Sunflower Power:
The Story of the Song
The first song I ever wrote for 'The Rise and Fall of Vinnie & Paul' was its opening salvo, Sunflower Power.
The Gods of Musical Theatre dictate that you're meant to write the opening number once the rest of the show is done, so that you can find what themes have emerged during the writing process and start with a song that somehow encapsulates the whole thing.
Well, I cocked up there. It's the first song I ever wrote for the show, and if someone tells me I have to cut it, you'll see me in widow's weeds for at least a decade. I'm that attached to it.
The Gods of Musical Theatre dictate that you're meant to write the opening number once the rest of the show is done, so that you can find what themes have emerged during the writing process and start with a song that somehow encapsulates the whole thing.
Well, I cocked up there. It's the first song I ever wrote for the show, and if someone tells me I have to cut it, you'll see me in widow's weeds for at least a decade. I'm that attached to it.
Setting out the stall
Oh there's a sunflower sun comin' over the horizon
And it's the prettiest flower that you ever laid your eyes on...
Being an opening number, Sunflower Power has a lot of heavy lifting to do.
By the time the reverb has faded on the song's bassline button, we need to have been made aware that:
Which brings me to...
By the time the reverb has faded on the song's bassline button, we need to have been made aware that:
- Vinnie is super excited
- he's painting his sunflower pics
- there's an intriguing secondary character
- we're about to witness a tragedy
- ...but not a dusty history lesson
- and, by the way...
- THIS SHOW WILL ROCK
Which brings me to...
The B.F.R. (Big Fat Riff)
- Sweet Child o' Mine by Guns 'n' Roses
- Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix
- Back in Black by AC/DC
Everyone loves a guitar riff.
And because Vinnie & Paul is a rock musical, I was determined there should be a B.F.R. slap bang up front in the opening number.
I've taken a bit of a risk in that the intro riff continues under Max Alexander-Taylor's magical vocal. I don't know why, but I guess I wanted it to feel like someone (or something) is tugging on Vinnie's sleeve throughout the verse.
Nagging and nagging and tugging and tugging.
Reason in the rhyme
Sondheim warned about over-rhyming – a bit like a drug overdose, the listener can suffer from what he called 'rhyming poison'.
Well, for this song, the rhymes came tumbling out, just like Vinnie's paintings came tumbling out of him during his ecstatic summer of creativity in Arles in 1888.
So I didn't resist – I took the rhyme avalanche as a coincidental metaphor for Vinnie's giddy artistic explosion, the 'sunflower power' he channeled to paint some of his most famous canvases.
In short, I'm fine with the rhyme.
Well, for this song, the rhymes came tumbling out, just like Vinnie's paintings came tumbling out of him during his ecstatic summer of creativity in Arles in 1888.
So I didn't resist – I took the rhyme avalanche as a coincidental metaphor for Vinnie's giddy artistic explosion, the 'sunflower power' he channeled to paint some of his most famous canvases.
In short, I'm fine with the rhyme.
Bonjour, Monsieur Gauguin
Paul slides ominously into the song on a key change.
Unlike Vinnie, who has been joyfully singing the song 'in the moment', our second character sings with the benefit of hindsight, a cautionary cosmic observer.
For Vinnie, "the power of the flower's gonna make everything okay", but I needed Paul to warn the audience they're in for a bumpy night.
Unlike Vinnie, who has been joyfully singing the song 'in the moment', our second character sings with the benefit of hindsight, a cautionary cosmic observer.
For Vinnie, "the power of the flower's gonna make everything okay", but I needed Paul to warn the audience they're in for a bumpy night.
His gory little story's gonna make you wanna cower
He'll be cutting off his ear by the end of the hour
The power of the flower's gonna drive Vinnie V. insane
It's a bit like The Ballad of Sweeney Todd: "Here's a summary of what you're about to see – and it's not going to be pretty."
(NOTE TO SELF: I must do something about "by the end of the hour": the show is going to be at least double that.)
(NOTE TO SELF: I must do something about "by the end of the hour": the show is going to be at least double that.)
Delaying the dopamine
In Sam Hall's excellent Craft of Writing podcast, writer Hilmi Jaidin talks about songwriting in terms of delayed dopamine hits.
I really agree with his definition! But I was worried about it as regards this song.
