Tag Archives: song of the moment

Song of the Moment: “Who Am I?”

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(Yeah, yeah, Les Mis again. For those of you reading this on Google Reader, pop over to my blog—I’ve actually started an “obsessing over Les Mis” tag.)

I think most popular musicals have one underrated song—the one that, when you first hear it, makes you wonder why you haven’t heard it before. For Wicked, it’s “The Wizard and I.” For Rent, it’s “Santa Fe.” And for Les Mis, it’s “Who Am I?”

This song comes at a point in the musical where Jean Valjean has learned that another man has been arrested and brought to court for his own crimes. In the song, he ponders what to do—should he say nothing, condemning an innocent man but also ensuring that the lives of the workers in the factory he oversees are not upset and that he will be able to care for Fantine’s daughter when she dies? Or should he go to court to set the man free, remembering the lesson he was taught years ago that set him on the path to reforming his life?

I love this song because it succinctly captures a moral dilemma without sacrificing the complexity of it. Valjean struggles with his identity—is he the mayor and factory owner responsible for the employment of many workers, or is he still the convict with the prison number 24601? Is he someone who can abandon those who depend on him? Is he someone who can let an innocent man suffer for his own crimes? Is he still the man he became after making the promise to the bishop years ago? Is he someone who can face the consequences of whatever decision he makes?

I wish I could find a good YouTube clip of the staging of this song. It starts out with Jean Valjean singing alone on a dark stage, and as it crecendos into the line, “Who am I? I’m Jean Valjean!” the courtroom where the innocent man is on trial appears behind him. When he gets to the last line, “Who am I? 2-4-6-0-1!”* he reveals his prison tattoo. But the brilliant Colm Wilkinson’s version here, at the 10th anniversary concert, is excellent.

IS IT CHRISTMAS DAY YET? AAAAAHHHH!!!!!

*Incidentally, these were the first words I ever wrote on this blog.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPIos2mXbUE]

Song of the Moment: “Atlantic City”

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Hurricane Sandy has come and gone. Here in Boston, most of us are relatively unscathed- my office was closed for two days, but I didn’t lose power and there wasn’t any major damage to the area where I live.

Sadly, not everyone can say the same. I’ve been looking at photos from parts of New York and New Jersey and they are just heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone dealing with the damage the storm has left.

My friend Carr, who’s a New Jersey native, posted this song on Facebook today. Bruce Springsteen is one of the best things ever to come out of New Jersey, and this is one of my favorite songs by him. The line from the song that’s always haunted me seems appropriate for the events of this week:

Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back

 
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-LIEr43_wk]

Song of the Moment: Brandy

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Happy birthday to one of the finest girls I know, Christiana Krump! I am so excited to be seeing her soon.

In honor of her birthday, the Song of the Moment is a song she loves that’s about another fine girl- namely, Brandy. This song is kind of like a character sketch- aside from being supremely catchy, it also has great lyrics.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-tRXewCAmU]

Song of the Moment: Mother’s Cross

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Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there!

When I was trying to figure out if Russell Crowe could sing, I discovered that he’s done more music than I’d realized. In particular, he’s collaborated quite a bit with Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea. Their most recent collaboration was released on iTunes last year, and there are actually a lot of great songs on it. There’s one in particular that I found surprisingly moving—“Mother’s Cross,” which they wrote for a member of the band whose mother had died. I still don’t know how his singing will be as Inspector Javert, but I hope he’s at least as good at that as he is at songwriting!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afy5ZOVxfSs]

Two runners-up. One is “Mama,” by Beth Hart, a song that I’m annoyed that more people don’t know. Beth Hart’s voice is just haunting and powerful and amazing, and it’s displayed perfectly in this song, where the only accompaniment is a piano.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO8bEpeQUl0]

The other, to show the darker side of motherhood, is “Farmer’s Daughter” from Crystal Bowersox, the runner-up from the last season of American Idol that I watched (and pretty much the only good thing that season). She wrote this song before she was on the show, and it was the title track on her debut album. She has said that, although their relationship is better now, her mother was an abusive alcoholic while she was growing up, and that’s what this song is about. The lyrics are really chilling in some places: “You’d come home with bourbon breath, Jack in the air/And when you broke my bones I told the school I fell down the stairs.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NR8tH9tDGQ]

Song of the Moment: “Lift the Wings”

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I love being Irish. On my travel goals, Ireland is the place I want to visit more than anywhere else. The actual percentage of my Irishness is up for debate (turns out my dad just likes to pretend he’s 100% Irish and there are actually a couple of other things mixed in there), but although diversity is clearly a good thing and I like learning about other cultures, I’m still firmly convinced that Irish is the coolest thing to be. Tonight I will be going out and getting in touch with my roots…by which, of course, I mean “drinking Guinness.”

