User:TheWho71/band/room

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Room
Studio album by The Wings
Genre Rock
Progressive rock
Professional reviews

Room is a rock opera by The Wings. The lyrics were all written by the band's bassist and lead singer John Taylor.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The story and the lyrics were both written by John Taylor.

[edit] Characters

  • John Hawkins: Main character of the story.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins: Tommy's father and mother.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Townshend: Frank's biological father and mother, and John's adoptive parents.
  • Frank Townshend: A boy John meets in the street.
  • The "Little Girl": John's girlfriend.
  • Tommy, Will & Jay: Members of John's band "The Trees" and friends of him.
  • The Neighbour ("Devil") : John's next door neighbour in the hotel.
  • The Doctor: A doctor who attempts to cure John two times.
  • The Girl: An imaginary attractive girl living in John's front room.

[edit] Storyline

[edit] Act I - John's First Years

  • "Overture"
    • John Hawkins lives in New York City with his dad after his parents were divorced. In 2001, when he is five years old, his dad dies in the World Trade Center attacks.
  • "Take a Pill"
    • John is six years old. His mother is addicted to LSD and John often sees her "taking pills". He does not understand why she does it and decides to get one. After a long trip into his mindspace, John understands it is drug. Her mother catches him swallowing the drug and beats him.
  • "The Boy and His Family"
    • John is seven years old. Mrs. Hawkins had forsaken him and he remains alone with no-one to talk to. He goes out and meets a boy called Frank in the street. The boy accosts John and asks him to play with him. John accepts and they go at the boy's house and his family welcomes him. They ask John who he is and John tells them his story. The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Townshend, show him the newspapers where John reads that Mrs. Hawkins died of a drug overdose. Frank decides to become John's friend and Mr. and Mrs. Townshend become John's adoptive parents.
  • "Friends and Lovers"
    • John goes at school for the first time and meets new friends and lovely teachers. He even gets a girlfriend, the "Little Girl".
  • "A Passage of Time I" / "Sound of Music"
    • John grows up and is 14 years old. He hears rock music and is captivated by the music. He forms a band with his friends called "The Trees".
  • "A Passage of Time II" / "A Life Full of Secrets"
    • John transits from childhood to adulthood and is 20 years old. He writes a song about his life and his happiness.
  • "You're Late John"
    • John and his band record an album. Everyone writes his songs for the album but John because he is on holiday. Too late, John wrote nothing on this album, and is frustrated by this situation. He decides to take his revenge.
  • "Ticket to San Diego" / "Intermission"
    • John finds a solution. He's going to write a big conceptual album about a hotel room. He goes in San Diego and rents a room in a hotel.

[edit] Act II - John in the Room

  • "Room (Part 1)"
    • John arrives at his hotel. When he enters in the room, he falls in a transe. Then he immediately starts to write his first impressions about the room.
  • "Are You There?"
    • John, during a LSD trip, loses his keys to unlock the doors of the room. He is stucked inside his room and starts to panic. His neighbour hears his shouts through the wall and tries to know what's going on, but John thinks he's the Devil. He becomes mad and destroys his room, and when he finally stops, he cries, while the voice keeps on repeating "Are you there?".
  • "Alone and Alone"
    • John is desperate. He thinks about his lonely life, his situation and falls asleep. Suddenly, he walks outside. John talks to someone, but he does not hear. Nobody hears or sees him. John returns at his room, in emotional crisis, and decides that his room is the only shelter for him.
  • "I Have No Dream"
    • John watches T.V. with the hope of having news from outside, and watches a speech from Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream". John says that all his dreams had flown away and that he will die locked in his room.
  • "Flashback"
    • John remembers his first life years with Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins.
  • "Going Down"
    • John injects himself a strong dose of LSD and waits for the trip, but it does not come. John sees ambulances and police officers are breaking the door. The Doctor tries to cure him, but it's too late, John is gone in a dream in his mindspace.
  • "Room (Part 2)"
    • John's mindspace leads him to another time. He realised that his room was too much retired from exterior and human being. He wrote a song about his attempt to contact the "others", but how his room makes him prisoner and led him to madness.
  • "I've Seen a Girl Through the Window"
    • John's mindspace leads him again to another time. John is going to bed when he sees a girl through his window in the front room getting undressed. John sees her naked and feels an erotical desire. He goes out to the girl's room, knocks at her door and tells her if he can come in. The girl accepts and they pass the night together making love.
  • "First AIDS"
    • After his adventure with the girl, John learns he caught AIDS. He calls the Doctor and tells him he wants to be cured. The doctor operates John and successes to cure him.
  • "Room (Part 3)"
    • John comes back of his mindspace dream. He feels nervous and wants to get out of his room quickly. He starts looking for his keys and a flash comes into his mind. He finds his "mental keys", the keys that open every door. He comes back to reality, with many doctors and police officers looking for him. He finally quits his room with new songs for his album. He is happy of being free from the room and his mental illness and quits with a feeling of freedom.
  • "The Finale" / "A Passage of Time III (Until Another Guy Goes in That Room)"
    • John goes back in New York and finds his family, friends and bandmates. They record John's album and it has a big success.

