Bonus Video! The Weird Broadway Saga of "Let My People Come"
🕑 Added 2024-07-21 16:00:13 +0000 UTCPicture it: New York, 1974, and you're going out on the town for a night of classy theatrical delights ... at a new off-Broadway show called Let My People Come. This was an absolutely real, actual show that became an unlikely hit, and also touched off a years-long controversy (but not for the reasons you might expect).
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If you'd like to listen to some of the tunes from this show (they're not great, but they are extremely dirty), here are some links:
A playlist of the full original soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StCJMPrKKfg&list=PLY5d6U1_0DZKhzOD0Wbs018O3z-mb0MzN
Here's a performance in Baltimore in the 1980s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7iBeYQs18A
And a 2018 performance of the cunnilingus song (my favorite part is when a gay in the audience goes "oh WOW") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGwpFHHMB14
And here's a law professor talking about musical copyright -- without using a single dirty word! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJY89OZ2974
Comments
Matt Baume
Oh hm that's fascinating! It MUST be a reference to the Broadway show, with a kind of Madame-esque twist ... looks like someone put it in full on the internet archive! https://archive.org/details/let-my-puppets-come-1976_202203
Delenn Irving
So I don't know if this is at all connected or if they just parodied the title, but there was a very strange film (maybe porn-chic/parody? not sure) called "Let My Puppets Come", which has a very thin plotline and you guessed it. Puppets having sex. I can't even begin to describe how weird the film is. However, there is a musical break in the film that I found very interesting, and the song is actually iconic, I think, though I'd never heard of it before. I think the title of the song is "Smile", and it goes: "Smile through the heartache, laugh at the blues. Smile and be happy, whatcha got to lose? Smile when you're down and out, find if you do, the whole world will soon be smilin' at you." It's performed by a lady named Susan McAneny, but I can't find any information about her at all. In fact, I can't really find much info on this film at all, other than other people saying how weird it is. Haha.
Matt Baume
I'm sure other people enjoy his work very much!
James Bigwood
Matt, I'm curious, given your thoughts about parody lyrics for established songs, what do you think about Randy Rainbow?