When a king was feeling down, he'd call for the clowns, the jesters, the players, the whores: anything to cheer him up. ...at least that has always been the feeling i get from the song. but the writer gets quite specific:
.....as Sondheim explained in a 1990 interview:
I get a lot of letters over the years asking what the title means and what the song's about; I never thought it would be in any way esoteric. I wanted to use theatrical imagery in the song, because she's an actress, but it's not supposed to be a circus. It's a theater reference meaning "if the show isn't going well, let's send in the clowns"; in other words, "let's do the jokes." I always want to know, when I'm writing a song, what the end is going to be, so "Send in the Clowns" didn't settle in until I got the notion, "Don't bother, they're here", which means that "We are the fools." [wikipedia]
check out the tiger lillies live version, if you're into something far-out and beautiful (youtube)
When a king was feeling down, he'd call for the clowns, the jesters, the players, the whores: anything to cheer him up. ...at least that has always been the feeling i get from the song. but the writer gets quite specific:
.....as Sondheim explained in a 1990 interview: I get a lot of letters over the years asking what the title means and what the song's about; I never thought it would be in any way esoteric. I wanted to use theatrical imagery in the song, because she's an actress, but it's not supposed to be a circus. It's a theater reference meaning "if the show isn't going well, let's send in the clowns"; in other words, "let's do the jokes." I always want to know, when I'm writing a song, what the end is going to be, so "Send in the Clowns" didn't settle in until I got the notion, "Don't bother, they're here", which means that "We are the fools." [wikipedia]
check out the tiger lillies live version, if you're into something far-out and beautiful (youtube)