This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Tommy: I love magic stuff.

[0:01] Jimmy: Yeah.

[0:01] Tommy: Now you see me.

[0:02] Jimmy: I love those films.

[0:03] Tommy: Yeah.

[0:04] Jimmy: They're trash, but I love them.

[0:05] Tommy: No, me too.

[0:06] Jimmy: I think I think like uh I saw some tweet that was like we've heard you've heard of horse girls. Have you heard of Houdini Boys?

[0:14] Tommy: Um and I think I might have been a Houdini boy growing up, right?

[0:18] Jimmy: Hey, that is a really good point. Whoever made that, well done.

[0:24] Tommy: Somebody get us another drink!

[0:25] Jimmy: Welcome to Jim and Tomic's musical theater happy hour. I'm Tommy.

[0:30] Jimmy: And I'm Jimmy.

[0:33] Tommy: This is the only musical theater podcast with extra dry dirty vodka martinis.

[0:38] Jimmy: And Andrew Barth Feldman's portrayal of Linguini.

[0:42] Tommy: We have officially scraped the bottom of the barrel. Here we take about your favorite shows, muddle them together with a shot of buffoonery, and pour you a refreshing glass of musical theater conversation. Jimmy, what are you drinking today?

[0:53] Jimmy: Well, Tommy. Yeah, we have done these three in a row because I've always been loved with this nonsense. Ah, maybe that's why I haven't changed it. Um, I am drinking coffee that I made from a percolator.

[1:08] Tommy: Ooh. That's good.

[1:09] Jimmy: The water collects in a little pot below and it um bubbles up and then uh there's coffee. I had to clean it out from the day before.

[1:17] Tommy: I was just gonna say more wine.

[1:20] Jimmy: Oh.

[1:22] Tommy: Also good. We have officially picked the two liquid references in this musical.

[1:30] Jimmy: Why are we talking about wine and coffee, Jimmy?

[1:33] Tommy: Well, um, it could be lots of musicals, but there's one in particular really known for its wine and coffee. Um, and that is um what I will tell you in the form of a close question. I realized that sentence wouldn't have worked otherwise. Hey, if the subject of this musical played basketball for the NBA, which he was so close to doing, little known facts.

[1:56] Jimmy: Little known facts.

[1:58] Tommy: He'd be in the top five for basketball players with the largest hands. What show?

[2:05] Jimmy: Uh methinks this is preludes.

[2:08] Tommy: Describe your day.

[2:11] Jimmy: Describe my day.

[2:15] Tommy: My day.

[2:19] Jimmy: My day began with waking, I suppose. I don't remember it clearly the moment I woke up. My memory is vague. I know I lay in bed, staring at Natalia in the beginning sunlight.

[2:34] Tommy: And then I remember waking again and she was gone.

[2:38] Jimmy: She snuck out. She sometimes does that, lets me sleep.

[2:42] Jimi Hendrix: And that was the first hour.

[2:47] Tommy: And then I lay there for an hour doing nothing.

[2:51] Jimi Hendrix: Stretching my muscles, staring at the ceiling, staring at the day.

[2:57] Tommy: And that was the second hour.

[3:02] Jimi Hendrix: Then I went to the kitchen.

[3:03] Tommy: We have a bioleti.

[3:05] Jimi Hendrix: It's uh it's a percolator, I guess it makes espresso.

[3:09] Tommy: The water is stored in a little tank below, and it boils and it goes up through the coffee grounds and above, then there is coffee.

[3:15] Jimi Hendrix: I had to clean it out from the day before.

[3:17] Tommy: The coffee uh collects into a little patty, which I threw out.

[3:20] Jimi Hendrix: I rinsed it all with warm water.

[3:22] Tommy: I filled it with cold water, I placed the coffee in and patted it down very tenderly and delicately so the coffee wouldn't spill over.

[3:31] Jimi Hendrix: And I spent so much time on this.

[3:35] Tommy: On being careful and clean.

[3:38] Jimi Hendrix: And I think I put on music.

[3:39] Tommy: Maybe a Beethoven record.

[3:41] Jimi Hendrix: Or Gordon Lightfoot!

[3:42] Tommy: First it was Gordon Lightfoot.

[3:44] Jimi Hendrix: My mother used to listen to him.

[3:45] Tommy: I know he's not cool, but he brings back a fond feeling.

[3:50] Jimi Hendrix: And I waited for the coffee, and I made an egg in a cast iron pan.

[3:53] Tommy: And I grated cheese over it with a new cheese grater.

[3:56] Jimi Hendrix: Salt, pepper, a piece of toast, butter.

[4:01] Tommy: And that was the third hour.

[4:06] Jimi Hendrix: And then I lay down in bed again.

[4:10] Tommy: And that was the fourth hour.

[4:13] Jimi Hendrix: And then I lay down in bed again.

[4:17] Tommy: And that was the fifth hour.

[4:23] Jimi Hendrix: So we're gonna get into it.

[4:24] Tommy: I know how preludes, preludes.

[4:28] Jimi Hendrix: Prelude I I mean, I say prelude.

[4:31] Tommy: I will be nothing if not inconsistent.

[4:33] Jimi Hendrix: Okay, great.

[4:34] Tommy: I think it probably is prelude.

[4:36] Jimi Hendrix: I think unprompted I might actually say preludes.

[4:40] Tommy: Um, which I don't like that that's what I would say.

[4:43] Jimi Hendrix: Um disgusting.

[4:44] Tommy: It sounds wrong, but I think that's that's what I would say if I wasn't thinking about it.

[4:49] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[4:50] Tommy: I don't think it's correct, but I think prelude pre prelude like Quelude.

[4:56] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, prelude.

[4:59] Tommy: Prelude.

[5:01] Jimi Hendrix: It's probably not.

[5:02] Tommy: Anyway, it doesn't matter.

[5:03] Jimi Hendrix: It's this show.

[5:05] Tommy: Um and it has music book and lyrics once again.

[5:10] Jimi Hendrix: Can he do nothing else?

[5:12] Tommy: Who cares?

[5:13] Jimi Hendrix: It's Dave Malloy.

[5:14] Tommy: It's Dave Malloy.

[5:15] Jimi Hendrix: I was listening to this, and my boyfriend came home from work, and it and knowing nothing about it, he said, Is this Dave Malloy?

[5:22] Tommy: Oh well, he's got a signature, ladies and gents.

[5:26] Jimi Hendrix: Yep.

[5:27] Tommy: Um it premiered at the Lincoln Center in 2015 and then had its uh UK premiere in the Southwark Sorry, I just made you do that because it shouldn't be Southwark.

[5:38] Jimi Hendrix: The Southern Southwark? Wow. Why do they spell it like that? Do you know what's so weird? There's a YouTube channel that I just started watching today that have a great video. I'll stick it in the show notes for you. Why not? I think they're called the Map Guys. Okay. Or like the Map Dudes or something like that. Two British guys. Um, and they've just released a viral video quite recently. Um that's like uh how to pronounce weird British names. So if you see W-A-R-K, that is always Erk. Erk. You don't pronounce that W and it's Erk. So um, like another one would be have you ever seen um uh B-U-L-W-A-R-K?

[6:15] Tommy: I don't think so.

[6:15] Jimi Hendrix: I probably it's like a term, I think maybe it's a part of a castle. I don't really know. And it's Bulark. Bulk, okay. So Southwark. Did you did you hear me halfway through that word knowing that I was saying it wrong?

[6:28] Tommy: Yes, I did, and it was cute.

[6:30] Jimi Hendrix: It was really cute. Um it's always a fun experience when you don't know words. Um anyway, and that's that. That's all there is. There isn't any more. Um this isn't, you know, this isn't comet. That's not hugely produced, it wasn't hugely popular. It is the same comet crew. Pretty much everyone uh uh behind the scenes at least who worked on Comet. I think like pretty much like right down to costumes with Paloma Yuck, like it's the whole gang are back together. Um and uh I think you know, that has implications that we'll talk about later, I think. It shows. Um But hey, what's the show about, Jimmy?

[7:09] Jimi Hendrix: Oh well, um, the the kind of tagline is that it's a musical fantasia set in the mind of Sergei Rachmaninoff, set in the hypnotized mind of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Yes, um, and uh basically in uh the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff's life, he after he performed his first concerto, or had his first concerto performed, I should say, um, he uh it was it was quite poorly received by some critics, and that threw him into a bout of uh depression because he also felt that it wasn't good. Um this is the first time he'd ever heard of Rob, and he said this isn't good, and therefore he didn't write anything for the next I think it was the next four years.

[7:52] Tommy: And this musical and classic Dave Malloy still has been flipped on its head anachronistically thrown together, um, and it kind of takes you through his therapy um with therapist Nicolai Dal um and his relationship with his um soon-to-be wife Natalia uh and it explores how he gets over this creative block.

[8:18] Jimi Hendrix: Yes. Um while also kind of walking you through that history that we just told you as well. Like it is very non-linearly presented because it exists in his hypnotizing.

[8:29] Tommy: It's in his mind, exactly, exactly. Um yeah, I think that's that's a decent I I like I like um summaries that aren't story driven, I like abstract.

