FILL: Check out the lyrics!
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writercisesOriginal Posting Jan. 30, 2017
Yesterday, we went to a small performance. An opera singer and her husband, a pianist, and a belly-dancer with her husband playing drums. About 30 people in a local coffeeshop, enjoying the performance. But one of the pieces caught my attention.
See, they did the Copacabana. By Barry Manilow. Instrumental, with the pianist and the opera singer playing a keyboard, the drummer thumping away, and the belly-dancer happily shimmying and shaking. But... I was trying to remember the lyrics. It seemed to me that this was one of those songs that has a happy tune, but lyrics that are a bit less upbeat? I mean, I enjoyed the melody, and the dancing, but... what was the story in the song?
So when I got home, I checked it out. Google immediately turned up the lyrics. OH! That's right.
Lola and Tony! The showgirl and the bartender, "They were young and they had each other, who could ask for more!"
And Rico. "He wore a diamond. ... But Rico went a bit too far. Tony sailed across the bar. ... There was blood and a single gun shot. But just who shot who?"
And the last verse... "Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl, But that was thirty years ago... She lost her youth and she lost her Tony. Now she's lost her mind."
With that trailing advice in the chorus, "don't fall in love..."
Oh! Three verses, about 200 words, and there's a whole story there! The two lovers, Rico and the fight, and... the aftermath, 30 years later. Whoosh. That's storytelling.
And the setting, in the driving rhythm and happy melody.
Can you do that in a short story? Why not! Hey, go ahead and tell us the story of Lola, Tony, and Rico. It's a well-worn tale, but there's still a few times to run it around the ring of tales.
Music and passion were always in fashion...
tink
Yesterday, we went to a small performance. An opera singer and her husband, a pianist, and a belly-dancer with her husband playing drums. About 30 people in a local coffeeshop, enjoying the performance. But one of the pieces caught my attention.
See, they did the Copacabana. By Barry Manilow. Instrumental, with the pianist and the opera singer playing a keyboard, the drummer thumping away, and the belly-dancer happily shimmying and shaking. But... I was trying to remember the lyrics. It seemed to me that this was one of those songs that has a happy tune, but lyrics that are a bit less upbeat? I mean, I enjoyed the melody, and the dancing, but... what was the story in the song?
So when I got home, I checked it out. Google immediately turned up the lyrics. OH! That's right.
Lola and Tony! The showgirl and the bartender, "They were young and they had each other, who could ask for more!"
And Rico. "He wore a diamond. ... But Rico went a bit too far. Tony sailed across the bar. ... There was blood and a single gun shot. But just who shot who?"
And the last verse... "Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl, But that was thirty years ago... She lost her youth and she lost her Tony. Now she's lost her mind."
With that trailing advice in the chorus, "don't fall in love..."
Oh! Three verses, about 200 words, and there's a whole story there! The two lovers, Rico and the fight, and... the aftermath, 30 years later. Whoosh. That's storytelling.
And the setting, in the driving rhythm and happy melody.
Can you do that in a short story? Why not! Hey, go ahead and tell us the story of Lola, Tony, and Rico. It's a well-worn tale, but there's still a few times to run it around the ring of tales.
Music and passion were always in fashion...
tink
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