Willy
He loves me
Always loved me
Isn’t that remarkable
Ben, he’ll worship me for it
​
Ben
Ben
Tell me again it’s the right thing
Ben
It’s dark there, but full of diamonds
Willy
Ben
Ben
Tell me once more
It’s the only way
Ben
One must go in to fetch a diamond out
Willy
Sometimes a boy needs a boost to the top
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Ben & Willy
Sometimes a man on the bottom is lost
​
Willy
But try to imagine that magnificent boy
With money in his pockets
I can see him now
​
Ben
I can see him now
​
Willy
Men will stand in line
Ben
Men will stand in line
​
Willy
Just to shake his hand
Or hear his voice
Linda
Willy! Come up!
Willy
Yes Yes. Coming.
It’s very smart
You realize that, don’t you sweetheart?
Even Ben sees it.
I’ve gotta go baby – Bye bye
Imagine, Ben.
When the mail comes, he’ll be ahead of Bernard again
Ben
A perfect proposition all around
Willy
Did you see the way he cried to me?
If I could kiss him, Ben
Ben
Time, William, Time
Willy
We’re gonna make it
We’re gonna make it
I always knew
We’re gonna make it
Ben
The boat
We’ll be late
​
Willy
Now when you kick off, boy...
Man on the Bottom
Our last assignment at BMI before our 10-minute musical was to set the end of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” to music. Of course, this is the scene where Willy Loman decides that the best thing he can do for his family is to kill himself so his family can collect life insurance money.
I think I really nailed this one, but it did not come off in performance, even though I was fortunate enough to have a really wonderful singer, Drew Taylor, sing Willy for me. The thing is, I was totally swamped at this time in my life. Karen and I were to be married on June 20th of 1992, so that was coming up fast. Also, just about exactly when I was to be married, I also had to finish up my 10-minute musical, which was nowhere near finished.
Man on the Bottom was priority number three.
But I liked what I had. The tone was right, and when it eventually got to the brooding chord changes after the “football” interlude, it built to just exactly where it needed to go.
Unfortunately, we weren’t going to be able to rehearse until just before the workshop session at BMI. I was in New Haven, Drew somewhere in New York, and I was, as I mentioned, swamped with priorities one and two. So, as I rode the Metro North into Manhattan I wound up cutting most of the first section of the tune. It was going to crash and burn without rehearsal and a rewrite, and it wasn’t fair to take an actor down with me.
So we presented about 75% of the scene and it was somewhat lackluster in performance.
Several years later, in Alabama, I revisited the piece and finished it up, so now I would be really curious to hear a true version produced. Maybe some day...
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