User:Monday94/band/room

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For the album by actress Katey Sagal, see Room (album).
Room
Room cover
Studio album by The Wannabees
Released November 16, 2019
Recorded October 2018 – September 2019 at Victor Studios, Montreal
Genre Rock
Progressive rock
Length 76:50 (whole record)
43:00 (disc 1)
34:50 (disc 2)
Label Sony
Producer A. N. Other
Professional reviews
The Wannabees chronology
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(20??)		 Room
(2020)		 ??????
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Room is a rock opera by the Quebec rock band The Wannabees. Released in 2019, the opera lyrics were all written by the band's bassist and lead singer Peter May and the music was written by Peter May with the guitarist Steven Banks, with a few tracks composed solely by Banks and two others composed by the whole band.

When it was released, the album was ranked number 353 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, replacing the Yardbirds album Having a Rave Up.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The story and the lyrics were both written by Peter May.

[edit] Characters

  • John Hawkins: The protagonist of the story.
  • Mr. Hawkins: Tommy's father.
  • Mrs. Hawkins: Tommy's mother.
  • Frank: A boy who meets John in the street.
  • Mr. Townshend: Frank's father, who becomes John's adoptive father.
  • Mrs. Townshend: Frank's mother, who becomes John's adoptive mother.
  • The Little Girl: John's girlfriend who met him at school.
  • Tommy, Will & Jay: The other members of John's band "The Trees" and friends of him.
  • The Neighbour (AKA "The Devil"): John's neighbour from the next door room in the hotel who tries to talk with him.
  • The Doctor: A doctor who attempts to cure John after he injected a serious drug dose, but who fails. He later cures John from AIDS.
  • The Girl: An imaginary girl living in the hotel in front of John's. John sees her in his dream and has sex with her.

[edit] Storyline

  • "Overture" : John Hawkins lives in New York City after his parents were divorced. In 2001, his father, Mr. Hawkins, dies in the World Trade Center attacks.
  • "Sniffing the Flour" : John's mother, Mrs. Hawkins, is addicted to cocaine and John often sees her "sniffing the flour". He does not understand why his mother sniffs the flour and decides to try. After a long trip into space, John understands it is cocaine.
  • "The Boy and His Family" : Mrs. Hawkins forsakes John and he remains alone with no-one to talk to. He gets out in the street and meets a boy in the street. The boy accosts John and asks to him to play with him. John accepts. He goes at the boy's house and his family welcomes him. They ask to 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 is dead from a cocaine overdose. The little boy, Frank, decides to become John's friend and Mr. and Mrs. Townshend become John's "parents".
  • "Friends and Lovers" : John goes at school for the first time and meets new friends and lovely teachers. He even gets a girlfriend, and calls her the "Little Girl".
  • "Sound of Music" : John and his friends decide to create a rock band after John discovered rock in Mr. Townshend's music. The band is named "The Trees" and they have a real success.
  • "A Passage of Time" / "A Life Full of Secrets" : John transits from childhood to adulthood and writes a song about his new life and his happiness.
  • "You're Late John" : John and his band finally make an album. Everyone wrote his songs for the album, but John did not because he was on holiday. Too late. John did 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 will write a big conceptual album. He goes in San Diego, rents a room in a hotel and starts writing.
  • "Room (Part 1)" : John arrives at his hotel. When he enters in the room, he falls in a transe. After his "trip", he immediately starts to write his first impressions about the room.
  • "Are You There?" : John, during a cocaine trip, loses his keys to unlock the doors of the room. He is stucked inside his room and starts to panic. He hear his neighbour through the wall who tries to know what's going on, but John thinks he's the Devil. Becoming mad, he 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 describes his life alone, his situation and falls asleep. In his dream, 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 decides to watch T.V. with the hope of having any news from outside, and watches a speech from Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream". John thinks he has no dream and that he will die in his room.
  • "Flashback" : John remembers his first life years with Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins.
  • "Going Down" : John injects to himself a strong dose of drugs in his arm and waits for the trip, but it does not come. John sees ambulances, a doctor and police officers breaking the door. The doctor tries to cure him, but it's too late, John is gone in a kind of "dream".
  • "Room (Part 2)" : John dreams about a couple of hours before. 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" : In another "dream", John is going to bed when he sees a girl into his window in the next hotel getting undressed. John sees her naked and feels an erotical desire. He goes out of his room, goes in the next hotel, knocks at the girl's door and tells her he wants to have a sexual intercourse. The girl accepts and they pass the night together making love.
  • "First Aids" : After his adventure with the girl, John learns he catched AIDS. He calls the doctor (who appeared in "Going Down") and tells him he wants to be cured. The doctor operates John and successes to cure John's AIDS.
  • "Room (Part 3)" : John finally quits his room with new songs for his album. He is happy of being free from the room and proscribes the room to any normal man. He quits with a feeling of freedom.
  • "The Finale" : 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. Peter May often added information about it in interviews. He notably said that the story timeline was between 1997, year of main character John's birth, and late 2018, where the story ends. He also stated John had 19 years old when writing "A Life Full of Secrets" and 20 when he got into the room. "He stayed there a whole year, and eventually became mad, stuck inside this room", explained Peter May.

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 the Who's rock opera Tommy. "Tommy was one of my favourite albums when I was young and still is", told May. "The lyrics, notably, were inspired by Townshend's writing. The music is also inspired from it. However, the storyline comes from another rock opera, Pink Floyd's The Wall. Other things come mainly from The Beatles. That's the band I like more..."

Another song was intended for the album, but finally rejected. It was called "My Father's Home". Peter May explained : "When I'm writing rock operas, I act as if I was a writer; it means that 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" – 5:00
  2. "Sniffing the Flour" – 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]) – 2:00
  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" – 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" – 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