Jazz song and novel

Song: “Nowadays / Hot Honey Rags” sang and performed in “Chicago”

Novel: “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Video from the song (movie scene): 

Lyrics of the song:

Announcer:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Chicago Theater is proud to announce afirst. 
The first time, anywhere there's been an act of this nature.

Not only one little lady, but two! 


You've read about them in the papers and now here they are! Chicago's own killer dillers


those scintillating sinners


Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly!

Roxie and Velma:


You can like the life you're living


You can live the life you like


You can even marry Harry


But mess around with Ike


And that's
Good, isn't it?


Grand, isn't it?


Great, isn't it?


Swell, isn't it?


Fun, isn't it?


But nothing stays

In fifty years or so


It's gonna change, you know


But, oh, it's heaven


Nowadays

Announcer:


Okay, you babes of jazz.

Let's pick up the pace. 


Let's make the parties longer. 


Let's make the skirts shorter. 


Let's all go to hell in a fast car and KEEP IT HOT!


Roxie and Velma:


And all that Jazz!

Relations’ between “The Great Gatsby” and “Nowadays / Hot Honey Rags”:

The song is the finale of the musical “Chicago”; which is a very famous movie of two girls who want fame and commit murder; this crime is what makes them extremely famous together. The song can be related to the novel in many different aspects mainly because the events, in both the song and the book, occur in the 1920’s or the so-called “Jazz Age”. Frist of all there are these showgirls who killed and got no punishment at all, this reflects the idea that society has lost all its values. Then there is the aspect of people being able to live whichever life they prefer, people can be married and have lovers at the same time which is a very important characteristic of some characters of the novel (Daisy and Tom). After that there is the song’s reminder that at the time nothing lasted and everything came to an end which is what happened to every relationship in the book, except for Tom’s and Daisy’s marriage which is not a real relationship for it has no feeling in it, and even to the life’s of some characters (Gatsby, Myrtle and Wilson).  Finally the song states that living nowadays (1920’s) it’s heaven and it must be for those who have no morality because the 1920’s are a time of progress, criminals, jazz and people believing that they can have fun and be free. This “heaven” presented in the song appears in the book, however it crashes down because the illusion has to come to an end and when it does there are consequences especially for those who truly believed in the portrayed heaven (Gatsby who thought he could be with Daisy, Myrtle who believed she could rise by being Tom’s mistress and Wilson who was stupid enough to believe that his wife was loyal). In conclusion, the song and the novel are so famous because they do not only tell a story but they represent a historical period and an era in itself. Even through the events in the song (movie) and the book are so different, both have common elements, which arise in the fact that they both exposed the “Jazz Age”.