[8:40] Jimi Hendrix: I can do them, you do really good at the straight ones.

[8:43] Tommy: Give me some nebulous ideas, and I will summary the f out of that.

[8:48] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, um, but yeah, I think I I want to start this episode by just talking about it.

[8:54] Tommy: Yeah.

[8:55] Jimi Hendrix: Alright, hop on.

[8:56] Tommy: Let's go.

[8:57] Jimi Hendrix: Let's if people this is their first episode, they'll have no idea what you're talking about.

[9:01] Tommy: Hey, that's you gotta find the segue Easter eggs.

[9:05] Jimi Hendrix: That's it. There's lots of them.

[9:08] Tommy: Um when problems don't work, is that even in winter when the trees are frozen there.

[9:25] Jimi Hendrix: Impossibly they come.

[9:30] Tommy: Lylax at my door.

[9:33] Jimi Hendrix: How can I live up to this?

[9:38] Tommy: Sometimes I'm a good man, sometimes I am not.

[9:43] Jimi Hendrix: Um so I'm gonna ask you straight off the bat.

[9:46] Tommy: Yeah.

[9:47] Jimi Hendrix: What did you think?

[9:48] Tommy: I particularly enjoyed it. I am not so I had listened to preludes um maybe once or twice four years ago or whenever it came out.

[10:00] Jimi Hendrix: Back when we had our Dave Malloy Renaissance.

[10:02] Tommy: Exactly. Um, and didn't didn't do, you know, it like listened to it once or twice, didn't think about it much, certainly didn't look a plot.

[10:09] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and so this was my like first time really getting into it.

[10:13] Tommy: Um it was I I enjoyed the process of listening to it. It is music that I like, it's in that Dave Malloy style that I enjoy.

[10:25] Jimi Hendrix: It has an inscrutable plot in the way that a lot of Dave's stuff sort of does.

[10:32] Tommy: Um this one was a little more impenetrable, I found.

[10:36] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[10:37] Tommy: Even more so from the cast from the cast recording.

[10:39] Jimi Hendrix: From the cast recording.

[10:40] Tommy: Even more so than Ghost Quartet was, which is baffling to me because Ghost Quartet is so amorphous.

[10:47] Jimi Hendrix: Um but I think what what was tough with me about this one is there is still there's some linearity to it.

[10:54] Tommy: Um it it is not dealing with such wildly abstract thought.

[10:59] Jimi Hendrix: Uh um, you know there's still a distinct character arc, if nothing else.

[11:03] Tommy: Exactly.

[11:03] Jimi Hendrix: And you're you're you know, you're literally trying to get inside of Rachmaninoff's head.

[11:08] Tommy: Um I don't know if the cast recording does the best job of telling you the story, and I don't know how I feel about that.

[11:19] Jimi Hendrix: Um like I I had uh uh had the libretto alongside of me, um, which there's you know huge chunks missing from the cast recording.

[11:28] Tommy: Um that don't that make it difficult to follow.

[11:31] Jimi Hendrix: And I don't know, like this it's also philosophical question of like should a cast recording tell you the whole story or just be a pleasant listening experience or be a representation of the show itself.

[11:42] Tommy: Yeah.

[11:42] Jimi Hendrix: I don't know how I feel about that. I found myself questioning that as I was listening to this.

[11:47] Tommy: Yeah, we we've talked about that before, I think, and and it it's a shape it's tricky because when there is like dialogue work in the cast recording, usually it's great.

[11:58] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[11:58] Tommy: And usually it's it it becomes like your favorite cast recording because it's the most complete.

[12:04] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[12:04] Tommy: Um but then I can understand from an artist perspective of this doesn't this isn't I'm not writing audiobook dialogue here.

[12:14] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[12:15] Tommy: Like there's nuance to it. There's pauses that need to be made, and there's you need to see eye contact, etc.

[12:23] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[12:23] Tommy: Um, there's lots that goes into it.

[12:25] Jimi Hendrix: So I can understand from an artistic point of view why you wouldn't put something on.

[12:31] Tommy: What I will say for preludes is I think it could have done with a little bit more.

[12:38] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[12:38] Tommy: Like just some setups.

[12:40] Jimi Hendrix: Just enough more setups.

[12:41] Tommy: Because when you know what's going on in some of these things, they hit harder.

[12:47] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and even some of the stuff, like some of the stuff that hit me reading through uh the the libretto.

[12:54] Jimi Hendrix: So if you've only ever listened to this and not read through, it might come as a surprise to you that there are two Rachmaninoff characters.

[13:01] Tommy: Um, which is not really elucidated in the cast recording at all.

[13:06] Jimi Hendrix: One, uh, who is Rock, um, and the other who is Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff is always seated at the piano, or generally so, and Rock is the person you hear singing and acting for the most part, save for a couple, uh, key moments.

[13:23] Tommy: Um, but so then that, you know, that bifurcation becomes a huge plot point in the show itself because it allows him to argue with himself and like say, you know, stop playing the prelude so many times throughout, and you miss that whole side of the story, um, which, you know, I think honestly diminishes it, diminishes the listening experience.

[13:46] Jimi Hendrix: But then there's also something interesting about that because in the cast recording, yeah, it unifies both sides of his mind and it makes him one person.

[13:56] Tommy: That's true, that's fair, and there's something to that as well, because at the end of the day, yes, he is bifurcated, and yes, there are these, you know, two opposing sides of him that are constantly in battle to try and, you know, get through to the other side.

[14:11] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[14:11] Tommy: Um, but if you're just listening to the cast recording, you don't get that, and you just kind of focus on the struggling artist because that's the story that's being told on the cast recording specifically, yeah.

[14:24] Jimi Hendrix: Um, I think there's something artistic and something kind of interesting about that.

[14:31] Tommy: Um, that's quite cool because that's giving a whole other dimension to this piece that you've created.

[14:37] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[14:38] Tommy: Yeah.

[14:39] Jimi Hendrix: I don't know.

[14:40] Tommy: I don't know how I feel about the cast recording being a separate entity from the musical, you know.

[14:46] Jimi Hendrix: Um, like I think part of me likes it because it's, because for so long it has been my way in.

[14:53] Tommy: I like it being more of a representation of the actual story, and in going into the libretto art, I wished I knew some of those things on my first listen through, right?

[15:03] Jimi Hendrix: Like some of that got spoiled.

[15:05] Tommy: Yeah, okay.

[15:06] Jimi Hendrix: You know, which I don't know, you know, I don't know. I don't mean it as an intentional knock, but it is where my brain was at in listening to it.

[15:13] Tommy: Um, don't get me wrong, like I cried during "Natalia" the first time.

[15:18] Jimi Hendrix: Um, like this is a hard, hard-hitting show for artsy fartsy folk.

[15:25] Tommy: Um, like I wrote down because I had to go listen to the line to understand it again.

[15:30] Jimi Hendrix: Um, what did she say?

[15:32] Tommy: I don't want to think everything I know that you are terrified, I think.

[15:37] Jimi Hendrix: Yes, is a delightful turn of phrase.

[15:40] Tommy: Um, you know, under the whole like snap the fuck out of it, uh, uh portion of that song, and, uh, who it hits, it hits hard.

[15:51] Jimi Hendrix: I think that song is a masterpiece, yes.

[15:54] Tommy: That's so we talk about this quite a lot in various shows that we've done. It is one of my favorite musical theater songs.

[16:00] Jimi Hendrix: Sure.

[16:01] Tommy: Like a lot of people put "Finishing the Hat" up there because they're the struggling creative.

[16:05] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[16:07] Tommy: But I put "Natalia" up there because it plays both sides of the coin.

[16:11] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[16:11] Tommy: Um, and it doesn't romanticize the struggling artist, and it's like, oh, his work is so beautiful.

[16:19] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[16:19] Tommy: Because there are impacts to it.

[16:21] Jimi Hendrix: And you know, I, we'll talk about the comparison with "Sunday" in a little bit, but, um, you know, you see Dot in "Sunday," right?

[16:29] Tommy: But also George is so much at the forefront that you see a lot of George.

[16:33] Jimi Hendrix: Whereas in this, Natalia gets to, you know, sing the song for Dot, it feels like, you know, I mean, she gets to have that moment, um, and say that you're struggling, yes.

[16:45] Tommy: I need to then be the stoic one, right?

[16:47] Jimi Hendrix: And the pillar, why that's not fair because I'm also struggling.

[16:51] Tommy: Yeah, well, and also to pitch that to very accurately pitch Rachmaninoff's struggle, and we'll talk plenty more about the artist, I'm sure.

[17:00] Jimi Hendrix: But like, as this, you know, she has these lines, uh, you know, why don't you go screaming on a cliffside or racing in a thunderstorm, do drugs in the desert?

[17:09] Tommy: Like, why don't you go do the artist writer's block bullshit stuff instead of just moping around in front of your percolator all day?

[17:18] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and like that, you know, we've talked before about the false romanticization of, um, uh, you know, the battered artist and the tragic artist.

[17:31] Tommy: Um, and this, you know, the show holds no punches in that point.

[17:36] Jimi Hendrix: It really doesn't.

[17:37] Tommy: It's so, it's so bloody honest.

[17:39] Jimi Hendrix: It's just such an honest song.

