[WARNING: some naughty words]
By Ben Folds and Nick Hornby (2010)
This is a good example of a musical theatre song not written for the musical theatre. And by musical theatre, I don't mean that it sounds like a musical theatre song. I mean it is written in character.
In fact half the songs from the album Lonely Avenue are character songs, probably due to the fact that the lyricist, Nick Hornby, is a novelist and knows a thing or two about writing in character. Really this album should be required listening on any musical theatre course.
The song's setup is a bit convoluted. Back in 2008 Levi Johnstone was the boyfriend of the daughter of then governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, who got chosen to be the Presidential running mate of Senator John McCain. So this Levi dude, who was seen as a bit of a redneck, suddenly got thrown into the headlights of national politics and the American media.
In truth, you don't need to know the whole story. I have no idea what this guy was actually like. All I'm talking about is the character presented in the song.
So we start in G minor with a nice falling bass line, dropping by semi-tones. It's slow and dopey sounding like someone not quite fully awake. Which is exactly where poor Levi is at.
Woke up this morning
What do I see?
Three thousand cameras
Pointed at me
Then in the next nine words, we've not only got his situation, we've got his character too.
Dude says, "You Levi?"
I'm like, "Yes, that's me, sir?"
Nine words. Lyrics are often about concision. And that's about as concise an intro to a character's voice as you can get. From those nine words, we know he's young, probably not that well educated and brought up to automatically call his elders 'sir', so we're thinking conservative rural America.
In the next verse, Levi gets the whole your-knocked-up-girlfirend-is-the-daughter-of-the-potential-Vice-President situation explained to him by the journos.
Then a change for the pre-chorus. Levi begins to assert himself.
So I say, "Mother-in-law? No
We ain't getting married
And that means a change in the music. Two nice long defiant crotchets on 'I say' followed by more agitated semiquavers. That contrasts with the more plodding quaver patterns from the verses.
Harmony changes too. The verses were in a bluesy G minor. Now we modulate to the relative major, Bb. Except we don't actually hit a full-on Bb chord until we get to the chorus proper.
I'm a f***-in' redneck. I live to hang out with the boys,
Play some hockey, do some fishing and kill some moose
Not only do we get a loud-and-proud Bb chord, it's an unembellished Bb flat chord. What I mean is the chords just use the notes of the basic triad. On top of that, the melody is based around these triad notes too. The makes for a strong and straightforward statement. Here Levi is simple guy trying to assert himself with tough guy talk. The song isn't about his character, it is written in his character.
Also that 'kill some moose' line is hilarious.
There's one other point to make here about writing in character. It would have been easy to make Levi a complete cartoon, a village idiot for everyone to mock. Now there is mockery in the song but there's also something else - a touch of self-awareness. Levi may not be the sharpest tool in the box but he knows who he is and what he wants. That instantly makes him less of a cartoon and much more human.
Self-awareness is so important when creating a fully-rounded character and it's something that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. What happened to Adam and Eve when the nibbled on the forbidden fruit? They realized that they were starkers and were embarassed. What's another word for embarassed? Self-conscious. In other words, they became self aware.
It's what makes us human and separates us from the animals. Especially the moose.
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