I feel so terrible that I have not posted a thing to this blog lately...I have been flooded with school work, extra curricular activities, and Little Shop of Horrors rehearsals!
Tonight I'm going to be talking about some of the songs I am in love with lately. Most of them, as you might have guessed, will be from musicals.
1. My first song obsession is What I Did For Love from the musical A Chorus Line. This musical, which opened on Broadway in 1975, tells the stories of several dancers who are all auditioning for a chorus role on Broadway. My first thought when I saw the title was "Oh, an Eponine-esque song that tells the story of someone who sacrificed it all for the love of their life". As it turns out, I was wrong. At the beginning of the song, someone asks the character who sings this song, Diana Morales, what she would do if she could not ever dance again. Diana sings this entire song about how she would never regret what she did for her "love", which is dancing. As a passionate performer/writer myself, I know firsthand that we sometimes do CRAZY things for love- whether our love is writing, acting, singing, dancing, drawing, sport playing-whatever.
2. Secondly, we have Another Suitcase in Another Hall from the brilliant Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. This song is song by Juan Peron's mistress, as she muses to herself where she is going to go in her life next. Many of you have likely not been in the same situation (I can't say I have ever been!), but everyone has wondered 'where am I going to' during some point in their life...we all have moments when we just don't know where to go next. Some stand out lyrics, to me, are "Call in three months time and I'll be fine I know/or maybe not that fine/ but I'll survive anyhow/I won't recall the names and faces of this sad occasion/but that's no consolation/here and now". There's something so honest about them...you know you will overcome something, but still, at the moment, it hurts. The video is of Samantha Barks singing; it is a little lower than the song usually is, but Samantha has one of my favorite voices, so her rendition is one of the best, in my opinion.
3. Departing from the Musical Theatre songs for a moment, my third song obsession is Starlight by Taylor Swift. The reason I'm featuring this song is because A) It's so much fun! B) To be honest, it reminds me of one of the cutest movie couples, Rose and Jack from Titanic. I'm honestly probably the only one who made the connection, so, nope, that's not what the song is actually about. One stanza of music that reminds me of Jack and Rose is:
I said, "Oh my, what a marvelous tune"
It was the best night, never would forget how we moved.
The whole place was dressed to the nines,
And we were dancing, dancing
Like we're made of starlight
Like we're made of starlight
It was the best night, never would forget how we moved.
The whole place was dressed to the nines,
And we were dancing, dancing
Like we're made of starlight
Like we're made of starlight
In Titanic, Jack and Rose go dancing that night after they leave dinner with Rose's rich (and snobby) family and acquaintances. True, the whole place was not dressed to the nines, but Jack and Rose were! Also, Jack and Rose has such a fantastic time dancing around that night, it just reminded me of the lyric "And we were dancing, dancing/like we're made of starlight".
Another "stanza" that reminded me of Jack and Rose was:
He said, "Look at you, worrying so much about things you can't change
You'll spend your whole life singing the blues if you keep thinking that way"
He was trying to skip rocks on the ocean, saying to me,
"Don't you see the starlight, starlight?
Don't you dream impossible things?"
You'll spend your whole life singing the blues if you keep thinking that way"
He was trying to skip rocks on the ocean, saying to me,
"Don't you see the starlight, starlight?
Don't you dream impossible things?"
These lyrics, especially the last line, are my favorite in the entire song. The way that Jack showed Rose that life doesn't have to be so stiff, and that, yes, it can be entertaining and lively, reminds me of the first two lyrics. Jack really got Rose to look beyond herself and dream "impossible things".
If you don't know this song, I recommend looking it up, even if you don't usually listen to Taylor Swift/pop music because its lyrics mean more than you would think.
(image from justincorey.tumblr.com)
4. The first time I heard my forth song obsession was at a cabaret. It is originally sung by Kelly Clarkson, and is an upbeat, country song, but in my opinion, the slower (and better) version is from SMASH-it is called Crazy Dreams. The lyrics are below and pretty self-explanatory, but they are just so full of hope and optimism. Crazy Dreams is easily one of my favorite non-musical theatre songs.
Hello you long shots
You dark horse runners
Hairbrush singers, dashboard drummers
Hello you wild magnolias
Just waiting to bloom
There's a little bit of all that inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
I stood at the bottom of some walls I thought I couldn't climb
I felt like Cinderella at the ball just running out of time
So I know how it feels to be afraid
Think that it's all gonna slip away
Hold on, hold on
Here's to you free souls, you firefly chasers
Tree climbers, porch swingers, air guitar players
Here's to you fearless dancers, shaking walls in your bedrooms
There's a lot of wonder left inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
Never let a bad day be enough
To go and talk you in to giving up
Sometimes everybody feels like you
Oh, feels like you, just like you
Yeah
I've met some go-getters
Some difference makers
Small town heroes, and big chance takers
I've met some young hearts with something to prove
Oh, yeah
Here's to you long shots
You dark horse runners
Hairbrush singers, and dashboard drummers
Here's to you wild magnolias
Just waiting to bloom
There's a little bit of all that inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
You dark horse runners
Hairbrush singers, dashboard drummers
Hello you wild magnolias
Just waiting to bloom
There's a little bit of all that inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
I stood at the bottom of some walls I thought I couldn't climb
I felt like Cinderella at the ball just running out of time
So I know how it feels to be afraid
Think that it's all gonna slip away
Hold on, hold on
Here's to you free souls, you firefly chasers
Tree climbers, porch swingers, air guitar players
Here's to you fearless dancers, shaking walls in your bedrooms
There's a lot of wonder left inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
Never let a bad day be enough
To go and talk you in to giving up
Sometimes everybody feels like you
Oh, feels like you, just like you
Yeah
I've met some go-getters
Some difference makers
Small town heroes, and big chance takers
I've met some young hearts with something to prove
Oh, yeah
Here's to you long shots
You dark horse runners
Hairbrush singers, and dashboard drummers
Here's to you wild magnolias
Just waiting to bloom
There's a little bit of all that inside of me and you
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
Thank God even crazy dreams come true
Those are my four song obsessions as of right now! I hope everyone enjoyed, and that you have some new music to look up! Comment with some of your song obsessions! My next topic is my favorite renditions of Les Miserables songs!
-M