[17:41] Tommy: Um, and it's really, really simply and well presented. I've actually performed this and it's an incredible song to perform, um, because it, you know, it's non-gendered, yeah, it's just, it is so simple, it has a really nice natural build, it doesn't go crazy in terms of like vocals, yeah, it's just, uh, it's a story song, yeah, um, and it is like, oh, musical theater bloody perfection. I just love it. I think it's so special and I think, yeah, it is what makes this musical very special to me.

[17:41] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, I mean, I think this is what makes it an important piece because it deals with this, it deals with this very real issue, right, of, you know, artistic depression and the effects that that has.

[18:34] Tommy: Yep, yep.

[18:34] Jimi Hendrix: Do you feel like I've often, you know, we've been entrenched in Dave Malloy's work for a while now and like, as you said, Natalia is much more of a musical theater song, um, a lot of the songs in this are not, um, which is very Dave Malloy, right?

[18:34] Tommy: And I say that knowing full well a ton of caveats. It is musical theater because it is musical theater, but precisely, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[18:34] Jimi Hendrix: But Natalia's more of a typical, right, you know, music female aria music, right?

[18:34] Tommy: Exactly, ballad.

[18:34] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and Dave does this and it's, it's cool. I think it compliments itself like that we can go from, you know, something like "Natalia" to something like "Loop," which is totally nuts, or even "Ho Ho," um, which is still kind of bonkers, still having some musical theater set in it.

[19:23] Tommy: But it does, whenever I hear these songs, or even like, you know, um, uh, some of Natasha's songs in "Great Comet," like it does make me wonder what Dave Malloy's "Shrek the Musical" would be like, right?

[19:37] Jimi Hendrix: Or what, you know, what his like, okay, you gotta sit inside this musical theater box, what do you do with it sort of thing would be.

[19:45] Tommy: I think they're better for each other having, I think they are, but he's also, he's the man that wrote "Dustin Ashes," and he's the man that wrote "No One Else."

[19:53] Jimi Hendrix: Like, and he's the man that wrote "Sonya Alone," like he's a good musical theater writer.

[19:59] Tommy: Yeah.

[20:00] Jimi Hendrix: Regardless of the mania, regardless of the loops of the world.

[20:04] Tommy: Right.

[20:04] Jimi Hendrix: He can nail a musical theater story song.

[20:08] Tommy: Yeah.

[20:09] Jimi Hendrix: Um, in a very simple and exciting way.

[20:13] Tommy: Yeah.

[20:14] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and I think that's, that's what we see here.

[20:17] Tommy: You see both sides of those coins.

[20:19] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[20:19] Tommy: I would say even better than like the, his, he takes us on a much nicer roller coaster of these things than even a lot of like Sondheim stuff does.

[20:30] Jimi Hendrix: Um, where like Sondheim is great and can be very, like the whole show will be very cerebral, um, and you know, if for that kind of one note-esque.

[20:43] Tommy: Um, whereas to bounce back and forth in Dave Malloy's mind, um, and Rachel Chavkin and everyone else who worked on the show, um, you know, you, you know there are moments to breathe, and you know there are moments where you're going to be a little overwhelmed by it all.

[20:59] Jimi Hendrix: Um, you know, this is a wild soundtrack, soundtrack cast album to listen to with headphones on.

[21:05] Tommy: Um, there's a ton of like subtle, you know, I was gonna say stupid, clever and tricky and frustrating, like heartbeat stuff in the background, or subtle backbeat that you have to, you like pause and you're like, am I hearing the blood rushing inside of my head?

[21:23] Jimi Hendrix: Or is that on the album?

[21:25] Tommy: Um, and it's on the album.

[21:27] Jimi Hendrix: Um, but it does, you know, it takes you on a real mental ride.

[21:33] Tommy: This one.

[21:34] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[21:34] Tommy: And I think that's it.

[21:35] Jimi Hendrix: It's like that again, that's, uh, to Dave Malloy's credit, you know, as a contemporary musical theater writer, and really sitting, I would say, at the forefront and not looking back at all, just strictly looking forward from his, from Brooklyn, you know what I mean?

[21:50] Tommy: Um, and letting all that influence him.

[21:53] Jimi Hendrix: Uh, his ability to just use sound, yeah, is really incredible, I think, and is still something that is quite unique.

[22:06] Tommy: Like it's still not something we're seeing, uh, very much replicated, certainly not to the same high artistic way that he uses it.

[22:16] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[22:16] Tommy: Um, because the one that I always go back to and I tell a story all the time is, um, when we were in "Comet," uh, and they installed subwoofers in the seats, yeah.

[22:27] Jimi Hendrix: Because they wanted you to feel it, yeah.

[22:29] Tommy: You know what I mean?

[22:30] Jimi Hendrix: And I'm like, that's, that is a stroke of genius because you are really going that extra mile to create, to use sound to illustrate an idea.

[22:42] Tommy: And that is, that is what musically, like that's what it is, is we're using sound, we're using these, you know, sonic things to create an idea.

[22:49] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, yeah.

[22:50] Tommy: And that's just what you're saying.

[22:51] Jimi Hendrix: And he's so clever at being able to think outside, like you don't need, you know, uh, reeds one, reeds two, percussion one, percussion two, like, yeah, you're, you are not limited by the chairs in the pit to the sounds you can make.

[23:04] Tommy: You're not limited to, uh, you know, the traditional sounds we think come out of human mouths to what you can let people hear.

[23:12] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and it gets, what's so cool about it in "Preludes" is it gets folded in on itself because Dave Malloy's music is always in conversation with Rachmaninoff's music.

[23:23] Tommy: Um, and to, you know, what is, what is so clever and welcoming about it is you don't need to be a Rachmaninoff scholar, I don't think, to get that conversation, to hear it bounce back and forth between, you know, turn of the century Russian compositions and Dave's super loop, uh, uh, electro funk pop that he pulls in.

[23:52] Jimi Hendrix: Um, of course you don't, like I, and it's what, it's tricky because like Rachmaninoff is, his music is so popular, like you know a lot of his themes, and you'll recognize, even if you think you've never listened to a single Rachmaninoff song, you'll recognize a lot of the music in this show, right?

[24:10] Tommy: Um, that's written by, and, um, it's one of those things I know that some of my friends are obsessed with Rachmaninoff, yeah.

[24:18] Jimi Hendrix: Um, who when I introduced this show to them, yeah, it was as if I gave them the biggest gift ever because they're musical theater people who are obsessed with Rachmaninoff, right?

[24:27] Tommy: And this is the ultimate intersection of that.

[24:30] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and it's so fun for them to be like there's, you know, this random op 23, like get, there's so many of these little nuggets interlaced through the whole thing.

[24:45] Tommy: Oh yeah, and seeing how they're then used in a musical theater context.

[24:49] Jimi Hendrix: It's fascinating.

[24:50] Tommy: But if you don't know squat, you're fine.

[24:52] Jimi Hendrix: You can still appreciate it.

[24:54] Tommy: Yeah.

[24:54] Jimi Hendrix: It lets you into that world.

[24:56] Tommy: It makes you want to go, and like it's even, it gets lampshaded and beta cognitized in the play, and we're skipping around, but the fact that the master comes back in at the end and talks about, you know, the record that his mother had or whatever, um, and he always listened, used to listen to Rachmaninoff, and it's totally, um, uh, Vincent Van Gogh traveling forward in time, coming to the museum to see his painting with Bill Nye from "Doctor Who."

[25:20] Jimi Hendrix: Like it is that, you know, what will I be remembered by thing?

[25:24] Tommy: Um, that's, it's a clever show.

[25:27] Jimi Hendrix: Um, I liked it.

[25:30] Tommy: I don't know how much I'm gonna keep listening to it, honestly.

[25:34] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, that's fair.

[25:35] Tommy: Um, that's fair, which is a shame.

[25:38] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and I hate that about it.

[25:41] Tommy: Um, like I find "Comet" more listenable, and not that a musical needs to be listenable, right?

[25:47] Jimi Hendrix: Um, you know, that's, this is not its final form.

[25:50] Jimi Hendrix: You go see it, and that's how you experience it. But yeah, the hobbyist in me likes re-listening to stuff. Um and like I can still wrap my mind around re-listening to something like Sweeney Todd, right? Um which is still pretty, uh, what's the word, acerbic. I use that right on the ears. Um this one's a little too much. Um, I find. Which makes me sad. Because I like it. Yeah, I don't know. I it's weird, it's just it's one of my most listened to music is cast recordings. Really fascinating. Yeah. Um, but I don't listen to all of the songs. Sure. Uh I listen to what are my opinion, like the highlights. Right. Um, I will always skip over Ho Ho and I will always skip over Tchaikovsky's child song.

Right. Um so I can get into the media. But even like, um, you know, the prelude is a great song and is I the I like twisted my neck the other day um while I was listening to this just out of and it like hurt a bunch. Um and I was like lying on the floor trying to get it to be back in shape, and the prelude came on and it got halfway through, and I was like, I have to hit pause on this. I can't yeah, exactly. This is far too tense. I have too much going on in my life, and this is not gonna help my brain relax. Um which shows it's a great song, like it's having not just an emotional but like a physio psychological effect. Um just the process of listening to it. Um so that I think is some real good brilliance there because that is the partnership between Dave Malloy and Rachmaninoff because all the music is prelude in C Sharp Minor.

