Okay... I don't know if anyone has noticed this or W/e but "Find you GRail" sounds like John Denver's "Country Roads"...Comments?
not at all....a few same notes maybe, but totally different.......
Broadway Star Joined: 3/27/04
Absolutely. I thought that when I first heard it in the theatre. "Hmm. It's "Country Road" with different lyrics and a pop anthem arrangement." And that's not the only song in the show that sounds to me as if it is just a "sandscrubed" version of another more popular song. ("Copacabana" anyone?)
I've never heard Country Roads, but...umm...I'm pretty sure the similarities to Copa are intentional, even the lyrics are fairly similar. "Her name was Lola..." "His name is Lancelot" - even the costumes, while mainly an homage to Peter Allen, were a slight homage to Copacabana.
I agree with Curtainup, not to mention the fact that I think most of the musical, besides the typical Monty Python humor, is parodying modern theatre and pop culture. The whole thing is typical Python, kind of mocking everything else, I loved it! I just don't think some people get it...
Broadway Star Joined: 3/27/04
Oh, I'm sure it was intentional as well. I just think there is a fine line between parody and ripping a song off. Nearly every song in Spamalot "borrows" most of it's melody from a popular song. For instance "Come to Me" sounds like a slightly "tweaked" version of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" to me. I think they could have done the songs in the "style" they are parodying and still have at least somewhat original melodies. I thought Urinetown and Batboy, for instance both did that really well.
Broadway Star Joined: 3/27/04
And Taboo, I *get* Monty Python. I practically grew up with Python.
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" has a very catchy melody and as far as I know, doesn't ape the same melody of a song that came before it. It is somewhat original while still working as a parody. I just find the musical parody in Spamalot to be a bit more lazy then the material that Python had in it's earlier material. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Spamalot very much, but I find the humor in the score to be a bit too easy and obvious for Python.
Updated On: 7/22/05 at 10:22 PM
1. I didn't mean that you don't get it, I was just saying that I think it's gotten the wrong publicity. Sorry for the miscommunication. What I meant was that everyone goes in expecting a broadway musical, and in truth that's not really what it is. It's kind of depressing to know that I can't get tickets right now because Hold-Me, Touch-Me saw that it won best musical.
2. I disagree HEAVILY that Come With Me sounds anything like "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". I will admit, there are a few similar chord sequences, but if this trait were to be completely wiped out in music there would be very little to work with. I think a few slight similarities are not enough to call it a "tweaked" version of anything.
3. The reason that the humor is a little bit too easy and obvious is because they are not playing exclusively to a Python audience. To work, it still has to have some kind of musical theatre essence. I think this is far from disappointing, but rather quite notable that they were able to create a musical that appealed to both audiences.
I love Spamalot and I could care less about where it's music came from. Again, this is my opinion.
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