Working on a Song

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Working on a Song Page 9

by Anaïs Mitchell

I wanna lie down forever

  Hades

  Hey, little songbird, you got something fine

  You’d shine like a diamond down in the mine

  And the choice is yours, if you’re willing to choose

  Seeing as you’ve got nothing to lose

  And I could use a canary

  Eurydice

  Suddenly nothing is as it was

  Where are you now, Orpheus?

  Wasn’t it gonna be the two of us?

  Weren’t we birds of a feather?

  Hades

  Hey, little songbird, let me guess

  He’s some kind of poet, and he’s penniless

  Give him your hand, he’ll give you his hand-to-mouth

  He’ll write you a poem when the power is out

  Hey, why not fly south for the winter?

  Hey, little songbird, look all around you

  See how the vipers and vultures surround you

  And they’ll take you down, they’ll pick you clean

  If you stick around such a desperate scene

  See, people get mean when the chips are down . . .

  Notes on “Hey, Little Songbird”

  I wrote the first version of “Hey, Little Songbird” on my honeymoon in the summer of 2006. We were staying in a small farmhouse in rural Italy, helping (in a lazy, honeymoon way) with a cherry harvest. I must have brought my guitar along. The first version of the song was a Hades monologue; Eurydice’s interludes didn’t appear until 2007. After that it remained untouched, with the exception of one line: Wasn’t it always the two of us? Eurydice asked, back when we met the young lovers as an established couple. When I expanded Act I to encompass the beginning of their relationship, the line became: Wasn’t it gonna be the two of us?

  The meaning of certain Hadestown songs changed over the years in response to current events. Around 2008, when I’d introduce “Wedding Song” in my songwriter shows as taking place in a “postapocalyptic American Depression era,” there was a lot of laughter and muttering. People were feeling the effects of the recession, so poverty themes hit close to home. “Why We Build the Wall” took on new meaning in 2015–16. Our off-Broadway production coincided with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and “Build that wall!” was a chant often heard at his rallies. And “Hey, Little Songbird” began landing differently with the advent of the #MeToo movement in 2017. It was suddenly less funny. There was a moment in the lead-up to Broadway when Team Dramaturgy became concerned that the song might be going too far with its sexual innuendo. We wanted it to be clear that Eurydice wasn’t merely seduced by Hades—she was cold, she was hungry, there was a transactional nature to the relationship. Her I wanna lie down forever line came under scrutiny, but I refused to change it; I loved it too much. In an attempt to address the note another way, I rewrote the first Hades verse to include an explicit job offer. We tried this out in rehearsals:

  Hades: Hey, little songbird, give me a song / I’m a busy man and I can’t stay long / I’ve got clients to call, I’ve got orders to fill / I’ve got millions of souls on my payroll, but hell / I could fit you as well if you wanted

  We let it fly for a few days and Patrick Page owned it like he owns every line he’s ever delivered. Ultimately, though, everyone missed the humor of the original verse, so we went back. In the development of Hadestown there was a long-running, mostly good-natured battle between Team Dramaturgy (Rachel, Ken, and Mara) and Team Music (Michael, Todd, and Liam). Team Dramaturgy pushed to clarify story and character, and Team Music pushed back whenever it felt like the changes were compromising the music or poetry to an unsustainable extent. This is a simplification, since everyone wanted the show to be satisfying on multiple levels, but in many debates the lines were drawn this way. I remember Liam once saying he couldn’t believe I’d “gotten away with” the lyrics of “Hey, Little Songbird.” “It’s, like, three and a half minutes of bird metaphors,” he said.

  WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN

  Hermes

  Songbird versus rattlesnake . . .

  Fates

  Mmm . . .

  Eurydice

  What is it?

  Hermes

  Eurydice was a hungry young girl . . .

  Fates

  Mmm . . .

  Hades

  Your ticket

  Hermes

  And Hades gave her a choice to make

  Fates

  Mmm-mmm-mmm

  Hermes

  A ticket to the underworld

  Fates

  Life ain’t easy, life ain’t fair

  A girl’s gotta fight for a rightful share

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  Help yourself, to hell with the rest

  Even the one who loves you best

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  Eurydice

  Oh, my aching heart . . .