The story is sometimes difficult to understand. John Taylor often added information about it in interviews. He notably said that the story timeline was between 1997, year of John Hawkins' birth, and late 2018, where the story ends. He also stated John had 20 years old when writing "A Life Full of Secrets" and 21 when he got into the room. "He stayed there a whole year, and eventually became mad, stuck inside this room", he explained.

He also mentioned that Mr. and Mrs. Townshend's — John's adoptive parents — name was inspired by The Who guitarist and leader Pete Townshend. May told that many things in "Room" were inspired by different rock operas by the Who and Pink Floyd like Tommy and The Wall. "Tommy was one of my favourite albums when I was young and still is", told Taylor. "The lyrics, notably, were inspired by Townshend's writing. The music is also inspired from it. However, the some parts come from another rock opera, Pink Floyd's The Wall. Other things come mainly from The Beatles. That's the group I like more. I really being inspired by other groups I like when I'm writing, and it is the same for the others."

Another song was intended for the album, but finally rejected. It was called "My Father's Home". John Taylor explained : "When I'm writing rock operas, I act as if I was a writer; I explore every possibility to make my story good. A good example is Room storyline. Before I decided John's father would die in World Trade attacks, I though he could be an alcoholic and that John, frustrated and angry, could break all in the home and light a fire. But the lyrics were not enough good — I even think it was shit — and the concept was unclear, so I gave it up." However, "My Father's Home" was re-arranged, recorded and released as the B-side of the single "I've Seen a Girl Through the Window".

[edit] Analysis and history

In the late 2010s, The Wannabees were promoting their second concept album "Performance" with their What a Performance! tour. The tour was gruelling and made the band members miserable. As time went by, Peter May went tired and started to be more detached from the band and the public. One night, he was so tired that he falled asleep in the backstage before entering on scene while John Taylor was playing the album's overture. When the band finished touring, Peter May invited Steven Banks at his home and told him he wanted to do a concept album about retirement from public. He asked Banks to help him writing a rock opera, but he refused. "I am not a good writer for lyrics and stories", said Steven Banks. "Peter was doing all these when it was time to do it. I was better writing music." May started working on it. "I did all lyrics and storyline", said Peter May, "but I couldn't have made all the music, because Steve wanted to do it. So, he wrote music for some songs on it, but I had co-written most of the songs with him."

The album's recording period was in two blocks. The first recording block was made in Victor Studios, in Montreal, where the Wannabees recorded their previous albums, from October 2019 to April 2020. From June to September 2020, the band came in their new studios that they have constructed and recorded, overdubbed and mixed the album. It was ready a few days after for Peter May's 26th birthday.

During recording, disputes were often made between Peter May and Steven Banks about "what to do" and "what to write". Peter May recalls : "One day, Steve came with a new composition ; it was School King. He wanted to play guitars and bass while I would do vocals and overdubbing rhythm guitar. I said no, because it was my job to do bass guitar. Sometimes, we were changing, but it was for technical reasons, or because one of us had the hand wounded or because one of us was better for doing the bass line than the other. So Steve said 'Why couldn't I play bass guitar sometimes ?' It was often like this, or sometimes, I had an idea, but Steve didn't like it — or the opposite — and it came about five minutes of perfect haze." Banks also stated : "Sometimes, Peter and I were not on agreement about this thing or that thing and we've often yelled at the other for hours. At the end, we were finding a compromise, or we were mixing the ideas. Example : I want to play this song my way, but Peter wants to play this song his way. Finally, the two ways are made together." John Taylor, the band's keyboardist, told : "Peter and Steve decided they would write the album together, but Peter did all lyrics and the half of the music. Only a few songs had the music written by Steve, but Peter said he could rework on other songs made by him, so it would be equal."

