| re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers |
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| Posted by: |
Chromolume 11:04 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers - keikekaze 05:22 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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I also think this tends to be the problem with a lot of the songs by some of the newer contemporary writers - JRB, Lowdermilk/Kerrigan, sometimes LaChiusa and Lippa, some of the more "cabaret" writers like Gealt, etc - the tendency to get wordy wordy wordy wordy, and to pen very literal lyrics rather than using words that try to convey a more oblique, emotional expression. Often we get story songs from them, created to drive home an eventual emotional point which could have been better expressed without the story to begin with. And pop-infused quasi-melodies that don't tend to soar, but just seem to be basic consequences of the chord changes - so the wordy lyrics dominate, and the music doesn't convey a real mood other than a basic pop/rock beat. (I'm honestly baffled by the popularity of songs like "A Way Back To Then" or Gealt's "Quiet" which just have no creative musical craft whatsoever, IMO. I'm sorry, I just don't think there's one truly interesting note of music in either of those songs, save the musical gesture of "kick-ass time" in the former song.)
Looking back at the older "classic" writers (and I know I've posted about this before) you can see the wonderful sense of economy in the lyric, and the craft in building a tune that not only supports the words, but expresses something of its own.
Look at a song like "The Party's Over" - the lyric is all recognizable metaphorical images that paint a vivid emotional picture of a breakup without ever literally saying so - and a melody that ingeniously keeps building on itself to bigger and bigger climaxes (and back down from them) as the song goes on. A mere 32 bars (plus the short verse) and we feel everything Ella feels, just through the contour of the melody and some universal images in the lyric. And we feel satisfied because we've just been on an identifiable journey of a full song - we might not be able to qualify exactly how the song affects us, but we know it does.
If JRB (or a similar contemporary writer) had written the song, we might have been fed every needless detail about the literal party (or maybe several parties, in "Moon And The Stars" or "I Can Do Better Than That" fashion) over a melody that doesn't soar as much as it might just ramble over the chords, while the hip piano vamp repeats ad nauseum underneath. And we might enjoy the groove of the song, but emotionally, we wouldn't be getting the full-course meal that Styne, Comden, and Green were able to feed us in just one short refrain.
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re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers - keikekaze 05:22 pm EST 11/24/14 |
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re: THE LAST SHIP, KINKY BOOTS, CAPEMAN, TOMMY... and other Bway musicals by pop composers - ryhog 12:37 am EST 11/25/14 |
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