It's the Same Old Song--Howard Ashman V

The "I Want" Songs of Howard Ashman V

They're called the "I Want" Songs in musicals--those interludes where the protagonist declares their ambitions and desires...and basically announce what the ending of any self-respecting happy-ending musical is going to be. There's "The Impossible Dream" from "Man of LaMancha," for example. "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" from "My Fair Lady." "Somewhere" from "West Side Story."

This week, I'm offering up the "I Want" Songs of Howard Ashman. Why? During my job search, I'm in an intense "I Want" mode, and Ashman's are the ones that stick in my head. They have a sophistication of language and tone while doing its duty advancing the plot. And they have attitude. Bags of attitude. In fact, Ashman's more-hip tone is one of the charms of his lyrics, though sometimes they can come across as harsh.

This one's a heart-breaker, so I saved it for last: it's also the last chronologically. All of the amazing fantasy work Ashman created for Disney was done with the sword of Damoclese over his head; he was dying from AIDS. In the last stages of the disease, while supervising the the finishing work on "Beauty and the Beast," he was writing for the next feature in the series, "Aladdin." "Aladdin" had no less a complicated history than the others, but with the dropping of one character, it necessitated the exclusion of its "I Want" song. At a late stage in the planning of the film, Animation Exec. Jeffrey Katzenburg asked that the creators streamline the plot by eliminating some extra characters. Specifically, Katzenberg wanted to lose Aladdin's mother, thus making Aladdin's character that of an independent, cocksure street-rat who must learn to be honest and truthful. With the loss of that character, "Proud of your Boy" in which Aladdin sings (rather bitterly) to his sleeping mother that someday he'll amount to something.

The changes requested by Katzenberg devastated the "Aladdin" crew because that one song was clearly the most important song of the score for Ashman, reflecting his own struggles with his family and their reaction to his homosexuality. But there was nothing to be done. By this time, Ashman had died. Tim Rice was brought in to oversee changes to the songs in the production. But the loss of "Proud of Your Boy" created a secondary tier of mourning--on the "Aladdin" DVD some of the interviewees choke up talking about it.* First they lost Ashman. Then they lost that poignant song.

"Aladdin," as a result, is no less entertaining, but it did lose a great deal of heart.

Here's "Proud of your Boy"

[Aladdin]
Proud of your boy
I'll make you proud of your boy
Believe me, bad as I've been, Ma
You're in for a pleasant surprise
I've wasted time
I've wasted me
So say I'm slow for my age
A late bloomer,
Okay, I agree...

That I've been one rotten kid
Some son, some pride and some joy
But I'll get over these lousin' up
Messin' up, screwin' up times
You'll see, Ma, now comes the better part
Someone's gonna make good
Cross his stupid heart
Make good and finally make you
Proud of your boy

Tell me that I've been a louse and loafer
You won't get a fight here, no ma'am
Say I'm a goldbrick, a goof-off, no good
But that couldn't be all that I am
Water flows under the bridge
Let it pass, let it go
There's no good reason that you should believe me
Not yet, I know, but

Someday and soon
I'll make you proud of your boy
Though I can't make myself taller
Or smarter or handsome or wise
I'll do my best, what else can I do ?
Since I wasn't born perfect like Dad or you
Mom, I will try to
Try hard to make you
Proud of your boy