Come Over

from Playbill’s Track-By-Track Breakdown (3/27/20):

“COME OVER”
Yes, this is indeed a song about a booty call. Well, actually, in the show (yes, here’s another song from The Danger Year), the character is trying to work up the nerve to call the woman he loved deeply and lost, and at the end of the song he calls his booty call woman instead—because taking the risk on the thing that could be real is so much harder than reaching out for the thing that’s right there. My friend Tituss Burgess was the first to sing this song, and like everything of mine, he transposed it up into the treetops. Then Derrick Baskin sang it a few times, beautifully, but he was doing eight shows a week at Ain’t Too Proud when I was recording. So I thought really hard about the sexiest singers I know… and obviously wound up calling Norm Lewis, whose DNA is 50 percent talent and 50 percent charm. He recorded right after the “Before I Lose My Mind” women and, strangely, they all stuck around to listen to him sing. I have to say, the music for this track was really fun to write and even more fun to vocal arrange and orchestrate. I kept adding layers—piano then guitar then strings then backup vocals. The night before the session I wrote drummer Jamie Eblen and said, “You have bongos, right? Can you bring them to the session?” And he did not. So I bought a last-minute pair of bongos and now they live in my apartment, which makes for some fun underscoring of random life moments with my family.

HIM:
MAYBE I HAD TOO MUCH WINE.
SOMETHING’S KEEPING ME AWAKE.
NOTHING’S HAPPENING ONLINE:
ALL IT DOES IS FEED THE ACHE.
I THINK ABOUT YOU ALL THE TIME-
WONDER IF YOU’RE MISSING ME.
DO YOU FEEL ME ON YOUR SKIN?
WON’T YOU SET ME FREE?

NO STRINGS, NO TIES
NO PROMISES TONIGHT
JUST YOU AND ME:
MY DARKNESS AND YOUR LIGHT.
COME OVER.
COME OVER.

I WANNA TAKE YOU IN MY ARMS
KISS YOU UP AND DOWN YOUR SPINE.
SLIP MY HANDS BENEATH YOUR CLOTHES
TAUNT YOU ‘TIL YOU SAY YOU’RE MINE.
WE COULD FALL INTO MY BED
LOVE EACH OTHER ALL NIGHT LONG
SLEEP AWAY OUR LONELINESS.
HOW COULD THAT BE WRONG?

(SHE comes on stage. HE sees her, reaches for her. They sing.)

BOTH
NO RULES, NO LIES
NO NEED TO JUSTIFY.
IT’S YOU AND ME:
WE’LL WATCH THE WORLD SLIP BY.

HIM
COME OVER.
COME OVER.

(THEY dance– without even touching–)

I FEEL YOU BESIDE ME:
A YEARNING,
A DISTANT MEMORY.
LOOK HOW THE MOON LIGHTS UP YOUR HAIR.
AS IF YOU WERE THERE…

NEED TO BE WITH YOU AGAIN.
DYING FOR FAMILIAR TOUCH.
DON’T YOU MISS ME ON YOUR SKIN?
DON’T YOU THINK OF ME SO MUCH?
DON’T YOU?
DON’T YOU?
DON’T YOU THINK OF ME SO MUCH?
OH — OH OH —

HIM
NO PAST

HER
NO PAST

HIM
NO CRIES

HER
NO CRIES

HIM
NO TALK OF RIGHT OR WRONG.

BOTH
JUST YOU
AND ME:

HIM
PRETENDING WE BELONG.

(–until SHE spins offstage, and we realize: this was HIS fantasy and he is alone, wanting her. He picks up his phone, slowly dials throughout…)

COME OVER.
COME OVER.
COME OVER.