https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5Y94UyAlA

The title track of Charles Mingus’ album The Clown relays the story of a clown and his attempts to please his audience because “he just wanted to make people laugh.” The clown’s quest, however, reveals a startling truth about humanity and the unfortunate reality of many performers.

The song opens by describing the clown, an honest performer who “had all these greens and all these yellows and all these oranges bubbling around inside of him.” Many young artists romanticize their music in a similar way, optimistically approaching their careers with the hope that they will find a following while staying true to themselves. The clown sticks to his guns, but begins to struggle as his demure acts fail to gain his audience’s attention. As time goes on, however, he notices a disturbing trend in what makes his audiences laugh.

Throughout the song, the vibrant greens and yellows and oranges of the clown’s personality are symbolic of the faith the clown has in himself and in his audience. At what seems to be the professional low of his career, the clown’s colors are still evident as he puts his best effort into his work. It is when he receives the most response from an on stage injury that the clown becomes discouraged. The clown seeks to keep his audience happy and laughing, but in attempting to please them, his vibrant greens and yellows and oranges become dull, eventually turning into grays and blues. At the height of his professional career, the clown is at a personal low, transforming his comedic acts to fit the demand for self harm. In the end the clown commits suicide in front of his audience, a shell of his former self who is nonetheless more sought after than ever.

This haunting narrative, masked by a bouncy, waltzy instrumental, describes the sad reality that many artists, including Charles Mingus, faced. Mingus is known for his insistence for audience engagement, in a similar way to how the clown “just wanted to make people laugh.” The clown, like many performers, is alienated by the fact that he must conform to what the audiences believes to be entertaining, and not what he believes is his best work. In the end, the clown committing suicide is telling of the self destruction of many artists, as they lose their identity to take on the identity of the audience. The Clown is an undeniable standard that professional and amateur musicians alike should listen to and appreciate.

lyrics: http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-clown-lyrics-charles-mingus.html

Work Cited

“”The Clown” Lyrics.” n.d.. Atlantic Records, n.d. Web. 08 Feb.

2015.