Music Monday

My Schwartz obsession continues - today's Music Monday features a song from Godspell. By K's request, we watched the movie together last Friday for our movie night. This choice had some repercussions for her later that evening. It also influenced the musical choices for this weekend. It's a little odd to hear High School Musical songs mixed with Godspell, but not entirely atypical in this household. Weirder still was listening to C intersperse his Bionicle play with Godspell lyrics. This isn't the first time he's done it, but it never ceases to weird me out a bit. Certainly, the Gospel According to C isn't quite what St. Matthew had in mind.

But getting back to the main goal of this post - my selection for Music Monday is Beautiful City from Godspell. The song has an interesting history. Apparently Stephen Schwartz decided at some point that the original lyrics were too sentimental. He rewrote the song for a new production of Godspell and then added more lyrics for yet another production. While I respect his decision, my heart lies with the original song that I grew to love after seeing the movie on TV while in high school (long after its original theatrical release).

However, the updated lyrics have taken on greater meaning to me in the past week. They speak to my hopes for Barack Obama's presidency. It seems like such a positive change for not only our country but for the rest of the world. Together, we can build such a beautiful city. In the words of Obama and Schwartz - "Yes, we can."

Beautiful City:
Out of the ruins and rubble
Out of the smoke
Out of our night of struggle
Can we see a ray of hope?
One pale thin ray reaching for the day

We can build a beautiful city
Yes, we can; yes, we can
We can build a beautiful city
Not a city of angels but we can build a city of man

We may not reach the ending
But we can start
Slowly but truly mending
Brick by brick, heart by heart
Now, maybe now
We start learning how

We can build a beautiful city
Yes, we can; yes, we can
We can build a beautiful city
Not a city of angels
But we can build a city of man

When your trust is all but shattered
When your faith is all but killed
You can give up, bitter and battered
Or you can slowly start to build

A beautiful city
Yes, we can; yes, we can
We can build a beautiful city
Not a city of angels
But finally a city of man.


The original movie version: