Mr. Usher (On His Way To Town)

Mr. Usher (On His Way To Town)
The shutters close when he’s around
The children shut their eyes
In fear of what they must surmise
When all the gentlemen hang their heads down, down, down
Yeah, Mr. Usher’s on his way to town

He keeps his sights set straight and true
His idle hands won’t flit or flutter
Never does he slip or stutter
Still his mind is menacing away
Yeah, Mr. Usher’s on the prowl today

He needn’t dirty up his hands
He’ll twist your heart until you’re manic
Lost in endless streams of panic
Pray you’re not the one he finds
If Mr. Usher’s got you on his mind

Any time the plan’ll get a bit off track
He’s the only one who can bring it back
The main manipulator, yeah
The wolf who leads the pack
You better lock your doors and shut your windows tight
Pull the shades down and turn off the lights
Always feed the hand that leads to teeth that bite
Because, if he has no use for you
He’ll take you to the river
Take you to the river

He’ll have you hanging by a string
Or noose, if he prefers you perish
All your dreams become nightmarish
If you block his path or plan
Yeah, Mr. Usher always gets his man

Mr. Usher always gets his man
Yeah, Mr. Usher always gets his man

🌲🌲🌲

What happens?
A new character is introduced, Mr. Usher, a wicked, sadistic, and powerful businessman who sees potential for himself in the City. Piqued by TP&P’s revival of The Dime and the corrupt nature of the Mayor Hunter to allow it, Mr. Usher travels to the City to put the wheels of his plans into motion.

What’s in a name?
A straightforward on-the-tin title: it’s the introduction of a new character, named Mr. Usher, and he’s on his way to City.

Whose viewpoint?
Omniscient.

🌲🌲🌲

>0:00 – 0:25 Instrumental
Man, this tonal shift. Similar to how King of Swords is tonally distinct compared to everything else in Act IV, the old school big swing band vibe of Mr. Usher stands out as an outlier. Why? Well, this is just the kind of guy that Mr Usher is, and given that he’s an important character, his introduction is going to leave a strong impression.

So what kind of guy is Mr Usher? Just off the instrumental, we can figure that he’s a very old-school type of person, refined, poised, but also quite dark and sinister. He gives the impression of a high-bred and successful man who is broadly conservative in his dress and demeanour, who doesn’t speak a single superfluous word or take a single needless action, and who has no need to fear anything. He’s confident, purposeful, and doesn’t waste his time on things he considers worthless or beneath him.

>The shutters close when he’s around / The children shut their eyes / In fear of what they must surmise / When all the gentlemen hang their heads down, down, down
So off the bat: Mr. Usher is scary. Actually, he’s terrifying. People know he’s dangerous, has bad intentions, and do their best not to draw his attention or ire when they see him making his way down the street.

Already this is a massive departure from, say, TP&P, who we’ll use as a point of comparison. TP&P’s schtick is conning people, so he needs people to think he’s a respectable person, that is, he invests much into concealing his misdeeds and hides his wickedness behind the ‘good’ persona of a Priest or a welcoming friend who is here to help you, but Mr. Usher does not. He does not at all. Mr. Usher is openly dangerous and seems to take pleasure in the fear he engenders just by walking down the street — he likes those in his proximity to be scared of him, intimidated by him, uncomfortable around him, aware of what he could do to them, so on.

So if TP&P’s nature is that of a two-faced liar, who manipulates people so they can’t usurp his plans, Mr. Usher is more of a pure sadist who enjoys causing pain for its own sake. He likes seeing others in fear and pain, not because that means they’re vulnerable necessarily, or because that makes it easier to use them to his ends (though that is a benefit), but because their pain and terror and dismay and death itself is fun to him. If anything, hurting people is the point behind his methods.

