Word: lyric
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...form from the Catholic Mass, the Kyrie eleison, the Gloria, the Credo, the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei. As more or less ironic counterpoint, a populist band of sinners and dancers variously sing, intone or howl doubts and questions in a mélange of musical styles and pop-lyric words by Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz, the 23-year-old creator of Godspell, the musical version of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The dramatic climax of the work is the disruption of the Mass. It also involves the spiritual shattering of a young man who begins as a simple...
Scientists, like lyric poets, tend to do their best work before they are 30. Einstein produced the first part of his theory of relativity at 26, for example, and James D. Watson was 25 when he helped find the double-helixed key to DNA. Still, it was something of a surprise when the University of Chicago last month promoted Charles Fefferman to full professor of mathematics...
Meantime, a bushman (an authentic one named David Gumpilil) fearlessly traverses the country-the sky his ceiling, the air his blanket-boomeranging lizards and kangaroos in order to eat. Stumbling upon the lost souls, this natural man guides them through his Eden. Walkabout suddenly becomes a lyric travelogue, assaulting the harsh Flinders mountain ranges, trailing the little camels of the red desert near Alice Springs, mooning under the blooming quandong tree. Director Nicolas Roeg, who made his reputation as a cinematographer (Fahrenheit 451, Far from the Madding Crowd. Petulia), shows a precise and delicate Down Understanding. But give him anything...
...Freddy Perren and Deke Richards, who wrote Love Child for the Supremes. The tunes they are given are good black pop, the rhythms authentic rhythm and blues. But it takes some kind of private and personal magic for a twelve-year-old like Michael to sound convincing in a lyric like this...
Among the typically ambiguous drug-related lyrics that Johnson cites are Arlo Guthrie's permissive reference to "a couple of keys" (kilos), the Grateful Dead singing "What in the world became of sweet Jane/She lost her sparkle/ Living on reds, Vitamin C and cocaine." There is also Red Sovine's confession "I'm taking little white pills and my eyes open wide." Asks Johnson: "Well, what is the poor broadcaster to do? Do you think the lyric encourages the use of drugs, discourages it, or takes no position one way or another? The invidious thing about this...