I am fortunate enough to be joining
for Tune Tag next week, and wanted to tease the episode.I continue to be grateful for Brad’s willingness to host, and openness to accept a request from a complete stranger. Without Tune Tag I probably wouldn’t have started this stack, and it certainly wouldn’t have the form that it does.
As I may have mentioned before, I had been going through a long stretch of not listening to much music — for various reasons but mostly getting busy and distracted and not feeling like I had the attention. But Tune Tag was the perfect way to stretch those muscles again; it provided a format to start thinking, in a small scale about what songs resonated with me and how I would want to share them. I was pleased to learn that, even though there are many people here who know much more about music than I do, that my tastes were quirky enough that I still had things to share that they didn’t know.
My ideal Tune Tag song is distinctive, one that at least some people won’t already be familiar with and, as much as possible, one that feels fully realized — that whatever creative idea animated the song it. I immediately started thinking of more and more songs that fit that description.
Several of my earliest posts were taking ideas for songs and writing them up here so that I wouldn’t be tempted to hold onto them to use in Tune Tag at some future date. Preparing for the episode next week I had a couple that I was particularly excited about, and here is the one that I didn’t choose.
Randy Newman “Relax, Enjoy Yourself” from Faust
It must be very trying to be bad all the time
Vicious and cruel and mean
When there's so much beauty
All around us to be seen
And so very little time in which to see it all
And feel it all
So little time
Faust is a concept album based very loosely on the Faust story. The songs are more or less related to plot but this number best demonstrates the strength of the album — humor, sharp writing, excellent casting, and some serious ideas. The plot is driven by a bet between the Devil (Randy Newman) and Lord (James Taylor) over the soul of a young man. If the Devil wins he’ll be allowed to return to Heaven. At this point in the story the Devil is feeling confident, and has gone up to Heaven to look around and scope out the place. He’s intercepted by the Lord who brings out a chorus of child angels to blast the Devil with an inspirational song, including a sole from one young angel (Kristyn Liang-Chan). The Devil is taken aback but then begins to question her. “How long have you been dead? . . . Do you miss your friends?” — the latter of which prompts the response, “Yes, I miss them, / I've tried to make friends here, but it's hard” which is funny and touching for making the afterlife sound like transferring to a new school. This prompts the Devil to rant about the unfairness of the system that the man who shot her will live another 65 years, happy and wealthy and then “be whisked right up to heaven.”
The whole thing has a perfect Randy Newman balance of humor and outrage. In general I enjoy every song that includes James Taylor; his performance of the Lord as egotistical, high-handed, and slightly confused is a delight, and the woman who sings the young angel wasn’t credited in the original CD liner notes (perhaps for the sake of privacy) but is amazing, and hits every line.