We can also tell that Mr. Usher fears no consequences for his cruelty. Contrast again TP&P, who beneath his charisma, actually is quite anxious about being unmasked and losing his influence over others. Mr. Usher is secure and confident in his ability to deal with problems, unconcerned with public opinion, and simply does not need to hide his nature since he knows nobody can scratch him. Very powerful guy with a clear grasp of himself and others.

>Yeah, Mr. Usher’s on his way to town
And he’s on his way to the City, presumably, to do something. Suggests that any time you see Mr. Usher out and about you can guarantee he’s up to something nefarious, and that you’re better off not looking into or getting involved in. A finger in many pies kind of guy. But all the pies have razorblades in them. That he put there.

Let’s think about why Mr. Usher might be going to the City. The biggest thing that’s happened there recently is the reopening of The Dime — we’ll find out later that Mr. Usher and TP&P actually already know each other and have some kind of history, so I wonder if the invitations/advertisements TP&P gave out for the Dime’s reopening made their way to Mr. Usher, and that’s ultimately what caught his attention. Brothels are illegal and quite tightly regulated now, yet TP&P’s having this grand and successful reopening? Interesting.

>He keeps his sights set straight and true / His idle hands won’t flit or flutter / Never does he slip or stutter
Self-explanatory, Mr. Usher is not the type of person who messes around or makes any superfluous moves. He knows what he wants, knows how to get it, and seizes it without hesitation, compromise, or doubt. He’s also extremely experienced and good at what he does — he does not make mistakes and does not ever slip up.

‘Keeps his sights set straight and true’ -> ‘With all the history to guide, you’ve got a passion in those eyes / So aim it straight and true’, making the comparison between the way Mr. Usher pursues his goals and a gun, since Mr. Usher’s goals are often deadly and do involve literally killing people, on top of his fast and certain nature in how he pursues his goals.

‘Flit or flutter’, ‘Slip or stutter’ -> ‘But, the gambler only stood and stuttered’, underlining Mr. Usher’s control by drawing the comparison of what he is not like — he is not the type who would have been caught off-guard like the gambler in TMCOH, or like Hunter for that matter.

>Still his mind is menacing away / Yeah, Mr. Usher’s on the prowl today
Mr. Usher is a predator who causes pain and destruction anywhere he goes. He is constantly plotting of ways to bring more malice into the world.

>He needn’t dirty up his hands / He’ll twist your heart until you’re manic / Lost in endless streams of panic
Now, everything said, Mr. Usher is not the type who personally shows up and does gruntwork. When he wants something done, or has a goal he wants to pursue, he achieves it by making others do it for him. To that end, he manipulates people, but unlike TP&P who has to construct a whole fake persona and make sales pitches of how great listening to him will be for you, Mr. Usher zeroes in on your fears, anxieties, and doubts — and exacerbates them. He’s not the type to go ‘this is what will relieve you…’ or ‘everything will be fine, you just listen to me’, so much as ‘you’re doomed, you’re dying — here’s what I’d do. What, does it make you uncomfortable? You don’t have any choices’, more in that tone where even the solution he presents is one that leaves you feeling uneasy, but is presented as the only available option you have.

Since he’s not the one personally enacting all the crooked things he does, he’s able to keep a healthy degree of distance between himself and crimes that could be pinned on him. People can generally figure he has something to do with things, but never know exactly what exactly he can be blamed for or can single out anything as being his direct responsibility. I mean, if Mr. Usher tells one man he should kill another, and the other man becomes so uncertain and anxious that they twist the idea around until they think they’re the one who conceived the thought, and go through with it, is anyone going to say the crime is Mr. Usher’s fault? Of course not, it’s the murderer’s fault.

He’s that type. Makes you think you came up with ideas he wants you to think, and motivation for things he wants you to do, on your own.

>Pray you’re not the one he finds / If Mr. Usher’s got you on his mind
Mr. Usher operates by targeting specific people. He focuses on one or two key people at a time to twist or torment to get his operations done — very efficient — then once he’s used them all they’re good for, discards them.

