Musical interlude
When I was a kid and the internet didn’t exist, I used to spend a lot of time listening to records. That’s why, to this day, my brain still has access to the entire scores of many Broadway musicals and Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. The mind of a child is a spongelike thing, and when I say entire scores I mean every single word.
And so, with the news of Biden’s pardon of son Hunter, this song started to enter earworm territory for me. Yes, I know it’s a different kind of pardon, but here it is anyway for your listening pleasure:
In college I had a summer job on an assembly line in a factory. My duties varied, but I was typically standing and picking two things off of one conveyor (one with each hand) pivoting about 90 degrees and setting them on another conveyor. Pivot back and repeat. The entire motion took around 10 seconds and, for added cruelty there was always a clock within my line of sight.
It was mental torture. I had to stay alert enough to not fall or stumble (often I was within feet of a blast furnace) and there were hard, sharp surfaces everywhere. Yet, I found if I was too alert I would notice every 5 seconds transpire (one separate view of each of the two clocks in my sightline; pre and post pivot) and I couldn’t help but continually do the math on how many more repetitive actions I would have to do until the next, 15 minute break.
So I would play albums in my head. Complete albums, note for note, track by track. Had it not been for that I think I would have gone mad.
As The Lord High Executioner should say
… I’ll put the Bidens on the list,
The Bidens on the list,
They never will be missed,
Never will be missed, …
Once upon a time there was a better quality of satire available. Maybe A.I. will return to such artistry and create a new Golden Age for us.
The return of Tom Lehrer types, Aggie?
My parents loved musicals, and played the records all the time, There was an outdoor performance of Oklahoma! a couple of years ago in Virginia–the role of Curly was played by James O’Keefe, then still with Project Veritas. I thought he did pretty well.
Rufus, that seems like a curious job. What were these objects? Were they fragile? Did you get a chance on your breaks to pivot and whirl like the ladies in this clip?
Alas! I came late to G&S. It’s good to be reminded of their greatness. I couldn’t make out the lyrics well, so I extracted the essential bits:
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So please you, Sir, we much regret
If we have failed in etiquette
Towards a man of rank so high —
We shall know better by and by
But youth, of course, must have its fling
So pardon us
So pardon us
And don’t, in girlhood’s happy spring
Be hard on us
Be hard on us
If we’re inclined to dance and sing
Tra la la la la la
But youth, of course, must have its fling
So pardon us
And don’t, in girlhood’s happy spring
Be hard on us
Tra la la la la la…
But youth, of course, must have its fling
So pardon us
I think you ought to recollect
You cannot show too much respect
Towards the highly titled few;
But nobody does, and why should you?
That youth at us should have its fling
Is hard on us
Is hard on us;
To our prerogative we cling —
So pardon us
So pardon us
If we decline to dance and sing
Tra la la la la la la…
But youth, of course, must have its fling
So pardon us
And don’t, in girlhood’s happy spring
Be hard on us
But youth, of course, must have its fling
So pardon us
https://genius.com/Gilbert-and-sullivan-so-please-you-sir-we-much-regret-lyrics
The lyrics don’t explain what the offense and pardon might be, so I asked ChatGPT:
_________________________________
The “So Pardon Us” verse in The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan is part of the Act I finale. It serves as a comedic apology from the characters to the audience for the absurdity of the plot and their own ridiculous actions. The pardon is, essentially, for any offenses they might have caused in their pursuit of humor and satire.
The specific lyrics acknowledge that the characters are behaving outrageously and playing fast and loose with logic, morality, and propriety. This is a hallmark of Gilbert’s satire: he pokes fun at societal norms, bureaucracy, and human folly while reminding the audience not to take things too seriously.
The pardon is metaphorical rather than literal, aimed at smoothing over any discomfort the audience might feel at the exaggerated or nonsensical elements of the story. It’s part of the lighthearted tone that defines Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, where even the most absurd conflicts and resolutions are treated with good-natured humor.
@ Scott and other fans – Prof. Lehrer intends to quit maintaining his site, IIRC by the end of this December (although he just says “soon” here), so download what you want as his gift.
https://tomlehrersongs.com/
Thanks for the musical interlude!
I grew up in New Yawk City and my parents took advantage of all the cultural goodies, including Young People’s Concerts by the NY Philharmonic, ballet, kid’s programs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a good deal of family-friendly theatre including revivals of the classic musicals.
We also saw the entire G&S oeuvre produced in a small, intimate house by the Light Opera of Manhattan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Opera_of_Manhattan
…. and my parents also had the records to G&S and most of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals.
Like Paul in Boston – the G&S tune that comes to my mind as Trump announces his appointments is “I’ve got a little list”.
A lot of Gilbert’s most biting satire was directed at his era’s equivalent of the AWFLs and bien-pensant upper class “progressives”.
The Mikado’s goal to “make the punishment fit the crime” was lifted directly from the Fabians and other prison reformers of the day.
Similarly, the policemen in Pirates of Penzance talk about what a lovely chap the criminal is when not committing his crimes – lampooning the misplaced compassion of the upper-class do-gooders who were insulated from the ravages of violent crime, as they are today.
Some of Shaw’s plays take aim at similar targets.
SCOTTtheBADGER
Which reminds me of the lead-in of Tom Lehrer’s take on how different composers would have done to the folk song Clementine . His take on Gilbert & Sullivan: “full of words and music, and signifying: nothing.”
BenDavid
Another example would be the lampooning of aesthetes in Patience. Here is but one example. If You’re Anxious For to Shine
Gringo:
You may recall that I was raised on Tom Lehrer. My family knew about him through a relative who’d been a college friend of his, and so we had his records even when I was very little. That reference in Lehrer’s “Clementine” Gilbert and Sullivan spoof is, of course, to Shakespeare’s Macbeth in his “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” speech: “it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Neo,yes I knew that we were both raised on Tom Lehrer. Interesting that you had a connection to Tom Lehrer through a relative. In the 6 decades that I knew the patter introducing the song, I never made the connection to Macbeth’s speech. Maybe that’s why I never considered becoming an English teacher. 🙂
My favorite Lehrer line: “When Mozart was my age, he had been dead 10 years.”