Lyrics and Music
The full version of the song begins with an orchestral introduction, titled "Bangkok," of Oriental style. This serves as the introduction to Act 2 in the original musical album, and feeds into the first verse of "One Night in Bangkok" itself with an abrupt change in musical style.
The main song has a pop styling, whose lyrics sarcastically juxtapose the Thai capital city and its nightlife with the game of chess. In the original concept album for the musical, the choruses are sung by Swedish artist Anders Glenmark, whereas the verses are a rap originally performed by Murray Head as the American chess grandmaster, a character known as Frederick "Freddie" Trumper in the staged versions. (In the staged versions, a musical ensemble performs the choruses.) Whereas the choruses extol Bangkok's reputation and exciting atmosphere, the American's verses denounce the city, including its red-light district, "muddy old river" and "reclining Buddha."
In the original London production of Chess, the setting for the song is an interview by Freddie, who is in Bangkok to serve as a TV analyst for a match involving his rival, world champion and Russian defector Anatoly Sergievsky. Freddie states a preference for what he sees as an intellectual purity in chess, in stark contrast to the seedier aspects of Bangkok's night life, e.g., "The queens WE use would not excite you." Trumper's statements suggest a personal lack of interest for the exotic settings typically involved in international chess matches, and that he prefers instead to focus on the game itself. In the original Broadway production of the musical, the song appears not at the start of Act 2 but in the middle of Act 1; in this version, the world championship of Freddie vs. Anatoly takes place in Bangkok.
The lyrics also mention actor Yul Brynner, who famously played the King of Siam in The King and I. ("Siam" was the previous name for Thailand.) The "Tyrolean spa" mentioned early in the song refers to Merano in Italy, the site of Act 1 of the musical.
Read more about this topic: One Night In Bangkok
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