Right. It's a good performance of prelude in C Sharp Minor. That's all it is. There is no manipulation to that number whatsoever. The only other thing that you have is a monologue. Right. Um it's really good. It's really good. It is really, really good because it builds in time with the music. Yep. Well, and like the whole thing folds in on itself because Rachmaninoff talks about how he wanted something that was big and epic and had this emotional impact. Like, it's a I am so delighted and curious and wish I could you know pick apart Dave Malloy's mind to find the moment where he was like haha this shall be a musical you know like what was the spark that turned that like I think of all of his many talents that is one of his cleverest is to be able to find the art in yeah in such a particular way but I think and again get again get on a t-shirt uh we'll talk about it later but the Dave Malloy in this show yeah you know I mean a lot of the time you think oh yeah I see Dave Malloy in Pierre Right here we are I think seeing Dave Malloy do you know I mean in a big big way yeah well um and fascinating that like far as I know it's one of his few roles that he has never played yeah true that's true he's not he's not appeared in this production of this video which and I absolutely agree with you um but you know it's fascinating that yeah he would take himself out of that yeah maybe there is a maybe that maybe it is too personal perhaps I w I would not I would neither fault him nor be surprised no not at all yeah he wasn't in beard though that's true there's that too was anyone in beardo um I think I was in beerdo I think we all are in beard over all in beard we are all beardo.

[29:47] Tommy: So true. I had a beer the other day called beardo.

[29:50] Jimi Hendrix: That's fun. I took a picture of it and sent it to Dave Malloy didn't have hair in it?

[29:55] Tommy: No, there was no hair. It was good though, it was really tasty. So Jimmy, all of that said, if someone wants to listen to preludes I don't know, the right way.

[30:05] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. How do you do that?

[30:08] Tommy: I would invest in the libretto. Yeah. Um buy it on Dave's site. It's cheap. Go get it. Um really, really nice libretto. So you know, I mean, if it was a physical thing, I would have it on my shelf behind me.

[30:23] Jimi Hendrix: Absolutely. Um the Yeah, but I I think it's tricky because I didn't I didn't listen, you know, the first time I listened to it, I didn't have the libretto.

[30:33] Tommy: Right.

[30:33] Jimi Hendrix: Um but at that time I was in uh Dave Malloy's the greatest thing that's ever happened to this earth sure bubble. Yeah. Um and so I it was so refreshing, but still musical theater. Right that I was like, oh my god, this is so good. So I didn't need that. But I think if you aren't at Dave Malloy stan, yeah, um pick up the libretto as well because it will shape it for you.

[30:58] Tommy: Absolutely. And there's there is pure poetry in this libretto that does not make it into the the recording.

[31:07] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. Um some of my favorite parts are the libretto. I find it a shame. Genius lists uh payment as the final track on the cast recording, but all the uh versions I found, I you can't listen to that anywhere.

[31:23] Tommy: No.

[31:23] Jimi Hendrix: Um but I don't think they're sung.

[31:26] Tommy: No, I don't think they're you know, I mean I just think they're underscored.

[31:29] Jimi Hendrix: And it would be interesting to know are they underscored in the same way?

[31:32] Tommy: Right.

[31:33] Jimi Hendrix: As preludes. Um who knows? I don't have the score, so I can't tell.

[31:37] Tommy: Yeah.

[31:38] Jimi Hendrix: Um but it is interesting to consider like a a piece of musical theatre about music not ending with a song.

[31:47] Tommy: Exactly.

[31:48] Jimi Hendrix: That's a wild choice.

[31:50] Tommy: Totally.

[31:51] Jimi Hendrix: Totally. Um, here it's non-traditional.

[31:56] Tommy: Uh-huh.

[31:57] Jimi Hendrix: Let's talk about that.

[32:02] Tommy: I got my mind on most of the time.

[32:07] Jimi Hendrix: I got my mind on most of the time.

[32:11] Tommy: I got my mind on, but sometimes I wanna go on a loop on a loop, on a loop.

[32:20] Jimi Hendrix: And feel like whispering for all and let my thoughts on the coil and go somewhere else where I can adjust not care.

[32:47] Tommy: I am on a loop, I am on a loop, I am on a loop, I am on a loop, I am on a loop, I am on a loop, I am on a loop, I am on a loop, I am on a loop.

[33:05] Jimi Hendrix: Because yeah, one of the things, right, that got me thinking about when we decided to do this for the show.

[33:12] Tommy: Yeah.

[33:14] Jimi Hendrix: Was um reading the reviews.

[33:18] Tommy: Yeah.

[33:18] Jimi Hendrix: And people being like, it's not ready yet.

[33:21] Tommy: Hmm.

[33:21] Jimi Hendrix: Interesting. And I was like, What do you mean by that?

[33:25] Tommy: Right.

[33:26] Jimi Hendrix: Right? I know what they mean by that. What they mean is it's not ready for Broadway.

[33:29] Tommy: Right, right.

[33:31] Jimi Hendrix: Um fair?

[33:33] Tommy: Yeah.

[33:33] Jimi Hendrix: I would agree.

[33:34] Tommy: Yeah.

[33:35] Jimi Hendrix: Uh I don't think it do well on Broadway. But why does that mean you have to give it a bad review?

[33:39] Tommy: Yeah.

[33:40] Jimi Hendrix: As if that's the end all. I mean, fuck fuck critics, but also what has created this.

[33:49] Tommy: But not even just critics. A lot of pe just people talking about the show say it's not ready.

[33:53] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[33:53] Tommy: It needs this, it needs this.

[33:55] Jimi Hendrix: For what?

[33:57] Tommy: Well, and it is such a I the more we do this podcast, the more I think we become a meta analysis on art criticism. Um but it does start to beg the question, like, what is the point of what it and and you know, I'm shooting myself in the foot by asking this question. Uh what is the point of expressing your opinion about art?

[34:22] Jimi Hendrix: Oh shit, we have to shut down the podcast.

[34:25] Tommy: I know, right? Um But yeah, but that's because it's art. Right. And you're supposed to, but like there what is the border between expressing your opinion how can I phrase this? The border between expressing your opinion about the art in its own art form and expressing your opinion about the emotional impact the art has had upon you.

[34:48] Jimi Hendrix: Right, okay, I see what you mean.

[34:50] Tommy: So like commenting on it is, it's commenting on w what it should be.

[34:54] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[34:55] Tommy: As opposed to what it is. Right. Like an a uh a statement like it's not ready is uh uh, you know, seeped in the mechanics of theatre, right?

[35:06] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[35:06] Tommy: And the the you know, fifty year long, sixty year long structure that we have artificially developed that doesn't mean anything.

[35:16] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, but it is, you know, like not that I'm terribly seeped in the world of say, you know, paint like visual art critic criticism, right?

[35:28] Tommy: Um, but it's almost like it feels like saying like I don't like that frame around a traditional impressionist painting or something.

[35:36] Jimi Hendrix: Right, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[35:37] Tommy: Right. And like it maybe once in a rare moment you might think that, but who cares? It's not even the point.

[35:45] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[35:45] Tommy: Um I think I again I feel like we have the same conversation over it because I feel like we have again talked about this before, but um it the idea of uh this level of kind of musical theater criticism.

[36:00] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[36:01] Tommy: I think is because we it's still such a new art form.

[36:08] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, sure.

[36:09] Tommy: Real you know, I mean, and the grandfather, you know, if we look at art epochs, right?

[36:13] Jimi Hendrix: Like musical theater is one of the newest.

[36:16] Tommy: Barely a hundred years old, maybe.

[36:18] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[36:19] Tommy: Oh god, like not even like seven nine.

[36:23] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[36:23] Tommy: Um so in that respect, that's I think why you don't why the critique is so narrow and so myopic, because we've not had time to have like the modern art I I don't know anything about art, but modern art's a thing, right?

[36:42] Jimi Hendrix: Sure, yeah.

[36:43] Tommy: Contemporary art where like we ha we don't we don't have we haven't subdivided, we ha I mean we have, you and me have, but there aren't big overarching uh uh f phases of musical theater in the way that there are in visual art.

[36:59] Jimi Hendrix: You know, we move from impressionism to realism to cubism and Dadaism to you know contemporary to post contempt, blah blah blah blah blah.

[37:07] Tommy: Yeah.

[37:08] Jimi Hendrix: Like we talk about contemporary musical theater, but we still compare it to Sondheim and we still compare it to people who were working in the 70s.

[37:17] Tommy: And I'm like so it's not contemporary.

[37:19] Jimi Hendrix: It's not contemporary, it's just a continuation. We even group in, you know, contemporary musical theater contains both Dave Malloy and Jason Robert Brown.

[37:28] Tommy: Right, exactly.

[37:29] Jimi Hendrix: Are so wildly different. Nineteen ninety-two and twenty fourteen like and this is you know, we uh you've said we've had the same conversation over again, stuck in my brain. But like because it is such uh uh uh a small club, um at least the people that make it, right?

