Trunk songs

[scenicdesign71]

...just to pick an "umbrella" topic for which the following might serve as an appetizer:

Surely this must be discussed in Look, I Made A Hat, but I either forgot or hadn't realized that Road Show's "It's In Your Hands Now" is the cut "Flag Song" from Assassins, with a new lyric and a slightly modified ending.

YOU CAN GRIPE ALL YOU LIKE,                           THERE'S A ROAD STRAIGHT AHEAD,
YOU CAN SNEER, "WHERE ARE THE HEROES?"                THERE'S A CENTURY BEGINNING!
YOU CAN SHOUT ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING'S                  THERE'S A LAND OF OPPORTUNITY
A LIE.                                                AND MORE...
THEN THAT FLAG GOES BY...                             IT'S IN YOUR HANDS NOW.
(etc.)                                                                                                            (etc.)

What makes this stand out (apart from the unusual, though not entirely unprecedented, phenomenon of SJS reusing a trunk song) is that it spreads a single easily-recognizable musical motif across two shows -- because this motif remains quite legible in Assassins even in the absence of "Flag Song", threaded throughout the Balladeer's part in "Another National Anthem" :

I JUST HEARD ON THE NEWS
WHERE THE MAILMAN WON THE LOTTERY!
GOES TO SHOW: WHEN YOU LOSE,
WHAT YOU DO IS TRY AGAIN...

And what makes this bit of recycling even more interesting is that, in both shows, the motif signifies substantially the same idea: the American Dream of limitless possibility, earnestly articulated by the singer in the inspirational (and aspirational) terms of patriotic uplift -- even though both shows make a point of complicating those terms with an unsettling dollop of skepticism.

Indeed, if I'm not mistaken, even the assassins' "anthem" itself is a variation on the same musical idea, set to an increasingly martial accompaniment -- as the lyric of their triumphant final chorus suggests, they're battling the Balladeer on his very own upbeat, "can-do" musical turf.  (One reading of Assassins might hold that their acts represent not a cynical or vengeful rejection of the American Dream so much as a last-ditch, desperately sincere attempt to stake their claim to it, by what they've become convinced are the only means available to them.)  Try singing their verses in direct counterpoint to his, and it's pretty much a case of "76 Trombones / Goodnight, My Someone":

THERE'S ANOTHER NATIONAL ANTHEM                        AND IT DIDN'T MEAN A NICKEL.
PLAYING -- NOT THE ONE YOU CHEER                       YOU JUST SHED A LITTLE BLOOD,
AT THE BALLPARK:                                       AND A LOT OF PEOPLE SHED
WHERE'S MY PRIZE?                                      A LOT OF TEARS.

Okay, not really.  In "76/Goodnight" Harold's and Marion's melodies are essentially identical, merely dressed up in contrasting rhythms and tempi -- march vs. lullaby.  In "Another National Anthem" the two parts share a similar tempo but diverge in terms of both melody and phrasing (the Balladeer's expansive legato vs. the assassins' more militant attack); still, they would harmonize well if sung together.  Or, if, as in The Music Man, you were to alternate them line by line, it would only emphasize the similarities between the two parts.  My point is simply how closely the assassins and the Balladeer are circling around one another musically, despite the singers' apparently antagonistic tones and perspectives.

Given SJS's aversion to repeating himself, I'm tempted to wonder whether this later "recycling" of the tune in Road Show wasn't almost a deliberate "Easter egg" for those who already know Assassins and "Another National Anthem" (even if they haven't heard "Flag Song," as I hadn't until about a year ago) -- and who might thereby be alerted, just a bit more pointedly, to the vein of ambivalence running through his picaresque take on the Mizner brothers.  With either lyric ("Flag Song" or "It's In Your Hands Now"), it's a legitimately stirring piece of music.  But hearing it in its Road Show context while recognizing the melody, even half-consciously, from "Another National Anthem" has a way of subtly reinforcing the suggestion that Papa's legacy of optimism isn't without its pitfalls.