  Fates

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  Take if you can, give if you must

  Ain’t nobody but yourself to trust

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  Aim for the heart, shoot to kill

  If you don’t do it then the other one will

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  And the first shall be first

  And the last shall be last

  Cast your eyes to heaven

  You get a knife in the back!

  Nobody’s righteous

  Nobody’s proud

  Nobody’s innocent

  Now that the chips are down

  Now that the, now that the

  Now that the, now that the

  Now that the chips are down!

  Notes on “When the Chips Are Down”

  I wrote “When the Chips Are Down” for the very first Vermont production in 2006. Back then it included this semi-mystifying verse:

  Fates: Cross my palm! Grease my chin! / Can’t you see the kind of shape you’re in? / What you gonna do . . . ?

  The Songbird versus rattlesnake intro I added at NYTW, in an attempt to clarify the mechanics of How to get to Hadestown. It was all a bit confusing: there was a train, so could anyone just get on it? No, you had to have a ticket, unless, like Orpheus, you went around the back. I remember Ken insisting that every world has to have “rules,” even a fantastical or metaphorical one. Otherwise the audience can’t relax into the story—they get stuck on square one, trying to figure out what the rules are. The intro was a place to foreground that “ticket” language.

  “When the Chips Are Down” is a song that a few people pointed out was unnecessary to the story, but it was always ferocious as a musical and choreographic showcase for the Fates. The song’s polyrhythmic “feel,” with its iconic bass line and metallic-sounding prepared guitar, came from Michael in the earliest days. During the recording of the studio album, Todd advocated for a barnstorming piano solo. Together with the tight sister harmonies (Liam based these on the Haden Triplets recording from t
he studio album), the number was electrifying every time.

  GONE, I’M GONE

  Eurydice

  Orpheus, my heart is yours

  Always was, and will be

  It’s my gut I can’t ignore

  Orpheus, I’m hungry

  Oh, my heart it aches to stay

  But the flesh will have its way

  Oh, the way is dark and long

  I’m already gone . . . I’m gone

  Fates

  Go ahead and lay the blame

  Talk of virtue, talk of sin

  Wouldn’t you have done the same?

  In her shoes, in her skin

  You can have your principles

  When you’ve got a bellyful

  But hunger has a way with you

  There’s no telling what you’re gonna do

  When the chips are down

  Now that the chips are down

  What you gonna do when the chips are down?

  Now that the chips are down

  Notes on “Gone, I’m Gone”

  I had recently started touring the folk circuit in the UK, and was walking from the seaside in Brighton back to my friend’s apartment in Hove, when the melody of “Gone, I’m Gone” appeared. It was 2007, and I wrote the piece initially as an intro, rather than an outro, to “When the Chips Are Down.” It was one of the first things Rachel called into question when we began working together. “Gone, I’m Gone” is the moment of decision for Eurydice, so for it to come before “When the Chips Are Down,” Rachel felt, took the stakes away from the song; if her choice is made, why are the Fates still trying to convince her? I resisted moving it at first from a musical standpoint, because I’d written the songs to go in one order and it felt impossible to switch them. But we gave it a shot, and I was surprised to find it still worked structurally, just in a different way. As for the drama, of course, Rachel was right.

  WAIT FOR ME INTRO

  Orpheus

  Mister Hermes?

  Hermes

  Hey, the big artiste!

  Ain’t you working on your masterpiece?

  Orpheus

  Where’s Eurydice?

  Hermes

  Brother, what do you care?

  You’ll find another muse somewhere

  Orpheus

  Where is she?

  Hermes

  Why you wanna know?

  Orpheus

  Wherever she is is where I’ll go

  Hermes

  And what if I said she’s down below?

  Orpheus

  Down below?

  Hermes

  Down below

  Six feet under the ground below

  She called your name before she went

  But I guess you weren’t listening

  Orpheus

  No!

  Hermes

  So

  Just how far would you go for her?

  Orpheus

  To the end of time

  To the end of the earth

  Hermes

  You got a ticket?

  Orpheus

  No

  Hermes

  Yeah, I didn’t think so

  ’Course, there is another way, but—

  Nah, I ain’t supposed to say

  Orpheus

  Another way?

