Song: Not Alongside Her Leading Star

Julia Stiles, Mekhi Phifer, Josh Harnett in "O."

A star athlete is playing tonight?!  (Gosh, I'd just have to watch it.)  A star catches our attention.  But is a star's success born out of hard work, inborn gift, or the right people that surrounds him.  In the teen flick, "O," based on William Shakespeare's "Othello," O is the star athlete.  He is a star.  But things are not so swell.  Things are about to get rough, complicated.  The star is not alone; he or she is never alone.  Other players in the same field who do not garner as much glory and limelight brew jealousy in their guts at his shadow.  Thus envy drives Iago who plots against Othello, the star and ultimately brings him down.  How does Iago plot this?  By splitting up one of the most perfect couple in Shakespeare's world:  Othello and Desdemona.  O, the star athlete has Desdemona or Dessie, his girl.  So Iago plots his device on O by planting an idea in his mind that Dessie had been unfaithful.  Unfortunately, his device, his schemes works out accordingly and O falls from grace. 


Which begs the question:  Would a star athlete or a star be without his/her support system?  Would he be a star without his girl on his arms?  Would he perform well and be great on his own?  And would she be something as well, without her leading man?

The following lyrics is inspired from Taylor Swift's "Love Story," in which she refers to "Romeo & Juliet."  Swift uses narratives to engage the listeners and this also is a narrative song.  It has been revised with ballad rhyme scheme (a/b/a/b/b/c/b/c, repeat) and Cascade throughout:



Not Alongside Her Leading Star

What turns up for the hero’s girl after his fall,

Without her leading star, she moves beyond,

The lead’s dear shoulders the saga and the love,

Casts a luminous smile and carries on the legend,

See the blazing comet under the stars, next to the sun god,

For today, not alongside her leading star, she sweeps across at midnight

She’s a meteor, set fire, near the sun god,

What happens to Desdemona after Othello’s fall from height,

What turns up for the hero’s girl after his fall,

Will she shine without her star, on her own, she soars,

Will she meet another leading star, out of windfall,

Will she rise above, just as grand, without him by her side,

Without her leading star, she moves beyond,

How can anyone know, but they say love know no bounds,

No one knows this tale’s ending, it’s written after midnight,

It doesn’t even matter anymore, it’s the days of old,

The lead’s dear shoulders the saga and the love,

She’s a celebrity on her own right, sprawling beyond and wide,

A luminary in the sky, see that blazing comet fly, light,

A single star in her sky, not waiting on a call,

Casts a luminous smile and carries on the legend,

Once, my dear hero, you were my leading star, they called you the sun god,

With admirers from wide who sees you with stars in their eyes in this wide world,

But a leading star cannot have his love and be the brightest in the night,

What turns up for the hero’s girl after his fall,

When the world is at your feet, you’re far-flung, so you extend,

When you succumb to the seductions of bodies, side-by-side,

Impossible feat, forlorn, the hero’s love sets out, doing well,

Without her leading star, she moves beyond,

Not alongside her leading star, sets out in this wide world,

She sets out onto the world, just as well,

Do a world of good, how sweet that music sounds,

And tomorrow, she’ll become a woman of the world,

The lead’s dear shoulders the saga and the love,

Casts a luminous smile and carries on the legend,

See the blazing comet under the stars, next to the sun god.