As I mentioned yesterday, Madonna--like Aslan--is on the move. She is sixty, but, still, she is going to put on her face and sing for the masses, on tour, once more. As I mentioned yesterday, Madonna's news has me thinking about a curious moment in her career--"Dick Tracy."
As I recall, "Dick Tracy" doesn't really work. I'm not sure why. It has Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, and Mandy Patinkin. It has a Sondheim score--for which (or for one part of which) Sondheim was justly handed an Academy Award. "Dick Tracy" has bright colors and opulent noir sets and larger-than-life characters, but, as I recall, the movie is a slog. You can't always make smart Hollywood predictions. Such is life.
Madonna didn't make much of an impact in "Dick Tracy," but she did apparently have an affair, backstage, with Warren Beatty. Perhaps this affair was invigorating: Around this same time, Madonna released an album, "I'm Breathless," and it featured one of her all-time greatest works, "Vogue." ("Breathless" was the name of Madonna's "Dick Tracy" character, and "I'm Breathless" featured a few "Dick Tracy" songs."Vogue" was drafted--and tacked on--at the last minute, because the album seemed "too slight." Imagine that. "Vogue": an afterthought!)
If you ask me, three of the Sondheim contributions to "Dick Tracy" count as great songs. Two were recorded by Madonna: "Sooner or Later" and "Back in Business." (And you can read about both elsewhere in this blog.) The third masterpiece from "Dick Tracy" is "Live Alone and Like It."
Here, Sondheim is channeling Bobby, from "Company." "All the stings, the ugly things--we'll keep unsaid! We'll look not too deep....We'll go not too far....We won't have to give up a thing! We'll stay who we are...." "Live Alone and Like It" has a similarly jaundiced attitude toward emotional commitment; it's a song for someone who has refused attachments.
LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT,
FREE AS THE BIRDS IN THE TREES...
HIGH ABOVE THE BRIARS...
LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT,
DOING WHATEVER YOU PLEASE...
WHEN YOUR HEART DESIRES...
FREE TO HANG AROUND OR FLY AT ANY OLD TIME.
(The bird metaphor allows Sondheim to rhyme "briars" with "desires," and the world is a better place for that. Also, note that the freedom of the high-fliers in the treetops is contrasted with the grubbier earthbound concerns found in the "briars," the prickly briars that are family life, emotional-entanglement-central. Who thinks this way?)
NO EQUIVOCATION.
MOST OF ALL: NO GUARANTEES.
THAT CAN BE YOUR MOTTO.
FREE OF OBLIGATION.
ONLY THE MURMURING BREEZE--
AS AN OBBLIGATO.
LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT:
WHY IS THAT SUCH A CRIME?
At this phase in his career, was there anything Sondheim couldn't do? An obbligato is a necessary accompaniment in a musical number. Normally, your spouse would be your obbligato. But if you're single? Your accompaniment is only "the murmuring breeze." So very strange to think that writing of this caliber was added to "Dick Tracy." Imagine if--today--Sondheim added verses to "The Avengers," or to "Spider-Man: Homecoming."
FREE TO CALL THE TUNE.
FREE TO SAY IF YOU'RE GONNA WORK OR PLAY.
YOU CAN HAVE THE MOON--
BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE IT NIGHT AND DAY.
The colloquial flavor perfectly matches the setting of "Dick Tracy": "call the tune," "work or play," "have the moon." And then the subversive smartness in the twist: "Having the moon night AND day"--being emotionally tied down at all times--could be too much of a good thing.
A song is a one-act play; the ending should have a sense of completion. Sondheim does this, here, by returning us to the bird metaphor with which he had started his argument:
LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT--
DON'T COME DOWN FROM THAT TREE.
THAT'S THE ANSWER FOR ME!
Rumi said: Do the thing that lifts the corners of your mouth. And I feel I can *sense* Sondheim smiling throughout this song. Notice the three stressed "l" sounds in the title: LIVE aLONE and LIKE it. Perhaps, after that phrase, the song just wrote itself. To Sondheim! To Madonna! Happy Friday!
