Ah, 1990!
While cleaning up and trying to empty the house of things we won't need once the baby arrives, I ran across the pre-show mix tape cassette (!) I made for the University Theater production of Faust from my senior year in college. This is the show marg and I met on; she was the tech director and I was the sound designer.
Most of my work on that show involved special effects sound cues, like trying to make it sound like a cute little lap dog is transforming into a slavering Hell Hound behind Faust's desk. Mostly done on reel-to-reel tape; I was actually pretty good at splicing the stuff. Anyway, I also had to get a pre-show music tape together at the last minute, with my main instruction being to choose stuff "that people will recognize." Here's what I figured would do that job well, ca. early 1990:
the Spirit of Radio (Rush)
Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
in a Big Country (uh, Big Country)
the Big Sky (Kate Bush)
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
Should I Stay or Should I go? (the Clash)
Don't Go Back to Rockville (REM)
Don't Go (Yazoo)
Good for a chuckle or two. I should point out that this was 2 years before the Wayne's World movie and a year or so before the re-release of the Clash single, so these songs were less iconic/overplayed at that point.
I'd probably make different choices today, but OTOH I still like all these songs too. Pretty sure they're all still in my iTunes library.
Most of my work on that show involved special effects sound cues, like trying to make it sound like a cute little lap dog is transforming into a slavering Hell Hound behind Faust's desk. Mostly done on reel-to-reel tape; I was actually pretty good at splicing the stuff. Anyway, I also had to get a pre-show music tape together at the last minute, with my main instruction being to choose stuff "that people will recognize." Here's what I figured would do that job well, ca. early 1990:
the Spirit of Radio (Rush)
Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
in a Big Country (uh, Big Country)
the Big Sky (Kate Bush)
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
Should I Stay or Should I go? (the Clash)
Don't Go Back to Rockville (REM)
Don't Go (Yazoo)
Good for a chuckle or two. I should point out that this was 2 years before the Wayne's World movie and a year or so before the re-release of the Clash single, so these songs were less iconic/overplayed at that point.
I'd probably make different choices today, but OTOH I still like all these songs too. Pretty sure they're all still in my iTunes library.
7 Comments:
I started attending the U of C in the autumn of 1990, and Marg's amazing faux-finish stone floor for Faust was still fooling people. I later engaged in a similar case of theatrical mind-fuckery by helping to hand-paint that theater's floor to look like distressed hardwood for Happy Birthday Wanda June.
Can you even imagine having that kind of time anymore?
Heck, I can barely imagine having time to make a mix tape. Sigh.
Who needs mix tapes, anyway? Now we have Pandora and iTunes Genius.
Fair point.
1. At least you got to paint the faux-wood floor, instead of hammering down strips of luon until your fingers were spiny with splinters. There should be a special circle of hell for whoever invented luon.
2. I sat in the booth during Faust and turned the knob on the reverb machine two or three times. I didn't have a headset, and from my seat I could only see part of the stage, so to this day I'm not entirely sure what went on. Also, I think it was only part one, or something. Wasn't Faust the show that Marg made the giant cauldron for? (Which somehow did not end up in your basement--possibly because they had to break it in pieces to get it out the door when the show closed? I might be making that part up.)
--cs10
Correct, the production was of Part I only. And luon is indeed evil, lacking even the occasional remorse displayed by Mephistopheles in some productions of Goethe's play.
Not sure about the cauldron; the story is plausible but neither marg nor I can remember for sure what happened to it.
The cauldron was 4'x4'x4', because someone was supposed to be hiding in there and pop out at some point. I'm not sure if that aspect made it into the final production. It rolled. It had fog and a light in it (or it was supposed to). So cool.
I always thought it was funny that we met on Faust, rather than Romeo and Juliet, which was the next production we happened to work on. (On the other hand, I've never had much patience for self-induced tragedy.)
-marg
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