Lyrics Meme answers

1. That's Not Everything - VeggieTales
2. Sister Act- Sister Act
3. Ah, Men - Alix Korey
4. Me and My Town - Anyone Can Whistle
5. How Lucky You Are - Seussical
6. Ready to Take a Chance Again - Barry Manilow
7. I Know Your Heart - High Spirits
8. Heroes - Wonderland
9. Amazing Gertrude - Seussical
10. Together - Wonderland
11. Where is the Man I Married? - High Spirits
12. Merry Berry Fairy - Strawberry Shortcake (2003)
13. Magical DoReMi theme
14. More Than I Am - Little Women
15. Take a Chance on Me - Little Women
16. First Day of Your Life - The First Class
17. The Cookie Chase - Anyone Can Whistle
18. Next Time You Fall in Love - Starlight Express
19. Pumping Iron - Starlight Express
20. Right Where I Belong - VeggieTales

Lyrics Meme

Just felt like doing this one.  First lines of the first twenty songs that came up on shuffle (excluding songs whose title was in the first line). Who can guess the most?

1. My dinner's one huge chocolate bar/Diamonds and jet planes, I'm a star!
2. I don't need a spotlight, I don't need a crowd
3. He said, "You've got to be what you want if you want to be with me."
4. Everyone hates me, yes yes, being the mayoress, yes.
5. When the news is all bad/When you're sour and blue/When you start to get mad/You should do what I do
6. You remind me I live in a shell/Safe from the past and doing okay, but not very well
7. I know your eyes by heart/That look of half-surprise/So innocent, so wise
8. Chances, they come and go/But you're afraid and so you run away
9. So she flew to the doctor, the doctor named Dake/Whose office was high in a tree by the lake
10. Every knight who is yearning for a cause that seems lost/Knows a bridge that is burning still can be crossed
11. Who's this wench in my hair?/Who's this lass with the deadly air?
12. Berries take a special kind of caring/Berries need meticulous preparing
13. I got a secret I can't tell/Guess I better cast my spell
14. If you could find it in your heart/If you could love me as I love you
15. I know I have no right, but sometimes late at night/I watch you in the attic
16. You're no one's friend/The world could suddenly end/And you've been spending your time picking daisies and throwing them down
17. Lock 'em up, put 'em away in the jar/Time to start getting the nets out
18. I guess I'm not too good at keeping love alive for long
19. Here comes the diesel train with its steel refrain/Hear me knocking
20. What can I do to get away from my annoying brother?/My own space where I'm not always feeling smushed and smothered?

Some of these are pretty obscure, others you might get if you've been paying attention.  And none from The Lorax!  I almost got one in, but it had the title in the first line, so it was disqualified.  Guess which one that was, if you want.

Lorax Soundtrack Thoughts

Having now seen The Lorax movie, I am exceedingly glad that I didn't give in and listen to the soundtrack ahead of time, because that definitely would have lessened their impact in the movie for me.  Especially since I have been listening to the soundtrack pretty much nonstop since seeing the movie.  Now, while most semi-musical movie soundtracks would mix the songs and score, the score got its own release (as I mentioned before), and so the soundtrack is bolstered, not with songs inspired by the movie, as I thought, but with demos of songs that ultimately weren't used.  Which is pretty cool.  So here are a few of my thoughts on the tracks, which will include some unmarked spoilers.  If you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to skip this post until you do, though nothing I mention is all that huge.

1. Let It Grow (Celebrate the World)
This is the song that plays over the end credits, and truth be told, I skip it more often than not.  It's not a bad song, but just kind of generic, and it doesn't blend in with the rest of the movie's songs that well.

2. Thneedville
I was not prepared for this song to be as insanely catchy as it was.  When I first saw the track titles, I thought this song would be kind of lame, but it seriously blew me away.  And I freaking love the melismas all over the place.  It does a very good job of setting up the world of Thneedville as a nice place, but not quite right.  As far as I can tell (i.e. remember), there's only one difference between the soundtrack version and the movie version, which is that O'Hare gets a slightly longer part.  I suspect that this was cut not for time, but to alleviate some Fridge Horror, as he sings "Everyone 'round here works for me."  And since he's pretty much put out of business by the end of the movie, that would be a lot of people out of jobs...

3. This Is the Place [Tricky Version]
Now this track right here is a very good reason to be glad I didn't listen to the soundtrack before seeing the movie, since what ended up in the movie is very different (which is probably the credits refer to it as "These Trees").  In the movie, The Once-ler pretty much just la la's, na na's, and doot do's with the animals while he unpacks his cart, pissing off the animals with his haphazard throwing.  This version has the Once-ler recruiting the animals as his back-up singers while he attempts (in song) to find material from their homes (and the animals themselves) for his thneed, before discovering the truffula tufts.  As a song, it's very catchy, but the movie version gets points for being truer to the book (as in, immediately knowing the truffula tufts were what he needed).

4. Everybody Needs a Thneed
I go back and forth on this one.  I mean, as a song it's really just serviceable, but sung by the crowd it's just so full of energy that I can't help but smile when I listen to it.

5. How Bad Can I Be?
Okay, this song is just pure, unadulterated awesome.  While watching it in the movie, I was honest-to-goodness smiling so wide the whole time.  Granted, part of that was because of the visuals (especially the Once-ler in his awesome suit and sunglasses!  Why are there no clips of that online?), but also because the song itself is just so great.  I fervently hope that the official site (or at least the official youtube channel) will put the song up, because I need screenshots!

6. Let It Grow
Again, I was surprised by this song, and how gospel-y it ended up being.  And O'Hare's "Let it die" bit was very funny; I'm glad it made the soundtrack.

