I'm not talking about songs with horrible lyrics in general, I mean good songs that suddenly have a phrase that make you ask 'What is that supposed to mean?'
For example, in ACL's "One-Finale", where they sing 'This is what you call traveling. . .' I've never been able to figure out that line. Love the song, don't get the line.
I always took that line as meaning traveling across the stage. As they sing that line, isn't that the moment when they are in pairs with their arms linked strolling across the stage?
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."-Charlie Manson
The other thing to remember is that "ONE" is supposed to be a song like MAME or HELLO DOLLY, where the chorus is supporting a leading lady who is not yet there. A lot of that counterpoint melody is supposed to make the song sound like the lead line is missing. And it does.
When "ONE" is done as the finale, however, it is all about the chorus.
Yeah, I thought it might refer to a part of choreography, but why would the chorus sing about their dance pattern in a MAME or HELLO, DOLLY type of song? I don't know. . .maybe it's just me.
The point is that they're backing up the big female star. Because the finale is all about the chorus, you don't see or hear the star - it's just the chorus. They're backing her up. We don't know what she's singing about, and we don't know what show the song "One" is from. It makes perfect sense.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."-Charlie Manson
From the three-performance flop GEORGY (which was nominated for SIX TONY AWARDS????!!!!)
How'd ya do, and where's your monkey-doo? How'd ya do, how'd ya do--oooh. I'm a goat and you're my doggie--doo. How'd ya do, how'd ya do--ooooh. In a yellow sky, you know the sun is blue! So how'd ya do, how'd ya do-do?
This somehow got recorded, I listened to it exactly once about five years ago, and I still cannot get it out of my mind (trust me, the melody is even more inane than the lyrics.) Anyone have ANY idea at all what this means? Anyone know anything about the show? ANYONE????
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
I've posted about this before, and I still don't quite get it. In West Side Story Anita sings:
"A boy who kills cannot love A boy who kills has no heart."
Doesn't she know Bernardo killed Riff? Regardless of the situation, these are generic lyrics that, when applied specifically, don't seem to make any sense.
Broadwayboy, she's not stating it to say, "Dancers dance." Zach tried to make her into a big acting star. She's not. She'a a dancer. That's what she does for a living. Does that help?
jasonf, I've always taken it as Anita doesn't give a damn who killed who, all she knows is that the man she loved was killed by the boy Maria loves.
"How'd ya do, and where's your monkey-doo? How'd ya do, how'd ya do--oooh. I'm a goat and you're my doggie--doo. How'd ya do, how'd ya do--ooooh. In a yellow sky, you know the sun is blue! So how'd ya do, how'd ya do-do?"
"I've never understood "at sixes and sevens with you"
Sixes and sevens is an expression for confusion or disagreement. So she's saying that the people are at sixes and sevens with her because they don't understand why she has done what she's done. Updated On: 12/6/06 at 07:53 PM
Still, there are other lyrics in Any Dream Will Do that don't make a whole lot of sense. Like drawing back a curtain, someone weeping...it's just so strange.
I always felt that "God, I'm a dancer; a dancer dances!" was a way of saying that dancing is who she is. Her life doesn't feel whole without dancing. She's a dancer, and even if it means being broke or whatever, a dancer dances, because that's what she was born to do.
"It's not for sissies, contrary to popular belief." - Tommy Tune, on musical theatre.
I've always been bothered by the lyric "And just to clear the air/I ask forgiveness/For the things I've done you blame me for" from "For Good" in Wicked. I don't even think that's proper English.
"Ev'ry-buddy wants ta get into de act!"
- Jimmy Durante
"Breathe from your hoo-hoo."
-Kristin Chenoweth
In Les Mis: "When I get free, you won't see me here for dust."
What? Of course you wouldn't see him for dust. Am I missing a meaning of that line?
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife