"Sparks" from Tommy

I know I say this a lot, but this song is unbelievable. It's by the band The Who, and it's featured in their musical called Tommy. The musical is about a deaf, "dumb" (mute), and blind kid. It goes through his life, and actually the child ends up being a champion at pinballf (the story is fiction). The thing I like about "Sparks" is that it doesn't involve any singing. It is purely an instrumental break, and in my opinion it is the best modern song that doesn't involve voice.

Everytime I hear "Sparks" I get so pumped up. The offbeats and the drums rule the song, and I just love the whole aura of the composition. Every time there is a hit I just want to dance or do a hit myself- through dance. For me it is an incredibly moving song. I gets me so energized; I just want to jump around. I do admit that I have some bias. You see, I was in the production of Tommy when I was eight years old, and I was the main person on stage during this time of the play. However, I couldn't move since I played the deaf, dumb, and blind kid. I just fell in love with the song. Also, I think that the band that played at my community theatre did a better job than this video does with the song. I'm sure that The Who were just spectacular at the song, but the arrangement I listen to has a better balance of guitar, synthesizer, bass, and drums.

Maybe there's a reason why I just want to dance to this song when I hear it. Maybe when I had to be standing still during this whole, all I wanted to do was jump around and "sing along" (on ba). Perhaps I get energized from the song so much because I never had the opportunity to when it was so close to me.

Anyways, here is The Who performing the song. Try and listen for the melody, and perhaps you will find it stimulating as well.

Do-Re-Mi in Belgium

This video is about one day in a train station where everybody felt like dancing to the same song...



I first heard about this video from one of my teachers, and then I went home to watch it. It's very original and I think the idea is revolutionary. It makes everyone think that a musical was actually happening. When you see movie musicals, and you see all of the citizens and townspeople join in the songs it sometimes doesn't fit. Those people sometimes don't seem to have a purpose dancing other than to just be a part of a musical. For example, in the movie and play Mary Poppins, every at the racetrack starts to sing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (and that's the real spelling, too). They don't really understand why they are singing except that it's a fun song and tune. They don't all personally know Mary Poppins, but they are just singing the song because it is fun. In this video, the same thing happened. People just joined in carelessly and did the choreography like it was a part of their daily life. A musical really happened. Everyone has a friend or two that break out into song randomly, but very few people have seen over a hundred people break out into song randomly at the same time and dance in unison. It was like a show choir but with real people.

I have two favorite parts of the video. The first part is when the kids start coming down the steps. At that moment the little ditty that the twenty or so people were doing becomes a big dance. It really makes the performance more gravitational as well. My second favorite part is the old lady dancing. The camera only shows her for a few seconds, but it is a very funny part of the video. The lady showed how much organization this performance took to rehearse everything. It must have taken hours to get everyone to move like that together and in unison.

I really like the idea of what these people have done. I decided that if I was ever to make a movie musical that I would film it in this manner. I'm not really sure of the specifics, but I think it would be really interesting for audiences to see a side of society that is almost not real.

Little Shop of Horrors

The musical "Little Shop of Horrors" centers around a young man named Seymour who works at a flower shop in the poor part of the city. Seymour has found a very strange and interesting plant, and soon after Seymour and the shop start to become very prosperous. Seymour also has a crush on his coworker, Audrey, but she has a boyfriend- one of those boyfriends that beats up their girl and keeps her within his grasp. As Seymour becomes more and more famous, he also gets more attention from Audrey. However, there's a catch. The plant (named Audrey II) grows on blood and only blood, and as the plant grows it begins talk. Having a creative mind, Audrey II encourages Seymour to kill Audrey's boyfriend and feed the body to him, thus giving Audrey more happiness and making the plant grow even bigger. Seymour goes through with it.

In the second act, Audrey falls in love with Seymour through the song "Suddenly Seymour." Here is a video of it performed by my high school's production.



I think it's a pretty great song- definitely the most popular one from the show. From here on out the show culminates into a fight between love and money, and sacrifices from every character.

Wicked- For Good

Wicked is a musical that piggy backs off of the story of the Wizard of Oz. It's about how the Wicked Witch of the West, whose name is Elphaba, is actually a good witch in heart. It's about Elphaba's friendship with the Galinda. They led separate paths, but each path was affected by the other. Here is a video about the works behind this song, For Good.



Although this song is a pretty girl one, I feel it hits the spot when singing about compassion between friends. Usually friends don't tell each other how they appreciate one another (maybe just guys don't) and I think that's why I like it so much. It's a way for me to tell my friends that I appreciate them. I really enjoy listening to this song and singing along with it. The thing is, every single person you come into contact with changes you. Sometimes it changes you just for that day and then you forget about it for the rest of your life. However, some people have the capacity to change you for your whole life. Teachers can do this. Parents can do this. Friends can do this.