Star-laden (John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Bill Murray, Vanessa Redgrave, Susan
Sarandon, John Torturo and Emily Watson, and acclaimed actor Tim Robbins,
as director, to name but a few), Cradle Will Rock has the shadow of
Orson Welles looming over it. It was Welles who directed the original 1937
musical (produced by John Houseman) that was shut down by government injunction
for the cast's alleged left wing politics. Quoting the press release that
came with this disc, "It was performed guerrilla-style in an empty theatre
without costumes, scenery or props. The music was composed by Marc Blitzstein,
who fashioned his labour opera somewhere between realism, romance, satire,
vaudeville, comic strip, Gilbert and Sullivan, Brecht and Weill..."
No, this is no comfortable M-G-M musical but biting satire. Ruritania and
back-stage romance ditched for grubby reality and factory strikes. Its down-to
earth reality influenced a new generation of composers notably Leonard Bernstein
(think of West Side Story).
David Robbins not only arranged, produced and recorded Blitzstein's music
but also wrote additional original music for the film seeking a balance between
many different types of music to provide a 1930s feel that would compliment
Blitzstein's music. Accordingly Robbins immersed himself in klezmer, Hungarian
gypsy, Italian and Irish folk songs, Spanish dance, American jazz and vaudeville.
The instrumentalists on this recording play Blitzstein's original arrangements
and orchestrations that were unable to be performed in 1937. The combo comprises:
snare drum, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, sax and accordion, all adding richness
and zest to the piano parts. [These same musicians appear in the film.] 'Cradle
Opening Theme' has this ethnic mix with fiddle, banjo, clarinet prominent
but all sounding terribly world-weary. This despondency in varying degrees
stalks most of the nine or ten instrumental numbers but I hasten to add they
are not displeasing to the ear. Their colour and use of imaginative instrumental
groupings hold the attention and there are tango ('Diego gets Thrown Out')
and conga ('Renegade Conga') rhythms to add some zest. I would mention one
cue, 'Marc in the Park' a curious piece in accented hesitant-step rhythm
that is a memorable character vignette.
Most of the vocals were performed by the actors. Generally, musical numbers
in a film are lip-synced but it was felt that to preserve the desired feeling
of reality, it was better to have "the immediacy, nervousness, imperfection
and excitement of live performances."
The score opens with a dirge-like, hollow-sounding song 'Nickel Under the
Foot' that suggests hopelessness with Polly Jean Harvey despairing about
men and the grind of working life. "Some guy's an ace, without a doubt, turns
out to be a bastard - and the other way about" and "if you're sweet you'll
grow rotten, " she sings. Emily Watson adds off-key gloom with 'Molly's Song'
in which she bemoans that she can only work on two days of the week and needs
to eat on the rest. Here I would like to raise a point. Miss Watson's enunciation
is not as clear as it could be and one has to strain, with little success
I might add, to hear what she is singing. In a show like this lyrics are
as important as the spoken dialogue. Instead of so many pictures on their
very long fold-out booklet, it would have helped if RCA had printed the lyrics
of these songs. This would have helped us to savour to the full the irony
and biting satire of these songs. In 'Joe Worker', Audra Mcdonald proclaims
that the worker is "gypped from the start… feed him out of the garbage
cans, house him in the slums." "Reverend Salvation" sets its targets at the
church, its priests bending with the wind of prevailing opinion but always
eager for full collection boxes. As war threatens Reverend Salvation insists
"thou shalt not kill..peace at any price - Collection!." When peace is threatened
he insists peace, inner peace is the thing but that Americans cannot countenance
peace without honour - Collection! Then, when war comes, it is a war to end
the war - Collection!
As an antidote to all the rather heavy, politically-orientated material there
are one or two happier songs. 'Honolulu', "where boredom will be banned",
is sung very much in the style of Al Jolson. This song is clearly more for
the folks on the right side of the tracks as is 'Croon Spoon' sung in those
high squeaky voices and style of the 1920s-30s. Rich girl Susan Sarandon
surprises delightfully, singing in full flapper mode. 'Art for Art's Sake',
is another amusing satirical number about the rich being required to continually
sponsor art. As one lady in an advanced state of ennui declares, "Did I tell
you about the poet, he has such divine eyes, and such sensitive hands; and
he told me I am an old soul, a very old soul… But they're always after
my money"
A score that is very much off the beaten track but one that becomes more
and more rewarding on repeated hearings
Reviewer
Ian Lace
OST