7. Let It Grow Gospel Ending
Optional ending for Let It Grow, letting Ted's Mom have a big solo bit.

Demos:
8. Thneedville 
The original version was a bit harsher and painted the citizens of Thneedville less as content with the status quo and more as mindless consumers, with lyrics like "In Thneedville, you're never alone/'Cause you've always got the stuff that you own" and an interlude of Ted trying to convince his mom to get him a whozit, ending with "All I've ever wanted in my life is the stuff that I don't have."  Musically, though, it's essentially the same as the final version.

9. Once-ler's Traveling Madness
This one is less a song and mostly just Ed Helms ad-libbing.  I assume that this would have been a scene of the Once-ler traveling before he got to Truffula Valley (as the movie dubs it).

10. I Love Nature
An alternate take on The Once-ler's reaction to first seeing the valley.  I like the music parts, but the lyrics are a little too silly, IMO.

11. You Need a Thneed
The full version of The Once-ler's thneed jingle, which in the movie is continually cut off.

12. Nobody Needs a Thneed
The dark reprise of "You Need a Thneed."  In the movie, unlike in the book, The Once-ler doesn't immediately sell his thneed, and is about to throw in the towel, which is probably when this song would have occurred.

13. Biggering
When I first saw the songs in the movie, "How Bad Can I Be?" was the one I wondered the most about.  I figured it would be about the Once-ler justifying himself to the Lorax, but I wasn't sure which direction it would go in.  That is, whether it would be an upbeat number, which it ultimately was, or if it would take a more melancholy route.  If it had, it would have been this track, which shares some elements of the song that ultimately replaced it, but is a little more intimate.  And in the end, a little boring.  Not bad, mind you, but let's just say I'm glad it didn't make the final cut.

It was definitely interesting to hear different takes on the songs in the movie.  Makes me wish more movie soundtracks did that. And no doubt we'll see some of the demos show up as deleted scenes on the DVD/Blu-ray.

News on the Lorax Soundtrack

There's finally news of a soundtrack for the songs of The Lorax movie, though when exactly it's coming out isn't clear.  According to Film Music Reporter, it's coming out on the 28th, but according to Amazon, it isn't coming out until March 13th, a week after the score soundtrack is said to be released.  They do, however, have a digital version of the soundtrack set to come out on the 28th.  I haven't been able to find any other source of information for this soundtrack, so we'll just have to see.
If you follow the FMR link, they have a preview of all the songs on the CD, which I am deliberately not listening to or embedding here.  The one thing I absolutely refuse to spoil myself on are the songs.  In fact, I kind of wish I hadn't learned the names of the songs in the first place, but there's nothing to be done about that now.  All I can do is wait for March 2nd and hope I don't accidentally get spoiled before then.

Late Night Video: a musical review

Oancitizen is quickly becoming one of my favorite reviewers over at That Guy With The Glasses, but his review of The Man Who Fell To Earth departs from his usual style.  Seeing as it stars David Bowie as the title character, the entire review is done in song.  And it is amazing.  I seriously did not expect him to keep it up the entire time, but he did.
Still, as cool as the musical review is, I kind of would have liked him to do it in his usual style.  But only because this is one of the few films he's reviewed that I've actually seen.

Friendship is Magic and Musical, Too

I mentioned in my last MLPFiM post that I would elaborate a little more on the Winter Wrap Up musical number.  What I really meant is that I was thinking more about the fan reaction.
From the very beginning of the animated MLP canon, songs have been a very heavy part.  The original specials both had a number of songs, as did the movie, and the animated series had one song per 11 minute segment.  My Little Pony Tales had at least one song per episode, and when the G3 cartoons started being released on retail DVDs, they were also mostly musicals.  So why should the new series be any different?
Only, the first episode came and went without any songs, barring the opening theme.  I don't think anyone really noticed, or thought about it, really.  Even I only gave it a passing thought almost two weeks later, shortly before the second episode aired.  I guess that most people assumed that since the new series was so different from the other series, both in story and looks, songs were not a guarantee, nor were they really to be expected.  So when the second episode aired, and Pinkie Pie sang her "Giggle at the Ghosties" song, everyone was pleasantly surprised (and amused that the song was lampshaded).  The next few episodes came and went, and we found that there would be a Pinkie song more often than not, but always diegetic (that is, acknowledged as being sung in-universe).
And then, the Winter Wrap Up song was leaked.  And the fans went wild!  It seems like everyone who had a chance to see it loved it, and couldn't wait for the episode it was from to come out.  There was speculation that it might be an entirely musical episode, and no one saw this as a bad thing.  But would there have been this reaction if MLPFiM had been a song-an-episode show from the very start?  I don't think so.

It's like the story that Stephen Schwartz told about when he went to see A Chorus Line, and how at the start of the grand finale, he cynically thought to himself, "Oh, of course they're going to do a kick line."  But then they didn't.  And the song went on, and they still didn't.  And then, at the curtain call, they finally lined up and did a kick line, by which time, he was ready to cheer for it.  The lesson he took from this was, "If something is obligatory, it's good to make the audience wait for it."  And that is exactly what MLPFiM has done.

Forbidden Assassins, Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit

While I put the finishing touches on a couple of posts, here's a meme to tide you over:

-Put your iTunes (or whatever) on shuffle.
- For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
- Write that song name down. No cheating.
- Go... Play.

1. IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY:
No Fear, The Swan Princess

2. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Folies Bergere, Nine

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Ya Never Know, Little Shop of Horrors

4. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
The Spelling Rules/My Favorite Moment of the Bee I, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (the second part, I guess)

5. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Meaningless Kiss, Music and Lyrics (sheesh, I hope not!)

6. WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Next Time/I Wouldn't Go Back, Closer Than Ever

7. WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Today is Gonna be a Great Day, Phineas and Ferb

8. WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Never the Luck, The Mystery of Edwin Drood

9. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?

The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Scarlet Pimpernel

10. WHAT IS 2 + 2?

Portofino, Jerry Orbach Off Broadway

11. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

A Step Too Far, Aida

12. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

She Knows It, That Thing You Do!

13. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

The Kid Inside (from Is There Life After High School?), Barry Manilow Showstoppers

14. WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

The Woman's Dead, Curtains (O.O)

15. WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
The I Love You Song, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

16. WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

See What It Gets You, Anyone Can Whistle

17. WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Life With Harold, The Full Monty

18. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
In Tune, Seesaw

19. WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Mama Will Provide, Once on This Island

20. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Hold 4 U, Jane Lynch

21. WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Forbidden Assassins, Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit

Old School SSC Record

Somebody awesome posted a couple of songs from the 1980's Strawberry Shortcake picture record that I remember having as a kid (and it's probably still in my parent's house somewhere).  It's been years since I last listened to this record, so hearing these songs brought back a lot of nostalgia for me.  From what I recall, the story of the record followed Strawberry and her friends as they set off for a picnic, only to find that the picnic basket was lost somewhere on the trip.  So they retrace their steps while singing public domain songs that fit whatever setting they're in, eventually spotting the basket on Strawberry's front porch.

The opening song, "Strawberryland":


The first side two song, "You're One in a Million":

This song was also reprised by Strawberry at the end of the record.

Mixtapes

I've taken to listening to audiobooks while crocheting (and doing other things), and I've found myself checking out books that I might not have otherwise, simply because the audiobook selection at most libraries is so much smaller than the print collection.  That's how I ended up listening to  Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time.  The author, Rob Sheffield, shares various mix tapes he's made over the years and the time in his life they represent, with the bittersweet edge of losing his wife along the way.  Listening, my mind kept wandering to the mixtapes I myself had made, though they weren't really the kind of tape he was talking about.
From 1998 to 2006-ish, I filled 10 and half tapes with my favorite songs from musicals (and the occasional movie or TV song).  I didn't really have the intention of making that many when I started, mind you.  In the summer of 1998 I fell in love with the OCR of Sunset Boulevard, which I had taken out from the library, and listened to it nonstop.  When its due date arrived, I couldn't bear to return it, and I didn't have the funds to buy my own, since a. it was a two-disc set and b. Amazon.com wasn't on the radar yet.  But then I remembered that my father had once told me that you could copy CDs from the library because they pay a special fee, or something, and I just happened to have a boombox with a line-in connection (a surprise fulfillment of a Christmas request for a tape player a couple of years earlier), so I hooked up my CD player and recorded my favorite tracks from that, and a few other CDs I had out at the time.  I actually lost that first tape fairly early on, but I still remember most of the shows that I pull songs from (including Pippin, The Muppet Movie, and Shenandoah).
Even with the arrival of mp3s and cd-ripping into my life, I continued to make my Broadway mixtapes.  I didn't even think of switching to CDs, which means that I occasionally run into songs that I no longer like as much as I used to (if at all) when listening to the cassettes, and have to suffer through them.  Which is probably why the nail in my mixtape-making coffin was when I got an mp3 player.  To be fair, I was losing interest by then, partially due to the difficulty of finding CDs of musicals that I hadn't heard yet that also had songs that I wanted to keep listening to, and the fact that I no longer had my own CD/cassette player (the line-in boombox died earlier).  But the mp3 player basically did what my mixtapes had: let me pick and choose from the best of my collection, with the added bonus of being able to remove songs I was tired of and skip ones I wasn't in the mood for.  I still have my tapes and I still like to listen to them and go back to the time when they were made, though I haven't actually listened to them that much since I got my new car that doesn't have a tape deck.

Music Meme

And to close out February, a Music Meme:

1. Put your music player/iPod in shuffle. Pick 10 songs (or as much as you want).
2. For each song. associate a fandom's characters/pairings/settings/whatever with that song. Or, think of two characters from different fandoms, let them meet, and that song you got will be sort of the theme for it. Got it?

I like this meme because this is something I do all the time anyway.

1. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Like Zis/Like Zat

I actually had the thought a while ago that this song made me think of Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, mostly because of the accent, but also because, for a self-admittedly not very handsome character, he seems to have his share of romantic entanglements. They don't tend to last, but he somehow charms the ladies enough to at least go out with him.

2. Shrek the Musical - Who I'd Be
This could work with a slightly (but only slightly) OOC Grizzle, if he ever let anyone know about secretly wanting to be a Care Bear (as mentioned in an interview a while back). Maybe for some reason he gets stuck somewhere with Share (she seems like the one who'd be able to get him to confide that kind of thing) and while they wait for the others to rescue them, this song ensues.

3. Shrek the Musical - Make a Move
Lately I've been thinking of this song as working for a certain OC of mine and Brent from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Normally I wouldn't bring OCs into this kind of meme, but that's all I can think of right now. I'm not sure who would be singing the song, actually, since it's being sung to the characters. Not Flint, that's for sure.

4. The Scarlet Pimpernel - Falcon in the Dive
For years and years now, this has one has always made me think of Ken as the Digimon Kaiser from Digimon 02, chasing after the Digi-destined. But it also works well for Ranban from Space Pirate Mito, so much so that I made the image at the top of this post back in the day. I made a bunch of those, just random anime screenshots with fitting lyrics from musicals, to be my sig (with a random image tag) on Gaia Online. If you want to see more, just click here. And then come back and click again.

5. Ruthless! - It Will Never Be That Way Again

This is another one that makes me think of Ken from Digimon 02, most likely because that's what was out when I first heard this OCR. It doesn't even really work for him, but it kind of fits for when he gave up the real world to live in the Digiworld 24/7. But still, not really.

6. Closer Than Ever - What Am I Doin'?

This one kind of makes me think of Stan from South Park during the ep "Raisins," when he went Goth because Wendy dumped him. Although this song would be for the part before that happened.

