Misinterpreted Songs
Misinterpreted Songs
Misinterpreted Songs#0
Posted: 3/28/06 at 2:15am
I read an interview with Sondheim in which he stated that people misunderstand the true meaning of "No One Is Alone." It's not a "we'll be all right" number, but rather a warning that "we're not alone" therefore our actions affect someone else.
This made me think of starting this thread. Does anyone have any misunderstood songs? "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" comes to mind, because I just went to see a local production over the weekend. At the start of Act II, one of the people I was with commented, "I thought she sang that at the end." Taken out of context, the song does seem like Eva singing from the grave and recounting her life story. But within the basis of the show (during Peron's inauguration) Eva is assuring the people that even though she's risen to heights of glory and seems miles away, she remains a part of them. [The real Evita often reminded her followers that she still was working class, like them, despite her extravagant wealth.) The chorus puts this clearly:
Don't cry for me Argentina
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
re: Misinterpreted Songs#1
Posted: 3/28/06 at 2:21am
Sugar from tick, tick...BOOM!
But I think the misinterpretation is intentional.
Wanting life but never knowing how
re: Misinterpreted Songs#2
Posted: 3/28/06 at 2:27am"Broadway Baby"
re: Misinterpreted Songs#3
Posted: 3/28/06 at 4:08amum, hello? the first time "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" is heard in the show is during Eva's funeral at the beginning - so it's not a misinterpretation.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
re: Misinterpreted Songs#4
Posted: 3/28/06 at 4:11amI personally hate how a lot of performers treat Cabaret like some cheesy funy song, being that in its original context it couldn't come from a more painful place.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
re: Misinterpreted Songs#5
Posted: 3/28/06 at 4:11amI personally hate how a lot of performers treat Cabaret like some cheesy funy song, being that in its original context it couldn't come from a more painful place.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#6
Posted: 3/28/06 at 10:54ampeople who don't know the context of "everything's coming up roses" have no idea what it is about.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#7
Posted: 3/28/06 at 10:59am
LOL to Sugar from TTB.
Since the post began with a Sondheim song, I'll share something about one, as well. The first time I heard Not While I'm Around, it was a recording of a concert where the song was sung entirely out of context. It was so beautiful, I thought it was some sort of protective love song. Of course, after seeing Sweeney, I realized that it's not what I thought it was. After I saw the show again last week, I was talking with Manoel Felciano about it, and he said that it's very *often* interpreted as a "you're gonna be okay" love song, because it's just so beauitful, but that it's really a song about how dangerously doomed things are. It's a warning. Yes, he's saying that right now, everything will be okay, "but in time....." someone's going to get you. His interpretation reads the "but in time.... " fermata as an elipses -- so it's not that "but in time" things will still continue to be okay, it's that "but in time....." we don't know what, but something bad's going to happen.
Stand-by Joined: 3/6/06
re: Misinterpreted Songs#8
Posted: 3/28/06 at 11:04amblaxx, I agree with you about Cabaret. But I think the best versions are when the pain wells from deep within, occasionally bursting through the cheery, upbeat veneer. The veneer is essential to the equation. When I saw Teri Hatcher play Sally, she sang Cabaret ALL subtext, like she beat the audience with every lyric.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#9
Posted: 3/28/06 at 11:05amI think Cabaret was best sung with a visibly wearing veneer. The song would start off, though still clearly being an act, with well-feigned happiness. As it went on, Sally would be unable to keep the farce, and break down. Things are falling apart around her at that moment, and so is she.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#10
Posted: 3/28/06 at 11:12amNot a Broadway song, but Ruben Studdard butchered Superstar repeatedly. The song's supposed to be creepy, not a love ballad.
Stand-by Joined: 3/6/06
re: Misinterpreted Songs#11
Posted: 3/28/06 at 11:23am
Exactly luvtheEmcee.
IMHO, not even Loofuh came close to Karen Carpenter's Superstar. Her voice was so haunting.