The album's artwork was originally intended to be a group idea, but finally, the artwork was thought by Peter May. On some cover ideas, May drew a chamber and a bed on which a man was sitting, naked. Banks, Taylor and Waters thought that the absence of clothes would offend people, so the man was dressed. However, some details were added : the gun fixed on a wall with a nail, the guitar and music sheets on the ground... "The gun represents the illness of the principal character", said Peter May, "and the guitars and music sheets represent the composition and the realisation of the album, both in story and real life." It was also intended it would be A. N. Other, the band's producer, who would appear as the man on the bed, but finally, it was John Taylor who sits on the bed in the final photography.

Musically, the album is a complex set of rock arrangements, generally based upon Banks' guitar and built up with many overdubs by the four members of the band using many instruments, including bass, electric and acoustic guitars, piano, organ, drumkit, gong, vocal harmonies and occasional doubling on vocal solos. Banks plays guitar with many techniques, and many guitar arpeggios and chords are very well felt. Waters' drumming is controlled between many powerful phases and quiet moments in the songs; May's bass guitar products beautiful melodies and a good rhythmic and his lead vocals are stronger than before, capable to reach a low vocal range to high vocal range, contrasting with Banks's fine vocals in many songs. Taylor creates rich organ pads and his piano and synthesizers give a tough touch to the songs. Many sound effects are used in it, most created by May and Taylor, such as tape echo, reverberation used for the story protagonist John's voices in his head. Other sound effects help understand contexts of the songs.

[edit] Track listing

All lyrics by Peter May. All music by Peter May and Steven Banks, except where noted.

[edit] Disc 1

  1. "Overture" – 3:00
  2. "Take a Pill" – 3:00
  3. "The Boy and His Family" – 4:00
  4. "Friends and Lovers" – 3:00
  5. "School King" (Steven Banks) – 4:00
  6. "Sound of Music" – 5:00
  7. "A Passage of Time" (Peter May/Steven Banks/Michael Waters/John Taylor) – 7:00
  8. "A Life Full of Secrets" (John Hawkins[1]) – 2:30
  9. "You're Late John" – 3:00
  10. "Ticket to San Diego" (Steven Banks) – 3:00
  11. "Intermission" (Peter May/Steven Banks/Michael Waters/John Taylor) – 6:00

[edit] Disc 2

  1. "Room (Part 1)" (Steven Banks) – 4:00
  2. "Are You There?" – 2:00
  3. "Alone and Alone" – 3:00
  4. "I Have No Dream" – 1:50
  5. "Flashback" – 1:00
  6. "Going Down" (Peter May, Steven Banks, John Taylor) – 6:00
  7. "Room (Part 2)" (Steven Banks) – 3:00
  8. "I've Seen a Girl Through the Window" – 6:00
  9. "First AIDS" – 4:00
  10. "Room (Part 3)" (Steven Banks) – 4:00
  11. "The Finale" (Peter May/Steven Banks/Michael Waters/John Taylor) – 1:00

[edit] Singles

  • "School King" / "A Life Full of Secrets"
  • "Going Down" / "Room, Part 1" / "Room, Part 3"
  • "I've Seen a Girl Through the Window" / "My Father's Home"

[edit] Personnel

  • Naomie Dupuis-Latour (Peter's girlfriend) – backing vocals, piano

[edit] Film version

Main article: Room (film)

In 20??, Room was adapted as a film, produced by ?????? and directed by ??????. The movie version starred James Lafferty as John Hawkins, and featured all members of Quicksilver as John's friends/bandmates plus other secondary roles and cameos. It also featured some popular actors acting other roles as Mr. and Mrs. Townshend, etc.

Peter May and Dan Gibson reworked the storyline extensively for the film. Although Gibson did not do anything on the original storyline, he added some details on the script. He explained : "Room was my idea, and Peter has rewritten it using the basic plot, making it all different from the former storyline. So, I have added a bit of things here and there."

The film version also reversed a crucial plot point: in the album, John's father is killed by the terrorists during the World Trade Center attacks, but in the film, Mr. Hawkins dies during a bombing in the London metro.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Actual writer: Peter May

Template:The Wannabees