So today I dug out my old CD of The Confidence Man. The show is a constant delight and certainly, I feel, a lost jewel in the history of American theatre.
Jim's music - although more eclectic and different in atmosphere to most of his work - is superb, but perhaps outshone by some of Ray's intelligent, beautiful, poetic, lyrics:
'On a wave of tender power we'll be carried through the night,
Spending hour after hour 'til forever is in sight,
Oh think of what we have — what we have and all I'm feeling
Isn't as revealing as when night comes stealing in...'
It's hard to see lines like this not being an influence on the evolution of Jim's lyrics. For instance: Life is a sandwich with nothin' between it = Life is a Lemon and I want my money back...??
There's also room for a lot of the music to still be recycled. The moody first half of Edging Into Darkness and the ecstatic melody from Masquerade have the potential, I think, to be moulded into a great future Steinsong. Who knows, perhaps they have already...
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