>Any time the plan’ll get a bit off track / He’s the only one who can bring it back
Love this verse and these singers. Anyway let’s talk about his name, Mr. Usher.

Mr. Usher is one of the few characters, alongside Ms Leading and Ms Terri, whose name is explicitly given. Why? Well, it’s because he’s an extremely important character whose role can’t just be summed up as ‘the Son’s mother’ or ‘the hooker’ or ‘the Businessman’. Understanding who he is and what he means to the story, and Hunter, requires this more specific term of ‘usher’ — because his principal role is that he ‘ushers’ in the end of the story. He’s the one who activates the last Rube Goldberg pieces into motion, he’s the one who breaks stalemates, and he’s the one whose presence ensures things resolve to their proper end.

Basically, Hunter and TP&P are presently a bit stuck. Hunter is slowly growing more and more resistant towards TP&P, but still needs some kind of trigger before he will move against him. Equally, TP&P has recognised that Hunter is growing slightly more defiant, but does not know what to do beyond the same song and dance of demoralising Hunter with character insults and blackmail threats. Something has to give, and Mr. Usher is the one who will orchestrate that ‘something’ by needling both of them into action, that action being one that destroys both of them so Mr. Usher can seize the remains and assert his own dominion over the City.

Otherwise said because he’s so into destroying people he’s an excellent mechanism for wrapping things up.

>The main manipulator, yeah / The wolf who leads the pack
Like Hunter and TP&P, Mr. Usher is a wolf. He does not look to conform with society, rather being the type to carve his own niche or assert his own will over others. But even among wolves, Mr. Usher is superior, being able to control and direct the actions of these ambitious and often scummy individuals, who look up to him for guidance. Any kind of backhanded or scummy organisation you can imagine, Mr. Usher can easily get himself invited to and take over without fuss.

>Always feed the hand that leads to teeth that bite / Because, if he has no use for you / He’ll take you to the river
It’s always in your best interest to play along with Mr. Usher, because if you don’t — he’ll kill you. (’Take you to the river’ = drown you in the river, maybe with cinderblocks).

Contrast TP&P again. TP&P controls people with blackmail, moral debt, so on, but ultimately he doesn’t kill anyone. He degrades and enslaves people, but he doesn’t kill them. Mr. Usher is more vicious than TP&P in that he has no qualms about flat-out murdering those who prove troublesome or who stand as obstacles to his plans. This probably contributes to his fearsome reputation — people know others disappear when they cross Mr. Usher.

The Pimp and The Priest reprise on ‘take you to the river’ probably pointing to Mr. Usher’s flat-out villainy, exemplified in how he’ll routinely murder others for not going along with him, and twisting the formerly hopeful (?) sentiment of ‘take me to the river’ from ‘get me out of here!’ into ‘die.’ I mean I suppose that’s one way to get out of ‘here’, here being Mr. Usher’s sphere of influence… and probably the only way. Want to escape him? Then die.

>He’ll have you hanging by a string / Or noose, if he prefers you perish / All your dreams become nightmarish / If you block his path or plan
Verse basically reiterates the main ideas already stated: Mr. Usher is a proficient manipulator, in total control of everything around him, who enjoys keeping people in a state of anxiety and terror. He kills those who annoy or obstruct him, and does so casually without any great deliberation or fanfare.

>Mr. Usher always gets his man
Scary dude. Being in Mr. Usher’s sights, Hunter better watch out…

>3:59 – 4:59 Instrumental
This is definitely something but I can’t figure out what. With the abrupt stop to the swing atmosphere going into this tonally very different passage, gives me the impression of us shifting more into Hunter’s world, with Mr. Usher arriving in the City and meeting to speak with Hunter, and perhaps them having a (rather tense, beneath its cordial veneer) conversation before Mr. Usher makes his observations of the people around them in The Haves Have Naught.

Melpomene | Act V | The Haves Have Naught