THE MESSAGE IS IN THE MUSIC
BY MICHAEL ORDOÑA >>> Joining the empowerment anthem “This Is Me” in the original song category are “Stand Up for Something,” a rousing call to action from Diane Warren and Common, and “Remember Me,” a layered love song with multiple meanings from Robert
‘REMEMBER ME’ | FROM ‘COCO’
The animated “Coco” is a trip through the “other side” of Día de los Muertos as a living boy finds himself in the land of the dead and must make his way back. In keeping with that duality, themes of remembrance and the importance of music, the Oscar-winning writers of “Let It Go” were challenged to craft a bombastic, delicate, self-aggrandizing, humble, Swiss Army knife of a song: “Remember Me.”
“Remember Me” is given three distinct performances, each carrying different emotion and meaning. Kristen AndersonLopez and her husband, EGOT winner Robert Lopez, patterned the base style after Mexican crooners of the early 20th century. With the help of composer Germaine Franco, they made one version a spectacular paean of self-glorification. The same song, played quietly on one guitar, becomes heartbreakingly tender.
Anderson-Lopez says, “In the melody, it was,” she sings, starting low and climbing higher and higher, “‘Until you’re in my arms again …’ ” She sings again, this time that “showboating” version by a selfsatisfied man turns as comforting as a nightlight for a lullaby approach.
Lopez adds, “The other one is ‘each night we are apart’ — from [one character], that’s like, ‘I can’t be with you tonight, my dear, but I’ll see you again sometime.’ ” He purrs the latter, and one can practically hear his raised eyebrow.
Anderson-Lopez says for the third character, that line comes “after he has lost someone he loves and is thinking about them every night in his prayers.”
“That’s the version that haunts me the most,” says Lopez. His voice turns reflective. “It’s about loss. It’s about music waking up someone through memory from the dead.”