7. The Scarlet Pimpernel - The Riddle

This is another one that comes with a preconceived fandom connnection. When I was really into Codename: Kids Next Door, this song made me think of Cree being enticed to either join the Adults (by Father) or the Teens (by Chad). It's that kind of song.

8. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Chimp in a Suit

This one usually reminds me of my novel from NaNoWriMo a couple years past, which involved these little creatures being raised in various circumstances (it's a long story), and one of them was taken in by a rich and rather senile old woman, who was convinced it was her granddaughter. Anyway, this song would be from the servants' POV, not entirely happy with their mistress' delusion, but going along with it anyway.

9. The Scarlet Pimpernel - When I Look At You

*laughs* While there have been a number of OCs I set this song up with, most recently it makes me think of Brent, singing it to himself when he's all bummed out about his position in the town being replaced by Flint. It doesn't entirely fit, but it amuses me way too much not to mention.

10. Tom Lehrer - The Hunting Song

Jimbo from South Park. That is all.

Sheesh, there wasn't that much variety. My shuffle was absolute fail this time, I swear. I was hoping that some of the non-Broadway songs I have on my ipod would sneak in, but until the end, no dice.

Charlemagne the Musical?

I heard it from RevolutionSF first, but apparently Christopher Lee is going to be playing the Ghost of Charlemagne in a concept album for a "symphonic metal" musical called "Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross." It seems that Christopher Lee is related to Charlemagne, although I don't know if that's why he's doing this CD. You can hear samples from the CD, which is set to come out on March 15 (although it isn't listed on Amazon), on its youtube page. Frankly, the music sounds pretty Transiberian Orchestra-ish to me, but that's probably because I have a limited reference pool when it comes to metal, even symphonic metal.

There's a handsome guy inside this comic

I got tipped to this, and seriously, it's great. Apparently some guy redid the song "Take on Me" by A-Ha, only with lyrics that describe what's going on in the music video quite literally. The best part is the instrumental, though.

Since that video doesn't work any more, you can see it here.

My childhood: Agapeland

I was killing time in Walmart when I just happened to see it: a 2-CD set in a tin of The Music Machine and its sequel (not the third one, though) for just ten dollars. So I bought it. I want to say it's for the nostalgia value, but the thing is, I never listened to the Music Machine albums before. Oh, I was familiar with the set-up. I had almost all the Agapeland videos when I was a kid, and I had the cassettes of Nathaniel the Grublet and the Music Machine Club album (which is not the same, mind you), plus I'd seen the animated versions (The Music Machine and Benny's Biggest Battle) and had a couple of the Character Builder book and tape sets. In fact, what really made me buy the CD set was that it promised a bonus DVD with four of the Character Builder stories on it. This turned out to be a LIE. It was a completely different DVD from somebody else's childhood (The Amazing Book related. I was never into that series). I contacted the company about this, but they haven't gotten back to me. Also, the images used on the tin and CDs and booklet are from the animated version, which features characters that don't appear on the albums at all.

And because I seem to be incapable of taking in any media these days without getting the urge to write up a synopsis for it (with sprinklings of commentary), here are volumes one and two of The Music Machine.
Note: The discs from this set are in the opposite order. Disc One is actually Volume Two, and vice versa. But I'm going in chronological order. Just so you know.

