Parody of “Lida Rose / Will I Ever Tell You?”, words and music by
Meredith Willson
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Parody lyrics ©2020-11-16 by Bob Kanefsky. All rights reserved. The copyright of the original lyrics and music remain with the holder(s) of the original copyright.
I wrote this one with “Mildew and Rust” fresh in my mind, and I can’t believe how many times I’d seen the play “Wicked” and ignored the songworm pointing out that “Nessarose” sounds like “Lida Rose” from “The Music Man”. I realize now what it was trying to tell me: That “Lida Rose” has “Ding dong” in it, and who has a famous song with that in the title?
The relationship between Nessarose Thropp and the Tin Woodman is canon in the musical but is not in the book. (In the book, it’s a deliberately cursed ax, much like in Baum’s 1900 book.) So this is a parody of a song from one musical, based on the story of another musical with a reference to a song from a third musical. But the truly bizarre thing about writing in the Oz multiverse is that I wrote two songs within days of each other that were both about an unrequited romance with the Tin Woodman, yet in one song the Tin Woodman is Nick Chopper and in the other one he’s Boq the Munchkin.
Nessarose your home arrived, Rose
About a mile overhead.
Nessarose now all of your foes
Will get to watch it squash you dead.
Ding, dong, ding!
I can hear the Munchkins rejoice.
Ding, dong, ding!
They’ll applaud the foreigner,
Then call the coroner.
Nessarose we’re home again, Rose
From where we met in magic class.
Nessarose now everyone knows
That there’s one course you did not pass:
What kind of a love spell
Did you try to spin?
Nessarose you changed me to tin.
Dream of how.
Dream of why.
Dream of a love spell
That went awry
Did I change you?
I guess I changed you.
But I won’t reverse it
Until such time you change your mind.
East to West.
Least to worse.
How brief the casting!
How long the curse?
Forever? Oh yes, forever.
And can I reverse it?
Ah, no.