For me, it's from Look what Happened to Mabel from MACK AND MABEL:
From now on, this pile of flesh'll be considered something pretty special...
It just puts this image in my mind of a pile of mush voiced by Bernadette Peters. What lyrics form musicals disgust you, confuse you, or just strike you as odd?
For a true Jerry Herman disaster there's the ENTIRE lyric of Dear World's title song. (I was only gonna use a fragment but I couldn't choose the WORST lines, so--)
Please take your medicine, dear world, Please keep your pressure down, dear world. Promise to thrive on each word your doctor speaks, He'll bring the roses back to your cheeks. For you've been a pallid and blah world, Stick out your tongue and say "Ahh," world. We'll give you plasma and tonic, by the spoon, So be a dear world, Take your medicine, dear world, Keep your pressure down, dear world, And get well soon!
Please keep your fever down, dear world, Please keep your courage up, dear world. Your vim and vigor is very sorely missed, He'll bring the roses back to your cheeks. Help us declare you "Patient dismissed." And stand on your crutches with pride, world. You've got to save your own hide, world. We'll bring you lilacs until you're back in tune So be a dear world, Keep your fever down, dear world, Keep your courage up, dear world. And get well soon!
Someone has wounded you, dear world, Someone has poisoned you, dear world. And those who love you defiantly insist That you get off that critical list. So make your recovery quick, world, We're sick of having a sick world. We want you dancing tomorrow afternoon, So be a dear world, Take the stitches out, dear world, Rip the bandage off, dear world. And get well soon!
For Good- "I ask forgiveness for the things I've done you blame me for"
It's always felt like such a backhanded apology. Like those people who say "I'm sorry you were offended" without admitting what they said was offensive.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never
knowing how
For the record, a friend of mine who was in the original cast of DEAR WORLD and he tells me that the cast hated that song. They mocked it backstage by singing "Please take a laxative, dear world..."
In that verse before hand Elphaba sings "Too long I've been afraid of, losing love I guess I've lost! well if that's love it comes at much too high a cost" then sings said line. S She is basically saying that the love she is seeking is gonna cost her far too much (morals, beliefs) and she will have to kind of trade in her soul to recieve the love she wanted. So rather then that she is basically gonna buy defying gravity, which is a weird way of saying she is gonna buy her freedom and not take any more crap.
"Life in theater is give and take...but you need to be ready to give more then you take..."
A lot of "Touch Me" from Spring Awakening, but especially: "Now lower down, where the figs lie." Like...I don't understand how that's romantic. I just picture statues with the fig leafs on them. It's just...sketchy.
For example. Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun. I just don't understand it. Anyone who does care to explain? :P Updated On: 6/20/11 at 09:47 PM
No one else "took care" of her, Only me! She was taken care of - Not "sex-u-ally"! And if you infer They were using her, I will shove you under the goddamn bed!
Okay, what does "taken care of - not sex-u-ally" mean? She's reffering to her mother, after all, so why would there be any such implication? And who exactly are the "you's", both the "you" she's speaking to, and the "you" the other "you" infers were using her? Who are these "you's"?! It's an amazing song, but that part makes me cringe/scratch my head. I haven't read the libretto. Does that clear anything up?
It's not a specific lyric, but I find it incredibly amusing that the same guys that wrote "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" also wrote "Western People Funny."
(what? I'm a Wicked fan hahha) I think that line means that since Elphaba came into Glinda's life, she helped her find a new path (as in "Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun) And the same goes for the second verse.
"Life in theater is give and take...but you need to be ready to give more then you take..."