As I recall, "Dick Tracy" doesn't really work. I'm not sure why. It has Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, and Mandy Patinkin. It has a Sondheim score--for which (or for one part of which) Sondheim was justly handed an Academy Award. "Dick Tracy" has bright colors and opulent noir sets and larger-than-life characters, but, as I recall, the movie is a slog. You can't always make smart Hollywood predictions. Such is life.
Madonna didn't make much of an impact in "Dick Tracy," but she did apparently have an affair, backstage, with Warren Beatty. Perhaps this affair was invigorating: Around this same time, Madonna released an album, "I'm Breathless," and it featured one of her all-time greatest works, "Vogue." ("Breathless" was the name of Madonna's "Dick Tracy" character, and "I'm Breathless" featured a few "Dick Tracy" songs."Vogue" was drafted--and tacked on--at the last minute, because the album seemed "too slight." Imagine that. "Vogue": an afterthought!)
If you ask me, three of the Sondheim contributions to "Dick Tracy" count as great songs. Two were recorded by Madonna: "Sooner or Later" and "Back in Business." (And you can read about both elsewhere in this blog.) The third masterpiece from "Dick Tracy" is "Live Alone and Like It."
Here, Sondheim is channeling Bobby, from "Company." "All the stings, the ugly things--we'll keep unsaid! We'll look not too deep....We'll go not too far....We won't have to give up a thing! We'll stay who we are...." "Live Alone and Like It" has a similarly jaundiced attitude toward emotional commitment; it's a song for someone who has refused attachments.
LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT,
FREE AS THE BIRDS IN THE TREES...
HIGH ABOVE THE BRIARS...
LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT,
DOING WHATEVER YOU PLEASE...
WHEN YOUR HEART DESIRES...
FREE TO HANG AROUND OR FLY AT ANY OLD TIME.
(The bird metaphor allows Sondheim to rhyme "briars" with "desires," and the world is a better place for that. Also, note that the freedom of the high-fliers in the treetops is contrasted with the grubbier earthbound concerns found in the "briars," the prickly briars that are family life, emotional-entanglement-central. Who thinks this way?)
NO EQUIVOCATION.
MOST OF ALL: NO GUARANTEES.
THAT CAN BE YOUR MOTTO.
FREE OF OBLIGATION.
ONLY THE MURMURING BREEZE--
AS AN OBBLIGATO.
LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT:
WHY IS THAT SUCH A CRIME?
At this phase in his career, was there anything Sondheim couldn't do? An obbligato is a necessary accompaniment in a musical number. Normally, your spouse would be your obbligato. But if you're single? Your accompaniment is only "the murmuring breeze." So very strange to think that writing of this caliber was added to "Dick Tracy." Imagine if--today--Sondheim added verses to "The Avengers," or to "Spider-Man: Homecoming."
FREE TO CALL THE TUNE.
FREE TO SAY IF YOU'RE GONNA WORK OR PLAY.
YOU CAN HAVE THE MOON--
BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE IT NIGHT AND DAY.
The colloquial flavor perfectly matches the setting of "Dick Tracy": "call the tune," "work or play," "have the moon." And then the subversive smartness in the twist: "Having the moon night AND day"--being emotionally tied down at all times--could be too much of a good thing.
A song is a one-act play; the ending should have a sense of completion. Sondheim does this, here, by returning us to the bird metaphor with which he had started his argument:
LIVE ALONE AND LIKE IT--
DON'T COME DOWN FROM THAT TREE.
THAT'S THE ANSWER FOR ME!
Rumi said: Do the thing that lifts the corners of your mouth. And I feel I can *sense* Sondheim smiling throughout this song. Notice the three stressed "l" sounds in the title: LIVE aLONE and LIKE it. Perhaps, after that phrase, the song just wrote itself. To Sondheim! To Madonna! Happy Friday!
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