I wanna lie down forever
Hades
Hey, little songbird, you got something fine
You’d shine like a diamond down in the mine
And the choice is yours, if you’re willing to choose
Seeing as you’ve got nothing to lose
And I could use a canary
Eurydice
Suddenly nothing is as it was
Where are you now, Orpheus?
Wasn’t it gonna be the two of us?
Weren’t we birds of a feather?
Hades
Hey, little songbird, let me guess
He’s some kind of poet, and he’s penniless
Give him your hand, he’ll give you his hand-to-mouth
He’ll write you a poem when the power is out
Hey, why not fly south for the winter?
Hey, little songbird, look all around you
See how the vipers and vultures surround you
And they’ll take you down, they’ll pick you clean
If you stick around such a desperate scene
See, people get mean when the chips are down . . .
Notes on “Hey, Little Songbird”
I wrote the first version of “Hey, Little Songbird” on my honeymoon in the summer of 2006. We were staying in a small farmhouse in rural Italy, helping (in a lazy, honeymoon way) with a cherry harvest. I must have brought my guitar along. The first version of the song was a Hades monologue; Eurydice’s interludes didn’t appear until 2007. After that it remained untouched, with the exception of one line: Wasn’t it always the two of us? Eurydice asked, back when we met the young lovers as an established couple. When I expanded Act I to encompass the beginning of their relationship, the line became: Wasn’t it gonna be the two of us?
The meaning of certain Hadestown songs changed over the years in response to current events. Around 2008, when I’d introduce “Wedding Song” in my songwriter shows as taking place in a “postapocalyptic American Depression era,” there was a lot of laughter and muttering. People were feeling the effects of the recession, so poverty themes hit close to home. “Why We Build the Wall” took on new meaning in 2015–16. Our off-Broadway production coincided with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and “Build that wall!” was a chant often heard at his rallies. And “Hey, Little Songbird” began landing differently with the advent of the #MeToo movement in 2017. It was suddenly less funny. There was a moment in the lead-up to Broadway when Team Dramaturgy became concerned that the song might be going too far with its sexual innuendo. We wanted it to be clear that Eurydice wasn’t merely seduced by Hades—she was cold, she was hungry, there was a transactional nature to the relationship. Her I wanna lie down forever line came under scrutiny, but I refused to change it; I loved it too much. In an attempt to address the note another way, I rewrote the first Hades verse to include an explicit job offer. We tried this out in rehearsals:
Hades: Hey, little songbird, give me a song / I’m a busy man and I can’t stay long / I’ve got clients to call, I’ve got orders to fill / I’ve got millions of souls on my payroll, but hell / I could fit you as well if you wanted
We let it fly for a few days and Patrick Page owned it like he owns every line he’s ever delivered. Ultimately, though, everyone missed the humor of the original verse, so we went back. In the development of Hadestown there was a long-running, mostly good-natured battle between Team Dramaturgy (Rachel, Ken, and Mara) and Team Music (Michael, Todd, and Liam). Team Dramaturgy pushed to clarify story and character, and Team Music pushed back whenever it felt like the changes were compromising the music or poetry to an unsustainable extent. This is a simplification, since everyone wanted the show to be satisfying on multiple levels, but in many debates the lines were drawn this way. I remember Liam once saying he couldn’t believe I’d “gotten away with” the lyrics of “Hey, Little Songbird.” “It’s, like, three and a half minutes of bird metaphors,” he said.
WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN
Hermes
Songbird versus rattlesnake . . .
Fates
Mmm . . .
Eurydice
What is it?
Hermes
Eurydice was a hungry young girl . . .
Fates
Mmm . . .
Hades
Your ticket
Hermes
And Hades gave her a choice to make
Fates
Mmm-mmm-mmm
Hermes
A ticket to the underworld
Fates
Life ain’t easy, life ain’t fair
A girl’s gotta fight for a rightful share
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
Help yourself, to hell with the rest
Even the one who loves you best
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
Eurydice
Oh, my aching heart . . .
