It was over two years ago that Taylor Mac brought a small part of the epic 24-Decade History of Popular Music to Los Angeles. Since then Mac has assembled the entire 24-hour cycle. Mac has also only performed the entire cycle uninterrupted once. While we won’t be getting that marathon performance, we will get the chance to see all 24 hours of Mac’s vision when CapUCLA brings the complete cycle to The Theatre at the Ace Hotel beginning on Thursday. Two parts are performed this week; two are performed next week. Each show is 6 hours (and therefore, six decades worth of music.)
In early February I spoke with Taylor Mac about that one mammoth performance and the goal of these concerts. We also spoke two years ago and some of this column includes comments from that interview as well.
How does your 24-hour song cycle continue to evolve and what role does the audience have in the evolution?
Oh gosh, it’s just everything. I shouldn’t say it’s everything. The core show we had at St. Ann’s in New York is the same show we’re bringing. But it’s so different. When we took the show to San Francisco we had to change for seats that were nailed down and didn’t move, three tiers, 1600 people instead of 800. We’re continuing that in Los Angeles, but we’re sharpening it. The world is so different from what we did in New York. Trump is President and has been for a year. And that has changed the conversation and it has changed the way people look at the show. They experience the show more as a necessity for healing more than it had been pre-Trump presidency.
What is the criteria you used for selecting the songs for this 24-hour concert?
The big thing for me is content dictates the form. I’m always thinking about what the particular decade is going to be about; what the whole show is about and then I find songs that work within that theme. The challenge in the early decades is there isn’t that much material that survives that we can pinpoint to the decade. That’s the challenge for those. The challenge for the later decades is there is so much. How do you choose?
We are trying to use these popular songs to rally people to a cause, to mourn together, to celebrate together, to cheer together, to love together, to protest together. I try to find the songs that are trying to do something.
In 2015 a survey was released that revealed that lyrics have become dumber and dumber. Vis-à-vis the songs in your show, what decade most impressed you with its wit and intelligence and which decade do you find the depths of facile writing?
It’s hard to say the worst decade. I will say the 1890s had some really bad songs. Have you ever heard “After the Ball is Over?” It’s one of the most popular songs and it’s one of the worst songs. Hip-hop lyrics are intensely profound when compared to “After the Ball is Over.”
It’s also what you do with it. You find a song and turn it into something useful. It’s like Bob Dylan with “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” There’s a song called “Lord Randall” about a guy who hooks up with a girl. He’s on his deathbed and he gives money to his mother. Dylan turns that into activism and wanting to do something in the world. He transforms the song into something useful to people. That’s what we’re trying to do with all this fluff and find out what’s profound about the fluff and what we can do with it.
You and playwright Larry Kramer (The Normal Heart) share a desire to add gays to American history, albeit in different ways. [Kramer revisits history in his book The American People Volume 1.] Why is it important to reconsider history with the addition of a gay component?
Well there’s a reason why there is homophobia in the world. And one of the reasons is there isn’t representation. Someone I was talking to recently said “gays are on television now. Everything is gay.” Then we went to HBO and scrolled through all their selections. Looking was the only show that had gays as central characters and that was cancelled. Everything else was about straight people. There were a few shows that had gay people. Game of Thrones – what happened to them? They were killed. Sex and the City they were secondary characters. It’s certainly not 10%.
Queerness is the subtheme of this show. It’s certainly present and it’s declared, but it’s only the reference and contextualization. It’s only queer because I’m queer and everything I do is queer. The point of the show isn’t just queer. It’s a slightly different way of depicting that history.
It’s everything when people know queers and growing up they can stop being afraid. Isn’t that one of the great joys of history is that we can be less afraid and we can learn and evolve?
You have a lot of ground to cover during 24 hours of performance. What role, if any, will technology play in your getting through it all?
I don’t use a teleprompter. I had a meeting with (music producer) Hal Wilner and he said “you’re going to have to have a monitor.” No! Absolutely not! I want the audience to see how hard I am working. Somebody sat and memorized 240 songs and worked it all out. Part of the show is about failure and what happens when you are falling apart. It’s okay if I forget a lyric. It’s not about presenting polish. It’s about presenting humanity and vulnerability and doing your best to make the best show you can. We have a lot of fun and if something goes wrong, it’s an excuse for more fun.
For part two of our interview with Taylor Mac, please go here. In this interview we talk about how “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” is cathartic for both the audience and the performer.