-It's mostly melody right now.
[piano plays]
"Washington Post Magazine" was interested in exploring
various ways of telling a story
or recounting an event in the form of a song.
On the phone call, they said,
"Well, what would you like to do?"
I said, "Well, I was thinking about Rod Rosenstein."
We have a character in Rosenstein
who's not in the business of theater.
-House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes.
-We've had many what I would say altercations.
And I can take the heat. I enjoy it.
-This guy found himself unwittingly
in an incredible hot seat.
-Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Rosenstein, why are you keeping
information from Congress?
-Which is what we saw with that Jordan character.
He was being theatrical,
and this guy Rod Rosenstein cannot engage in that.
He is now in the position where he is gonna get beaten up,
and so that's the story.
? The distinguished wrestler from Ohio. ?
? He's free to lie, he's not the one who's under oath. ?
? The law don't suit the boss. ?
? This deputy must go. ?
? We got him in the locker room, boys. ?
? Start the show. ?
-I picked the scene that I felt was the most tense,
which was that of a wrestler and a nerd.
-But your use of this to attack me personally --
-When you look at a story like Rod Rosenstein,
I have to ask myself,
"How does that relate to a bigger story
that's happened over and over again?
What is the story that has played out
before that will play out again
that we can learn something by looking at it?"
And I think the first one is bullying.
I think the first thing that came to my mind
was images of "Lord of the Flies."
The thugs that broke the little kid's glasses.
I thought of the President of the United States
calling him Mr. Peepers, picking on his glasses.
So the first thing that came to mind was that, was --
? Call me Mr Peepers. ?
? Have your stooges smash my glasses. ?
? Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba da-da. ?
[up-tempo music plays] Okay, here's how I'll probably
do it, then. I'll do an intro that goes --
[piano plays]
The song is pretty precisely mapped out now,
down to the various pauses between the verses and stuff.
It's just some technical flips and twists
to put this thing on tape without a band.
That's why. [drums playing]
-Can you just play a little pass with some of the cymbals?
-Cymbals and toms? -Yeah.
[drums play] -Okay.
I can't see it, either.
-For part two?
-No, I just mean that -- this is in two halves.
-Yeah.
-'Cause I'm starting to want to hear it slower,
the more I hear things on it, which is interesting.
-Right, 'cause we're at 88, right?
-Might want to go back to the 86.
86 the 88. -Right.
? God bless the bureaucrat I'm loyal to. ?
-I will say I'm very happy that I've chosen Rod Rosenstein
and, say, not Scaramucci.
Rosenstein is much more real and painful
to me than the other stuff
because of the personal position he's been put in
and the position that we're all in
at these crossroads where we find ourselves
deciding to stick up for our norms or not.
? Would he call him Mr Peepers? ?
? Send some thugs to smash his glasses? ?
? The institution's standing. ?
? Though we tried our best to trash it. ?
? Aren't we all the keepers of this fragile young republic? ?
? And when all those Mr Peepers people fall. ?
? Lord, help us all. ?
-Thank you very much.