FAWM: "Soliloquy"

Soliloquy

14 hours ago by @berni1954

Challenge: PUBLIC DOMAIN

Soliloquy

berni1954

00:00

Liner Notes

This one is for the Public Domain Challenge

As someone with a Masters in Theatre and years of work as an actor, I have always been a fan of Shakespeare's works, but I recognise that the language can be an impediment to understanding his plays. So, as Bill can't claim copyright anymore, I thought I'd help rock fans out by synthesising the essence of Hamlet's famous soliloquy (Act Three Scene One) in a rocking precis.

I am not playing any instrument on this one. It is all the work of Band in a Box.
So get your ya ya's out with this Stones inspired arrangement.

#rock #Shakespeare #Hamlet #biab #bandinabox #publicdomain

Lyrics

Intro: (C) (Bb) (C) (F)

(F) To be or (C) not to be
(Bb) That is the (F) question
Is it nobler to ac(C)cept your pains
Or (Bb) fight for their re(C)jection
Should (F) we oppose our (C) troubles
Or (Bb) give in to de(F)pression
To (Gm) be or (Am) not to be
(C) That is the (F) question

(F) Is living worth a (C) candle
Should we (Bb) think of sui(F)cide?
It's just eternal (C) sleep in which
(Bb) All our woes have (C) died
But (F) hold on, there's a (C) catch
What if the (Bb) afterlife ex(F)ists
And some (Bb) dream beyond (F) death
Means the (C) soul still per(F)sists

CHORUS

(F) When we've shuffled off this (C) mortal coil
Is that the (Bb) end of all we (F) hate
Farewell to op(C)pressors,
Exploi(Bb)tation... Ah, but (C) wait!
If (F) there's a hell for (C) suicides,
That's en(Bb)ough to give us (F) pause.
Would it (Bb) be wise to (F) leave this world
And be (C) caught in some devil's (F) claws?

(Bb) No one has come back to earth
To (F) let us know what's what
So I (C) think it might be better
To ac(F)cept the lot we've got
Aye, (Bb) conscience makes us cowards
Be(F)lief has the cards stacked
So let's (C) put up with this life we know
And re(Bb)ject this (C) final (F) act

CHORUS

Comments

@coolparadisoMod 4h

Now I would have been more interested if it had been given to me like this! Keep it coming!

@timfatchenMod 13h

Bouncing along happily. Mind you, Bill may be waiting for you in the hereafter to complain about a second singer in a soliloquy chorus. Fun to listen.

@billwhite51 13h

brilliant. i would buy an album of shakespeare's wise musings translated into contemporary idioms. i wrote a play called "Durango" that translated hamlet into the language of a cowboy movie. A theatre company wanted to produce it but I wouldnt let them because they saw it as farce. Thinking back on it, they were probably right. I only mention this because your Hamlet could never be misinterpreted as such. It is a very good, intelligent rewrite that todays audience will understand with no problem. Far superior to that the writers of "Good News for Modern man" did with the gospels, and leagues above the dreadful musical "Godspell." You could write a folk opera based on hamlet. I imagine Ophelia wakking in on Hamlet while he is singing this. "What a noble mind is now overthrown" indeed.