Song Review: "30/90"
In this article, Amber switches up the type of music they are reviewing, choosing to talk about "30/90" from a musical titled tick, tick...BOOM!
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"30/90" Song Review
"30/90" Song Review
By Amber Medina-Montoya
By Amber Medina-Montoya
The holiday season has finally rolled around and, as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, the weather is also starting to get much colder. Make sure to bring layers, people! In this month’s edition of this song review column, I am reviewing “30/90” from a musical called tick, tick…BOOM! I decided to write about a musical this time around, as the only way I have discovered to beat writer's block is to write about a topic I am very passionate about. As a huge musical theatre kid who has tick, tick...BOOM! in their top five favorite musicals list, I figured this was the way to go, so let us dive in!
Starting with the background of this song, it is a piece from a musical called tick, tick…BOOM!, an autobiographical musical written by Jonathan Larson, otherwise known as the creator of the massive hit musical Rent. The musical itself and all of its songs were written by Larson himself, but the movie adaptation, which won the 2022 AFI Award for Movie of the Year, was directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The soundtrack of this show can be streamed on Spotify, and the movie can be found on Netflix. tick, tick…BOOM! stars famous actor Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson, and because of this, we are blessed to hear Garfield sing for roughly two hours. “30/90” is the opening song of this musical, and it briefly gives us a glance at what Larson is doing in his life while trying to write a musical called Superbia before his big break with writing Rent. Before diving into a quick synopsis of this wonderful musical, I would like to mention that this background information is not directly mentioned in the lyrics themselves, but in the film, so if you would like a full scope of the musical outside of what is on Spotify, Netflix is the place to go. Now that that has been noted, Jonathan Larson works as a waiter at a diner and works on Superbia on the side. Superbia has had successful workshops but has never gotten any kind of actual production. Larson watches as his friends start to make their lives into something successful, and learns that his girlfriend wants to get married and move out of the big city. Throughout the musical, Larson tries to land connections with bigger producers around New York City in attempts to finally get his show out there after eight years. Now, unfortunately, if I try to describe the entire story right now, there will not be room for the actual topic of the article, so let’s dive into the song itself now.
Photo Credit: IMDb.com
This song discusses how Larson is about to turn 30 in eight days, and how he feels as if he is running out of time to make his dreams of writing a Broadway show a reality. The lyrics on the first verse, pulled from Genius Lyrics say, “Years are getting shorter/ Lines on your face are getting longer/ Feel like you're treading water/ But the riptide's getting stronger” show this struggle very clearly. He portrays the idea of trying to stay afloat with where he is at in life while the shortening years are pulling him along and forcing him to move on, all while trying to perfect the work he is doing before it is too late. This is probably a feeling that is relatable to most people. Larson is trying desperately to make his show producible, rather than staying in the workshop phase, but as his friends around him are becoming successful and his girlfriend is pressuring him to move in with her, he feels like he is being dragged along before he has had time to accomplish what he wants to get done.
Moving onto the chorus, the line “They’re singing ‘Happy Birthday’/ You just want to lay down and cry/ Not just another birthday/ It’s 30/90” references how, despite the fact that people around Larson are celebrating his birthday, he feels as if it is not something to celebrate right now. He also conveys that the current stress of feeling as if he should be further in his life by 30 years of age is making him want to cry. The line “It’s 30/90” also points toward the idea that being 30 years old, which is a third of being 90 years old, makes the 60 years before that 90-year mark much closer than they seem. The chorus finishes with the lyrics “Why can’t you stay 29?/ Hell, you still feel like you’re 22/ Turn 30, 1990/ Bang! You’re dead/ What can you do?” and reveals that, though Larson still feels as if he is in his early 20s, he is being forced into the position of being 30. He also admits that he is worried that, when he dies, he would not have been able to do everything he wanted to do, and is being forced to come to terms with that.
