Mitherings

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

- You have until midnight tonight to vote in this week's Pop World Cup game. Which means that by TOMORROW night I need contributions from poptasticuk (Ivory Coast) and thebopkids (Portugal).

- LLOYD WEBBER: The best two Lloyd Webber/Rice/either songs, locked in a death struggle, are "I Know Him So Well" and "Don't Cry For Me Argentina". We'll give the prize to "Argentina" cos it has ALW and Big Tim on it. Well, not on it, but you know what I mean. This Friday we will do a canon with a bit wider appeal.

- Speaking of musicals, I was waxing on this topic on Friday, and was blaming/crediting Andrew and Tim for the shift in the conception of an musical to X: THE MUSICAL!! where X is anything or anyone. Jesus and Eva Peron must have been pretty crazy subjects for musical theatre in the 70s, no? Is this an earlier trend though?

- Anyway linked to this I was defending the "rock musical", i.e. We Will Rock You! et al. My defense here is stoutly theoretical because there is no chance in hell you would get me to go to We Will Rock You, but this is much more down to B.Elton than Queen: in theory the attempt to find an overarching plot within a back catalogue is a very noble one - make every Greatest Hits a Concept Album!

- I have been downloading some of the things you recommended in yesterday's poll. "Hmmmmm" is largely what I have to say on that front. And "Ah."

- It may be time to admit that "Mr Brightside" is a good song even without JLC's ministrations. Sorry The Lex for leaving you to hold the line alone on this.

Comments

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

Hey I like Mr Brightside too!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

NORMAN WHITESIDE MORE LIKE! call it by its name etc

[thenipper.livejournal.com]

I think the precursor to ALW/TR could be LIONEL BART. Donald Bartheleme has a story called 'WASTELAND!' which imagines a Bartisation of Eliot - pre-Cats!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

or even bernstein? hey, lets take romeo and juliet and put songs in it and move it to new york!

lerner and lowe? hey lets take this wacky pygmailion play and put songs in it!

i suppose they were both plays anyway...

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

the golden age of musicals predates the LP: indeed LPs collecting the songs of a show was one of the reasons people took to LPs -- they were the first "unified" song collections; low-concept concept LPs (as in song collections of a unified mood) started pretty much with sinatra when he moved to capitol

hi-concept concept LPs -- esp.if you date em from SGT PEPPER -- consciously nodded to the idea of the LP as the record of a show of SOME sort

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

see also south pacific being number one in the alBUM chart for two years or whatever it was...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

THREE LITTLE MAIDS FROM A MUSICAL ARE WE

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

yus once we turn to operatta the stories are MOSTLY STOLEN and ALL NUTS

cf also opera: viz alban berg's LULU AND HER LUVVERS = cd also be called POLYAMORY: WHY IT SUXORZ --- or indeed RIPPER!

[spittake.livejournal.com]

record albums are called albums because that's originally what they were: a book of sorts to hold a collection of 78s

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

yes they were fancy

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Sinatra made a proper concept album - not a story but with a single concept thematically unifying all the songs - as early as 1957, with Come Fly With Me (indeed at Capitol, but Mark has other things in mind). I don't know of an earlier example than this.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

in the wee small hours = 1955 i think, w. "film noir" cover, plus first time he worked w.nelson riddle?

(this is after 30 seconds googling -- i actually thought the run of capitol LPs started in 1953, but i may have misremembered )

NO WAIT

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

songs for young lovers was a 10" from 1954! that's what i'm thinking of

secret spine of music history

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

= the concept 10"!!

the fall's SLATES is another

Re: secret spine of music history

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I haven't checked dates, but Slates is a little later, I think.

Yeah, there is a mood unity to those albums, but Come Fly With Me was a step further: all of these songs are about the same thing. I'm not sure whether this is a significant distinction or not.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's more the idea of a real life person or event being "musicalised" than the adaptation of other fictions.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

you're a naughty one, saucy jack
you're a haughty one, saucy jack

although spinal tap doesn't predate joseph at least...

[spittake.livejournal.com]

off the top of my head, real life person musical subjects:

fanny brice
fiorello la guardia
charles h parkhurst
molly brown

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Obvious question: would you go see/have you gone to see Mamma Mia?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I think I would actually! If someone wanted to go, and it was cheap, which it probably isn't. I'm quite bad at going to the theatre in general.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I know for a fact that the original 'Mr Brightside' is rub because my so-called rave crew are all former indie girls and they all ADORE the Killers, and thus I have had to hear the original far more than I ever needed to. Luckily they are all current electro kids as well and have mostly switched to the remix...

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

Bollocks, where was this poll? 'I know him so well' is a masterpiece!

[avv.livejournal.com]

In musicals news:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1740957,00.html

I am crazy excited about this - a children's ballet?! Worst idea ever!

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they should just title it "*BONK* Ow!"