Story Songs Fertile Ground for Musicals?

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Harper Valley PTA

I've always loved musicals (really? wow!) and story pop songs. Well-written story songs are more captivating than one idea songs ("She's So Cold" by The Rolling Stones, no offense intended), in the same way that musicals are. Some story songs have been made into tv movies ("The Gambler" by Don Schlitz, "Harper Valley PTA" by Tom T. Hall) but so far none have been expanded into musicals.


Speaking of "Harper Valley PTA", what about other great country story songs like "Ode To Billy Joe" and "Fancy" by Bobbie Gentry?

And what about my story song hero, Chris DeBurgh? I mean you can take any song off theSpanish Train album and imagine the full story. "Spanish Train" -- a musical about God and The Devil fighting for souls, or "Patricia The Stripper", or the World War I "This Song For You".

I still remember the impact of listening to theElvis version of "In The Ghetto" (by Mac Davis) as a young child. I've never forgotten it.

So instead of taking movies and making them into musicals, how about taking story songs and making them into musicals? I mean you've already got one song written!
By Suzy Conn on March 5, 2005 8:02 AM | | Comments (0) Fertile<\/a> Ground for Musicals?')" onmouseout="addthis_close()" onclick="return addthis_sendto()">


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