Below -- Cast members in L.A. from a work-in-progress
The Music Medicine Show: Roxanne Mayweather, Marianne Lewis, Natalie Fryman, Kerry Carnahan. (R) Marianne Lewis
Kerry Carnahan . Tony Gonzales . Cade Parenti (and almost invisible, Marianne Lewis, TR Krupa and Chris Acuff
WALKING TO WORK (R) vocalists on this version of a song from the non-verbal concert piece WAZO WAZO: Kathryn Skatula, (RIP, darling woman!) Ali Olmo, Chuck Bergman, Robert Yacko, B.J. Ward and others. (Please contact me if your name is not here - apologies!)
Don Preston (from Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention), who played synthesizer for Mimi's piece,
WAZ0 WAZO and again for See Below Middle Sea.
Seulement Lui - solo piano improvisation on Mimi's album,
N A K E D - available on www.cdbaby.com,
She's Pretty (lead vocal: Susan Krebs
Men still stop and stare at her
Heads turn everywhere for her
But she won't believe it - NO
She can't conceive it
She's pretty
In an unusual way
Very pretty, uh-huh
In an unconventional kind of way
This is the kind of case of feminine insecurity
I know you've seen this kind of case before
You might even be kinda' bored
Kind of out of your mind
Kinda ready to scream if you hear it one more time
This is a case where the inner
Doesn't match up with the outer person
I know you know this kind of case
You've seen it once or twice
Or had a friend who
Or maybe even you suspect that: this is YOU!
You, you, you've got
Those out of step
and out of style
and out of sync Blues (2x)
Girlfriends tell her she looks nice
Her shrink says so at twice the price
But she won't believe it
She can't conceive of it
She's pretty, very pretty Uh huh
In an unconventional kind of way
This is a tale 'oft told in feminine history
Big hips, small tits, no lips - fanatic anxiety
And too many women play the dog
When we should play the Queen
You can't get cast if Bow-Wow's how you're seen!
Maybe ya' think your hair is dull
your eyes are small
Maybe you don't believe you've got any style at all
But FAKE IT
in an unusual way
That's how you'll MAKE it, oh yeah,
In an unconventional kind of way
You've got those out of step
and out of style
and out of sync Blues . (2x)
Just pretend you're already who you want to be
And that is the person the whole world will see!
The Desert of Tien Shan
Vocal:June Angela
(Tony nominee for Broadway's SHOGUN)
from Mimi's 3-ACT play-with-music, inspired by the Chinese
legend of T'sai Wen Chi, one of the first female writers in China, who
was captured by Mongol nomads near the end of the Han Dynasty.
THE ABDUCTION OF LADY WEN CHI
I see cloud after cloud appear
One more mountain to cross draws near
How could I find my way -- even if I could escape?
How could I navigate the desert of Tien Shan?
I see cloud after cloud pass overhead
And they shroud my stormy heart in dread
How would I dare escape / How could I find my way
How could I navigate the desert of Tien Shan?
Weary, even the sky looks weary from here
Dreary, oh how my path is so unclear
Bitter, the dagger of wind that sharpens my tears --
endless tears, endless tears!
I am weak, resentful and soft, softer than water
With a face that may please men but make me suffer
And the only way I know that I'm still alive
Is to hear my cries echo back from the terrible skies
I see clouds like ghosts wordless and grey
There's no change in this terrain from day to day
Where is my Great North Star to tell me where we are
It's swallowed up by the desert
Swallowed up by the desert
Swallowed up by the desert of Tien Shan
Lyrics and music by Mimi
Vocal: MATTHEW GONDER
LOUIS DURRA piano
Dominic Genova, bass
Jerry Kalef, drums
Matthew Gonder
PARIS, France
LADY MOON
Lady Moon, come back to me
It's so dark here I can't see
And I'm alone with nobody
To light the night for me
Lady Moon, my only friend,
Come to me and tell me when
You'll light my path back home again
And right my destiny
Even the sky looks tired from here
Even the stars don't shine as clear
My guiding light -- the Great North Light --
Has virtually disappeared...
Lady Moon, come back to me
I'm so cold, please pity me
I have no special family
To light the night for me
Even the stars look weary from here
Pour wounded Mars has lost his shine
Venus herself weeps bitter tears
Her shattered heart hears mine
Lady Moon, won't you appear?
Let me whisper in your ear
I'll be alright if you come near
To wipe away my tears
Lady Moon, please hear my prayer,
You may be hiding but I know you're there
behind the darkest clouds way up somewhere...
Oh, won't you light the night to show you care?
Hold me closely, slip your heart inside mine
Roll me easy, over the valleys of night.
And kiss me, angel Lift me up through the tumblin' stars.
I say YEAH! Rock me under and over -- let me feel who you really are.
