The Life I Lead

"The Life I Lead" is a song from the 1964 Walt Disney film Mary Poppins, composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. Academy Award winning music arranger, Irwin Kostal used the theme from this song as the leitmotif of the protagonist "George Banks", as it most expresses the way he "marches" through life.

The song is first sung as George Banks (played by David Tomlinson) marches through the front door of his home, on "[his] return from daily strife to hearth and wife". The song is reprised several times throughout the film, with Julie Andrews also singing a verse. The final reprise is sung when Banks thinks he has lost everything. The music is now more somber and is retitled, "A Man Has Dreams". This song is considered a patter song, meaning that it is half-spoken and half-sung in rhythm, similar to Rex Harrison's songs in My Fair Lady, or some of the songs by Noël Coward.

My slippers, sherry and pipe are due at 6:02, Consistent is the life I lead...

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