Every Monday throughout 2023 I will be highlighting a different piece of music that I have either written or been closely involved with. And this week, prepare to just calm down and chill for a bit because it’s…
What’s it called?
Stop and Smell the Roses.
What’s it from?
My 2019 ragtime musical ‘It’s Not Really the Apocalypse’, which tells the story of four old friends who wake up one morning to discover they are the only people remaining on planet Earth.
What’s it all about?
This song comes quite late in the show, when all the characters have worked through their various conflicts and are beginning to see their situation with new eyes. Joe in particular has realised the folly of his workaholic tendencies, and resolves to let go a bit more and make time to enjoy the world that still remains. In that spirit, he whisks Helen and Lizzie off to the beach for some rest and relaxation, and while there he tells them a story that may even be based loosely on real life. Not that he’d admit it!
Listen out for…
The assortment of rose-related idioms that I managed to squeeze into the lyrics from 5:00 onwards. A particular favourite – and possibly my proudest lyric of the whole show – is my variation on Shakespeare’s “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” quote. When writing that section I initially came up with the idea of “They feel at home in [something something], By other names they smell as sweet”, however now I needed to think of two different soil types, both a single syllable long, one of which rhymed with ‘sweet’. Hmm… Then in a flash of inspiration the solution came to me, resulting in the line:
By other names they smell as sweet.”
Which gives me even greater satisfaction because ‘loam’ also forms an extra rhyme with ‘home’. Lyric writing can be hard at times, but occasionally everything just falls into place like a perfect jigsaw!
Find out more at…
www.michaelgrantmusician.com/inrta
