else sings this, I'll have you killed." Tongue planted firmly in cheek, that famous Lee sense of humor in full effect.

However, it's obvious the song touched some very personal feelings in Peggy, borne of her own experiences. Love was not always kind to her, and the circumstances of her youth are legendarily bleak. Still, the guiding principle of Peggy's life appeared to be, "The show must go on," which is the underlying message of "ITATI?" Despite numerous disappointments, its protagonist exhorts us to "break out the booze and have a ball." She's done it all, seen it all, been through it all.... and, at the end, she's still ready to have a good time. I find this song much more upbeat than say, "Where Did They Go?" or "One More Ride on the Merry-Go-Round."

Interestingly, it was this song that "brought me back" to Peggy: I was a fan of her voice as a child, listening to my copy of Disney's "Lady and the Tramp," and upon hearing this song in Martin Scorsese's "After Hours," I went out to buy a greatest hits. The rest is history. No other song in Peg's repertoire is a better showcase for her ability to inhabit a song's lyric. Who can disbelieve she's done anything but lived the lyric when she says, with listless resignation, "And then, one day, he went away. And I thought I'd die... but I didn't." Chills!

Ya know, this song has come up in my memory quite a few times, and what I mean by that, is the 'first' experiences with people, situations, and events. I would remember relating to the feeling of the lyrics. Just last week, there was a fire in my apartment complex two doors down from me in the same building. Thank God it was only in one apartment, and minor damage at that. When I saw the commotion going on and it was over, I said to myself too, "Is that all there is to a fire?" I went back inside my apartment and took a nap.

The song is about disappointment. And sarcasm. "....break out the boose and have a ball." Yippee. Doesn't sound positive to me!

In fact, after my first intimate experience with someone, I silently asked myself "Is that all there is ....?"

I totally agree with Mark that this is a song about disappointment, and it is sarcastic. I do not really understand why it seems so important to find something positive and uplifting in it. Life is only positive and uplifting sometimes, most of times it is disappointing....

One of the things that has attracted me to Peggy Lee is the fact that she dared singing songs that told other stories than popular songs usually do -- especially on the "Is the All There Is?" LP (without the British extras) and, of course, "Mirrors", which I consider her masterwork.

There are other songs like this in her repertoire too, like "When the World Was Young". I have just seen her singing that song in a Judy Garland Show, and she is almost frightening, in fact dangerous to look at when she does it, down-to-the-bone realistic. It really sent a shiver down my spine, unpleasant in a way, but artistically really satisfying because she did what James Cagney said about acting: "Stand still, look the audience or the co-player in the face and tell the truth!" Real acting is telling the truth!

And then, of course, we can discuss what the truth is - the point is daring to tell the truth within the lines in a play, a movie script or a song. And then, afterwards, you can sing a more uplifting song that is also so well written that it is possible to tell the truth within that lyric... She writes in her book that "Is That All There Is?" haunted her, and I thing that is exactly what it is meant to do!

To me, one of the things that makes Peggy Lee really special is that she sang intelligent songs like these. And that she was a great actress in her singing.

This is not easy to explain in a language that is not my own. Did this give any meaning to anyone out there?

Yes, Svend, it did. You said it all...perfectly.

Mary

Another viable perspective that no one has mentioned yet, it seems, is that the lyrics can be interpreted every which way - since they are extremely deftly written, wonderfully ambiguous, and yet everyone claims to get The Message instantly and clearly, and that they feel proud to have cracked the "code" so swiftly. The lyrics could literally stand for all or nothing at all, take your pick. It's like an artichoke, you can peel off layer after layer, uncoverering "truth" after "truth" - and if you persevere long enough, you'll end up with absolutely nothing. You could also liken the lyrics to a mirror - and the viewer sees his or her truth in it - yet every person sees a different truth or picture. Granted, this can be said about almost any lyric or piece of art if one so desires - but this is relevant to the extreme in the case of "Is That All There Is?" In this respect it is befitting that it was included in the CD version of "Mirrors." I feel confident that Leiber and Stoller have been amused and thrilled many a time when they've heard about all the discussions their lyrics have brought about. Point of fact, I can't recollect that they've said anything really concrete about what they had in mind when they wrote their minor masterpiece. They have wisely withheld comment, which I'm sure has contributed greatly to the song's seemingly ever-lasting appeal...

I totally agree with Sven. He said it exactly the way I feel about "Is That All There Is?". It's a song about disappointment indeed! Peggy does a great job of getting the message clear that life sucks sometimes but that we struggle and while we struggle why not open the bottle. Wonderfully said Sven! It's funny to find out that everyone has his own feelings especially with this song. The songs on the album "Is That All There Is?" are mostly done in the same style. Take for example "Love Story" and "Johnny", also according to me songs about disappointment and that it's not far from happiness.

Now, having had George K. for Junior English in high school (honors, I might add), and having had to determine the insight to various advanced readings including "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder, I feel I have a particular knack for this type of thing. I think, and I could be wrong, that the song "Is That All There Is" has little to do with depression, letdowns or dissappointment. I see it rather as a satirical view of the way humans tend to overexaggerate everything in their lives. Peggy was by no means a shallow thinker and having spoken to her many times, it was obvious the "wheels were turning" at all times. I think she would find an element of humor (not malicious in ANY way) in the way human beings interracted and in the way they could make such a "stink" over everyday circumstances. I feel the lyrics have to do with keeping everything in perspective and enjoying things as they come! I think that's how she lived her life too!

Chuck Dettmar Jr.

It’s a nihilist’s view of life. Read what Ernest Becker has to say about the meaning of life and maybe that will give many a perspective they never considered before.

Absolutely correct. I could not say it better. Neither could Peg, as she had problem describing exactly what she was saying in a song she did not write.