Reading Between the Lines with Rafael Ferrer
[Episode 3] Rafael Ferrer talks about how his early influences, and his love of pinball, led him to develop a passion for lyrics and lyricists that he embraces to this day. Rafi, as his friends call him, talks about growing up in a creative family and how his interests have been shaped by being immersed in the entertainment industry. Where words have meaning and language has rhythm is where Rafi finds his passion.
Episode Book Pairing
Each episode of The Gray Matters podcast is paired with a book that complements the episode’s subject matter. For this episode, we chose a title about Rafi’s friend and one-time neighbor, the incomparable Ira Gershwin.
Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist
by Philip Furia
In Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist, the older and less flamboyant of the Gershwin brothers at last steps out of the shadows to claim his due as one of American songwriting’s most important and enduring innovators. Philip Furia traces the development of Ira Gershwin’s lyrical art from his early love of light verse and Gilbert and Sullivan, through his apprentice work in Tin Pan Alley, to his emergence as a prominent writer for the Broadway musical theater in the 1920s. Furia illuminates his work in satirical operettas such as Of Thee I Sing and Strike Up the Band, the smart little revues of the 1930s, and his contributions to the opera Porgy and Bess.
After describing the Gershwin brothers’ brief but brilliant work in Hollywood before George’s sudden death–work that produced such classics as They Can’t Take That Away From Me and Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off–Furia follows Ira’s career through such triumphs as Lady in the Dark with Kurt Weill, Cover Girl with Jerome Kern, and A Star is Born, with Harold Arlen. Along the way, Furia provides much insight into the art of the lyricist and he captures the magic of a golden era when not only the Gershwins, but Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, Gertrude Lawrence, Fred Astaire, and other luminaries made the lights of Broadway and the Hollywood screen shine brighter than ever before.
Get your copy of Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist at Bookshop.org.
About Rafael Ferrer
Rafael Ferrer has enjoyed a successful career as a professional voice-over actor for almost 30 years. Today, his voice is one of the most identifiable and requested in the entertainment industry.
Currently, he stands as one of the Today Show’s daily morning promo voices, and is the voice over artist for Sunday Today with Willie Geist. In addition, he has voiced network promos for every major broadcast and cable network as well as movie trailers for every Hollywood studio.
His voice-over credits include over 1,000 national commercials for brands such as Capital One, Subaru, Ford, American Express, and Bacardi to name a few.
He is the voice of Pencil in HBO’s animated series A Little Curious, Stavros in FX’s Archer series, and Darth Malak for the popular video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Rafael works on both coasts via his recording studio, and currently resides in Connecticut.