So my Song of the Moment is one with Irish roots- “Lift the Wings” from Riverdance, a show I was very into in middle school and high school. I love the voices of the singers here, Morgan Crowley and Katie McMahon.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qIzDQQGZLo]

The runner up: this song, “Bugger Off,” which is one of many hilarious Irish drinking songs on a mix CD that my former roommate Christiana Krump has. I remember her playing this song for me not long after we moved into college.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv3qFrGlAgk]

Song of the Moment: “Beige Curtains”

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Riki Lindhome is the blonde one from Garfunkel and Oates (I can never remember which one is Garfunkel and which one is Oates), and both she and Kate Micucci have done some solo work as well. My friend Jenny introduced me to this Riki Lindhome song, “Beige Curtains,” which makes me smile every time I hear it. Even if you don’t have an ex as douchey as the guy in the song, I think every girl can relate to these lyrics.

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and whether you’re single, taken, or somewhere in between…be grateful this year that you’re nothing like a pair of beige curtains. You’re not a simple girl—you’re a Katie girl.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U5n_Q6JnRE]

Song of the Moment: “Tollite Hostias”

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In college, I sang with the chorale and loved it. Every year, we put on three Christmas concerts, and among the songs on my ginormous Christmas playlist are those from a recording of one of them.

Along with the traditional Christmas songs like “Joy to the World” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” one song we always sang was “Tollite Hostias,” an oratorio by Saint-Saens. It’s a Latin song that translates to, “Bring offerings and worship the Lord in his holy habitation. Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult in the presence of the Lord, for he comes. Hallelujah.”

But aside from the concert, we also sang it at every concert after-party at precisely midnight. Imagine a bunch of drunk college kids jumping up and down while singing a Latin song in four-part harmony- it’s pretty much the most amazing thing ever.

Oh, actually, you don’t have to imagine it! It looks like someone has uploaded a recording of it to YouTube. This brings back some great memories, and I’m glad that current choralers are carrying on this tradition. Enjoy.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEbZ43rWSwQ]

Song of the Moment: “The Green Fields of France”

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Today is Veteran’s Day, the anniversary of the end of World War I, which ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It also happens to be 11/11/11.

Believe it or not, I have a Veteran’s Day song for you. “The Green Fields of France” is an old song about the grave of a World War I soldier. It’s been covered about a million times, but this one is by the Dropkick Murphys. The lyrics are very thought-provoking, especially the last verse:

And I can’t help but wonder, oh Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you “The Cause”?
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,
The killing and dying, it was all done in vain.
Oh, Willie McBride, it all happened again
And again and again and again and again

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrQnnZJ68Xo]

Song of the Moment: “Leave the Light On”

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The most difficult nine months of my life started five years ago today. (No, I wasn’t pregnant.) I’ve told more people at this point what I was going through during that time, but it’s still too personal for me to write about on a public blog. I will say, though, that this was the first time in my life where I realized that the crippling anxiety I felt sometimes might be a legitimate problem and not just a personality quirk, although it took me longer to do anything about it.

During this time, I discovered Beth Hart’s “Leave the Light On.” I listened to it over and over, and it kept getting stuck in my head. The specific lyrics didn’t have much to do with my situation—the song is about Beth Hart moving on from her life as an addict—but I kept hearing, “I leave the light on, I leave the light on.”

I’d read The Song Reader, which I’ve talked about here before. And the thing that strikes me about this period of my life is that I stayed optimistic even though I was sad and terrified. I don’t know if I could be that way if I went through another bad period of my life like that. When I look back at my journals from that period, there’s a lot of hope and humor mixed into it. So maybe the song was telling me to “leave the light on,” or reminding me that I already was, but either way, it was very comforting. Despite its obvious, heavy-handed message, I still find it comforting in sad times.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFqgDGfW07c]

Song of the Moment: “We Like to Party”

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I remember my sophomore year of high school, my friend had a big Halloween party that was a lot of fun. This song was definitely playing there, and my friend was singing it in gym class on the day of the party.

Also, recently I went to 90s Night at Common Ground with some friends (and it was AWESOME). Beforehand, I was going through my 90s playlist on my iPod, and some people were giving me crap about all the Vengaboys songs I had on it.

Well, here’s “We Like to Party” as the Song of the Moment, so TAKE THAT!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zbi0XmGtMw]

Oh, and here’s a picture from the Halloween party I went to this past weekend. Happy Halloween, all!