| Memory Andrew Lloyd Webber Midnight Not a sound from the pavement Has the moon lost her memory She is smiling alone In the lamplight The withered leaves collect at my feet And the wind begins to moan Memory, all alone in the moonlight I can dream of the old days Life was beautiful then I remember the time I knew what happiness was Let the memory live again Every street lamp seems to beat A fatalistic warning Someone mutters and the street lamp sputters Soon it will be morning Daylight I must wait for the sunrise I must think of a new life and I mustn't give in When the dawn comes Tonight will be a memory too And a new day will begin (instrumental) Burnt out ends of smoky days The stale court smell of morning A street lamp dies Another night is over Another day is dawning Touch me, It is so easy to leave me All alone with my memory Of my days in the sun If you'll touch me, You'll understand what happiness is Look, a new day has begun... |
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Memory / Cats
The story of Memory begins with the idea for Cats, back in 1977. In that year
Andrew Lloyd Webber picked up a copy of T.S Eliot's book of poems -- poems
that his mother had read to him as a child.
Lloyd Webber's usual way of working was first to create a melody and then add
lyrics. But he was curious if he could work the process the other way around. He
wanted to compose melodies for the words of these Eliot poems that he loved
and turn them into song.
T.S Eliot's widow, Valerie, gave Trevor Nunn and Cameron Mackintosh (director
and producer for the project) some manuscripts of extra materials her husband
had written. These were poems and fragments that hadn't been included in the
original book.
The main inspiration for Cats came with the discovery of one particular poem
fragment called "Grizabella the Glamour Cat". There were only eight lines, but
that was enough inspiration for the team to create the show's entire storyline.
Two weeks before the 11 May opening, Lloyd Webber was concerned that the new show lacked a big
hit song. So for this one song, Lloyd Webber went back to his normal habit and wrote the melody first,
before a lyric was created.
Trevor Nunn then produced a lyric, based on T.S Eliot's poem "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" and the
song Memory, sung by Grizabella the Glamour Cat, came to life -- just barely in time for opening night.
As audience response soon proved, Cats most definitely had its hit song!
The story of Memory begins with the idea for Cats, back in 1977. In that year
Andrew Lloyd Webber picked up a copy of T.S Eliot's book of poems -- poems
that his mother had read to him as a child.
Lloyd Webber's usual way of working was first to create a melody and then add
lyrics. But he was curious if he could work the process the other way around. He
wanted to compose melodies for the words of these Eliot poems that he loved
and turn them into song.
T.S Eliot's widow, Valerie, gave Trevor Nunn and Cameron Mackintosh (director
and producer for the project) some manuscripts of extra materials her husband
had written. These were poems and fragments that hadn't been included in the
original book.
The main inspiration for Cats came with the discovery of one particular poem
fragment called "Grizabella the Glamour Cat". There were only eight lines, but
that was enough inspiration for the team to create the show's entire storyline.
Two weeks before the 11 May opening, Lloyd Webber was concerned that the new show lacked a big
hit song. So for this one song, Lloyd Webber went back to his normal habit and wrote the melody first,
before a lyric was created.
Trevor Nunn then produced a lyric, based on T.S Eliot's poem "Rhapsody on a Windy Night" and the
song Memory, sung by Grizabella the Glamour Cat, came to life -- just barely in time for opening night.
As audience response soon proved, Cats most definitely had its hit song!