[37:48] Tommy: Yeah, it is so defined closely to the people who do it that it's hard to even draw comparisons.

[37:55] Jimi Hendrix: Right. You know, how much is there a Disney sound and how much is there a Steven Schwartz sound? I think is the thing I said out loud a couple podcasts ago.

[38:03] Tommy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[38:04] Jimi Hendrix: Um but but to then see the the critical institution whether that comes through a uh tried and true, you know, paper critic or Joe Blow leaving their Broadway.com review, but also thinking through that same lens is a sign that we don't know how to deal with this yet.

[38:26] Tommy: And I think Comet fell victim to this too.

[38:29] Jimi Hendrix: A hundred percent.

[38:30] Tommy: You know, which is why it was kinda on shaky ground all the way through its existence.

[38:34] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[38:34] Tommy: Um was that people didn't know quite how to respond to it.

[38:47] Jimi Hendrix: Do we not talk about how shows make us feel?

[38:50] Tommy: Well, I guess it is they can't because you know they have to be faceless, they have to be representing every single person.

[38:55] Jimi Hendrix: So if they say I felt this kind of way, yeah, then you know not at all. What if I don't feel that way?

[39:02] Tommy: They have to say so-and-so's performance was inspired and blah blah blah blah blah.

[39:06] Jimi Hendrix: Right, exactly. Can't say some of the stuff we say, like, you know, this song made me cry. This song makes me happy, or gave you know, m gave me a migraine.

[39:18] Tommy: Um is that criticism?

[39:22] Jimi Hendrix: As I said, more and more this becomes a meta commentary on criticism the more we do this.

[39:26] Tommy: Well that's it, because you know, crit uh people because people probably could argue and would say that what we do is just criticize musicals all the time.

[39:34] Jimi Hendrix: Right. What what it doesn't really matter at the end of the day what we do, we're just talking. Um and the topic is musical, like that's all it is.

[39:44] Tommy: Um and that's fine.

[39:46] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. Uh I don't know, I just think it's it's a it's a really tricky thing in like reading because there's not a lot written about preludes.

[39:57] Tommy: Yeah.

[39:58] Jimi Hendrix: Right. Anywhere. Um so the stuff that is out there uh is either Dave Malloy Stani.

[40:07] Tommy: Right.

[40:08] Jimi Hendrix: Or um people who went to see it and didn't really like it.

[40:12] Tommy: Right.

[40:13] Jimi Hendrix: And therefore just kind of poo-poo it.

[40:16] Tommy: And it's a shame because any of those kind of poo poo-pooey comments are just talking about it as if it is going to be the next big thing.

[40:26] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[40:27] Tommy: Right. And I it's not f it's a shame.

[40:32] Jimi Hendrix: It's not fair because it it's a it's a Brooklyn style play.

[40:37] Tommy: Like that's that is kind of just what it is.

[40:39] Jimi Hendrix: Like it is artsy fartsy and it is a bit pretentious.

[40:43] Tommy: Oh god, absolutely.

[40:44] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. But that's also great. Like that's fine.

[40:46] Tommy: I so I I struggle with this because I I hear my inner self arguing with myself.

[40:52] Jimi Hendrix: Like, on the one hand, I think like don't you can never tell people how to appreciate art.

[40:57] Tommy: Um everyone should be able to go in. And I also always want to tell, like I teach kids, you know, there is no right way to appreciate art.

[41:05] Jimi Hendrix: And how do you look at a painting? You look at it, right?

[41:08] Tommy: And that's it. And anyone tells you that there's something more is lying.

[41:14] Jimi Hendrix: Um and on the other hand, we talk all the time about like shows have to let you in, have to be at least accessible to a point, you know, lest you end up with some bizarre Brechtian impenetrable wall of a nothingness that like then you're just jerking off on stage and you know, inviting other people.

[41:38] Tommy: Did you see Spring Awakening?

[41:41] Jimi Hendrix: Um Yeah, no, you're right, you're right.

[41:43] Tommy: Like it's but it's yeah, I just think people could have more of an open mind.

[41:50] Jimi Hendrix: Like I just y you know, it's it it happens all the time with musical theater, yeah, where it's it's so compared.

[42:01] Tommy: And I mean god, we're big hypocrites because we do it all the time.

[42:04] Jimi Hendrix: But it I just feel for something like this, right? Which is small, yeah, it is chamber, yeah, it is not meant to be anything it's not full stop.

[42:15] Tommy: Um and it's a shame everyone is trying to do that.

[42:22] Jimi Hendrix: And I think this is what I was talking about earlier. Um the fact that it's Molloy, Chavkin, Matthias, Paloma, yeah, uh, Mimi Leen is back.

[42:33] Tommy: Yeah, every everyone is here.

[42:35] Jimi Hendrix: Right. It's Smash Brothers Ultimate, the musical.

[42:38] Tommy: Yeah, exactly.

[42:39] Jimi Hendrix: Um and so people are like, Great, it's gonna be Great Comet.

[42:43] Tommy: Right, and it's not, and it is Of course it's not.

[42:46] Jimi Hendrix: Like of course it's not. It's a completely different thing.

[42:49] Tommy: It's nine million times smaller than Great Comet.

[42:52] Jimi Hendrix: Right. It is much more cerebral than Great Comet.

[42:55] Tommy: There's no story.

[42:56] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[42:58] Tommy: Um and even people, you know, compare it to to Ghost Quartet.

[43:02] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[43:02] Tommy: And say like, you know, uh Ghost Quartet was wacky and this is nonsense.

[43:07] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[43:08] Tommy: And it's like it's just it's just different.

[43:12] Jimi Hendrix: It's just different to be accepting of the different and to like I don't know, and we you know, talk about being hypocrites, but like to separate the art from the artist, not even in the way that people use that phrase, but just to say like letting the art stand on its own, you know, and not knowing who wrote it and just accept it for what it is.

[43:31] Tommy: But like I opened with my boyfriend was able to tell right away that this was Dave Muller.

[43:38] Jimi Hendrix: So I you know, it's such a it it this these sort of conversations really send me for a loop.

[43:44] Tommy: And of course there's no answer, right?

[43:46] Jimi Hendrix: Of course, this is the answer, is the conversation.

[43:49] Tommy: Um But, you know, at the very least I agree.

[43:54] Jimi Hendrix: I do wish we could get out of the, you know, it's not ready is such a stupid sentence.

[43:59] Tommy: Right. Not ready for what.

[44:01] Jimi Hendrix: And it's such a shame, right?

[44:03] Tommy: So we we obviously for last call we just spoke a lot about Rast T.

[44:06] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[44:07] Tommy: Um it's important to think about the next generation.

[44:11] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[44:12] Tommy: Like in all of these burgeoning up and coming writers, yeah, who you know, one of these a lot of them are probably listening to Malloy and really loving it because, you know, that's a the nerds out there love a bit of Malloy.

[44:24] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[44:24] Tommy: Um and for them to then just read like this is too experimental, there's that, they're gonna read that and be like, oh, I have to then stay more within the lines if I want to be successful.

[44:35] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[44:35] Tommy: Well, and it is such a fear.

[44:37] Jimi Hendrix: It's such a bullshitty thing too, because the same school of people that say stuff like this is too experimental are also the same kind of people who will uh, you know, uh uh tout about the classics and the proper shit, right?

[44:51] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[44:52] Tommy: And like, well, the what do you want?

[44:54] Jimi Hendrix: Exactly.

[44:55] Tommy: Yeah, it drives me nuts.

[44:58] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[44:59] Tommy: Critical They want to be the first one to love something.

[45:03] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[45:03] Tommy: And say that is their thing.

[45:05] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[45:06] Tommy: It is, I mean, the the this whole thing folds in upon itself, but uh I think it's it's Rock is talking to uh his hypnotherapist about is it Beethoven for four hands or whatever it is that he plays with his fiancee?

[45:22] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[45:23] Tommy: Um and how it is it's just for them and it's just about intimacy and it's not for the performance.

[45:29] Jimi Hendrix: Um and that art can just kind of exist for that too.

[45:32] Tommy: Um, and and part of this is that as well, right?

[45:37] Jimi Hendrix: And like acknowledging that and understanding that, and like being grateful that artists like Dave Malloy are willing to let you into that bit.

[45:51] Tommy: But also that is assuming an uh uh uh like a brain space that is unfair to assume, right?

[46:00] Jimi Hendrix: We're guilty of it, saying like, oh yeah, it's Dave Meloy up there, obviously, like maybe not.

[46:05] Tommy: True.

[46:07] Jimi Hendrix: We assume that.

[46:09] Tommy: I don't know.

[46:11] Jimi Hendrix: It's a it's a good one to think about to feel like art.

[46:15] Tommy: Totally.

[46:16] Jimi Hendrix: Tot and i there is lots of discussions to be had.

[46:19] Tommy: Um it sounds to me like you were talking a little bit about themes there, Tommy.

[46:25] Jimi Hendrix: Well, let me tell you more about it.

[46:27] Tommy: Once it's gonna be the only transition from now on, once you hop on my segue.

[46:30] Jimi Hendrix: It's we have to get forever.

[46:34] Tommy: Elf was four for four.

