This weekend I am able to be in Palm Springs for a composing weekend. No dogs, no husband, no books and music and videos and other activities I do to avoid composing. Earl Kim used to tell us that he would rearrange the books in his bookcases in order to avoid getting to work. Yesterday, [...]
Moorea at sunset
The trickiest part of setting these lyrics for me was setting the name “Penelope” and saying “I love you.”
No One to Wait For
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
The Captain: Patrick Logotheti
No one to wait for
No endless longing
No one to worry for
Just someone belonging
To you
Someone who’s really here
Here at your side
Whispering in your ear
I love [...]
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Rejection
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“Rejection” from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE
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Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
Calypso: Jessica Armstrong
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REJECTION
Flypaper sings Rejection
After much introspection
It’ud be dereliction
Not tellin’ you what turns me on
(Baby)
Profound inspection
And sheer detection
Makes obvious what turns me on
(Baby)
Tear up my letters
Don’t return my calls
Spurn me every which way
See how this sucker crawls
Rejection!
Love it to death
Oh yeah
Rejection
Who needs crystal meth?
When he’s finished, lost [...]
“Part-time Lover”
“Part-time Lover” from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
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Part-time Lover
Woman 1 and chorus
(Sing)
A married man wants a part time lover
Who he can call any time or other
Come over
Relax
Before you send him home
Iron his slacks.
Doin things his wife won’t do
Used to do
Too tired to do
Listenin’ to his stories
Dull as they are
Callin’ him a hero
Handin [...]
“Someday Soon” by Roger Bourland and Mel Shapiro
“Someday Soon” from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE (2008)
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
Tenor (”O”): Kevin Muster
©2008 by Roger Bourland and Mel Shapiro
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Every opera has to have an aria with a passacaglia (a melody in the bass that repeats over and over) and this work is no exception. You’ll hear the [...]
Yesterday in my duties as a chairman, I attended several meetings where we discussed and invented jobs for graduate students who in turn oversee other students whose duties we also defined. I couldn’t help but feel like a member of “the gods” who set cosmic parameters in motion and watch them play out.
At UCLA, each [...]
On Sunday, two days after our Mill Valley marriage, Richard and Paul invited two dear friends for lunch. Tatyana and Serge are terrific people and the fact that they came bearing jamon iberico had me prejudiced in their favor from square one.
I have tried to get HOMER IN CYBERSPACE out of my head for months [...]
Conference of the iGods; © Roger Bourland and Mel Shapiro
“Conference of the iGods” from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
Chief: Nathan Langdon
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Conference of the iGods (12:51)
Tina:
Stay as far
Under the radar
Of the i-gods,
My man
Don’t let them
Know you exist
They won’t hesitate
To control your
Fate
Don’t let them
Get your number
The i-gods are as strong
As titanium
And deadly as
Uranium
They’ll re-wire your [...]
“Shame” from FLASHPOINT/STONEWALL (1994)
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: John Hall
Chorus: Gay Men’s Chorus of LA, Jon Bailey, director
Video: Kim Paulsen
Published by Yelton Rhodes Music/Los Angeles
Alex Theatre, Glendale CA: 1994
Shame
As a a boy I was hated and called names
for being something different.
I did not understand.
I recognized the difference but could not comprehend
what that difference was.
I felt shame.
Later, [...]
“Stephen Hawking Came to Dinner” from HOMER IN CYBERSPACE
Music: Roger Bourland
Lyrics: Mel Shapiro
Bernie and La Belle Klops: Adam Carr, Julie Morgantaler
Computers sing:
Stephen Hawking came to dinner
“Boy, oh boy, he’s a winner
That boy of yours you call Sy”
So he said over pastrami and rye.
“He’s just a little mega now
But when he’s gets bigger
Whatta bigger little [...]
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