The Music Machine: The Fruit of the Spirit (from 1977!)
The album starts off with a longish instrumental intro to the first song "A Land Called Love." The song, once it gets going, is pretty slow and lullaby-ish. I really wouldn't have started off with such a slow song, but it is rather pretty in the bridge. Once the song ends, Stevie and Nancy, the two kids synonymous with Agapeland, have their first appearance, wondering where the heck they are. They have no clue how they got there, but they like what they see. With a magical twinkle, Mr. Conductor arrives (note that he actually introduces himself as The Conductor), apparently out of nowhere. He already knows Stevie and Nancy, and tells them they're in Agapeland. He fences their questions on where Agapeland is and what he does ("I do a lot of things"), but fortunately, the kids are quickly distracted by the titular machine itself, leading to the titular introduction song, of course, which starts off with a bit of music I recognize from the trailer for the Agapeland Home Videos, so it's kind of weird to have it not continue as I remember it. The song itself is fairly uptempo, and it wins me over by the musicalizations in the second verse, although the middle section could be left out. I also remember the kazoo part at the end as being the ending of the Agapeland Home Video Trailer, so it's nice to finally know where that comes from.
Although he just explained in song, Mr. Conductor explains again: put something in the Music Machine and it'll play a song about it. To demonstrate, he puts in his whistle and the Music Machine starts making noise. Now, that middle section of the previous song mentioned the sounds that the Music Machine makes before starting a song as "whir whir chuka chuka bomp bomp psst." I thought that was just onomatopoeia, but no, the sounds the machine makes are actually a bunch of voices saying those words set to a high pitch and slightly mechanized. The song that comes out, "The Whistle Song" features both fifes and whistling, and lists all the things, animate and inanimate, that whistle, and posits that they're singing songs of praise. It's actually kind of jazzy, in a kids' chorus kind of way.
All the songs on the two albums are sung by either the kids' chorus, random soloists (both kids and adults), Mr. Conductor, or some combination thereof, by the way. After the song, Stevie notes that the whistle came back out of the machine, and Nancy wishes she had something to put in. Mr. Conductor tells her to smile into the machine's slot, and sure enough, a song about Smiles comes out. This is the most kiddy sounding of all the songs, really, and feels slightly offtune to me, but I think it's supposed to be, in a carousel wurlitzer style.
Nancy loved her song, but Stevie is quick to put something in himself: a piece of string, which inspires a madrigal about the things string can and can't do (fix a friendship, for example). Since the machine has suddenly turned educational, Mr. Conductor proposes that they put in a verse from the Bible to see what songs come out. He means Galatians 5:19-23, which is about the Fruit of the Spirit. Nancy misinterprets this as real fruit, so he lists a few off to clarify. And then the verse is put in, and the machine just about breaks down from the sound of it. The first song starts, and then there's a crash. Guess the machine really did break. No, wait, that's just part of the song. The first song is "Patience (Herbert the Snail)," which is the one everyone remembers, from what I've seen online. Probably because the chorus vocals are slowed way down, which kind of annoys me now, but I'm sure if I were a kid would be hilarious.
There's no break between the first and next song, "Gentleness" (which is the longest song, btw), one of the random soloists plus kids chorus songs. Very soft and gentle, naturally, although the examples of gentleness seem more like peace to me. After that song, Nancy declares she understands about the fruit thing now (although I don't really get how, since the songs haven't really been talking about applying them to your life or anything, just what each one is). And Stevie makes a terrible joke which everyone laughs at, but I'll forgive them, since the kids are just kids after all, and Mr. Conductor is obviously just pity-laughing. Mr. Conductor gets the machine going again, and there's a rousing number about Faith that I wish was longer, even though the lyrics are pretty much the same thing over and over.
The next song, "Joy" is all calypso and apparently sung by a teens' chorus (that's the nearest I can figure, anyway). There's a bit of a pointless interlude between this song and the next, "Peace," where a kid soloist sings of the things that bring peace in a child's life, which is immediately followed by a country-western song about Goodness that merely talks about random things that are good and expects this to show why we should be good. The next song, "Love," starts with a funky kind of intro before turning into a twangy duet. After this, the kids take a break to enumerate which Fruits there have been songs about (seven) and Mr. Conductor informs them that there are two more to go, so the machine gets going once more with a song about Self-Control. Now, in my youth, I did see the book that accompanied the record of this album, basically the lyrics with illustrations. The only one I remember was the pictures for this song, which freaked me out something terrible back then. Thinking on it now, I just feel bad for Stevie, since the illustrations (as I recall anyway) showed the bad things that happened to him from lack of self-control, even though the singer is a random adult. The last song, "Kindness," is one of the more interesting ones, as it plays out as a Caribbean lullaby, basically stating that kindness begets kindness. It's also the second-longest song, with more instrumentals than the others.
Once the last song is over, Mr. Conductor basically just sends Stevie and Nancy away, and they don't even protest! I mean, they mysteriously ended up in this amazing place and all they did was listen to some songs, and now they have to go without seeing hardly anything! Besides, don't the kids in that kind of situation (mysteriously in a strange place, I mean) usually say things like "Do we have to?" when it's time to leave? Anyway, they say their goodbyes and fade away (their voices do anyway), and Mr. Conductor states, "They'll be back." As a cynical adult, I'd like to imagine him saying this darkly, under his breath, almost a threat. Before we can consider the implications of his statement, a reprise of the titular introduction song starts up from the kazoo part, ending the album. The whole thing is a little over thirty minutes, by the way.
Songs that get stuck in my head: The Whistle Song, Music Machine, Patience (such an earworm!)
You can actually see the pages from the booklet that came with the record here, courtesy of the only Agapeland fansite.

The next album didn't come out until 1983, six years later. This one won a Grammy and a Dove award, which is pretty cool. I also like it a little better than the first album because it reveals that Mr. Conductor is kind of, well, adorkable, if you know what I mean. I probably won't do justice to this in the synopsis, because it's all in the little things.

