Word: ballads
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...midphrase and to fill them with lyrics so clever they reward, and maybe require, repeated hearing. Like Sondheim, he is witty, wistful and wickedly funny. But Finn is readier to satisfy the playgoer's yearning for a hummable phrase. In Falsettos he gives every character a big ballad, ranging from the tender What More Can I Say to the abandoned wife's showstopper I'm Breaking Down to the AIDS patient's edgy, sardonic You Gotta Die Sometime. In all, the three dozen musical numbers add up to the richest emotional experience offered by any musical on Broadway...
...Junkies' lyrics describe the loneliness of travel and the heartache of lost hopes and broken dreams, but their message is one of strength rather than resignation. "Cowboy Junkies Lament," their ballad about poverty and troubled families, has an uplifting chorus: "Dark don't lie, dreams come true, all it takes is one or two/ Maybe just a few will see you through...
Adrenalize has the hauntingly aching rock ballad "Tonight." Joe Elliot's vocals have the right amount of angst to give the song its emotional strength. Phil Collen's guitar is hypnotic. This is not the only track where the guitar takes control. "White Lighting," a tribute of sorts to the Steve Clark, has mesmerizing guitar riffs that are reminscent of Clark's work in "Bringin' on the Heartbreak...
...essence, above all, is in a ballad like The Dance, a palliative for a generation that has begun to lick old wounds as it approaches middle age. "I could have missed the pain," he sings. "But I'd of had to miss the dance." The video of The Dance shows images of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and the song's autumnal, retrospective tone is what seems to touch millions of listeners. Says Sue Thayer, 43, a machine-shop secretary from Grayling, Mich., and a convert to country music from rock: "It's about love affairs gone...
Following a wonderful rendition of the ballad "Breathe," the group closed in its humorous path with an original rap called the "PC Blues." This satire poked fun at the prevailing Thought Police and their tired debate about the correct usage of "vertically challenged" versus "short." You be the judge...