best songs in come from away?- Page 3

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/15/17 at 7:20pm

Suddenly is used appropriately in songs like Suddenly Seymour where it's not being used to tell a story, but it becomes problematic in a song like Me and the Sky where it actually makes the song feel overly repetitive.  The choice to use the word Suddenly is uninspired.  If you're going to use a word to describe the quick passing of life through repetition, it is probably a better choice to choose a more interesting word.  I still think that, that is actually one of the least problematic parts of the song, however.  If we're going to talk about my biggest issue with the song, we need to look at the last verse.

"Suddenly I'm flying Paris to Dallas
Across The Atlantic and feeling calm
When suddenly someone on air to air traffic says
"At 8:46 there's been a terrorist action"
And the one thing I loved more than anything was used as the bomb
Suddenly I'm in a hotel
Suddenly something has died
Suddenly there's something in between me and the sky"

I would like to preface my following statement by saying that I do understand that the song is largely a word to word translation from Bass and so these are essentially her words. 1. None of these lyrics rhyme even in the slightest.  This isn't always a bad thing, but it makes these words land on the ear like a bunch of metal pots falling out of a cabinet. 2. Those last few lyrics talking about the actual attack are so distasteful and have always made me feel uncomfortable.  The build to bomb has always felt so corny and hokey.  It's lacking any sort of nuance.  3. The writers really needed to use that trusty old artistic license and change some of her words.  Some things that sound good spoken, sound clunky when put to music.  The writing is just far too literal and straightford.

I actually wish that I could make some edits and adjustments to the structure of this song.  I think the whole song itself is just really clunky in the rhythm and melody and that really doesn't help the lyrics either.  It just feels like a song that I would have written with my friends in high school.  Actually if I had written this in college, my teacher would have failed me for lazy writing.

Cam5y, there are always rules.  Just like singing or acting, there is technique.  You need to learn the unwritten rules of creative writing or else you will always come off as an amateur.

[cam5y]

Posted: 6/15/17 at 7:32pm

Perhaps, and I'm just spitballing here, the contrast between the charming, coming of age "suddenly I am a mother" and the last lines is, dare I say...deliberate. Perhaps they were designed to "land on the ear like a bunch of metal pots falling out of a cabinet." (Not bad, by the way). Perhaps they were designed to make you feel uncomfortable. Perhaps they were designed to remind those of us who were there how we felt when we were suddenly thrust into a new world.

I hope that one day, you learn the difference between rules and technique. And I envy your certainty that, in this matter, I am the amateur.

[cam5y]

Posted: 6/15/17 at 7:34pm

Bump.

[ChildofEarth]

Posted: 6/15/17 at 7:43pm

GeorgeandDot, I suggest you watch some interviews with Captain Bass. This is how she talks. Shining it and making it "proper" would not only make it sound inauthentic, it would be an insult.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/15/17 at 7:49pm

Cam5y, just so you know, I don't mean YOU when I say "you."  Just so you know that I'm not personally attacking you.  Perhaps that was the purpose of the lyrics, but it doesn't make any sense if it does.  I don't understand why the song would or should make you want to feel uncomfortable.  It's not a topic that should make the audience feel unsettled in their memories of growing up and navigating through life.  If it was a choice, it was a poor choice.

And also, unless you are a Tony nominee with a show on Broadway right now, you are an amateur.  I am probably much older than you and more experienced.  Also, there really is not that big a difference between rules and technique.  There are rules that you must follow in order to execute a technique.

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/15/17 at 7:54pm

ChildofEarth said: "GeorgeandDot, I suggest you watch some interviews with Captain Bass. This is how she talks. Shining it and making it "proper" would not only make it sound inauthentic, it would be an insult.

I don't think that making it "proper" is what I am suggesting.  I'm suggesting that the writers should take what she said and translate it in such a way that ryhmes and has a bit more musicality.  It was executed properly in Grey Gardens, where they took actual dialogue from these two people and rewrote it in such a way that kept these people's voices present while presenting the audience with music that was pleasing to the ear.

 

[cam5y]

Posted: 6/15/17 at 8:09pm

Don't worry about offending me. I promise you, I am older than you. No one who lived through 9/11/01 could possibly fail to understand why Me and the Sky should make anyone feel uncomfortable. Just in case you are in any doubt, it's 9/11 that should make the audience feel unsettled - not anything to do with "their memories of growing up and navigating through life."

As for experience, well, who's to say. There are 6 year old refugees on ships in the Mediterranean right now (or drowning) who probably have more life experience than either of us. 