The Music Machine: All About Love
Like the first album, this one starts with a slow song, "When Love Lives in Your Heart," but unlike the first album, after the first verse and chorus, Stevie and Nancy arrive, remarking on how they are somehow in Agapeland again, and they go off in search of the Music Machine to find out where the song is coming from. (BTW, the random adult soloist has an annoying way of singing.)
Stevie and Nancy easily spot Mr. Conductor working on the Music Machine. They want to help, but Mr. Conductor says he's just doing "a little work," prompting Nancy to ask what's wrong with the machine. Mr. Conductor tells her, "Well, nothing really," in a tone that indicates (to me) that something is wrong, and he's just covering up by saying he's giving it a tune-up. The Music Machine springs to life and plays a song about tune-ups of its own volition. Twangy guitars feature heavily here. By the end of the song, Mr. Conductor is ready to test the machine, but the kids want to be the ones to put something in. Stevie and Nancy confer, and decide to ask the Music Machine a question. Mr. Conductor has no objections, so they proceed: What's the most wonderful, spectacular, colossal, super, fantastic, stupendous thing in all Agapeland? While the Music Machine does its thing (you know, the whirs and all that), Stevie and Nancy hypothesize about what the answer will be, but the song that comes out ("The Greatest Thing of All") shoots down all their ideas quite specifically and instead says that the greatest thing is Love. Which makes sense, since that's what Agapeland is named for. This song is very fun-sounding with a driving backbeat.
Stevie wants to know why the answer was Love, so Mr. Conductor informs him that God Is Love. Suddenly, the Music Machine starts up on its own again, causing Mr. Conductor to proclaim, "I thought I fixed that!" which proves what I said earlier. This song ("Love Never Fails") is my favorite from this album, even though the lyrics are not the greatest. But the actual music gets me every time. It's kind of odd, but there's a lot of the things I love, like clarinets and oboes, plus the random adult soloist sounds good, which is a plus.
After the song, the Music Machine tries to play another song, but shuts down completely. Mr. Conductor insists it isn't broken, it just needs some "adjustments." So he tinkers a little and a song comes out ("Glad to be Me"), sung by a random kid soloist with a terrible twangy accent, all about how animals don't want to be like other animals, so we should be glad to be ourselves. The Music Machine keeps going, with a strange country western duet about things that go together (some choices are questionable, such as "Like a yankee and a doodle") to illustrate that "I Was Made For Love."
Stevie and Nancy take all these songs as signs that the Music Machine is good as new, and remark on how they're learning a lot about love, when suddenly strange noises come from all directions. And then there's a noticeable break where it must have been time to turn over the record. Mr. Conductor reveals that the sounds are Sloops, but when the kids ask what the heck Sloops are, he answers with a not very revealing song that mostly names a lot of random things that Sloops are made of (Stevie and Nancy's favorite things, apparently), and the most important part is love. While talking about the Sloops (colorful, carrying flowers), Stevie and Nancy start slipping into a twangy accent for no apparent reason. The Sloops introduce themselves: they all have names that start with B, although whether this is actually Bea (Stevie later asks why they all have the same first name) or B. (Mr. Conductor refers to them as the B family) isn't really clear. Most of their names are standard puns (Be Kind, Be Patient), but they do throw in a couple of nonstandard ones as well (Be Haves and Be Lieves). Nancy asks the Sloops to put something in the Music Machine, and B. Humble is the first to come up. With Mr. Conductor's permission, he puts in his flower, and a song about a Humble Bumblebee comes out, sung by another random kid soloist who is only partially comprehensible. The fast clip of the song doesn't help, either.
Stevie wonders if there are more Sloops out there, and Mr. Conductor tells him that there are indeed, but the ones they're with now are all reminders of what love is supposed to be like. To that end, he invites B. Faithful to put one of her flowers in the Music Machine. The "I Love You" song is another random kid soloist song, a prayer listing all the things she loves, especially God. Mr. Conductor starts to explain the song, but B. Patient interrupts him, asking "What about Herbert the snail?" Unable to elaborate, Mr. Conductor has to translate: do the kids remember Herbert the snail? To prove they do, Stevie and Nancy sing a snippet of the song from the previous album. Satisfied, Mr. Conductor calls forth a new song about Herbert ("Love Waits a Long, Long Time") and his mother (obviously a man doing a fake falsetto), which is catchy in its own, kinda smarmy, way.
With that song out of the way, the other Sloops crowd around Mr. Conductor, each wanting to put their flower in the slot. So Mr. Conductor suggests having everyone put their flowers in all at once, since the Music Machine is working again, just to see what'll happen. I get the feeling that this is how the Music Machine broke in the first place. The Sloops cheer, toss in their flowers, and from the sounds the machine makes, it nearly breaks again, and when a very twangy country western song comes out, I'm not so sure it didn't break. The song ("Everybody Needs a Lot of Love") states the things you can't do to love, but we still need it. It also includes the unfortunate couplet: "You can't mop it like a floor/Can't stop it like a door/You can't keep it like a horse in a stall," with the word "horse" drawn out so that it sounds like something else before the end kicks in. This song leads immediately into another, "I Love You, Lord Jesus," with the kids' chorus.
After those two songs, Stevie and Nancy once again remark that they've learned a lot about love, and Mr. Conductor reminds them not to forget, since it'll come in handy soon. But he refuses to explain what he means by this. Instead, he tells them it's time to go home, and distracts them with a reprise of "The Greatest Thing of All." During the song, Stevie and Nancy find themselves leaving Agapeland (I want to know exactly what's going on. Are they teleporting, being lifted in the air, or what?), and they wish everyone goodbye as a reprise of "When Love Lives in Your Heart" by an adult chorus (and the random adult soloist) swells and closes the album.
Songs that get stuck in my head: The Greatest Thing of All, Love Never Fails, I Was Made for Love, Everybody Needs a Lot of Love.

All in all, these albums are pretty cute, and the songs are very apt to get stuck in your head. Don't be too surprised if you see some other Agapeland-related stuff pop up here or on Youtube, now that my nostalgia's been piqued...
By the way, here's Love Never Fails.

American Idol, Hotblooded, and Zombies

Call me weird, but the song "Hotblooded" always makes me think of zombies. There's a story to that, and hearing the song twice on American Idol this week brought it to the top of mind:
The past few summers I've worked at a local amusement park (Lake Compounce, the oldest continually run park in the country), but I only stayed through the fall season once (usually I was back at school by then). The reason the parks stays open through the end of October is because it gets a Halloween-themed makeover and has a special maze/event set up called The Haunted Graveyard. Anyway, along with the Graveyard and makeover, the season I was there, three times a night there was a special show. I usually wasn't close enough to see it, but the music was so loud you could hear it from halfway across the park. Since I heard the songs so much, I came up with my own story for the show (although it turns out that there really wasn't one for the real show; it was just an excuse for the performers to sing and dance). In my story, a boy and girl went to a haunted castle on Halloween and accidentally read a spell that called forth a host of zombies! (the first song was Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life.") Fortunately for the kids, the zombies were Party Zombies, more interested in a good time than human flesh (revealed in the song "Rock and Roll All Night (and party everyday)"). But it turns out the real reason the kids weren't eaten immediately was that the zombie thought the kids were zombies, too. And the boy, being an idiot, tells them that he's a "Hotblooded" human, not a zombie. I don't remember how it ended, but I think the kids got out okay. I just don't remember what song they used to do it.
So yeah, that's why I always think of zombies when I hear that song.

A Peek at my Music

Just something I thought I'd try.
Put your mp3 player on shuffle and write a little about the first ten songs for the duration of each song.

1. Lily's Eyes (The Secret Garden)
I used to love this song so much when I first heard it. I still love it, but I'm just as likely to skip it now as actually listen to it. It also would make a good song about Harry Potter ^_~ I mean, seriously, his mom's name is Lily, and everyone's always going on about how he has her eyes. But the question is, who would sing it? I mean, obviously Snape would be the Doctor, but who would be Archibald? Maybe an AU songfic where James didn't die? I don't know, but that thought always niggles at my brain when I listen to it. Also, I can only picture it as being sung by Mandy Patinkin (not any of his characters) and the Prince from Into the Woods (that's right, it's that same guy. If I had more time, I'd look up his name.)