Again, not a Broadway song, but I've seen many people butcher gospel in a similar fashion. Dorsey's most famous song "Precious Lord" (Mahalia Jackson sung it at Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral) is NOT an upbeat praise song.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#12
Posted: 3/28/06 at 12:53pm
Two songs come in my mind
the first is "my Funny Valentine" which is often sung on February the 14th although Valentine is not a "sweetheart" but the person's name.
the second is "I won't send roses" from Mack n Mabel that due to its witty and extremely original lyrics is thought to mean totally the oposite of what it really does.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#13
Posted: 3/28/06 at 2:11pmTomwing: You are SO wrong about "My Funny Valentine". It was written for "Babes in Arms" by Rogers and Hart. The word "valentine" is not capitalized in the lyrics of the songbook I have, nor is any character in the show named Valentine. It has everything to do with "sweetheart".
Broadway Star Joined: 4/8/04
re: Misinterpreted Songs#14
Posted: 3/28/06 at 2:34pmChildren&art, "My Funny Valentine" is sung to the character "Valentine"/"Val" in Babes in Arms (and obviously the lyric also works for "sweetheart"…there’s a reason Rodgers & Hart didn’t write "My Funny Irving").
re: Misinterpreted Songs#15
Posted: 3/28/06 at 3:05pmoops, my bad.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#16
Posted: 3/28/06 at 3:35pmchildren&art, I was referring to the actual song, which is sung at Peron's inauguration. Eva is asking the people not to cry for her, not because she is dying ("Final Broadcast") or dead ("Requiem'), but because she hasn't deserted them, despite her opulence. This is the song from the show with which most people are familiar. (I just sounded like Ruth from "WONDERFUL TOWN" right there!) When taken out of context and sung at talent shows or what not, people assume Eva sings it as her farewell number, which in fact she does not. And each time she sings "Don't Cry For Me..." ("Requiem," "The Casa Rosada," "Final Broadcast") it has a different meaning. So there. :)
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
re: Misinterpreted Songs#17
Posted: 3/28/06 at 3:36pmBefore I knew anything about Evita, and they were playing the Madonna version the radio ALL THE GOD DAMNED TIME, I just figured she was taking a trip somewhere.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#18
Posted: 3/28/06 at 4:02pmluvtheEmcee, her "Rainbow Tour" perhaps?
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
re: Misinterpreted Songs#19
Posted: 3/28/06 at 4:07pmI'm just waiting for the male chauvenist who requests "What's the Use of Wonderin'" to be sung at his wedding.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#20
Posted: 3/28/06 at 4:41pm
What I Did For Love
It was the 1970's. It's about the casting couch.
Broadway Star Joined: 9/28/05
re: Misinterpreted Songs#21
Posted: 3/28/06 at 4:49pm
Oh dear! I had never thought of A Chorus Line in that way but now it makes perfect sense.
Not quite meaning but more style... why oh why do singers insist on performing I Dreamed a Dream and I'd Give My Life For You at level ten heightened emotion!!!!!!!! The songs are actually quite happy to begine with (sort of) and there should be a natural progression in intensity and emotion.
I sometimes feel a lot of people in the amateur or student world just think oh this song is about x+y and I need to hit the following notes. When really the song is actually about x+y+zx2! But hey I am getting old and cranky 
Oh and if someone doesnt know what Songs for a New World material are about then they should back off. Some very complex emotions and characters but again people seem to think that cause JRB is the in thing they must butcher his great material with juvenille performaces.
re: Misinterpreted Songs#22
Posted: 3/28/06 at 4:56pm
Another non-Broadway: I remember interviews with Sting in which he recalled people coming up to him and telling him "Every Breath You Take" was their wedding song.
He would just tell them "Good luck".
re: Misinterpreted Songs#23
Posted: 3/28/06 at 5:15pm"Cabaret"
re: Misinterpreted Songs#24
Posted: 3/28/06 at 6:01pm
xxnewgirlxx, that was the example I was just about to post. The prom committee my senior year wanted to use the song as our theme. I advised they pay a little more attention to the lyrics.
and I HATE it when young girls sing Broadway Baby with the sort of voice Eartha Kitt used for Santa Baby. Pet peeve, that one.
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