Re: Kate's Carnival Music

[MasterMind <VNOZICK@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU>]

> From: ST701790@brownvm.brown.edu (Zimri Smith)

> My impression of the "carnival music" theme in
> Coffee Homeground,
> There Goes a Tenner,
> etc.
> 
> 
> is that it is more Kurt Weill-like than carnival like.
> I'd say the same for Tori's "Leather," by the way.

hmmm...i'm listening to 'leather' right now and i'm not sure if i'd say that. 
it sounds more like a player piano than a carnival.  is that splitting hairs? 

actually, i always thought of songs such as coffee homeground, there goes a
tenner, etc. as the 'humour' songs.  songs where kate or whoever just has
*fun*, not necessarily dancing around type of fun (such as in 'the big sky' :-) 
), but a let's-write-something-humourous (and succeed) type of song.  the
picture of the poison in the coffee is hilarious.  and the way kate sings it is
just merely fun -- you can tell she's enjoying singing coffee-ee-ee-ee... 
there goes a tenner is interesting to me, because i always imagined it as a
laurel and hardy type of comedic film.  i tried directing this as a video in my
directing class last semester with keystone cops, and it works! (well, maybe
not in *my* video, since i didn't have the skill to do it justice, and my lead
didn't show up for the performance, so i had to play the role at the last
minute).  but it still seems like the bumbling gangsters/keystone cops type of
thing.  to show you what i mean, imagine the cops from pirates of penzance. 
i wouldn't necessarily classify 'leather' in this group...a better example of
this to me is 'happy phantom'.  'judy garland taking buddha by the hand', 'they
say confucius does his crossword with a pen' are just such absurd lines that
they're fantastic!  or imagine chasing the nuns out in the yard.  these are the
songs that i would kill to have written.  another example comes from kirsty
maccoll -- 'saving up your bottle tops for your free piece of mind' (lyrics are
not exact...i only have little earthquakes with me today).  what genius!!!  

does any of that make sense?  so i guess it has more to do with the lyrics for
me than the music.  but that's why i love kate, tori, etc....they're such
wonderful lyricists as well as musicians.  (btw -- my favorite broadway
composers are gilbert & sullivan and cole porter.  notice a trend?)
what's best is when they combine humorous lyrics with humourous music. 
heaven, indeed.

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