My family and I recently went down a YouTube rabbit hole clicking on songs from musicals we'd seen in the past few years. This video -- a performance of "Louder Than Words" from a revival of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick... BOOM! -- hit unexpectedly hard:
What does it take
To wake up a generation?
How can you make someone
Take off and fly?
If we don't wake up
And shake up the nation
We'll eat the dust of the world
Wondering why...
Why do we follow leaders
Who never lead?
Why does it take catastrophe
To start a revolution
If we're so free?
...Someone tell me why
So many people bleed
Larson wrote those lyrics thirty years ago, and it can be unsettling and rather depressing to see how relevant his words remain today. (And it remains to be seen whether even catastrophe is enough to start a revolution.) The dreamers, strivers, artists, and prophets of every generation challenge the status quo, which that generation nevertheless largely goes on to uphold -- leaving the dreamers of the next generation to ask the same questions, because their elders chose fear over love, and inertia over courage. Larson, as many of you know, created RENT, and tragically died in 1996 on the day of the show's first preview; I wonder what music he might have written to address the besieged idealists of today, and whether he would have held out hope or bitter resignation.
I'm going to do my best to see these lyrics as a goad to action rather than a cynical shrug. "Fear or love, baby? Don't answer; actions speak louder than words" -- a point that applies just as well to this song, which is, after all, mere sound and air. We can be moved by all the inspirational music in the world and promise ourselves we'll choose love over fear, but the proof is in every action we take in every moment of our lives.
We'll fail a lot, of course. But at least songs like this keep reminding us what to strive for, how to be brave, how to be human in the best ways. And I'll always be glad of these reminders.
(A note: The video is from the 2016 production we saw, starring Nick Blaemire, George Salazar, and Lilli Cooper. The Spotify version is from the original cast album with Raúl Esparza, Jerry Dixon, and Amy Spanger.)
BONUS: Here's Larson himself performing the song, from the album Jonathan Sings Larson:
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Listen to the Spotify playlist here.
Watch the YouTube playlist here.