Thursday 25 July 2013

Ziggy (Céline Dion)


Written for the French musical "Starmania", the song "Un garçon pas come les autres (Ziggy)" was revived for the English adaptation of the Musical, retitled "Tycoon", with English lyrics by Tim Rice. Céline Dion recorded both French and English versions of the song, and the French version was a huge hit in France in 1993.

The song is about a woman who is in love with a gay man. With a little lyric tweak (forgive me Sir Tim) here's my version of it about a gay man in love with a straight man. Comments welcome.


Saturday 20 July 2013

Can't Get You Out of My Head (Kylie Minogue)

Another Minogueologue! Kylie's career-reviving biggest international hit. The dreamy vocals, multi-layered production, futuristic video, relentless promotion and THAT dress helped it to become a huge robotic-dance-inducing floorfiller. Written by pop royalty, the legends that are Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis, the lyrics convey an almost-painful sense of longing. Whilst Kylie's delivery is sensual, I've gone for a regret and sadness-filled reading, verging on the obsessive.


Monday 15 July 2013

You'll Never Stop Me Loving You (Sonia)

Quite why the "From" which is clearly part of the chorus was left out from the title is anyone's guess.


This was Sonia's debut single and only number one. In its original form it's meant to be a happy song from an infatuated teenager, but without the Stock Aitken Waterman pop production the lyrics reveal an all-out obsessed stalker, possibly a murderer. I don’t think this is the interpretation Mike Stock was aiming for when he wrote it, but it’s the angle I've gone for. Does it work for you? 


Friday 12 July 2013

Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi (Kylie Minogue)

Kylie. The ultimate pop princess. She's one of very few acts who've managed to transition from pop puppet to pop legend. Despite some misguided attempts at credibility, acting sometimes like a teenager who needed to show the world how mature she was, she appears to have come to terms with what her audience wants from her and balance it with enough creativity and style to still be herself.

The key to Kylie's early success was of course the behemoth that was The Hit Factory. Stock, Aitken and Waterman are among Britain's top producers, and Mike Stock one of the best British songwriters ever. Their legacy should be similar to that of Michael Gordy's Motown. Yet the latter get critical acclaim and radio play and the former gets derided, endlessly referred to as cheesy, naff, throwaway, and forgettable, with radio all but banning them. Even 80s radio stations stay away from them - trying to erase a legacy of literally hundreds of hits - with very few exceptions which don't stretch much further than Better the Devil You Know, This Time I Know It's for Real, Never Gonna Give You Up and, rarely, Say I'm Your Number One.

I always loved the bit at the beginning of the video for Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi where Kylie is waiting (stood up by some moron who clearly hasn't realised he's keeping KYLIE MINOGUE waiting) and - after doing that thing that French people do of replying in English when you're actually doing your best to speak their language - a wise "old" French woman offers the timeless advice: "if a man is involved, do not be so sure". I also absolutely love the bit in the out-takes of "Kylie - the videos" where we see Kylie getting her umbrella jammed in the door, but I digress.

Although my reading of this particular song is very literal, I think it's a lyric that lends itself to a little PopMonologue. I guess you could call this one a Minologue, or a Minogueologue! I recorded just one take and decided that it was good enough. I have played with the meaning of some of SAW's other hits. All will be revealed...


All feedback welcome.

Thursday 11 July 2013

I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)

For years I've thought that the lyrics of this song would make a great audition piece, so this was the first video I recorded. There's so much emotion in the text, which reads like a monologue (don't most pop songs? - except duets, which sometimes read like dialogues, with the exception of the frankly godawful "When You're Gone" by Bryan Adams and Mel C, what's the point of duetting if you're both singing the same lines at the same time). Back to topic: the character in this song takes us from vulnerability to strength, from victimhood to empowerment. Gloria Gaynor delivered it beautifully on the original recording, but as it's nearly always the case with pop songs - and even more in the case of disco - the depth of the text gets lost in the music, often shouted out with abandon at wedding discos and hen nights.


Love feedback. Feel free to comment.

Another side of pop!

This blog collects short videos I’ve recorded using the lyrics from well-known pop songs. The videos are not meant to be a self-indulgent display of any acting abilities I may have. I'm not an actor. I've never had any training of any sort. I did lots of theatre at school and university, but that’s it. I've recorded the videos for fun and because I like the idea of seeing something that we're all familiar with from a different angle.

Pop songs are often dismissed as throw-away in terms of lyrical content, and I wanted to bring new meaning to them, or at least present them in an alternative way. I'm not interested in doing "credible". It wouldn't cross my mind to do a Nirvana, Bob Dylan or Oasis song (to the relief of those performers and their fans, I'm sure). It’s not art. It’s pop!

So far all the videos I've done we're originally sung by women. And the songs I've chosen rather camp affairs. Looking at my list of possible ideas for other videos, I can see a definite pattern emerging. Does that make me a stereotypical gay man? How one hates to see one's individuality is in fact a stereotype. Meh. The fact of the matter is that the songs lent themselves to the concept of what I want to do with PopMonologues. And camp work for little drama queen moments, which is how one could easily define these videos.

All the videos have been recorded in single takes using my iPad, so excuse the poor sound quality and lighting.

Although it somehow feels wrong to deliver these songs without their tunes, I had a lot of fun planning the setup and recording them. I hope you like them. All feedback welcome!


PopMonologues