[46:36] Jimi Hendrix: Really?

[46:37] Tommy: Yeah.

[46:37] Jimi Hendrix: Oh no. Remember we made the noise?

[46:40] Tommy: I do remember the noise now.

[46:42] Jimi Hendrix: At what point do you become a parody of yourself?

[46:46] Tommy: I don't know.

[46:46] Jimi Hendrix: I'm a bit worried about it.

[46:48] Tommy: Yeah.

[46:48] Jimi Hendrix: I'll ask my doctor.

[46:50] Tommy: Anyway, hop on.

[46:51] Jimi Hendrix: You are in a hole, and so I jump into the hole.

[46:56] Tommy: But I can't catch you out.

[47:00] Jimi Hendrix: You are in a hole, and so I jump into the hole, but I can't catch you out.

[47:18] ♪ Musical number: "How I Wish" — performed by Unknown performer ♪

[48:38] Tommy: But the truth is I'm no better than you.

[48:45] Jimi Hendrix: As if we haven't already.

[48:56] Tommy: Sorry to articulate.

[49:02] Jimi Hendrix: I agree.

[49:03] Tommy: And Oh, okay, no, I'll I'll roll that back.

[49:06] Jimi Hendrix: Sure.

[49:06] Tommy: There's not enough musical theater art that talks about artists.

[49:09] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[49:10] Tommy: I well.

[49:11] Jimi Hendrix: Here's here's my caveat.

[49:14] Tommy: There's plenty of musical theater that's about uh burgeoning artists moving to New York and really struggling with it, and it's all really shitty, right?

[49:23] Jimi Hendrix: Um because it's people's first stuff.

[49:26] Tommy: Um there's not enough musical theater that talks about artists the way this does.

[49:33] Jimi Hendrix: That just talks about the reality.

[49:35] Tommy: Do you know I mean that talks about the the things that you feel when you are an artist?

[49:41] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[49:42] Tommy: Um the things that unify us all.

[49:44] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[49:44] Tommy: Not that I'm gonna get my big break because I'm going to New York and look, I got it.

[49:48] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[49:48] Tommy: That's unrealistic.

[49:50] Jimi Hendrix: Right.

[49:50] Tommy: Yes.

[49:51] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[49:52] Tommy: Do you know what's not unrealistic? Creative depression and writer's block.

[49:54] Jimi Hendrix: Oh yeah.

[49:57] Tommy: Like hugely so.

[49:59] Jimi Hendrix: I you know, we are moderate creators.

[50:02] Tommy: Right.

[50:02] Jimi Hendrix: Right. How many times have we been in pits?

[50:06] Tommy: Yeah.

[50:07] Jimi Hendrix: Like pits of despair.

[50:10] Tommy: Devastating, terrible, you know, over whatever your own art is of the moment.

[50:16] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and like feeling totally inescapable and also with I think pretty clear vision that you are stuck in the pit, which is one of the worst things about it sometimes, right?

[50:28] Tommy: Is you know that that you're there.

[50:31] Jimi Hendrix: And it it is You can see it.

[50:33] Tommy: You can see the way out.

[50:34] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, it is totally like you wish you could just snap the fuck out of it, right?

[50:38] Tommy: Absolutely.

[50:40] Jimi Hendrix: Ah It's why that song is so good.

[50:43] Tommy: Yeah.

[50:44] Jimi Hendrix: Because it's so true.

[50:46] Tommy: Like, that is a song that any artist could sing to themselves, right?

[50:51] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[50:51] Tommy: Of just being like, just do it.

[50:53] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah.

[50:53] Tommy: Just do it.

[50:54] Jimi Hendrix: It's so easy.

[50:54] Tommy: Right.

[50:55] Jimi Hendrix: Just do it.

[50:55] Tommy: Yeah.

[50:56] Jimi Hendrix: But you can't.

[50:57] Tommy: Yeah.

[50:57] Jimi Hendrix: Well, and that's the whole delight of this whole thing, is that like uh ostensibly we are watching the hypnotherapist whose name I can never remember.

[51:05] Tommy: Dahl.

[51:06] Jimi Hendrix: Dahl w walk Rachmananoff through getting out of that hole.

[51:11] Tommy: And like that is what we are witnessing.

[51:14] Jimi Hendrix: Um culminating in in Dahl's monologue at the end about uh, you know, climbing Kilimanjaro and you know, a child can take a step and you remember all the steps you took to got here to get here.

[51:25] Tommy: Um metaphor not lost, please and thank you.

[51:28] Jimi Hendrix: Um and that's the point, right?

[51:31] Tommy: And then Rachmaninoff goes on to compose some of his best work afterwards.

[51:36] Jimi Hendrix: Like it ha it it works all through this kind of cerebral contemplation of artists' block, writer's block, you know, creative paralysis and things like that.

[51:50] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. Um it's it's inspiring to watch. I will say that. Um I completely agree. Like it's it's that thing of like when you're in the thick of it, right? The worst feeling is seeing everyone else succeed.

[52:07] Tommy: Yes. Because you're like, I ca I've lost it. Like you get to that point like they're doing things. Yeah. Why is it so easy for them? Yeah. Right? Because you only see the good, especially now in our age of social media where you only see the good.

[52:22] Jimi Hendrix: Yep. I I will say, and I had this feeling a ton in college in theater college, when everyone was working on something. Um I found one of the most poisonous and toxic brain spaces I would end up in is like watching a production I wasn't a part of that I was aware was having what I had deemed a bad process for whatever reason and watching it succeed and you know do well whatever that meant um and being like ah but they did it wrong right exactly it's the and you want to tell everyone you want to say you don't know their shit right I'm not shit I'm great right exactly yeah um and like to to it is it has taken a long time and I still struggle with it but to have the uh uh uh uh kindness and empathy of remembering that like every artist is on their own journey um and you don't know the half of it right um is is good medicine for anyone who works in the creative field um totally and you watch you watch Rachmaninoff go through that you know his kind of like ghosts of art present past and future that he encounters through yeah Chekhov Tchaikovsky and uh uh Tolstoy um you know you you watch him kind of run into these comparisons with artistic idols um how they kings of their field like the kings of their field and like um to hear I think it's Chekhov who says at the very beginning uh you know stuff along the lines of like oh it sounds like you don't have it that bad um I think I wrote a Chekhov yeah he talks about like people are in war like people lose limbs right you're a composer yeah get over it um right you know I also sidebar but the delight of I assume Chekhov spends most of the show holding a gun.

[54:17] Tommy: Um is very funny. It's very funny to me. Absolutely. It's Chekhov's. And then he he he shoots it. He shoots it. He should and and the whole joke is like he hold on, I want to find in the libretto for the sake of people who haven't read. Um Chekhov is like ending his advice session with Rachmaninoff. Um and he says to Rock, it sometimes seems like uh he's talking about Rachmaninoff's music. Um says, if I had one bad thing to say about your music, it sometimes seems more like you are trying to dazzle than to say something profound. I used to be an awful show off, filling the page with spectacular phrases. Now I'm happy when I put three words together just so. Virtuosity has its place. But if you want to be truly great, he raises his gun in the air. Long silence. Use more silence. He shoots hits a target. It's so good. It's such a funny like meta joke. Right. Because he's Chekhov. Great. He's Chekhov and he has a gun.

[55:23] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, no, it's great. It's smart. It's smart. It's smart and clever. And and still whimsical, which I think like goes against some of the thought we were arguing against at the at the beginning of this tirade. I think it's a really funny script.

[55:39] Tommy: Yeah. Like, I think it's I think it's lots of really funny moments, and I don't think they're wanky funny. I think just funny. Anyway, yeah. Um, but yeah, I think that that theme running through the show where you know Rach goes and visits all of these people he looks up to, and each of them in turn either tell him nothing or tell him that it's easy. Right. Um, and he he's not able to get what he wants from that. He's not able to get the answer, he's not able to get the thing until he just does the work himself and and that's it, ladies and gents. Like that is it. You're not gonna read self-help books right and find the answer until you sit down with yourself.

[56:24] Jimi Hendrix: You know, I mean, the artist's way is a wonderful book, but sorry, you need to do the work. Oh yeah, like well, and it is, you know, as much as we've hit these writers blocks things all the time. The way Rachmaninoff describes how he approaches his art in this feels like some of the most honest description of art making I've ever heard. Like whenever he talks about it, he's like, Yeah, and then I just did it, and then I just wrote it, and then it's and then it happened. And not in this like um fantastical, like, yes, and then a spark of inspiration hit me and it flowed through my fingertips, nor is it like, yeah, and then I spent hours in different drafts, and I wake up every morning and I make sure I write for six hours, like, no, he's somewhere in the middle, and just hit on it and no other artist can tell him what his process is going to be.

[57:20] Tommy: Yeah, it's just not. And in the same way he can't articulate his process either. And he just doesn't know.

[57:30] Jimi Hendrix: No, yeah. Like in what do you want to write? I don't know. Like, it's so honest. It's so like I'm not a composer, but I I write and it you sometimes you'll get an idea and you're like, hang on, this is the best idea I've ever had. This came from nowhere. Yeah, this thing I've been working on for six years, yeah, is it 20 pages. Like, how how is this happening? No, and sometimes you'll like you'll brute force it out of your brain by staring at the blank page for five hours. Yeah. And sometimes you thought one worked and it didn't, and why? It's impossible to define, which is what makes the artistic hole such a hard one to climb out of.

