Some of you may recall when I posted about how "Beneath a Moonless Sky," sounds like "Sally's Song," a few months ago. Well...turns out that rabbit-hole goes deeper than I initially thought (who's surprised). And in the process, it made me realize the musical connection between the much maligned "Bathing Beauty," to the (mostly) beloved "Beauty Underneath."
Unfortunately, I'm no music expert so I won't be able to explain it in official terms (I know, how fun this must be for me), so I'll try to keep it simple. BB and BU follow a similar syllable and note structure when you break them down and really listen to each word as you sing. For example, compare "When the dark unfolds its wings, do you sense the strangest things?" to "Bathing beauty, on the beach. Bathing beauty, watch her go." They both follow a "low, high, low, high," inter-change note pattern in these bars, as well as each coming out to 14 syllables, though obviously there's some kind of scale difference.
But most importantly, their main musical through-line is that they're both near-perfectly in-line with the song "Insanity," by Oingo Boingo. Phantom Reviewer said as much about Beauty Underneath in Part 2 of his original Love Never Dies London review, which after comparing them for myself, I definitely agree with now. HOWEVER, he missed the fact that Bathing Beauty fits into it too! Hear me out. That one I discovered on my own while listening to "Insanity," and cracking a BB joke when the kid chorus sings "Say Hello," only to go, "Wait, HOLD UP." Not to mention there's a lyric where they sing, "Bathe in it and be reborn," so that didn't help. And sure enough, upon examination, it fit alongside the "low, high," note pattern and syllable structure I discussed. To the point I got creative and created this little mash-up (of sorts). I dare you to tell me it doesn't weirdly work (while also making BB sound marginally better). My apologies to Danny Elfman. 😆
Insanity by Oingo Boingo but a Bathing Beauty says "Hello!" 💀
I understand the popular head-canon is to say Meg wrote it in an attempt to get her big break, hence why Erik didn't bother to attend the performance, and I agree that'd make more sense. But at the same time, I kind of dig the idea that in the music he writes purely for financial support, he presents a superficial, more widely accepted type of beauty, but when he's allowed to be his true unfiltered self, Erik sings the praises of the beauty few truly see unless they have the mind and sight for it. Feels pretty in-character for him tbh (as much as we can say about his depiction in LND, that is). Although it IS pretty funny to imagine Meg trying to learn how to compose to impress Erik and when she confronts him at the end of the show she's all like 🎵"I proved I can do what you do, I can rip off Oingo Boingo too!"🎵
What do you guys think?