Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Unexpected Inspiration: Chess- the musical (part one)

Chess – part one.


This is easily my all-time favorite musical. It’s both dark and sweet at the same time. A bit disjointed---I think the script went through several re-writes—and it never quite got its niche, but is now a real cult favorite. The show was almost completely different for London vs. Broadway---and it seems it came around when US/ USSR relations were starting to get dicey again.

It’s the Tim Rice lyrics, man. The LYRICS. Bleepin' brilliant.

My all-time fave:

“Who need a dream,who needs ambition?


Who’d be the fool in my position?


Once I had dreams. Now they’re obsessions.


Hopes became needs. Lovers, possessions.”

OOoo.deep.

Here-- for your enjoyment.
Though to be quite frank, I'd watch Josh Groban read the phone book for two hours.

2 comments:

Michael said...

I'm not sure I would take Tim Rice over Jim Morrison, but perhaps that's my extra decade-plus showing. Saw a local production of "Chess" in Townsville last year, just before interval the lights went out in the packed auditorium, the emergency generator failed to kick in, it became utterly stifling, and my date and I walked out after a miserable half hour of that. What we saw was excellent though...

Dawn said...

Oh man, what a crazy night.
Well, Jim Morrison is also a poet. He is a freakin' poet, and as much as I love Tim Rice, I have to confess, his lyrics can be kind of hit and miss. But when they hit, they hit.

But yeah, Morrison-- Johnny Cash, Don Henley, and John Cougar Mellencamp--- singers who have their poetry skills showing.

Didn't Sting and Jewel have books of poetry out? I wanted to check out Jewel's ....