Find your Grail...

[BabyJohn]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 9:29pm

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?

[Elphaba]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 9:47pm

not at all....a few same notes maybe, but totally different.......

[joniray]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 10:03pm

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?)

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 10:07pm

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.

Updated On: 7/22/05 at 10:07 PM

[TabooPhan1]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 10:16pm

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...

[joniray]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 10:16pm

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.

[joniray]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 10:22pm

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

[TabooPhan1]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 10:35pm

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.

[rclocalz]

Posted: 7/22/05 at 11:25pm

I love Spamalot and I could care less about where it's music came from. Again, this is my opinion.