Anticipating the season on my iPod.
By Gregory Jacobs-Roseman (Composer-Lyricist)
I don’t know about you, my fellow citizens of Crazytown, but after yesterday’s totally unnecessary snowfall in New York I’ve officially HAD IT with this winter. I thought last year was bad, but oh how wrong I was.
Things are looking up, however. This weekend we spring the clocks forward, the first day of Spring is in two weeks, and according to the weather forecast we can look forward to temperatures in the 40’s all next week.
All this thought of bounding out of the winter doldrums and banishing my seasonal affective disorder has me looking forward not only on the calendar, but with my music choices as well. I’ve been putting together a Spring showtune playlist, and this week I’m going to share some of my selections with you in case you decide you need some musical motivation to remind you that we’ll be out of this never-ending cycle of awful sometime very soon.
“Did Spring Come To Texas?” From Giant
Music & Lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa
This song is at the top of my list. I can listen to this on a loop twenty times and get goose bumps upon each and every hearing. In context, Bick has just married Leslie and brought her from her home in Virginia to his ranch in Texas. The man is just so damn excited to introduce his bride to the locals but first he has to wait for her to show up to the barbeque thrown in her honor. The only way he knows how to express his excitement is through his first love – Texas, and how bringing Leslie from Virginia seems to have brought a change in season to the land as well. I dare you to listen to this song and not get swept up in the music, the Aaron Copland pastiche and those goddamn gorgeous orchestrations. This is what the excitement of a new season with new possibilities feels like.
“I Feel So Much Spring” from A New Brain
Music & Lyrics by William Finn
No list of Spring songs would be complete without this song. The finale of the show, Gordon basically sums up his experience with brain trouble and truly feels a new lease on life and a new chapter about to begin. This tune always gives me the feels, and I’ve always lived for the lyric:
In this mood,
I hear music, I dance nude,
And won’t close the blind.
I think I’m finally losing my mind.
Music by Lucy Simon, Lyrics by Marsha Norman
What tenor didn’t have this song in their rep. at some point or another? This is the most wonderful big, grandiose “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, WINTER” song I can think of. You just feel like the anti-Elsa melting everything around you when you belt this one out. I also love the young John Cameron Mitchell on the original recording.
“Poisoning Pigeons In The Park”
Music & Lyrics by Tom Lehrer
Do the tunes of satirist Tom Lehrer count as showtunes? I say yes, especially if you count the 1980 revue Tom Foolery. This delightful comedy tune takes a slightly macabre slant on a springtime activity, and it’s just delightful. If you don’t know the songs of Tom Lehrer, you should take the time to do some research and discover the treasure trove that is his contribution to American song.
“It Might As Well Be Spring” from State Fair
Music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
For a slightly more somber tune, this song from the film (and later, stage musical) State Fair perfectly encapsulates the anticipation of the turning of a new page that spring provides – the longing for something, anything, to change. And then there is that perfect lyric in the bridge:
I keep wishing I were somewhere else,
Walking down a strange new street.
Hearing words that I have never heard
From a man I’ve yet to meet.
Damn. What a dead-on description of someone yearning for something new while simultaneously not quite knowing what that something new will be. I wish I could’ve written those lines.
So these should get you started, but do you have any springtime showtunes to add to the mix? “Younger than Springtime” from South Pacific? “Springtime for Hitler” from The Producers? “The Spring of Next Year” from Dear World? Feel free to share your spring tunes in the comments. After the winter we’ve had, we sure could use them.
GREGORY JACOBS-ROSEMAN is a composer/lyricist and theatrical sound designer. His musical Save The Date: A Wedding Road-Trip Musical won the Overall Excellence Award for a Musical in the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival. gregjr.com
EMAIL HIM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR
Recent Comments