Caesar's Mixtape
Bringing you songs more painful than Caesar's 20 stab wounds
Track 1: Tyrant by OneRepublic
Act 2, Scene 1 Big Idea: His Loyalty Lies with Rome
Brutus ultimately decides to join the conspirators because he believes that Caesar would not be able to rule Rome effectively, showing us that his loyalty lies with Rome, as seen in lines 22 to 35 when he says, “That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder...by which (Caesar) did ascend...and therefore think him as a serpent’s egg, which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous and kill him in the shell.” In the same way, the bridge of this song relates to Brutus’ realization that Caesar will not be a good leader for Rome in the lyrics that say, “I’ll stay with apathy, I’m blind but I can see a tyrant to the bones.” This also fits into Brutus’ characterization because later on in the play, we see that Brutus maintains a very stoic and apathetic temperament when Cassius and Portia commit suicide, all to retain his reputation.
One final connection I made with this song and the play is how the song starts. The lyrics say, “Watching myself when I’m taking strides, but here comes the moon and it feels, and it feels like an informer, quick, run away, hide, before they see you.” This part of the song reminded me of the general time and setting that this scene of the play took place in and how that set the portentous and precarious tone. Brutus mentions in lines 77 to 82, “O conspiracy, sham’st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, when evils are most free? O, then by day where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough to mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy.”
Michelle Grace Lew
Track 2: The Love Club by Lorde
Act 2, Scene 1 Big Idea: Decisions, Decisions.
In Act 2, Scene 1, Brutus is contemplating his choice to join the conspirators in an assassination mission against his best friend Caesar. In “Love Club” by Lorde, she sings, “Be a part of the love club, Everything will glow for you. You'll get punched for the love club. For the love club” These lyrics reflect to how Brutus is feeling conflicted about joining the conspirators to “protect Rome” (hence ‘love’ club) from the weak and unworthy Caesar. The lyrics directly relate to how Cassius was buttering Brutus up by telling him that he was just as good, if not better, than Caesar and that he should be king instead.
The lyric, “The only problem that I got with the club, Is how you're severed from the people who watched you grow up.” This lyric is a perfect association with Brutus’ thoughts as he weighs the consequences of joining the conspirators and killing his best friend.
Lastly, the lyrics “I joined the club and it's all on. There are fights for being my best friend. And the girls get their claws out, there's something about hanging out with the wicked kids,” parallels the bad influence the conspirators were as they transform Brutus from the loyal best friend to an irrational murderer.
Allie Lewis
Track 3: The Wrong Direction by Passenger Official
Act 2, Scene 1 Big Idea: Brutus Goes Down the Wrong Path
Preston Eggert
Track 4: In the Air Tonight
Act 2, Scene 2 Big Idea: Calpurnia Can Read Palms
In Act 2 Scene 2, Caesar and Calpurnia are discussing about whether or not the Caesar should go at all to the ceremony, because she fears that things bad will happen to him and she won't be able to do anything to save him. She also fears that Caesar may die or be murdered on the Ides of March, the ceremony of the official crowning of Caesar, because of all the things that are going wrong. Such as the most ferocious thunder and lightning the Capitol of Rome as ever seen, and there was also a lion that was giving birth to her cubs I the middle of the street, which is peculiar because even in those times it still wasn't normal to see a lion give birth to her cubs in a city. In the lines "I can feel coming in the air tonight", it really highlights how Calpurnia is very sensitive about sending Caesar out there knowing that all of these bad omens are going on.
In the Air tonight- “I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
And I've been waiting for this moment for all my life, Oh Lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord, oh Lord”
Tommy O'Brien
Bonus Track: That Laughing Track by Crookers ft. Style Of Eye & Carli
Act 3, Scene 1 Big Idea: Death Makes People Go Insane
Act 3, Scene 1 is the pinnacle of Julius Caesar - the scene that marks the end of Caesar and the start of a revolution. Not before, of course, the conspirators do a victory dance while bathing in Caesar’s blood, “...waving our red weapons o’er our heads (crying) ‘Peace, freedom and liberty!’” in lines 109 to 110. This act of barbarity is best expressed in the song, That Laughing Track by Crookers ft. Style of Eye and Carli. Although this song does not include many lyrics other than maniacal laughter to an electronic/dubstep style, this song expresses how death makes people go insane.
When the conspirators successfully murder Caesar, arms soaked to the elbows with blood, bathing in both their misguided glory, it demonstrated the brutality and inhumanity of the conspirators. At this point of the play, the audience starts to seriously question the sanity of the men in the conspiracy, which parallels the mood this song creates. In That Laughing Track by Crookers ft. Style of Eye and Carli, there are no real sensible words. The only lyrics are maniacal, continuous laughter which can be a direct relation to the waning sanity and ongoing moral corruption.
Michelle Lew and Allie Lewis