The thing is, it takes AGES to get to the chorus, and to add insult to injury, we only have it twice. Surely most songs have the chorus coming round three times?
I was really corncerned about delaying the dopamine for so long, and then only giving two doses of it.
But somehow for Sunflower Power, two seems just right.
And I put in a lot of key changes to hopefully help crank up the excitement and compensate for the lack of a third refrain.
I really agree with his definition! But I was worried about it as regards this song.
The thing is, it takes AGES to get to the chorus, and to add insult to injury, we only have it twice. Surely most songs have the chorus coming round three times?
I was really corncerned about delaying the dopamine for so long, and then only giving two doses of it.
But somehow for Sunflower Power, two seems just right.
And I put in a lot of key changes to hopefully help crank up the excitement and compensate for the lack of a third refrain.
A musical theatre in-joke
It's a bit of a risk in terms of taking the listener out of the moment, but in the lyric towards the end of the song there's a nod to a famous MT classic. If you can't spot it, you're probably not all that much of a musical theatre nut!
(SIDE BAR: Max Alexander-Taylor, who sings Vinnie so thrillingly, riffed the moment in question – and I think it really works!)
(SIDE BAR: Max Alexander-Taylor, who sings Vinnie so thrillingly, riffed the moment in question – and I think it really works!)
Reprisey-peasy
In musical theatre, it's often the case that a song will be repeated later in the show with new knowledge and new irony brought to bear.
Vinnie & Paul is no different. In *Welcome to My Funeral, the hallucinatory climax of the show, Paul confirms he was right to warn us about the mysterious 'sunflower power', the exhilarating creative force that Vinnie channeled to such effect – but that eventually overwhelmed him.
(*this song is very first draft with a basic demo with no drums)
Vinnie & Paul is no different. In *Welcome to My Funeral, the hallucinatory climax of the show, Paul confirms he was right to warn us about the mysterious 'sunflower power', the exhilarating creative force that Vinnie channeled to such effect – but that eventually overwhelmed him.
(*this song is very first draft with a basic demo with no drums)
The songwriter demo
The writing done, it was time to make a demo for Max and Charlie.
I'm an enthusiastic singer, though my voice is like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I can strum basic chords on the guitar, but I can't play piano. Luckily, I can drag notes around on the stave in the Sibelius software, so I can generate basic piano and organ parts for very basic demos.
So this is how Max and Charlie first heard Sunflower Power...
I'm an enthusiastic singer, though my voice is like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I can strum basic chords on the guitar, but I can't play piano. Luckily, I can drag notes around on the stave in the Sibelius software, so I can generate basic piano and organ parts for very basic demos.
So this is how Max and Charlie first heard Sunflower Power...
The 'Two Strangers' connection
At BEAM 2021 in Hackney, I bumped into Kit Buchan and Jim Barne, writers of Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York). They are friends from way back during their time at BML Workshop. They asked what I was writing, and I mentioned Vinnie & Paul. The next day I sent them my demo (above) as a followup.
A few days later, you could've knocked me over with a sunflower stalk.
There among my emails was a Buchan and Barne cover version of the song! They'd met up for a writing sesh but instead of doing their own stuff they decided to knock out their own garageband version of the Vinnie & Paul opening number, featuring themselves on drums, bass, guitar and vocs!
I was totally and utterly flabberghasted. And I also took it as an encouraging sign that maybe the song might be a keeper. Thanks fellas!
A few days later, you could've knocked me over with a sunflower stalk.
There among my emails was a Buchan and Barne cover version of the song! They'd met up for a writing sesh but instead of doing their own stuff they decided to knock out their own garageband version of the Vinnie & Paul opening number, featuring themselves on drums, bass, guitar and vocs!
I was totally and utterly flabberghasted. And I also took it as an encouraging sign that maybe the song might be a keeper. Thanks fellas!
Over to you
If you've got this far, thank you for reading.
Here's another Story of the Song, about Paul's first solo number of the show.
And you might want to check out my chat with Kym Nash, in which he asks me about all the Vinnie & Paul songs in sequence.
Here's another Story of the Song, about Paul's first solo number of the show.
And you might want to check out my chat with Kym Nash, in which he asks me about all the Vinnie & Paul songs in sequence.