The Playwrights (Part 3): Shakespeare Eternal You win, Willy.
Time
Performer [Composer]
Song
Album [Format]
Misc
Misc –
REQ:Request
BED:Bed
NEW:New Release
( ):Label, Year Rec/Rel
Comment:
Background music, in order: (1) The Hollyridge Strings - "I Am the Walrus" ("The Beatles Song Book Vol. 5," Capitol 1968) (2) Simon Park - "I Am the Walrus" ("Something in the Air," EMI 1974) (3) Sadao Watanabe - "I Am the Walrus" ("Sadao Plays Bacharach And Beatles," Columbia 1969) (4) Bud Shank - "I Am the Walrus" ("Magical Mystery," World Pacific 1968) (5) Lord Sitar - "I Am the Walrus" ("Lord Sitar," Columbia (UK) / Capitol 1968) (6) John Andrews Tartaglia - "I Am the Walrus" ("Tartaglian Theorem," Capitol 1968) (7) Freddie McCoy - "I Am the Walrus" ("Soul Yogi," Prestige 1968)
[Original recording from "The Band Wagon," MGM 1953 / This track is only on the New Zealand version of the Crosby/Astaire LP] • (United Artists (NZ), 1976)
Comment:
The lyrics refer to "Hamlet": "Some great Shakespearean scene /
Where a ghost and a prince meet /
And everyone ends in mincemeat."
[Recorded in 1966 / Original studio version from "Younger Than Yesterday," Columbia (US) / CBS (UK) 1967] • (Columbia/Legacy/Sony Music, 2011)
Comment:
Partial quote from "Hamlet": "And kept it from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" as taken from “Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles / And by opposing end them?”
This is the first of two songs in the show that mention an Ophelia that I belatedly realized was likely not referring to "Hamlet's" Ophelia. Of course, these "other" Ophelia's must be regarded as reprehensible imposters and pilloried accordingly. Non est mea culpa?
Partial quote from "Hamlet": "We leave this mortal coil on which we strut and fret our weary ways, taken from "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil."
Partial quote from "Hamlet": "You may be the fate of Ophelia / Sleeping and perchance to dream" as taken from "To die, to sleep—
To sleep—perchance to dream."
Oh geez. I get seduced so easily. Probably not Ophelia from "Hamlet," but Shakespeare scholar Stephen M. Buhler does sees some Shakespearean echoes in this song, particularly relating to Othello.
[Recorded in 1974 for a planned LP called "It's All Over Now," unreleased until 1988 / Original studio album by Nick Lowe - "Labour of Lust," Radar (UK) / Columbia (US) 1979] • (Decal, 1988)
Comment:
Phrase used in this quote from "Hamlet": " “I must be cruel only to be kind /
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
At song's end, "King Lear" Act Four, Scene 6, lines 249-259 are recited:
Oswald: "Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain, take my purse. / If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body / And give the letters which you find'st about me / To Edmund, Earl of Gloucester. Seek him out / Upon the English party. O, untimely death! / Death!" [He dies]
Edgar: "I know thee well: a serviceable villain / As duteous to the vices of thy mistress / As badness would desire."
Gloucester: "What, is he dead?"
Edgar: "Sit you down, father. Rest you."
Slightly altered quote from "The Merchant of Venice": "For if I cut myself I bleed / And if I catch a cold I sneeze. / Have I not eyes to help me see? / Have I not lungs to help me breathe? / Have I not hands, organs, senses / And affections just like you?"
A lyrical depiction of Prince Hal (Henry V as a youth), as well as an altered quote from "Henry V": "Show me a breach / I'll once more unto it " from "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more."
[Recorded live by the BBC 2/23/1971 / Original studio version on "Harvest," Reprise 1972] • (Reprise/Shakey Pictures, 2022)
Comment:
Phrase from "Henry V": "The King's a bawcock and a heart of gold," the latter of which was first used by Shakespeare. And then, of course, there is Neil's hit "Bawcock in the Sand."
