Give Me Some Melody!
In the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, there's a song toward the end in which a trio of young composers and lyricists try to get an agent for the show they've written. The agent is underwhelmed by their experimentation, their breaking away from the norms of what is expected in a Broadway musical:
Why can't you throw 'em a crumb?Well, Hal Duncan, who is no stranger to gardes that are at least moderately avant, has now written lyrics to a song that most certainly needs to be given a melody:
What's wrong with letting them tap their toes a bit?
I'll let you know when Stravinsky has a hit--
Give me some melody!
There's tall men and short men,It gets fabulously raunchier from there.
And average height.
There's fat men and skinny,
There's black and there's white.
There's red, brown and yellow,
Broad-shouldered and slight.
And all in this garden of earthly deliiiiight...