Press me like flowers between the pages of night.
Dress me in nothing, and take me with you through Time.
And kiss me, angel, lift me up through the tumblin' stars.
I say YEAH rock me under and over, let me feel who you really are...who you really are!
Push me softly. Slip your heart inside mine.
Bend me like a willow tree. Let me swallow the rivers of night.
And kiss me, angel, lift me up through the tumblin' stars.
I say YEAH, rock me under and over...let me feel who you really are!
Make me complete; blend your soul inside mine.
Drown me in the sweet salt sea, let me follow the visions of night.
And kiss me, angel, lift me up through the tumblin' stars.
I say YEAH! Rock me under and over! Let me feel who you really are.
Who are you really when you are trying to be so brave?
Who are you really when you admit that you feel afraid?
Who are you really -- after you say who you are...?
Who are you really when you sail, when you sail, when you sail through the tumblin' stars?
TUMBLE IN STARS
C. Mimi Seton 1992
lyrics, music, piano
(not arrangements)
Vocals:
Mimi with Matthew Gonder
ccollage by Mimi Seton c. 2008
Michele Danker Arkin
soprano, recording the demo for
BODY WITHOUT BONES.
Mimi's satire on cosmetic surgery
lyrics by Mimi Seton
Music by Matthew Goldsby
Actor-singer-songwriter,
John Allee,
playing Male Mother
in the reading of
BODY WITHOUT BONES
Ali Olmo (above R)
in BODY WITHOUT BONES
Angie Jarre, Cortez Alexander and a snip of Ali Olmo (above L)
Ali Olmo with
Matthew Goldsby, Mimi Seton
and Angie Jarre (L)
Caucasian and Pretty
Lyrics and melody lines by Mimi
Music and arrangements
by Matthew Goldsby
We're Caucasian through and through,
White from head to toe
Part of the 87 per cent
How we love the surgeons! Go, man, go!
He'll reshape your basic shell
Then you'll hide out in a fine hotel.
We're of European stock
White and pink and proud
Part of the 87 per cent
How we love the surgeons - Say it loud!
When they're done you're slim and smooth --
Young and fun -- and in the groove!
Boogie woogie boogie snip snip snipetty
Scaba Daba Dee dah - that's what I say
Snip nipetty ooh - la! Take it away!
Boogie Woogie Be bop / Be bop be bop be bop
Snip snippety daylight - Do me today
Diddle-y-da Diddle-y-da Diddle-y-da Do me
" " "
" " "
Dee Dee Diddl-y Dee, Diddle-y-dee DO ME!
" "
Do me today, Do me today, (scat) Do me today.
We're Caucasian, don't age well
Skin is thin and frail
But we're part of the seven or eight per cent
Livin' on the interest -- too big to fail
Take six months off, I won't tell
Go 'round the world, don't say Farewell.
Boogie woogie boogie snip snip snipetty
Scaba Daba Dee dah - Boogie all day!
I got a little snippy -- I like it that way
I look like I did before...
Caucasian and pretty
Caucasian and pretty
Caucasian and pretty
Before...
The....
WAR!!!
Right:
Mimi with actress Angela Paton (RIP)
Director - actor, Darrell Larsen,
Actress-composer, O-lan Jones
Actress, Jessica Rao
At a reading at Skylight Theatre
of. BODY WITHOUT BONES
Far R:
Tony Abatemarco (Art. Dir. Skylight Theatre LA)
Director, Julianne Just
Take Us Back
lyrics & music by Mimi
from THE TROJAN WOMEN
produced on the CBS-TV lot in L.A.
by Insite Productions' Suzanne Battaglia
Directed by: Michael Arabian
Starring: Angela Paton & Mariette Hartley
"Best Adaptation" award nomination
TAKE US BACK
lyrics and music c. Mimi Seton 1995
Don't turn your back
Don't turn your back
Don't turn your back on your child
On your child...
I am praying to the Heavens
And I pray you hear me call
You're my Mother and my Father
You're the Force behind it all
Can You see us down below You
In the nest that we have soiled
All the grace that You had granted
Has been sacrificed and spoiled
Can You count us one by one
For the virtue in our souls,
Or is each of us to answer
For the violence of the whole?
All our rivers run with blood
All our temples have been sacked
But we pray for your forgiveness:
Can you take your children back?
Take us back! Take us back! Take us BACK!!!
Answer our prayers
Show You are there
For we know only horror and sorrow
We drown in our despair
Answer this time
Send us a sign
Without You we butcher, we slaughter,
We bathe in the blood of our own kind!
Look -- See us fall !
Answer our call !
Without You we're crueler than beasts in the wild
Without You we're nothing at all
Look! See us fall !
Answer our call !
Without You we know we are nothing
Without You we know we are nothing
Without You we know we are nothing
at all...
