Well, not really day four, but since day four was Thanksgiving, I was unable to write a post.
There are some exceptional songs written for the movies they appear in. Most of these songs will have some connection to the story itself. In the case of these two songs they fit right into the plot.
First up is the movie M*A*S*H. Not the exceptional TV series by the same name, but the original movie which is base on the book by Richard Hooker. The book is about three doctors who were drafted into the army and serve at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Korea. The book was made into a very successful movie. One scene in the movie has the company dentist, who suffers from depression, come to the doctors to commit suicide. They give him a sleeping pill and plan a “last supper” for him. The scene is dark but very funny. During the “funeral” the song Suicide is Painless is played (which later became the theme music for the TV show). I really like the song. Granted it is a dark song but I think it kind of reminds me of the book of Ecclesiastes. Everything is meaningless and ends in death, but in the end it matters what we did while we were alive.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX88T4Dobxc]
The other song is totally different and very upbeat. In 1975 a new musical debuted on Broadway based on the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The show was notable as it featured an exclusively African American cast. The show ran for 1,672 performances and was made into a motion picture in 1978. The show was called The Wiz and it was popular almost from the moment it opened. Perhaps one of the best known songs from both Broadway and Movies is the song Ease on Down the Road, which is kind of comparable to the song Follow the Yellow Brick Road from the Wizard of Oz movie. Unfortunately the movie was not a bit hit, but the song was.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFxigJayXpg]