Scoundrel Harold Hill steps onto the River City train platform, leaving behind a passenger car of traveling salesmen. He’s got a plan to swindle the town’s fine folk by selling them instruments, uniforms and lessons for a boy’s band. He intends to skip town once he’s got money in hand.
Harold Hill can’t even read a note of music!
But, wait….when the scamp meets the town’s music teacher, he begins to have a change of heart.
The ladies of River City take notice of the pairs budding romance and the gossip begins.
I recently saw a high school production of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man. In the gossip scene, purses dangle and hats bob as the busybodies sing Pick a Little, Talk a Little, Cheep, Cheep, Cheep. The song increases in speed and volume as the women lean in and cup hands around ears.
The song has been playing in my head for weeks, encouraged by the early morning symphony of birds embracing spring outside my windows.
When Willson wrote the show in the 1950’s, he had a good understanding of human nature. What he couldn’t have envisioned was a world wide web spreading gossip and misinformation at the push of a button.
Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people. ~Socrates
How strong is your mind?
The song is catchy! Pick a Little, Talk a Little, Cheep, Cheep, Cheep