Word: lyricist
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...record What the World Needs Now (Impulse!), an entire album of Bacharach compositions. And it takes even more nerve to start the album off with (They Long to Be) Close to You, on the face of it, one of the few irredeemably schmaltzy songs Bacharach and his long-time lyricist Hal David ever wrote. Indeed, despite the passion and intelligence of Tyner's playing, when we finally hear the notes that correspond to the words "Why do birds suddenly appear..." is it humanly possible not to think of sipping mai tais at an airport piano bar? Or of Karen Carpenter...
...clever performer and a witty lyricist, the man behind the Mountain Goats on his own terms stands as a giant of the bedroom-music scene. No matter that his following bears more resemblance to a secret club than music fans. Or that his set list is a conglomeration of travel itineraries and Latin aphorisms. With a broad smile and a warm hello, the club president is open and welcoming, and his concerts are large circles of friends who are all too eager to invite you into their slightly abnormal lives...
...that has all but vanished from the American musical. Terrence McNally's adaptation deftly re-creates Doctorow's tapestry of early 20th century America, with historical figures (Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman) mingling with fictional ones like Coalhouse Walker Jr., the ragtime pianist turned antiracism firebrand. Composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens supply a score alternately catchy (the ragtime numbers) and affecting (a wife's proto-feminist lament, Back to Before). And director Frank Galati and choreographer Graciela Daniele have created stage pictures that are both lovely and thematically apt, from the exquisite opening dance in which three groups--blacks...
When Utah Senator ORRIN HATCH is bored by committee hearings, he scribbles out the song in his heart. The Republican is a prolific lyricist, and the proof is on his new CD with composer Janice Kapp Perry, My God Is Love. "I'm in a lot of miserable battles in the Senate," Hatch says. "Music lifts me out of that." His melody making led to a duet with Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy. "We played our song Freedom's Light in the middle of negotiations on the child-health bill," says Hatch. "And Kennedy joined in. You know, he loves...
...horror tale, which has been touring the country (and having its songs recorded) for a couple of years. But head of the class among the new arrivals is The Life, a dark, brashly entertaining musical about the seedy denizens of Times Square circa 1980, from composer Cy Coleman and lyricist Ira Gasman. It is, moreover, one new musical that really shows the impact of Rent. The Life has had its sights set on Broadway for years, but might never have arrived if Rent had not made gritty New York street life safe for middlebrow theatergoers...