We’re a little over two months away from release, everyone!
To celebrate this writing achievement, this week I am beginning a five-week series about the top five songs I either like to write to or inspire me to write. These songs are not in any particular order, but feature prominently in both my Freedom and Control playlist (I guess I need to name my series) and in my writing playlist (I need two playlists, judge me.)
So anyway, hey, remember Hamilton?
I do because I was like three years late to the party on this one and am therefore three years late to remembering things both fondly and cringe-ly. Cringily? Cringeily? You decide.
It’s a bit ironic that I began listening to Hamilton on a trip to New York, one because I’ve no great love of big cities anyway but also because in so many ways New York (THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD) seems to be its own character in the musical and that’s kind of neat.
But one of the songs of Hamilton has become one of my go-to songs for writing and personal inspiration, as well as now one of my favorite songs of all time.
The Room Where It Happens is a masterclass of story craft, musical power, and dialogue that works so well on its own because with just a little bit of backstory it’s a story in its own right, outside of the musical’s context. As a history major, the song is also just so perfect because it highlights the frustrating nature of trying to learn about the past where there’s just so little information there.
So, for the first part of my series of writing inspiring songs, let’s find out why I’ve got to be in the room where it happens.
God, I’m hilarious.
I’d listen to the song, read through my analysis, and then go back to it again.
Here’s a link to the song on YouTube!
Setting the scene, both in the musical and historically.
In the musical we are early into Act Two. Our wonderful protagonist/murderer Aaron Burr is increasingly alienated by titular character Alexander Hamilton, who he sees getting great success while Burr himself is getting little. At this point, Burr is just a New York lawyer, but Hamilton is Secretary of the Treasury and well-liked by President Washington. Hamilton, meanwhile, is facing three new challenges:
1- Thomas Jefferson, introduced in the beginning of Act II, who stands opposed to him in Washington’s cabinet philosophically and personally.
2- The beginnings of his historical extramarital affair for which he is being blackmailed, an event which takes place in the previous song.
3- The failure or success of his plan to consolidate government debt, which lies in the hands of Congress, controlled by Madison, here Jefferson’s ally.
Historically, this situation was about right. Hamilton would have been under immense stress to get his plan through because it was the cornerstone of his new role as Treasurer. What occurs, and the event the song details, is known as the Compromise of 1790, which is argued to be one of the 3 most important events in the formation of America. The interesting thing is that it is incredibly poorly documented, almost frustratingly so. All we have proving some deal went down is a few lines from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson, which, paraphrased, goes, “Hamilton came to me asking for help. I arranged a dinner with us and Madison. I think it was a success.” A few weeks later, Hamilton gets his debt plan, and the capital is moved from New York to what is now Washington DC, closer to the American south. What happened?
To answer that question we come to Burr, who has been absent from most of Act II, running into Hamilton, just coming off of being blackmailed for his affair and feeling the pressure of needing to succeed in government. Burr approaches Hamilton, a lifelong frenemy, and tries to talk to him like old times. A distracted Hamilton offers little response, even when Burr brings up their mutual obsession with legacy by talking about General Mercer (Yes, I sang this song with a friend of mine on Mercer Street in New York so hush). Hamilton eventually admits, to a darkener of the musical tone, that his philosophy, established over the course of the first act, might not be working, and takes a playful jab at Burr’s own “Talk Less, Smile More,” brand of politics. Burr laughs off the insult, and tries again to commiserate about Hamilton’s political position, and is again rebuffed.
Great establishment of where these two men are at, and a chilling piece of foreshadowing at the suggestion that perhaps the best way to be remembered would be to die.
Madison and Jefferson then arrive and call Hamilton off to a meeting. Hamilton brushes Burr off and leaves him behind, which notably upsets Burr. Burr thinks to himself, and to the audience, about what these three could be up to, and the line comes off like the start of a bad joke.
“Two Virginians and an immigrant walk into a room…”
But it will change the course of American history.
Here we get a noticeable change in music, and a clue into how little I know about writing about music, with alarming brass notes giving way to an unsettling, mysterious piano piece during Burr’s reflection to himself and the audience. Here, writing wise, we get a perfect summation of the problem at hand. That problem being:
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?
That’s the crux of the problem. We know something happened between these three, and here are the consequences. The body of the song will consist of almost like “interviews” and analysis of the three main actors involved in this deal. Hamilton gets to great the national debt (thanks for that), and the southerners, Jefferson and Madison, get their capital city a little closer to home.
And it’s all summed up in a line perfectly suited to political intrigue.
“No one else was in the room where it happened.”
We get a sense from the first chorus that this is a tale as old as time, back-room deals. But here we get the added frustration from Burr (and some more character motivation for him) and from history itself that we weren’t included in it.
