Books to Music: Lucky Stiff "Times Like This"

A friendly face, the kind of face
That melts you with a grin
The kind of eyes that welcome you
The minute you walk in
A tender glance you simply can't refuse

I am not familiar with this musical sadly, but it is being made into a movie (hopefully it will be released this year!) so I can soon fix that!  It's based on a 1983 book called The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo by Michael Butterworth.  Quite a mouthful.  The musical is a farcical comedy and although I'm only really familiar with the song "Times Like This", I think I would enjoy the whole show and the music.

"Times Like This" isn't a comedy song, it's a most sincere and heartfelt love song with a wonderful twist.  Go back and read the quoted lyrics in the beginning.  Yes, now please.  I'll wait.

Okay.  The next line is "At times like this a girl could use a dog." Awww!  This song completely captured me with that one line!  And cleverly the song continues the comparison - typically romantic imagery linked to  the faithful and loyal dog.  It's so touching really, and this song illuminates a lot about the character singing it in this musical.  (She represents a dog home)  She loves simplicity and honesty and probably hasn't had too many great romantic relationships.  And the line "give me a quiet night, a stack of books, a tuna melt on rye" is just the greatest, I identify so much with this song it's ridiculous.  It's amazing the snapshot of life this song captures, to me at least, and one that I feel is often not represented.  I would highly recommend giving it a listen!