I’ve been making random lists of Occupy-friendly pop songs over at the main www.scribblers.us site, here and here. Realized how many musical theater ditties apply as well. (For our readers outside Connecticut, be it known that Occupy New Haven still occupies dozens of tents on New Haven Green and is one of the longest lasting and healthiest of the Occupy settlements.)
• “Solidarity”, Billy Elliot. Elton John may be among the one-est of the one percent—not just one of the most successful pop stars in history but also the writer of several long-running international music theater hits. So how’d he nail this mainstream underclass revolt anthem so deftly? By broadening its meaning beyond unions and demands. The song’s about conflict, fear and community, wrapped into a virtual reprise of the pre-rumble mash-up in West Side Story.
• “Capital Gains” from Subways Are For Sleeping. Despite some content regarding homelessness and mental illness which seem rather insensitive these days, this 1950s musical has several numbers which apply to empowerment, individuality, social revolution and urban anxiety.
• “Hooverville” from Annie. Next to the anti-apartheid shantytown protests of the 1980s, the tent cities set up by the homeless during the Roosevelt administration is the closest equivalent to what Occupy has done. In the musical, Little Orphan Annie sees both a Hooverville and the White House, and inspires FDR to broker his New Deal.
• “Alone in the Universe” from Seussical the Musical:
There are secrets on a leaf, in the water, in the air
Hidden planets, tiny worlds, all invincible
Not a person seems to know, not a person seems to care
There is no one who believes a thing I say
Well, I’m fairly certain that at one time or other
Great thinkers all feel this way
• “How to” from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Interesting that when all his business schemes fail and he’s about to fall straight back down the ladder he’s climbed so quickly to the success prophesied in the show’s title, J. Pierrepont Finch gets out of the jam by proclaiming that there’s an all-forgiving universal “Brotherhood of Man.”
• “One,” A Chorus Line. This anthem of exceptionalism could easily be turned into a satire on the 1 percent. The basis of so much of A Chorus Line, after all, is hard-working downtrodden folks dancing to the whims of a quixotic overlord.