Stories Behind the Songs: “Lipstick”
I always knew the closing number in the second act would be a glitter-rock type song in the manner of early 70’s David Bowie, T. Rex, and other proponents of the style. As John Lennon quipped to Bowie, “It’s just rock and roll with lipstick on, isn’t it?” The instrumental configuration is much like Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era, with acoustic rhythm guitar and electric lead guitar. The opening riff is more or less the same as the beginning of “Two-Spirit”, only played in a different rhythm. In the counter-melody at the end of the guitar solo the “secret sister” phrase makes its first appearance in the opera, but not the first appearance in my writing; I wrote and recorded a song called “Secret Sister” five years before. I thought it worked in this context, though, so I recycled it.