2. The Floor Show/Rosetint My World (2001 Rocky Horror Show)
I can write a lot about this because it's over seven minutes long. I never wanted to watch the movie because I could never get beyond the huge freaky lips in the opening credits. In fact, I never did watch the movie until I caught it halfway through the middle (coming in around The Time Warp). After that, I got into the habit of watching it around Halloween. But I didn't check out this cast album until a little over a year ago, the same time I got a new car, and I drove around listening to this all over the time, so the songs remind me of October 2006, driving to Southern (where I was talking graduate classes), and blasting out Rocky Horror Show, and not realizing the character of Eddie was played by a woman until Dr. Scott showed up.
I really hate the "don't dream it, be it" section because it's slow and long. But I put up with it because I liked the next part, because at the time, I was writing a fantasy story with a bee character, so I liked to think of that part as her anthem. "I'm a wild and an untamed thing, I'm a bee with a deadly sting, etc." Not very creative, I guess, but it's fun anyway. Come to think of it 2006 was also when I got a colonoscopy as part of the ongoing process to diagnose my crohn's once and for all. I mention this only because my appointment was frickin' early in the morning, and since I had to take a laxative before it, I just stayed up all night, and RHPS was on VH-1 and they didn't show the lips part. I was annoyed.

3. Let Me Walk Among You (Bat Boy)
It took me years to get beyond the album art and actually listen to this show, but once I did, I ended up really liking it. I thought I saw info on the IMDB about a movie coming out in 2008 or 9, but I looked again recently, and it wasn't there. I really like the lyrics in this song, but sometimes I get a phantom lyric. Like I think the lyric should go one way, and it goes somewhere else. "Let me join your carpool. No! Let me drive the car!" I just love the delivery of that lyric. I wish I could keep the reprise of Joyful Noise after this track, but with shuffle, that's not possible. But it really makes the ending feel weird. Also, I'm a sorta Kerry Butler fan, and she's in this. Not this song, though.

4. There's a Fine, Fine Line (Avenue Q)
Is there anybody that doesn't love Avenue Q? Seriously? This is a song I have to be in the right mood for, otherwise I just skip it. Actually, that applies to most of the songs, when I think about it. It's weird how there are some shows that just don't work in a mix, no matter how much the songs may work when put together. I guess it's because the sound is so different. I really want to apply this song to more characters, but really, I don't go for those kinds of relationships. That doesn't make sense, but I'm out of time to explain it. Sorry. Number two spoiled me, I guess.

5. Loathing (Wicked)
I was in a class about how media is used to communicate, and for the class on music, we all brought in a CD and picked a song to play, and then the class would dissect it. Except we didn't go too deeply, since we only had so much time, and plenty of songs to go through. As you've guessed, the song I picked was Loathing. Later I felt I should have picked something else, but I was definitely going with Wicked, since I was absolutely in love with it at the time (you're noticing a trend, aren't you?). The only thing I remember from the class was the first comment was bascially, "I've never felt so good about hating someone." When I saw the show on Broadway, I was so disappointed that the choreography wasn't better. Or rather, like I'd imagined. I'd seen the other students moving as one mass, and everyone taking advantage of all the 'picking' in the background. I'm not sure how to describe it. The poking? Listen to the song and you'll know what I'm talking about.

6. This One Day (The Grass Harp)
The Grass Harp was a flop, but it has very lovely music. This is sung by the teenage nephew. I'm not sure why it's still in my playlist, though, since I don't really like it. But despite not liking it, it's pretty catchy. Which is why it isn't on my 'get rid of' list whenever I go through and cull stuff out. Plus it's pretty short. I should look up who plays the kid sometime. I like his other song better (Floozies).

7. If This is Love (Heartbeats)
I'm not sure if this was an actual show, or a concept album, but the reason this song is on my playlist is because I went back and rewatched Arabian Knight (aka The Thief and the Cobbler), and one of the songs reminded me of it so much that I had to take the CD out of the library again (as I do from time to time) just so I could listen to it again and see if I wasn't just making the whole thing up. But no, the two were way similar. Not so much that you'd think one copied the other.
This is a show that I know I'm the only one who has ever heard of, but it starred Amanda McBroom, who might be known to people. I don't know her from anything else, actually, but that's true of a lot of people that have actually done lots of things. I like a lot of other songs from it better than this one, but over the half the songs are take it or leave it for me. Yeah, I'm done, and now they are, too.

8. How a Garden Grows (The Secret Garden)
Another song from The Secret Garden? Here's some triva, then: you can see the marquee for the show in the movie of Noises Off! which is funny, so you should see it anyway. Besides, it has Mark Linn-Baker in it. This song is a lot of fun, but I don't really have anything to say about it, other than it always reminds me of walking home from High School in the winter time. I'm not sure why, but it makes me feel old now.

9. When You're In My Arms (They're Playing Our Song)
I always feel like singing along. And yes, another memory connected to this show: I had my wisdom teeth out around the time I was listening to it. Either that, or when I found that the library had a copy of the libretto, so I took out the CD with it, so I would read and listen (I used to be obsessed with this, until I tried to do it with Company, and found out, two songs in, that it didn't really work. That, and the same happening with Lost in the Stars, got me out of the habit). That and I used to singing Workin' it Out while mowing the lawn, so that I could sing the swears outloud without getting in trouble. I was young at the time, but not like twelve or anything. I never really had a thing for Marvin Hamlisch, but I do seem to like shows he's worked on. But I don't recognize him the way I might Sondheim or Rodgers and Hammerstein, y'know what I mean? I hope you do, because that's all I have time for.