Fates
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
Take if you can, give if you must
Ain’t nobody but yourself to trust
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
Aim for the heart, shoot to kill
If you don’t do it then the other one will
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
And the first shall be first
And the last shall be last
Cast your eyes to heaven
You get a knife in the back!
Nobody’s righteous
Nobody’s proud
Nobody’s innocent
Now that the chips are down
Now that the, now that the
Now that the, now that the
Now that the chips are down!
Notes on “When the Chips Are Down”
I wrote “When the Chips Are Down” for the very first Vermont production in 2006. Back then it included this semi-mystifying verse:
Fates: Cross my palm! Grease my chin! / Can’t you see the kind of shape you’re in? / What you gonna do . . . ?
The Songbird versus rattlesnake intro I added at NYTW, in an attempt to clarify the mechanics of How to get to Hadestown. It was all a bit confusing: there was a train, so could anyone just get on it? No, you had to have a ticket, unless, like Orpheus, you went around the back. I remember Ken insisting that every world has to have “rules,” even a fantastical or metaphorical one. Otherwise the audience can’t relax into the story—they get stuck on square one, trying to figure out what the rules are. The intro was a place to foreground that “ticket” language.
“When the Chips Are Down” is a song that a few people pointed out was unnecessary to the story, but it was always ferocious as a musical and choreographic showcase for the Fates. The song’s polyrhythmic “feel,” with its iconic bass line and metallic-sounding prepared guitar, came from Michael in the earliest days. During the recording of the studio album, Todd advocated for a barnstorming piano solo. Together with the tight sister harmonies (Liam based these on the Haden Triplets recording from t
he studio album), the number was electrifying every time.
GONE, I’M GONE
Eurydice
Orpheus, my heart is yours
Always was, and will be
It’s my gut I can’t ignore
Orpheus, I’m hungry
Oh, my heart it aches to stay
But the flesh will have its way
Oh, the way is dark and long
I’m already gone . . . I’m gone
Fates
Go ahead and lay the blame
Talk of virtue, talk of sin
Wouldn’t you have done the same?
In her shoes, in her skin
You can have your principles
When you’ve got a bellyful
But hunger has a way with you
There’s no telling what you’re gonna do
When the chips are down
Now that the chips are down
What you gonna do when the chips are down?
Now that the chips are down
Notes on “Gone, I’m Gone”
I had recently started touring the folk circuit in the UK, and was walking from the seaside in Brighton back to my friend’s apartment in Hove, when the melody of “Gone, I’m Gone” appeared. It was 2007, and I wrote the piece initially as an intro, rather than an outro, to “When the Chips Are Down.” It was one of the first things Rachel called into question when we began working together. “Gone, I’m Gone” is the moment of decision for Eurydice, so for it to come before “When the Chips Are Down,” Rachel felt, took the stakes away from the song; if her choice is made, why are the Fates still trying to convince her? I resisted moving it at first from a musical standpoint, because I’d written the songs to go in one order and it felt impossible to switch them. But we gave it a shot, and I was surprised to find it still worked structurally, just in a different way. As for the drama, of course, Rachel was right.
WAIT FOR ME INTRO
Orpheus
Mister Hermes?
Hermes
Hey, the big artiste!
Ain’t you working on your masterpiece?
Orpheus
Where’s Eurydice?
Hermes
Brother, what do you care?
You’ll find another muse somewhere
Orpheus
Where is she?
Hermes
Why you wanna know?
Orpheus
Wherever she is is where I’ll go
Hermes
And what if I said she’s down below?
Orpheus
Down below?
Hermes
Down below
Six feet under the ground below
She called your name before she went
But I guess you weren’t listening
Orpheus
No!
Hermes
So
Just how far would you go for her?
Orpheus
To the end of time
To the end of the earth
Hermes
You got a ticket?
Orpheus
No
Hermes
Yeah, I didn’t think so
’Course, there is another way, but—
Nah, I ain’t supposed to say
Orpheus
Another way?