And I have to say, "technique" means skill or ability, not anything to do with rules. Words have meaning, damn it. Sankoff and Hein used technique to write CFA, following general rules of English grammar. Sometimes they ignored those rules (like OMG, it should be "heave away, MY jollies," and what even is a jolly anyway) but most of the time they followed them. And, to take us back to where we started, in no instance is there a rule preventing one from repeating the use of "suddenly" throughout a song. 

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/15/17 at 8:20pm

^You must be quite old if you're older than me.  Also, I lived through 9/11.  I was here in the city when it happened.  I saw it with my own eyes and not through some TV screen.  I lost friends in the attack. I know that a musical that nearly ignores the entire tragedy to show Canadians dancing in a bar is not a show that I am going to love.  I found it a poorly written show that put a bitter taste in my mouth.  I do not feel compelled to argue any further  with some confrontational jerk on the internet.

[cam5y]

Posted: 6/15/17 at 8:27pm

And all of that is fine. You don't have to love it. You don't have to find it a well written show. What you do have to do is acknowledge where there are rules and where there are not rules. 

I was in NYC. I was in lower Manhattan. I was evacuated from my office. I ran up FDR Drive, with the debris falling down. I lost people who I knew and with whom I went to college. I looked back, as the second tower came down, and was pushed over by other fleeing people. The fire in London the other day has brought back memories I didn't know I had.

The point is, you don't get to dictate rules. You can say what you like and what you don't like. But you don't get to say that there is a rule that you can't repeat the word, "suddenly." Because there isn't. And you can.

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/16/17 at 8:08am

GeorgeandDot said: "...anyone with a basic english degree will tell you that you are strongly discouraged from using the word suddenly in any sort of professional writing.  It makes your writing unfocused..."

I'm not trying to be snarky, but it might lend some credibility to this claim if you cited a valid reference rather than assuming that reiteration of your point will make it so.

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/16/17 at 8:18am

GeorgeandDot said: "Suddenly is used appropriately in songs like Suddenly Seymour where it's not being used to tell a story, but it becomes problematic in a song like Me and the Sky where it actually makes the song feel overly repetitive.  The choice to use the word Suddenly is uninspired.  If you're going to use a word to describe the quick passing of life through repetition, it is probably a better choice to choose a more interesting word.  I still think that, that is actually one of the least problematic parts of the song, however.  If we're going to talk about my biggest issue with the song, we need to look at the last verse.

"Suddenly I'm flying Paris to Dallas
Across The Atlantic and feeling calm
When suddenly someone on air to air traffic says
"At 8:46 there's been a terrorist action"
And the one thing I loved more than anything was used as the bomb
Suddenly I'm in a hotel
Suddenly something has died
Suddenly there's something in between me and the sky"

I would like to preface my following statement by saying that I do understand that the song is largely a word to word translation from Bass and so these are essentially her words. 1. None of these lyrics rhyme even in the slightest.  This isn't always a bad thing, but it makes these words land on the ear like a bunch of metal pots falling out of a cabinet. 2. Those last few lyrics talking about the actual attack are so distasteful and have always made me feel uncomfortable.  The build to bomb has always felt so corny and hokey.  It's lacking any sort of nuance.  3. The writers really needed to use that trusty old artistic license and change some of her words.  Some things that sound good spoken, sound clunky when put to music.  The writing is just far too literal and straightford.

I actually wish that I could make some edits and adjustments to the structure of this song.  I think the whole song itself is just really clunky in the rhythm and melody and that really doesn't help the lyrics either.  It just feels like a song that I would have written with my friends in high school.  Actually if I had written this in college, my teacher would have failed me for lazy writing.

Cam5y, there are always rules.  Just like singing or acting, there is technique.  You need to learn the unwritten rules of creative writing or else you will always come off as an amateur."

Why is this dissertation in a thread entitled "best songs in come from away"? The intention of the OP was clearly to have folks talk about their favorite songs in this show, so why do you feel compelled to go on and on about the song you DON'T like?

[bwayandstuff]

Posted: 6/20/17 at 1:50pm

Obviously "Me and the Sky" is a favorite. Playbill just released an article in which Jenn says she raised the song a whole step because "she likes it up there" which makes me like the song even more lol

I also love the "In The Bar/ Heave Away and Screech In" sequence. And of course "Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere"

Honorable mention because it's not really a song but a transition but the whole moment where they use the flashlights to be air-traffic controllers is one of my favorite things.