Seth Rudetsky deconstructs a song from "Purlie"
January 27, 2024 2:11 PM Subscribe
Broadway musical historian Seth Rudetsky deconstructs the song "I Got Love" from the 1970 musical "Purlie" Sung by the astonishing Melba Moore. He's fun to watch.
Oooh, I love series like this from knowledgeable people. Anybody else got any favorite song deconstructors?
posted by humbug at 12:02 PM on January 29
posted by humbug at 12:02 PM on January 29
This is so delightful! I love the combination of his energy and analysis; it's like your friend playing something for you and lighting up talking about how amazing it is, but then adding a level of technical expertise of exactly how and why it's amazing. This sent me down a rabbit hole of various live Melba Moore performances of this, including her Tony Award performance, and seeing her perform it even more astonishing. You can really see her embodying the musical theater idea that when your emotions are too much for words, you have to sing.
I first encountered this song through this mashup with "Gimme Gimme", on a Sutton Foster album that includes a few other interesting combinations (my favorite is "Singing in the Rain" and "If I Were a Bell"). Seth talks about "Gimme Gimme" a little bit at the end (around 8:10) of this video, which is mostly about the complex "I Turned the Corner" also from Thoroughly Modern Millie.
In terms of similar analysis, Mateo Lewis has a series breaking down some of his favorite Broadway songs (and some songs from recent Disney movies). And in audio-only form there is a podcast called Putting it Together that's doing this with Sondheim's entire body of work, song by song, with lots of interesting guest experts. They've been going for years and just got to "On the Steps of the Palace" from Into the Woods.
posted by earth by april at 5:00 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
I first encountered this song through this mashup with "Gimme Gimme", on a Sutton Foster album that includes a few other interesting combinations (my favorite is "Singing in the Rain" and "If I Were a Bell"). Seth talks about "Gimme Gimme" a little bit at the end (around 8:10) of this video, which is mostly about the complex "I Turned the Corner" also from Thoroughly Modern Millie.
In terms of similar analysis, Mateo Lewis has a series breaking down some of his favorite Broadway songs (and some songs from recent Disney movies). And in audio-only form there is a podcast called Putting it Together that's doing this with Sondheim's entire body of work, song by song, with lots of interesting guest experts. They've been going for years and just got to "On the Steps of the Palace" from Into the Woods.
posted by earth by april at 5:00 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
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