Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1959
No Way to Stop It
Buy No Way to Stop It now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'No Way to Stop It'" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical 'The Sound of Music', but not included in the later film version from 1965.
The song features the characters Max Detweiler and Baroness Elsa Schrder, with Captain Georg von Trapp joining in later. It was first performed by Marion Marlowe, Kurt Kasznar and Theodore Bikel.
Summary
Captain von Trapp anticipates the German annexation of Austria, and argues with Elsa and Max about how to respond to the Nazis, who have begun to overrun the country. While the Captain holds Austrian nationalist views and believes he must stand up to the Nazis, Elsa and Max say there is nothing anyone can do, and that the Captain should be flexible and make the Nazis think that he is on their side.
The song shows the three's different motivations and clashes of egos, and becomes a song about Max and Elsa trying to convince Georg to forget about everything going on around him and just to think about himself. The song's circular melody parallels its circular argument. In the end, Georg decides he cannot marry a woman with no political convictions. The song is a turning point in the musical for Captain von Trapp, marking the point where he breaks off his relationship with Elsa, leaving him free to marry Maria.
The song was not used in the film adaptation, where instead the engagement is called off because Elsa is too rich and powerful, wanting an extravagant life in Vienna, and the Captain, who has fallen in love with Maria, wants a simple life in the country. The "political dispute [was essentially replaced] with a solely personal and individual squabble".
Significance
"No Way to Stop It" is one of only two numbers in the play in which Max and Elsa sing. Along with "How Can Love Survive?", which was also cut from the film, it is the only number that addresses her relationship with the Captain.
The satiric, cynical number, which is about "amoral political compromising" (and in fact an anti-protest song), is theorised by 'Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History' to be the first-ever rock song to be introduced to a Broadway musical. The book cites its similarity to songs by the Kingston Trio from around that time. The song, along with "How Can Love Survive", was cited in 'The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television' as an example of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "wry sense of sophistication".
'The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity' compares the song to "So What?" from 'Cabaret', in that they both "articulate [the] general sense of indifference among many constituencies that would eventually allow the Third Reich to expand its influence beyond the point of return". Both these songs include the theme of obsessive circular motion in order to create a sense of inevitability. In the case of "No Way to Stop It", the lyrical motif is the orbit of various satellites, and by the end of the song, it is implied that "I" is the centre of the universe. As a result of "No Way to Stop It" and the duet "How Can Love Survive" (in which the Captain and the Baroness "attempt to work out their competition and the complexities of a dually rich marriage") being cut from the film, class and political tensions are eliminated, secondary characters become less complex, and Maria and the children become most of the film's focus.
'Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History' refers to the song as a "gem".
'Cambridge Guide to American Theatre' described both 'No Way to Stop It' and 'How Can Love Survive?' as having "ironic wit".
Lyrics
You dear attractive dewy-eyed idealist,
Today you have to learn to be a realist.
You may be bent on doing deeds of derring-do,
But up against a shark, what can a herring do?
Be wise, compromise.
Compromise, and be wise!
Let them think you're on their side, be noncommittal.
I will not bow my head to the men I despise!
You won't have to bow your head, just stoop a little.
Why not learn to put your faith and your reliance,
On an obvious and simple fact of science?
A crazy planet full of crazy people,
Is somersaulting all around the sky.
And every time it turns another somersault,
Another day goes by.
And there's no way to stop it,
No, there's no way to stop it.
No, you can't stop it even if you tried.
So, I'm not going to worry,
No, I'm not going to worry,
Every time I see another day go by.
While somersaulting at a cockeyed angle,
We make a cockeyed circle 'round the sun.
And when we circle back to where we started from,
Another year has run.
And there's no way to stop it,
No, there's no way to stop it,
If the earth wants to roll around the sun.
You're a fool if you worry.
You're a fool if you worry,
Over anything but little number one.
That's you!
That's I!
And I!
And me!
That all absorbing character.
That fascinating creature.
That super special feature,
Me!
So every star and every whirling planet,
And every constellation in the sky,
Revolves around the center of the universe,
That lovely thing called, I.
And there's no way to stop it.
No, there's no way to stop it,
And I know, though I cannot tell you why (sigh).
Just as long as I'm living,
Just as long as I'm living,
There'll be nothing else as wonderful as I.
I! I! I! Nothing else as wonderful as I!
References
Buy No Way to Stop It now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1959