Rufus Wainwright’s Going to a Town popped up on DiD this week, courtesy of playwright James Graham, and reminded me what an absolute stone-cold masterpiece it is, intense, musically adventurous and – as you might expect – beautifully sung. The lyrics are a little on the cryptic side, but once you clock that the town in question is Berlin, it all makes sense.
When I was in the a capella choir at the Eden Project we sang this, a touch less beautifully it has to be said, arranged in 4-part harmony by our natural genius couldn’t-read-a-note-of-music leaderene. It was an incredibly powerful experience – when we didn’t fuck it up, it wasn’t easy to sing – and we were always completely wrung out at the end. A couple of American tourists stormed out once, which was nice.
There’s an ok version by George Michael, which is just a little too smoothed-over for my taste. Any other RW favourites?