The next part of the song, “Thomas Claims,” plays off of the fact that the only reason we really know this happened was because of Thomas Jefferson’s letter. It’s an immensely biased point of view, and one which shows how much Jefferson must have loved getting one over on his political rival. It ends with Jefferson, as a man who went bankrupt buying wine and must have been a lavish host for dinners, even secretive ones, describing how he set the table, prepped the menu, got the venue but, as Burr cuts in-
DOESN’T SAY WHAT HAPPENED.
We’re cut out again and Burr’s getting more frustrated. The chorus plays again, with Burr this time noting that this is how we assume politics happens, but we don’t really know because we’re cut out of the process every time.
Now we go to “Meanwhile,” where Burr sets up other major historical events happening at the time. The early government is hung up on how much power it should have, and where to put the US capital. This was actually a big deal, since it involved who would have more influence, especially in an age of slow travel and mail. Obviously, abolitionists and the like wanted a northern capital, but southerners wanted to wield power as well. Madison and Jefferson were, of course, southerners. Hamilton was a New Yorker, and would have favored a northern capital. Unless someone offered him something better…
Suddenly Jefferson, “with a dinner and invite,” and Madison, with Burr’s nod to “Virginian Insight,” take over as the narrators from Burr and begin to put the deal in motion. Jefferson knows these two won’t talk unless he can get them both what they want, and Madison seems open to compromise. Madison won’t go all the way, mind you, he’ll just stop opposing Hamilton’s treasury bill. Jefferson agrees, and suddenly Burr realizes that he’s too late.
“No!”
He’s not in the room where it happens. The deal’s going down, with a foreshadow-heavy “click-boom,” and for all the trust we put in the government and God we still don’t know what’s happening.
So, Burr turns to Hamilton, now at the top of this political game, and asks him outright what happened. Why give the southerners a capital city so close to home and sell out your fellow northerners? Did Washington even know you were making a deal, and if he did, did he want the outcome you gave the country?
Then Burr stops, and sometimes you can hear and see him take a step back.
It clicks.
It doesn’t matter where the capital is.
Because Hamilton fully admits that he got his banking system, and it’s money that will run the country.
Now Hamilton goes on the offensive, blasting Burr’s philosophy of waiting for things to happen and declaring the importance of seizing legacy above anything else. Then he turns the questions on Burr, and for the first time in the musical we get a chance to see Burr’s character motivations.
Although Burr is the narrator, we got through the entire musical up until this point without a clear idea of his motives. We’re told repeatedly he’s waiting for his chance, waiting for his moment, but for what? Everyone wants to know…
And Burr reveals that he wants to be the one with the power, one way or another. This entire affair has shaken him enough to, for the first time in the musical, declare openly what he wants to everyone. Quietly at first, but he finds his voice.
He wants to be in the room where it happens.
The song closes out with Aaron Burr growing louder and more confident in his declaration, lampooning politics and compromise and all the wheeling and dealing of the brand-new Washington powerbrokers.
(Cut in, my favorite line of the musical is here: “The art of the compromise: hold your nose and close your eyes.”)
A few interpreters believe this to be Burr’s “Villain Song.” Burr’s out in public and in the game now, and from this point on, Burr and Hamilton’s relationship begins to deteriorate even further. In the next song, and this is true historically, Burr runs against Hamilton’s stepfather for a Senate seat, and wins to Hamilton’s embarrassment. This sets up the conflict for the rest of act two and Burr and Hamilton take more and more jabs at each other until the musical, the conflict, and Hamilton’s life end like this song:
Click, boom.
So this song as a little bit of everything and that’s why I love it so much.
From the dark but jazzy main part of the song to the terrific vocal performances and wonderful tie-ins to many of the musical themes of Hamilton it’s a joy to blast and listen on repeat from a musical enjoyment alone. I do this frequently.
From a writing perspective we see the main protagonists and antagonists at once being forced to cooperate and being forced to act against each other. We see character motivations at once hidden and revealed. We see the themes and philosophies of the musical’s main characters colliding and sparking in the heat of the same kind of politics we feel so fed-up with today. We suddenly feel a little less warm towards our titular character and at once more sympathetic and worried for our narrator. There’s so much to unpack writing-wise here and that’s why I keep going back to it for inspiration.
And, of course, from the historic perspective we see the great Compromise of 1790 play out before us in a way far more entertaining than any one of us could ever try to explain it. The song plays wonderfully on the reality of the founding of the country, on the history of American politics, and the influence money and a select few have on how the country is run, even today.
This is why “The Room Where It Happens,” ranks as one of my Top 5 Writing Inspiration Songs!
Stay tuned next week for whatever song I’ve been listening to a lot next week!