Hermes
Around the back
But that ain’t easy walkin’, jack
It ain’t for the sensitive of soul
So do ya really wanna go?
Orpheus
With all my heart
Hermes
With all your heart?
Well, that’s a start
Notes on “Wait for Me Intro”
“Wait for Me Intro” was a real how-to lesson in recitative dialogue writing. It took time to find the rhymes and carve out the scene, but once it existed it became something of a high-water mark for my recitative; it was hard to achieve that kind of synthesis of drama and poetry in any other scene. I wrote it over the course of a couple workshops leading up to our off-Broadway debut. I remember Ian Lassiter, who played Hermes in one of those workshops, begging for a longer pause between the lines Wherever she is is where I’ll go and And what if I said she’s down below? I’d initially written the lines nearly on top of each other; because of Ian, I put in a measure of rest. In a straight dialogue, the actor and director choose the pace of the language, but metered dialogue puts a lot of that responsibility on the writer, and that “built-in pause” lesson came in handy in many other scenes.
The line That ain’t easy walkin’, jack came from Chris Sullivan, our off-Broadway Hermes. I’d written the line like this: Another way? / Around the back / But that ain’t a easy road to walk and was mostly satisfied with it, though the vowel slant wasn’t ideal. Chris was rehearsing at home and texted me the easy walkin’, jack idea, asking what I thought. I was unconvinced in writing. Calling him “jack” seemed random for Hermes, who calls everyone “brother.” But then Chris sent a voice memo of himself speaking it, and I was sold. When he left the show (for television glory), I asked if it was okay to keep using the line. He said, “It’s yours!” and now I can’t fathom it any other way.
WAIT FOR ME
Hermes
How to get to Hadestown
You’ll have to take the long way down
Through the underground, under cover of night
Laying low, staying out of sight
Ain’t no compass, brother, ain’t no map
Just a telephone wire and a railroad track
Keep on walking and don’t look back
Till you get to the bottomland
Orpheus
Wait for me, I’m coming
Wait, I’m coming with you
Wait for me, I’m coming too
I’m coming too
Hermes
River Styx is high and wide
Cinderbricks and razorwire
Walls of iron and concrete
Hound dogs howlin’ round the gate
Those dogs’ll lay down and play dead
If you got the bones, if you got the bread
But if all you got is your own two legs
Just be glad you got ’em
Orpheus & Company
Wait for me, I’m coming
Wait, I’m coming with you
Wait for me, I’m coming too
I’m coming too
Fates
Who are you?
Where do you think you’re going?
Who are you?
Why are you all alone?
Who do you think you are?
Who are you to think that you could walk a road that no one ever walked before?
Orpheus
La la la la la la la
Company
La la la la la la la
Orpheus
La la la la la la la
Orpheus & Company
La la la la la la la . . .
Hermes
You’re on the lam, you’re on the run
Don’t give your name, you don’t have one
And don’t look no one in the eye
That town’ll try to suck you dry
They’ll suck your brain, they’ll suck your breath
They’ll pluck the heart right out your chest
They’ll truss you up in your Sunday best
And stuff your mouth with cotton
/> Orpheus & Company
Wait for me, I’m coming
Wait, I’m coming with you
Wait for me, I’m coming too
I’m coming
Company
Wait
Orpheus
I’m coming, wait for me
Company
Wait
Orpheus & Company
I hear the walls repeating
Company
Wait
Orpheus & Company
The falling of my feet and
It sounds like drumming
Company
Wait
Orpheus & Company
And we are not alone
Company
Wait
Orpheus & Company
I hear the rocks and stones
Company
Wait
Orpheus & Company
Echoing my song
Orpheus
I’m coming
Company
Coming
Coming . . .
Notes on “Wait for Me”
Vermont
It was the chorus of “Wait for Me” that set me on the road to Hadestown. I was early in my career as a singer-songwriter and driving a lot; back then I’d drive a ridiculous distance, alone, for a tip gig, and that’s what I was doing when that melody came, along with these words:
Working on a Song Page 9