[58:16] Tommy: Totally. Because you don't know how you got there. Yeah. It's just so it's good. Yeah. I mean, it does, you know, it does that Dave Malloy thing where I'm sure we talked about it in comet, where like if you listen to the ending song on its own, it's great. But it is so much better if you took the entire journey to get there. Yeah. And there are moments in the show where like if you've gotten there in order with everyone there, it hits on this like perfect mellow tone of the harmony.

[58:53] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. Hey, speaking of harmony, very good, very good. It's not even a segue. But uh let's let's talk about Sunday.

[59:02] Tommy: Yeah. I mean, it's it was interesting because you know my journey with Sunday. Um I know your journey with Sunday. I didn't I I don't know if I've come around as an artist or if this one hit me different, but I got in the artist's brain faster in this one than I did in Sunday. I didn't have that initial negative reaction that I did with Sunday.

[59:21] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. Um this one I got right away. And I don't know if it is indicative of like a mild artistic slump I feel like I'm in right now that led me into that more, perhaps. Um or is it just because it's accessible?

[59:35] Tommy: Yeah, perhaps. Which is weird because nobody says it's accessible. Right. Everyone says it's potentially, but I think it is. Like, I I tell me how you can listen to the song Natalia and not get it if you've ever created any single thing or know someone who is created.

[59:51] Jimi Hendrix: I do I do think Sunday walked so that preludes could run. Um I I don't think in the artistic landscape that Sondheim and Lapine were working on Sunday in, could they have they already were deemed wacky by like doing an act one and an act two that were so time dilated.

[1:00:10] Tommy: Yeah. Um, and still like taking some very art like broad swath artistic choices there around time. Um it'd be impossible to do something so scatterbrain and postmodern, you know, what was that, the 70s, eighties, um, and and have it at all be like I I would wager the artistic institution would never say yes to that. It wouldn't have made it on stage. Which sucks.

[1:00:34] Jimi Hendrix: Um, but the what makes preludes accessible is that it it foregoes any sense of linearity for the sake of the story.

[1:00:44] Tommy: Yeah. Um in a way that Sunday was trying to do.

[1:00:47] Jimi Hendrix: To do, yeah, I'll give you that. That's a really good point, actually. And I think, yeah, maybe Sunday would have benefited more from hopping about time a little bit more in actual. So much of Sunday is amorphous in its time anyway, because we kind of blast in and out of this painting.

[1:01:03] Tommy: But because it still needs to kind of have this frame around it of the linearity that we expect of musical theater. You know, it's one of the great unities, you can't get rid of rid of it, the unity of time.

[1:01:14] Jimi Hendrix: Um so and I think that hampered it.

[1:01:18] Tommy: Yeah. In a way that it doesn't need to exist for preludes.

[1:01:22] Jimi Hendrix: Absolutely. And I think it just hit it really hits on all the beats. Like I think Sunday talked a lot about creation and relationships.

[1:01:33] Tommy: Yeah. Right?

[1:01:34] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. Um, preludes definitely has that.

[1:01:37] Tommy: Absolutely.

[1:01:37] Jimi Hendrix: But it also just talks about creation and how that happens and what pisses you off when you're an artist. Because what some of the lines that really resonate with me are um in prelude when he says at the end, I don't even know how that happened. I was 19. You know, yeah.

[1:01:58] Tommy: And people say, Oh, the prelude, the prelude. And it's like that sh like, in my opinion, that shit.

[1:02:06] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. And you're telling me you love that. Right. I I then need to like go along with that, and I don't believe in it.

[1:02:11] Tommy: Yeah. Like, that's damn relatable.

[1:02:15] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. Right? Absolutely. That is, you know, how tell me some of your videos that top 10 staircases.

[1:02:21] Tommy: No, right there with you.

[1:02:23] Jimi Hendrix: Um, and like I think that's the part that got me into preludes more than um Sunday, is it has a much more honest and diverse discussion of people's reaction to art.

[1:02:36] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:02:37] Jimi Hendrix: In Sunday, it's either one side or the other, right? Or like they're all very extreme.

[1:02:43] Tommy: Like, oh, your art is crap and appre underappreciated in its time, or you know, uh putting it together, like we gotta sell the art, sell sell, sell so we can do the art.

[1:02:52] Jimi Hendrix: Do do do. Um, and it's it makes it pretty one note. Whereas like both his discussion in the preludes song, but also I forget where it is, but he talks about like seeing some girl standing outside of his window just dancing to one of uh his songs.

[1:03:09] Tommy: Um that is earlier, I can't remember at what point, but it just one of his chats.

[1:03:09] Jimi Hendrix: Just one of his chats. Um and says he says something along the lines of like she understands it more than anyone else ever will. Um he wishes that everyone could just be like just to listen to it.

[1:03:24] Tommy: Exactly.

[1:03:24] Jimi Hendrix: And Sunday could never.

[1:03:26] Tommy: Um Sunday focuses too much on the you know, green, purple, yellow, red waters.

[1:03:32] Jimi Hendrix: Um for all that it's worth love it, have turned my leaf over about it, don't get me wrong.

[1:03:38] Tommy: Yes, he says this isn't the this thing Sunday podcast.

[1:03:41] Jimi Hendrix: But Preludes pushes it in a in a way that is like deeply personal and deeply inspiring.

[1:03:47] Tommy: Like I'm I'm I you know, as much as I said, I don't think I'll I will I think I will struggle re-listening to this. Preludes is a is a I know a ladder I will be able to pull into my next artistic hole.

[1:03:59] Jimi Hendrix: Um exactly, which is that is your evanescence, yeah, exactly.

[1:04:04] Tommy: Right, it's gonna help me bubble to the top.

[1:04:06] Jimi Hendrix: Um the other one, um the other line that I I really really love is in um in the first concerto.

[1:04:15] Tommy: Is that concerto?

[1:04:17] Jimi Hendrix: The first sure.

[1:04:19] Tommy: You know better than the first symphony, yeah.

[1:04:21] Jimi Hendrix: The first symphony in the first symphony, um when he's doing the um uh skill faces, blank faces, and the worst blank faces.

[1:04:32] Jimi Hendrix: Yes, um, this one unwraps candy, this one checks her phone and takes her 10 minutes to take her call off. Like that whole thing, like and that frustration, oh yeah, and that exclamation of you're shitting on diamonds, like yeah, I have worked so hard at this, and you don't care, you don't see it.

[1:04:38] Tommy: Oh yeah, and that frustration is everything, and that frustration can kick you into a funk. Because you're like, what the f am I doing it for then? The whole like as someone who often sits in the back of a theater and watches high schoolers crossing my finger that they're I hope they're gonna do it right. Um the idea of like going and sitting out in the stairs in the lobby, and you know, like that kind of back of the theater pace, and how all of that is is deeply visceral.

[1:05:24] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, it's so like you get it, you get why Rachmaninoff is three years long because it's it's so frustrating. Yeah, and I don't know. I just it the lens that Dave Malloy puts it through. I don't know, maybe because it is a contemporary lens and he just forgoes any sort of naturalism.

[1:05:46] Tommy: Sure.

[1:05:47] Jimi Hendrix: Um it's so relatable. And it's not hard to get no, it's so like it's why people should buy the libretto too, because there's so many pieces they're missing, but the one that does it for me, so the B plot of the whole show is that uh Rachmaninoff is trying to marry um his uh uh uh fiancée, um, Natalia.

[1:06:12] Tommy: Yeah, it's his first cousin, yes, and so they need to get permission from the czar because they're first cousins. Um it's less creepy than it sounds, right? Um, but in talking with the czar, he asks uh something like uh, you know, where do you find God? You know, marriage is a sacrament, um, and says to Rachmaninoff, I would think that you would find God in your music.

[1:06:35] Jimi Hendrix: And Rock says, There is God in music, but it's not that's not, it's so hard to find God in the concert halls, it's so hard to find God in churches, God is Natalia and I sitting on a bench, or one person smiling in a crowd, or dancing to a prelude, or plunking out wrong notes. God is in the practice room, God is in the kitchen, God is in the bedroom, fingertips and knuckles. No one plays four hands Beethoven symphonies for an audience. It's just for the players. God is in the very small.

[1:07:16] Tommy: But it's the same thing, yeah.

[1:07:18] Jimi Hendrix: Exactly. And it's it's an aphorism. It is is so true. Like it is it's yeah, it's it's important. It's it that is it. Like that is the linchpin to the whole thing.

[1:07:29] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:07:29] Jimi Hendrix: Um it's what I love about the ending of the show that you don't get. Because the whole way through, Rachmaninoff talks about how significance is important, and he wants to be remembered.

[1:07:49] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:07:49] Jimi Hendrix: And the hypnotherapist keeps pushing him to articulate that. Right. Um, and to work out what that means. And, you know, is it legacy? And what does legacy mean? Do you need to be the best? Right. Does that mean legacy? Um, and at the end he has this conversation with the master who is Chris Sarandon, um, and who has been all of the other, you know, big people.

