Incidental chat, rambling openings, snatched dialogue or spoken asides? Sift out favourite songs containing spiel to help make this week’s list the talk of the town
Sometimes when walking down a city street, or entering a shop, or any public place or even work, I have a strange fantasy vision. It is that during the drab hubbub of chatter, the habitual exchanges of conversation, task, travel or retail, that everything is suddenly elevated into the world of song. That the person working the supermarket till will suddenly stand up and soar into a beautiful aria about the bagging area, that men working on those roadworks will break out into song-and-dance routine in the manner of West Side Story, that the many rows of heads staring at computers in the Guardian office will suddenly lift, like trumpet valves in shiny golden sequence, rows of elegantly sung voices proclaiming the launch of the latest breaking news story, blog or feature, and create a harmonious sequence that, whether in current affairs or otherwise, expresses how “all the sound of the Earth is like music”.
I mention this line because it comes from the musical Oklahoma, and was actually used when I helped co-ordinate a true fantasy at a friend’s wedding last year. It was all carefully planned. At the beginning of what was expected to be a speech at the post-ceremony dinner, without any warning, I suddenly pulled out my guitar from under the table, and various glad-rag-clothed groups of guests entered into themed song in rehearsed harmonies at carefully timed moments. The couple? Their facial expressions changed from shock-horror and embarrassment to amazement, then joyful, tearful delight. Phew.
