As I’ve written before, I tend to leave my iPod on shuffle, a rotation of 800+ songs that takes me a few weeks to get through. I have an odd policy of iPod maintenance. I need to get through the entire cycle before I sync the iPod over again to add or subtract songs. Yes, it’s weird… it’s just the way I work it.
I started a new cycle on the way home from work this evening. You know how your iPod can seem to know just the right way to put songs together sometimes. Of course, it’s all random… but there are times that it comes together just right.
This was one of those times. First song out of the gate in the new shuffle was “Bare” from the studio cast recording of Bare: A Pop Opera it was followed by “The Song of Purple Summer” from Spring Awakening. Those two songs go together so well!
“Bare” features the two leads from the show, two high school seniors guys who have been in love but now Jason feels the need to grow up and be straight, even though he doesn’t want to leave Peter. A lyric sample: “I will always remember / the first stolen moment / there you were kissing me / and time seem to freeze / now I stand at a crossroad / and I stare at a question / if prayer were the answer / I’d fall on my knees / but forward is calling / and I cannot stay here / a parting of souls / as I try to move on / how do I forget the dream / you shared with me.” The two boys sing together and apart and it’s an soaring and moving performance.
“The Song of Purple Summer” is the finale of Spring Awakening, coming at the end of a devastating second act. It gives you hope that those who have survived will find a way to be okay. “And yet I wait / the swallow brings / a song too hard to follow / that no one else can sing / the fences sway / the porches swing / the clouds begin to thunder / crickets wander, murmuring / the Earth will wave with corn / the gray-fly choir will mourn / and mares will neigh / with stallions that they mate, fouls they’ve borne / and all shall know the wonder / I will sing the song of purple summer.” Like “Bare,” there are awesome harmonies here and, it too, is quite moving as you might imagine.
I must have played this pairing of songs six or seven times on the subway tonight. It was quite wonderful. Good job, iPod.