  Hermes

  Around the back

  But that ain’t easy walkin’, jack

  It ain’t for the sensitive of soul

  So do ya really wanna go?

  Orpheus

  With all my heart

  Hermes

  With all your heart?

  Well, that’s a start

  Notes on “Wait for Me Intro”

  “Wait for Me Intro” was a real how-to lesson in recitative dialogue writing. It took time to find the rhymes and carve out the scene, but once it existed it became something of a high-water mark for my recitative; it was hard to achieve that kind of synthesis of drama and poetry in any other scene. I wrote it over the course of a couple workshops leading up to our off-Broadway debut. I remember Ian Lassiter, who played Hermes in one of those workshops, begging for a longer pause between the lines Wherever she is is where I’ll go and And what if I said she’s down below? I’d initially written the lines nearly on top of each other; because of Ian, I put in a measure of rest. In a straight dialogue, the actor and director choose the pace of the language, but metered dialogue puts a lot of that responsibility on the writer, and that “built-in pause” lesson came in handy in many other scenes.

  The line That ain’t easy walkin’, jack came from Chris Sullivan, our off-Broadway Hermes. I’d written the line like this: Another way? / Around the back / But that ain’t a easy road to walk and was mostly satisfied with it, though the vowel slant wasn’t ideal. Chris was rehearsing at home and texted me the easy walkin’, jack idea, asking what I thought. I was unconvinced in writing. Calling him “jack” seemed random for Hermes, who calls everyone “brother.” But then Chris sent a voice memo of himself speaking it, and I was sold. When he left the show (for television glory), I asked if it was okay to keep using the line. He said, “It’s yours!” and now I can’t fathom it any other way.

  WAIT FOR ME

  Hermes

  How to get to Hadestown

  You’ll have to take the long way down

  Through the underground, under cover of night

  Laying low, staying out of sight

  Ain’t no compass, brother, ain’t no map

  Just a telephone wire and a railroad track

  Keep on walking and don’t look back

  Till you get to the bottomland

  Orpheus

  Wait for me, I’m coming

  Wait, I’m coming with you

  Wait for me, I’m coming too

  I’m coming too

  Hermes

  River Styx is high and wide

  Cinderbricks and razorwire

  Walls of iron and concrete

  Hound dogs howlin’ round the gate

  Those dogs’ll lay down and play dead

  If you got the bones, if you got the bread

  But if all you got is your own two legs

  Just be glad you got ’em

  Orpheus & Company

  Wait for me, I’m coming

  Wait, I’m coming with you

  Wait for me, I’m coming too

  I’m coming too

  Fates

  Who are you?

  Where do you think you’re going?

  Who are you?

  Why are you all alone?

  Who do you think you are?

  Who are you to think that you could walk a road that no one ever walked before?

  Orpheus

  La la la la la la la

  Company

  La la la la la la la

  Orpheus

  La la la la la la la

  Orpheus & Company

  La la la la la la la . . .

  Hermes

  You’re on the lam, you’re on the run

  Don’t give your name, you don’t have one

  And don’t look no one in the eye

  That town’ll try to suck you dry

  They’ll suck your brain, they’ll suck your breath

  They’ll pluck the heart right out your chest

  They’ll truss you up in your Sunday best

  And stuff your mouth with cotton

/>   Orpheus & Company

  Wait for me, I’m coming

  Wait, I’m coming with you

  Wait for me, I’m coming too

  I’m coming

  Company

  Wait

  Orpheus

  I’m coming, wait for me

  Company

  Wait

  Orpheus & Company

  I hear the walls repeating

  Company

  Wait

  Orpheus & Company

  The falling of my feet and

  It sounds like drumming

  Company

  Wait

  Orpheus & Company

  And we are not alone

  Company

  Wait

  Orpheus & Company

  I hear the rocks and stones

  Company

  Wait

  Orpheus & Company

  Echoing my song

  Orpheus

  I’m coming

  Company

  Coming

  Coming . . .

  Notes on “Wait for Me”

  Vermont

  It was the chorus of “Wait for Me” that set me on the road to Hadestown. I was early in my career as a singer-songwriter and driving a lot; back then I’d drive a ridiculous distance, alone, for a tip gig, and that’s what I was doing when that melody came, along with these words:

 

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