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1. Embed this notice
   clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Monday, 27-Mar-2023 03:05:36 JST clacke

   "One Night in Bangkok" is from the "Chess" stage musical concept album in 1984, written and produced by the two Bs of ABBA and Tim Rice. The story of the musical is about an international chess tournament both driven by and plagued by Cold War politics.

   farside.link/invidious/watch?v…

   www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgc_LR…

   During 1984 part of the album cast went on tour and in 1985 several music videos were released. The album was well-received and "One Night in Bangkok" itself went to number three on the American Billboard.

   In 1986 the musical went up on West End in London and played for three years.

   On Broadway in 1988 it bombed.

   • Embed this notice
     Kit Rhett Aultman (roadriverrail@signs.codes)'s status on Monday, 27-Mar-2023 03:05:34 JST Kit Rhett Aultman

     in reply to

     @clacke That song is painfully cringe now, though. Like, how many snide jokes about sex tourism in Thailand did we need to hear?

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Monday, 27-Mar-2023 03:05:35 JST clacke

     in reply to
     I like the youtube comment that says "Hands down, the greatest song ever written about playing chess in Thailand".
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:28:00 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Björn Lindström
     • bound2
     @bound2 @bkhl Check it out, it's the best pop rock opera about Cold War chess tournaments you'll ever hear.
   • Embed this notice
     bound2 (bound2@blob.cat)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:28:01 JST bound2

     in reply to

     • Björn Lindström
     @clacke @bkhl sounds cool ig
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:28:03 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Björn Lindström
     • bound2
     @bound2 @bkhl Not when it's the US vs USSR in a 1986 musical.
   • Embed this notice
     bound2 (bound2@blob.cat)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:28:04 JST bound2

     in reply to

     • Björn Lindström
     @clacke @bkhl bitch isn't chess a simple board game
   • Embed this notice
     Björn Lindström (bkhl@social.sdf.org)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:28:05 JST Björn Lindström

     in reply to

     @clacke I feel that the intro with some generic middle eastern tune is a bit orientalist.

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:28:05 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Björn Lindström

     @bkhl Chess has so many problems.

     It tries very hard to be everything, criticizing or satirizing propaganda, sexism, colonialism and more, and still manages to commit all of those faults itself because it was written by rich white men in Sweden and England in 1984.

     The plot is simplistic yet confusing and the dialogue and lyrics are cheesy.

     But musically there is not one track on the original double-LP that isn't a masterpiece, the pop, the rock, the opera, all of it. Just perfect in both composition and performance.

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:28:06 JST clacke

     in reply to

     My favorite piece (ah, haha) that wasn't on the original album is "The Soviet Machine", which remixes "Dangerous and Difficult Times" (I can't find which original-album track this is part of right now) and some other themes and bits and adds a wonderful Russian-sounding segment.

     In the linked recording it's 5:50 in, if your player doesn't skip there by itself.

     farside.link/invidious/watch?v…

     youtube.com/watch?v=UweOKFIRTo…

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:28:08 JST clacke

     in reply to

     Over the years Benny Andersson and Tim Rice have returned to the work over and over, making concert versions, including one with Josh Groban and Idina Menzel.

     Minor productions have been set up all over the world, from Aotearoa New Zealand to South Korea to Germany to Russia to the US and obviously many times in Sweden and its neighbors.

     en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_(m…

     Each time has used a different selection of songs and a different mix of plots, as several songs were added to the original score for both the West End and Broadway productions and the Broadway plot is quite different from that of West End and the album.

     The work has been translated into Swedish, Italian, Hungarian and parts of it into Russian, where some of the songs were used for a different work.

     Is it the most well-known obscure and the most successful unsuccessful (on Broadway) musical?

     #ChessMusical #Chess #TimRice #BennyAndersson #BjornUlvaeus #ABBA

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:29:07 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Björn Lindström
     @bkhl Is that the da-da-da-da dat-dat dat-dat daaa?
   • Embed this notice
     Björn Lindström (bkhl@social.sdf.org)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:29:08 JST Björn Lindström

     in reply to

     @clacke and at least they didn't do the Chinaman lick.

   • Embed this notice
     veer66 (veer66@mstdn.io)'s status on Thursday, 30-Mar-2023 13:58:29 JST veer66

     in reply to

     @clacke In 1984, Bangkok perhaps looked strange. ?

     clacke likes this.