[1:08:15] Tommy: Um, and he says that uh he has this record that's like the or in a magazine, sorry, that's like the fifty greatest composers of all time, and Beethoven's on there, and X is on there, blah blah blah, and Rachmaninoff asked really, really simply, um am I on it?

[1:08:31] Jimi Hendrix: And he's like, No. But he is loved and beloved by so many, and that's it. Like, that is your legacy, is you're liked by the everyman.

[1:08:45] Tommy: Right.

[1:08:46] Jimi Hendrix: You are you are remembered through your work.

[1:08:50] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:08:51] Jimi Hendrix: You don't need to be the best. You don't need to hit the big leagues and reach the top.

[1:08:57] Tommy: Right.

[1:08:58] Jimi Hendrix: Because you can be the little engine that could, yeah, and still do fantastically well because you're that special to someone.

[1:09:05] Tommy: Well, and it's such a good combination of like you've heard artists say, I think we're all guilty of falling into this, like, well, I you know, this story is so important that it must be shared, right? Like, and you know, this message is of such great meaning that the masses must experience it.

[1:09:23] Jimi Hendrix: And often I think artists are bullshitting themselves when they're also not mentioning, like, yeah, and I'd kind of like to be famous for it.

[1:09:31] Tommy: Yeah, yeah, and I'd kinda like to be known for it. Even if that still is an honest related to the message, like this message is so good, and I want to be remembered as the person that brought it to the world.

[1:09:40] Jimi Hendrix: I think that ego and pride comes with any artistic endeavor, whether we shine a light on it or hide it.

[1:09:47] Tommy: It's your driving force, right?

[1:09:48] Jimi Hendrix: It's your driving force, of course. And it's such this puts such a good pin on it of like, yes, you are remembered for what you did, and people like what you did, and they like you because of it, and that is your legacy, and it's both in the same.

[1:10:05] Tommy: Um is is cool, is neat.

[1:10:09] Jimi Hendrix: And what I love about everything in this beautiful harmony is that um Preludes is shot down by so many.

[1:10:20] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:10:21] Jimi Hendrix: And yet it's still loved by a lot of people. You know what I mean?

[1:10:26] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:10:27] Jimi Hendrix: Like it's still loved, and it still has such an important place.

[1:10:32] Tommy: Right.

[1:10:32] Jimi Hendrix: It's like is it on the within Preludes, within this tiny thing that a lot of people don't like, yeah, is one of my all-time favorite musical theater songs.

[1:10:39] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:10:40] Jimi Hendrix: It's "Human" now hear this.

[1:10:42] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:10:42] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, right? Exactly. It's it's so special.

[1:10:47] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:10:47] Jimi Hendrix: It is, I mean, it's you know, nine people. It doesn't matter.

[1:10:50] Tommy: And it that's what makes sense.

[1:10:52] Jimi Hendrix: And what makes Preludes so delightful in that and what what I think makes a lot of the shows that we really gravitate to with this kind of theme in it so delightful is that because they discuss that theme in themselves, you know that they know, and there's something very comforting about that.

[1:11:14] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:11:16] Jimi Hendrix: To know that these shows know that they're not the big blockbuster, that they're not the most popular you know, every man sort of thing.

[1:11:28] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:11:29] Jimi Hendrix: And that they're they're cool with that because they are, you know, uh diatribes about art.

[1:11:37] Tommy: Yeah.

[1:11:39] Jimi Hendrix: Let the show be the Rice Krispie Treats.

[1:11:45] Tommy: Then I came to him and sang of silence.

[1:11:57] Jimi Hendrix: And I sang to him of nothing at all.

[1:13:23] Tommy: Jimi, that was Preludes.

[1:13:26] Jimi Hendrix: That was our Preludes. Now we go on to the rest of the composition, right?

[1:13:30] Tommy: Isn't that how it works?

[1:13:32] Jimi Hendrix: Yes, I think so.

[1:13:35] Tommy: Dear.

[1:13:36] Jimi Hendrix: That's as as I slowly bathe in my artistic existential crisis.

[1:13:41] Tommy: Um exactly, I know.

[1:13:43] Jimi Hendrix: That's uh one thing I'll give it. It certainly won't make you feel worse.

[1:13:48] Tommy: That's true.

[1:13:49] Jimi Hendrix: It won't make you feel worse.

[1:13:51] Tommy: What a review.

[1:13:52] Jimi Hendrix: We're good at these reviews.

[1:13:54] Tommy: Elf, it's fine.

[1:13:56] Jimi Hendrix: Preludes, it won't make you feel worse.

[1:13:59] Tommy: Remember, remember seven years ago when they put that um uh monolith in the middle of the desert in America?

[1:14:06] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah, approximately seven years ago, yeah.

[1:14:08] Tommy: Yeah, that big silver thing. Um there was uh a headline that said uh, you know, forest rangers find uh giant monolith in the middle of the desert. Experts agree it's probably just art.

[1:14:20] Jimi Hendrix: And someone posted and said, talk about a bad review.

[1:14:26] Tommy: I love that.

[1:14:28] Jimi Hendrix: It's probably art.

[1:14:29] Tommy: Oh man.

[1:14:30] Jimi Hendrix: Students.

[1:14:30] Tommy: Hey, I got a quiz question for you. You ready?

[1:14:33] Jimi Hendrix: I'm buzzing.

[1:14:34] Tommy: Alright. The film version of this musical very nearly turned into a Mary Poppins reunion. Serendipitously, fate pulled both Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke out of the running for their respective roles. What show?

[1:14:49] Jimi Hendrix: Who knows?

[1:14:51] Tommy: Hey, if you want to get in touch with us and let us know, um, you can. Our show Twitter and Instagram is @jimandtomic. That is J I M A N D T O M I C.

[1:15:02] Jimi Hendrix: Or if you want to go long form, please drop us an email on our website, Jim and Tomic.com.

[1:15:08] Tommy: And we have merch. You can find it on our website.

[1:15:10] Jimi Hendrix: Also, we've got a Discord now. There'll be links in the show notes. The invite usually lasts a day, so go click it now.

[1:15:16] Tommy: Umry, hurry, hurry.

[1:15:18] Jimi Hendrix: Don't worry if you miss it, there'll be more to come.

[1:15:21] Tommy: There will indeed.

[1:15:22] Jimi Hendrix: We're having fun over there though, right?

[1:15:23] Tommy: I love the Discord.

[1:15:25] Jimi Hendrix: Hi, everyone.

[1:15:26] Tommy: Yes.

[1:15:27] Jimi Hendrix: I feel youthful.

[1:15:28] Tommy: I know.

[1:15:29] Jimi Hendrix: I feel like I'm back in an AIM chat room.

[1:15:32] Tommy: Right.

[1:15:33] Jimi Hendrix: That is, it's got that vibe.

[1:15:35] Tommy: And who doesn't want to be right back in there?

[1:15:37] Jimi Hendrix: It's tons of fun.

[1:15:37] Tommy: But instead of, we've we've graduated, Jimmy.

[1:15:39] Jimi Hendrix: Instead of ASL, it's age pronoun location, which I adore.

[1:15:44] Tommy: Exactly.

[1:15:45] Jimi Hendrix: As it should be. Um and hey, if you fancy uh supporting the podcast financially, um, you can check out our Patreon if you would like, which is on our website as well.

[1:15:55] Tommy: Uh and on our Patreon, if you um donate five dollars minimum, um, you will get access to our video podcast, um, which we like to call Last Call.

[1:16:06] Jimi Hendrix: Um and Tommy, what did we talk about this week?

[1:16:08] Tommy: Ramie the Ratatouille.

[1:16:12] Jimi Hendrix: Oh we did indeed.

[1:16:14] Tommy: We talked a lot.

[1:16:15] Jimi Hendrix: Yeah. So if you want to hear our thoughts about Rabbi the Ratatouille, go ahead over to our Patreon.

[1:16:22] Tommy: And I promise you there's not that much singing.

[1:16:24] Jimi Hendrix: The rat of all our dreams.

[1:16:27] Tommy: Yes.

[1:16:28] Jimi Hendrix: Uh, we would like to give a big, big thank you once again to all of our patrons.

[1:16:34] Tommy: Um you are all exquisite.

[1:16:37] Jimi Hendrix: Delightful together.

[1:16:38] Tommy: Every single one of you.

[1:16:39] Jimi Hendrix: Yes. Um most of all, it always helps us out when you tell other people about our show.

[1:16:43] Tommy: So anyone, anyone and everyone you can rally into listening to our weird musical theater podcast, please and thank you.

[1:16:49] Jimi Hendrix: And we adore you.

[1:16:50] Tommy: Rally the troops.

[1:16:51] Jimi Hendrix: Yes.

[1:16:52] Tommy: And uh, hey, thanks for listening.

[1:16:56] Jimi Hendrix: Cheers!

[1:16:58] Tommy: Cheers, Jimmy.

[1:17:16] Jimi Hendrix: That song.

[1:17:17] Tommy: I knew I smelled the wrath.

[1:17:19] Jimi Hendrix: Oh, lingui.

[1:17:21] Tommy: We've got you now, we've got you now.