The second verse of the song has more instrumentals in the background, progressing the song through a stronger feeling. There are also more people singing the lyrics. These are Larson’s friends, Michael and Jon, who are both important characters in Larson’s story. The first line in the second verse is “Clear the runway/ Make another pass/ Try one more approach/ Before you’re out of gas." This line, sung by Michael, attempts to push forward some encouragement. Michael is trying to convince his friend to keep pushing and continue to work towards his goal before it is too late. The rest of this verse essentially has the same message as the first verse, so we are going to move on from this section of lyrics to save some time. The second chorus changes a little bit, with the lyrics “Can’t you be optimistic?/ You’re no longer the ingenue/ Turn 30, 1990/ Boom, you’re passé/ What can you do?” The line “Boom, you’re passé/ What can you do?” is similar to the “Bang! You’re dead/ What can you do?” line from the first chorus. By using the word “passé”, Larson explains his feeling that, once he turns 30, he will be considered out-of-date and that there will not be much to do about it after that.
The bridge of this song is probably my favorite part of this song for a couple of reasons. First of all, Larson uses children's stories like Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz as metaphors for his situation. The line “Peter Pan and Tinker Bell/ Which way to Never Neverland?/ Emerald City’s gone to hell/ Since the wizard blew off his command!” is fun to think about. Larson talks about how all these fictional characters have their own stories and adventures. This section would seem fairly meaningless if it wasn't for the lyrics that follow soon afterward. Larson sings, “But you’re not into/ Making choices, wicked witches/ Poppy fields, or men behind the curtain/ Tiger Lillies, ruby slippers/ Clock is ticking, that's for certain!” soon after talking about the fictional stories. These words show that he is not interested in those small, mediocre issues that most fictional characters have to deal with. Instead, he is thinking about how he is running out of time to accomplish something bigger than those characters ever had to do. This section is confusing to understand at first, but the deeper meaning within the words is what makes the bridge a hidden gem within the song.
The final chorus is, again, very similar to the first two, aside from the use of a certain word beginning with the letter F that we are not going to dive into. The end of the chorus is probably the most interesting part of the ending. The line “Into my hands now/ The ball has passed/ I want the spoils but not too fast” shows viewers that, even though Larson’s time is running out, his time to shine and make his dreams work is now. He also reveals that, while he wants to be able to revel in the success of his efforts, he also wants to make sure that he takes the time to make his work as good as it possibly can be. This is followed up by the lyrics: “The world is calling/ It’s now or Neverland/ Why can’t I stay a child forever” which has some fun wordplay in there. “It’s now or Neverland” can also be heard as “It’s now or never, and” which is followed by “Why can’t I stay a child forever?” which would make the final product: “It’s now or never and why can’t I stay a child forever?” I love wordplay. Moving on, the song ends with Larson and the rest of the background singers repeating the phrase “30/90”, and the final line is “What can I do?”
This song is roughly four and a half minutes long, but feels short. There is so much exposition given in those four minutes, from introducing the audience to the characters and what Larson is trying to accomplish to Larson’s internal and external struggles. This song was written wonderfully in that aspect. It sets up the rest of the show, revealing enough about the characters and their stories to make the audience want to see how they are developed, but still leaves plenty to be found out. Writing about this song not only gave me the opportunity to infodump about one of my favorite musicals, but it gave me an excuse to listen to the soundtrack over and over again. (I’m also reentering my Andrew Garfield phase, but we don’t have to go into detail about that.) It is also funny to see people’s reactions when I tell them that Garfield stars in this musical. Their reactions are generally something along the lines of “Spiderman can sing?!?!”
I hope you all enjoyed this synopsis of “30/90” and I also hope this inspired you to go watch tick, tick…BOOM!. It is completely worth it, I promise. Fair warning, Netflix has rated it PG-13 with warnings for strong language, suggestive content, and drug references, so keep that in mind if you plan to watch it. I also highly suggest looking up Jonathan Larson. Unfortunately, Larson passed away in 1996 on the day of Rent’s off-Broadway premiere, but his work is amazing and has been nominated for many awards, winning a large number of said awards. As always, if you have any songs you want me to listen to and maybe feature in next month's issue, leave them in the form below! Have a wonderful November and I will see you next time!
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