Hamilton's eerie relevance to this moment in America's terrifying political journey

Hey Cory, you linked to Stay Alive (Reprise), not the original track here

I’m tired of this musical (which is quite nice, otherwise) lionizing Hamilton who is absolutely not a historical figure I think highly of. He represents a viciously elitist and anti-democratic element of the Revolution and his objections to slavery were largely manufactured for the show, because in his private life he had no qualms arranging slave deals.

Ah well. I guess “Kościuszko” is hard to rhyme, even if he was an actual immigrant (who got the job done).

1 Like

Just be glad you’ll miss 2240’s Thieliad, about a starryeyed venture capitalist who dared to dream big, and who ascended to his heavenly rest after becoming the first Emperor of the United States.

1 Like

That’s a great meme. I have an idea for a site that takes image macros and recontextualizes them so that they aren’t memes any more. They’re just parts of films, books. tv episodes-- that taken as wholes, are so much more powerful than 15 second snippets.

It will probably get dunned for for “massive copyright infringement,” though.

1 Like

Yay. I can theoretically see it at the Kennedy Center-- if I hold a ticket subscription

1 Like

I thought everyone agreed that T-Paine went way overboard with autotune.

5 Likes

I think the character who’s really lionized in the musical is Washington. Even when the lyrics are dissing slaveowning Virginians he doesn’t get called out. Much like Jesus Christ Superstar the main character is kind of a jerk.

1 Like

The Mixtape has some “deleted scenes” that didn’t end up in the script. There’s a third rap battle about abolishing slavery and Washington doesn’t come out unscathed.

4 Likes

For what it’s worth, although the term lionizing gets thrown around a lot in regards to Hamilton, the musical portrays him as an intensely ambitious, brilliant writer whose massive ego, hunger for power and questionable ethics repeatedly ruin his chances to achieve the greatness he thinks he deserves. This is a flawed man who, when falsely accused of embezzling federal funds, decides that the best way to redeem his reputation is to publish a pamphlet describing his extramarital affairs in detail. The play makes it pretty clear that without the strength of his wife, he wouldn’t have been half the man he was.

7 Likes

Oh, okay, thanks. Your eloquent critique is plainly incontrovertible; anyone who invests the time to take it in will be compelled to agree by the sheer force of your incisive intellect.

11 Likes

The strength of his wife AND HER SISTER.

4 Likes

AND PEGGY THE OTHER SISTER TOO DAMMIT :frowning:

3 Likes

On Great Performances (PBS), there was a show called “Hamilton’s America” narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which was quite good. I got to hear some of the songs from the show, he explained where he got the idea for Hamilton (and we get to hear a bit from Ron Chernow, the author of the book which started it all), and go behind the scenes of the production. It was definitely worth watching. Catch it here: https://youtu.be/TLhf2hnqaZg

3 Likes

For those of use out there who cannot access audio information (I’m severly hard of hearing and the words are incomprehensible) can someone post the full lyrics?

For the Broadway version:

For the Mixtape:

4 Likes

Also if you have Amazon Prime, you can play it along with the displayed lyrics.

I will check out the embedded l’aurons link. Thanks. Sadly don’t have
Amazon prime so that’s a bust, but good to know.

Speaking of Hamilton, this came across my dash today:

That right there is what I call a win-win situation.

4 Likes

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.