Anyone catch Six by Sondheim on HBO? — Page 5

Total L-seven.

Namo, your "drive-by fruitings" are getting less and less witty. It's really rather sad.

As part of my Master's dissertation, I worked with collectors all over the internet to try and assemble a Complete Compendium of the works of Sondheim- every score, script and deleted song that he has contributed to, and developmental materials thereof. I've heard almost every recorded demo and backer's audition that Sondheim sang and performed at. At first, I hated it, but it rapidly grew on me. I genuinely enjoy hearing his interpretations of his material. And hearing him sing all of Sweeney Todd by himself is really entertaining!

darquegk- I think he sings very nicely on that SWEENEY TODD backer's audition recording, too. There's a lot of charm in hearing him sing, because I think he knows he's a lousy singer but at the same time has the attitude of "Oh, what the hell? It's not like I'm doing this on a Broadway stage." As opposed to Leonard Bernstein, who had an even WORSE voice than Sondheim, but because of his bad case of of "important-itis" (or ego-- whatever you want to call it), when he tried to sing anything, whether it was a few lines of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE or "Help!" by The Beatles, it was TRULY painful and embarrassing.

Is Jarvis Cocker the son of Joe Cocker?

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Nope. Son of English actor and radio broadcaster Mac Cocker.

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Cocker's performance was truly terrible. And the ham-fisted decision to repeatedly cut to shots of older women looking rueful didn't help.

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I was actually surprised that Sondheim allowed Cocker to take A LOT of liberties (however minor) with that masterpiece of a lyric (and the melody, too for that matter). But I've heard rumors he still occasionally smokes pot, so perhaps Lapine brought a dimebag AS WELL AS a print of that segment over to the house one night. I still hold firm in my positive response to that segment. It worked for me.

And Joey, NO ONE (including Yvonne De Carlo, forgive me) has ever performed "I'm Still Here" as well as Julie Wilson. A friend of mine saw her looking frail but alert one night at 54 Below during Marilyn Maye's last engagement. She sings Sondheim and Porter (and to a lesser extent, Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh) wonderfully and like no one else.

How could somebody listen to him talk for the better part of 90 minutes and hear him sing in the last video and not know who was singing "Broadway Baby"?

It helps if the listener is turned off by the first two lines and hits the "Stop" button. As I said, I didn't think "Cocker" at first, but by the time it was suggested by someone else I had stopped the cacophony.

I too enjoy some of Sondheim's singing, particularly his "Anyone Can Whistle" on the "Scrabble" album. But coming after some of the dreadful other numbers, I wasn't going to endure an unknown stranger talk-sing "Broadway Baby" badly.

How can someone who pretends to be an adult howl with glee because another poster makes a simple error? Don't we all get over that behavior by second grade? Oh, and BTW, these, too, are "rhetorical" questions. Notice how writing "rhetorical" doesn't make it so.

I love the two albums that came out of the Kurt Weill deconstruction projects, "Lost In The Stars" and its later companion, "September Songs." Tying the two together are two different performances of "September Song" by Lou Reed about a decade apart, one a fairly cocky, ironic performance from a youngish man, and the other a more rueful performance by an aging avant-garde artist who knows he is past his prime.

I usually hate "Am I the only one who...?" questions because of their inherent narcissism, but it may be warranted in this case:

Am I the only person who liked the Jarvis Cocker performance?

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I really liked it. Having heard thousands of middle aged women sing it the same exact way for years, each trying to out-do the other, I thought this was a breath of fresh air.
The contrast between Cocker, who sang the song for what IT was, not for who HE was or who it was about, and the women in the audience slowing coming to recognize pieces of themselves in the song was brilliant. The song was presented as just another hipster song that nobody in the audience really paid attention to until the women started cocking their heads to it, almost like it was a dog whistle only they could hear. It was like that song is so true that even if the singer doesn't relate to it, the people it's about will. Loved it!

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Updated On: 12/17/13 at 08:52 AM

I didn't think he sang the song at all ... and by that, I do mean "literally." He fumbled most of the lyrics as written, he didn't sing the melody, and he didn't show any sense of connecting to the song in any way whatsoever. Zero thought behind it. He postured and posed and mocked. It was completely terrible.

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Updated On: 12/17/13 at 10:23 AM

to bestie, my heart:


“I didn't think he sang the song at all ... and by that, I do mean ‘literally.’”

I’m okay with that.

“He fumbled most of the lyrics as written, he didn't sing the melody…”

I only watched it once, but is that accurate? He liberally backphrased and added a couple of “ands” (I think), but surely you’re using hyperbole? The verses proper were at least 95% intact, right? The meat of the song? Or did I really and truly miss something?

“…and he didn't show any sense of connecting to the song in any way whatsoever. Zero thought behind it. He postured and posed and mocked. It was completely terrible.”

I just… disagree. I don’t know how to explain this difference of opinion. Zero thought? Zero? Lapine (or Haynes) went to Jarvis Cocker and asked him to sing this legendary song in this film about a musical legend, under these conditions, et cetera, X, Y, and Z, and Jarvis Cocker literally didn’t give it a single second of thought? And not only did he not think about it, but he scornfully mocked it?

Having no evidence to the contrary other than that I found it touching and compelling, I suppose that’s possible. It just seems unlikely.

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Updated On: 12/17/13 at 11:25 AM