Lost Songs from the NYTW Version of “RENT”

January 8, 2006

April 23, 2006 will mark the 10th year anniversary of “RENT” on Broadway–which makes me feel really old. In honor of that I dug out some really old tape bootlegs of the original New York Theater Workshop version of “RENT”, hooked them up to my new analog output adapter and made some crappy mp3 versions of some of the “lost” songs from the show. My original tape wasn’t of the highest quality, so neither are these mp3s, but if you are a fan of the show and you haven’t heard these before I’m sure you will get a kick out of ‘em.

The song “Right Brain” has the same melody as “One Song Glory” but the lyrics aren’t nearly as developed. I think you’ll see why Jonathan Larson decided to do a re-write on them. Tony Hoylen plays Roger.

The other song I have is called “Over It.” It’s a duet between Mark and Maureen discussing their relationship but it seems as though it was cut out of the show in favor of “Tango Maureen” between Mark and Joanne. It’s a pretty funny song. You can hear original Broadway cast member Anthony Rapp as Mark and Sarah Knowlton as Maureen.

DOWNLOAD: “Right Brain” from the NYTW version of RENT

DOWNLOAD: “Over It” from the NYTW version of RENT

NOTE: These mp3s are strictly for promotional purposes. If you need me to take them off for some kind of legal reason, please contact me.

Catch more lame “RENT” stuff I wrote about here and here.

{ 14 comments }

Liz January 8, 2006 at 6:48 pm: Thanks a bunch for these!
J January 8, 2006 at 11:13 pm: Considering Rent is involved, I thought “NYTW” might mean “Not Yearning to Work.”
The Playlist January 9, 2006 at 7:37 am: god, stop with the rent stuff already. The musical is an abomination and is ruining your blogs good name.
pokey January 9, 2006 at 8:56 am: Have You Considered Real Estate has always been my favorite of the NYTW songs, just because it was so wildly unlike any of the other songs.
Mateo January 10, 2006 at 2:08 pm: Oh holy crap, my wife will love you for this.

I became a rent-head just to meet her. It worked great!
Mike January 11, 2006 at 1:47 pm: any possibility of posting them again? the link isn’t working! many many thanks
laura January 14, 2006 at 10:22 pm: try again mike…it’s working for me!!
Raina January 4, 2007 at 4:58 pm: uhm, i was just wondering if you could upload those two songs from the NYTW recording again. I’ve been looking for anything from the 1994 recording for seriously months! i would adore you forever!
laura January 6, 2007 at 4:21 pm: i updated the links
Raina January 6, 2007 at 4:41 pm: oh wow, thank you so much!
Sam June 18, 2007 at 7:04 pm: The links are not working again =(
Mindy July 4, 2007 at 5:16 pm: please put them up again!
Anonymous August 5, 2007 at 10:58 pm: please put them up again =)
Jasmine January 23, 2008 at 8:30 pm: please repost or send to me at jadelyn_@hotmail.com i would really appreciate it as a fellow renthead!!