10. The Money Song (Avenue Q)
Man, I was hoping for no repeated shows, and I got two. And where are my songs from Big? That's what prompted me to do this anyway. That's it, I'm doing a bonus song!
As for this song, I always wanted to play it in my Economics class, but I never got up the nerve, partly because of the Gary Coleman part. And part of me wants to use the middle bit for actual fundraising (like I were ever at one of those tables outside the grocery store).
Y'know, I said that there's no one who doesn't like Avenue Q, but I do know someone: my mom. Ever since she saw them perform "It Sucks to be me" on the Tony's (and then winning), she hasn't been that enthusiastic about it. She doesn't know I like the show (I feigned ignorance during the Tony's), but I'd really love to see it sometime. Once it goes on tour, maybe. I'd have to drag my guy to see it, but I bet he'd get a kick out of it.

11. Evening Star (cut from 110 in the Shade)
This is another one that I either like or don't like depending on my mood. It's a very plaintive song, so if I'm in a bouncy mood, I don't want to slow down. Keep up the momentum, you know. But sometimes it's just so pretty, I can't stand but listen to it. I've also decided to do fifteen songs instead of ten and one bonus because I'm just enjoying this so much. I made this song the main song a character of mine sings in a recital, but it's kind of weird to explain because she's an original character I made up to be the sister of a character that really gets the shaft developmentwise. But I still feel dumb for making something that's probably pretty darn close to a mary sue.

12. Better (A Class Act)
A Class Act is one of those shows I discovered by pure chance, just picking up the CD at Music For a Song, a store at an outlet center that doesn't exist anywhere, but I liked for having all kinds of things, like the CD soundtrack of Rock-a-doodle, which as the full version of all the songs. But again, I just picked up this CD without knowing a thing about it except it had Lonny Price, who, as I've mentioned, is on my list of People Who Should Do More Stuff. Fortunately for me, I loved almost all the songs. I was just listening to it yesterday, actually. I love this song especially, because I can use it for almost all my ensembles, which makes it more interesting for me. Figuring out who sings what line, and all that.
A Class Act is about Ed Kleban, who wrote the lyrics for A Chorus Line, but was never able to get any of his other songs into a show. So this show was made to tell his story using only the songs he wrote, which is pretty cool.

13. Munkie's Uncle (Ruthless! the Musical)
This is sung by Bernadette Peters. It's a lot of fun to sing, too, since it's a bunch of phrases and similes mixed up. "More than a bittle lit I love you, and I'll be shipped in dit you love me, too." Stuff like that. And short.

14. What Do I Know? (Your Own Thing)
Another musical I picked up without knowing a thing about it. I mainly grabbed it because it was in Suncoast, of all things. Another store that is no longer there, come to think of it. I miss it ;_; A musical version of Twelfth Night, set in the current times, which was the 60's at the time. I like it well enough, but it sounds really very different from anything else I have. So I go through cycles of whether I feel like listening to it or not. I'm really very fickle, I guess

15. All For You (Seussical the Musical)
Yet another show I absolutely fell in love with. I first heard of it when I saw it at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, but I didn't get the album until my birthday the following February. I especially loved The One-Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz, Notice Me, Horton, and this song. Once you get to the meat of the song, it reminds me so much of Merlock Holmes from Flint the Time Detective (which gives you an idea of when I was listening to this. Or not) that I've never been able to associate it with another character. Mainly because the song lists the many calamities that befell Gertrude as she attempted to find and rescue Horton, and that's the kind of thing that happens to Merlock all the time. Even when there's no reason for it. Comic relief and all that. "And then came the hole where I caught my sole and I rolled downhill out of all control 'til I broke my fall on a jagged shoal, for you." Seriously, one time he was just standing up and he tripped on his cape and fell down an escalator.

So I Guess I Like iTunes After All

Don't ask me why, but I've always been a bit leery of iTunes. Maybe it's because I don't have an iPod or anything (I do have an mp3 player, but it's a Sandisk). But I have to hand it to iTunes for actually having a song I've been wanting for ages now: "Ah, Men," by Alix Korey.
I first heard this song when I used to listen to Live365 more, around 2004. Mostly I listened to the stations that played musicals, but I also got into bossa nova for a while. I had three main Broadway stations I listened to, a big one and a smaller one that both played pretty standard stuff, and one that played stuff I hadn't heard anywhere else, including the song this post is about. Most stations have a random play, and that one did at first, but after a while, it started having a set playlist that changed every month or so (for instance, June was always focused on the Tonys, songs from the nominated shows, songs from shows that won before, or sung by nominees and winners). I heard "Ah, Men" early on, but then it didn't show up again for a while. I pointed this out to the guy who ran the station when I wrote to him asking where in the world he had found a copy of the Japanese version of The Goodbye Girl, a musical I was infatuated with when I was in Jr. High (during my Bernadette Peters phase). He wrote back saying that he had a single that just had the one song ("I Think I Can Play This Part," in case you're wondering) that he bought in England, and he promised to include "Ah, Men" the next time he changed his playlist. And he did, which made me very happy for the whole time that playlist was up.
Now, I'd flirted every now and then with the idea of buying the album that song was from, but since I really didn't know much else by Alix Korey, and I'd been burned by buying a CD just because I liked one song from it before (Oasis' What's the Story, Morning Glory?), so I could never quite bring myself to do it. And then just yesterday, it occurred to me that I might be able to get just "Ah, Men" on iTunes (I have a copy, but I rarely use it), and sure enough, there it was. So now I can listen to it as much as I can. And since this copy of the song isn't horribly quiet (like the one on that station was), I was finally able to "get" the ending.

A related story: When that station added "Ah, Men" for me, I of course got to know the playlist very well, so I knew when there were only a few songs to go before "Ah, Men" was going to play. Because I wasn't a paying member, I had to listen to an ad whenever I switched stations, and since the song is short as it is (only two and a half minutes), I made sure I was there at least two songs in advance. And the song right before it was a perfectly dull (and long) sequence from The Woman in White called "All For Laura." I hated that song so, so much because I was forced to listen to it to get to "Ah, Men." So much that I transfered some of that hate to the show itself (which I heard wasn't that good, anyway). And to this day, I refuse to have anything to do with it.