Monday Music Break: Free Bird

If by some odd chance you have not already seen Rob Zombie's "two-film trilogy" of cult=classic exploitation horror movies, starting with 2003's House of 1,000 Corpses and ending with its 2005 sequel, The Devil's Rejects, I'd advise you to stop reading right now and go see them. House of 1,000 Corpses is available here on YouTube, and The Devil's Rejects is available on DVD from Netflix.

Note: Spoilers follow.

As you all know, I am a big fan of "cult classic" exploitation movies. Everyone thinks the whole phenomenon ended in 1959 or so, but that isn't so. It just took a few turns and went underground (even more). The midnight-movie success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which as far as I know hasn't stopped showing somewhere since its debut in 1975, is living proof of this.

So here are the masters of  southern hard rock Lynryd Skynyrd with the song that routinely appears on everybody's list of top ten rock and roll masterpieces, Free Bird:

This is the final scene, with the original soundtrack, from The Devil's Rejects, and it shows the best slow-motion death scene since Sam Peckinpah's seminal The Wild Bunch from 1969. Hell, maybe it's even better than that. I'll let you be the judge.

Warning: Once you have watched this, you will never be able to "unsee" it. And you'll likely never hear Free Bird the same again.

Monday Music Break: Born in the USA

Here's Bruce Springsteen with Born in the USA from 1984:

But really, the big question is this: Are politicians, especially Republicans who seem to have carved out their own patriotic niche just for this song (I'm looking at you, Ronald Reagan), too stupid to know what it's really about? According to Parker Malloy at The Daily Beast, the answer to that question is yes, they are.

In case there's still a question, here are the lyrics:

Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "son if it was up to me"
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said "son don't you understand now"
Had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there he's all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.

Hmmm. Not quite the patriotic anthem they want you to think it is, is it?

Special Memorial Day Monday Music Break: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Here's a special Memorial Day music break, the moving and haunting Where Have All the Flowers Gone? written (mostly) and performed by the late great Pete Seeger.

Monday Music Break: City of Night

For those of you who think that I don't listen to any music from this century, here's the terrific group Pink Martini with City of Night:

If you ignore the kind of amateurish wipes and transitions, there is some spectacular urban night photography in this video.

This song is from Pink Martini's 2007 third album, Hey Eugene!.

All of their music is available on Amazon -- and if you buy through this blog I get a few pennies back on each purchase.

Monday Music Break: MacArthur Park

Here from 1968 is the  Richard Harris version of the much-reviled MacArthur Park, which according to Dave Barry is "the worst song in modern history".

Okay, come on, it's not all that bad -- in fact, I actually kind of like it. But when you combine some tortured-metaphor lyrics with the overwrought performance of a stage-trained Shakespearean actor, I can see where some might consider it a "bit much". As one comedian said a number of years ago, "Lighten up, Richard. It's just a cake."

Interesting job with the accompanying video of the real MacArthur Park itself, more recent obviously than 1968. It's by a Finnish guy named Seppo Korpipaa (who has his own channel on YouTube) and I'm impressed that he traveled halfway around the world, apparently just to shoot this footage and edit it to the song.

Monday Music Break: Lydia the Tattooed Lady

Here's the one, the only, Groucho Marx in a classic scene from 1939's The Marx Brothers At The Circus:

The movie itself is not one of the Marx Brothers best efforts. That said, it isn't all that bad, even though to our modern sensibilities the scene with the ensemble black singers and musicians with Harpo is at times painful in its broad stereotypes. But really, this movie did put a lot of black people to work filming that scene, and I can't name another movie from the 1930s that didn't use common stereotypes for pretty much all minorities.

Monday Music Break: FM (No Static At All)

Here's the quintessential jazz-rock band of the 70s and 80s, Steely Dan (which, yes Virginia, was named after a dildo) from the 1978 film FM. It's the title track from the movie, called FM (No Static At All).

Enjoy

A favorite group of mine. I got pretty much all their albums on vinyl, then had to switch to casettes and finally CDs. I am starting to suspect that whole improving-,musical-technology scene was al about selling duplicate copies of albums in the newest and latest formats. Now I have to duplicate them all in .mp3 if I'm going to listen on my iPod. Jeez.

And the beat goes on...

Monday Music Break: Warren Zevon, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner (1978)

Here, from his Excitable Boy CD is Warren Zevon with "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner":

"Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner", ostensibly the story of white mercenaries in Africa in the mid-1960s, was the last song that Zevon performed live, on the Dave Letterman Show just before his untimely death in 2003.

Monday Music Break: The Rabbit of Seville and That's Opera Doc

To keep the opera theme going for a third week, I proudly present Looney Tunes The Rabbit of Seville from 1950, starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.

The Barber of Seville was the very first opera She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and I saw at Seattle Opera's McCaw Hall many years ago. Naturally, I was especially interested in seeing how it compared to "the original" (i.e., this version). My verdict? Not bad, but a lot longer...

Sorry about the kind of odd-looking colors. This was the best one I could find. It has all the zany anarchy of a regular Looney Tune cartoon, with the added bonus of music from the overture to the Barber of Seville. It is hilarious, one of the best cartoons in the Looney Tunes catalog. I never get tired of watching it. And, interestingly enough, in 1950 no one panicked when a little bald guy with a gun started shooting at a rabbit on the stage -- it really was a different time. So different that barber shops such as the one suggested in this cartoon hardly exist any more. I think there are maybe one or two old-school barber shops left in my whole county.

The only other time that the great Chuck Jones and his group of brilliant animators tackled opera again was in 1957 with What's Opera Doc? where they take on Richard Wagner and primarily Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung):

I guess it was too hard to animate a 6-minute short set to opera music and make it conform to the traditional Looney Tunes visual craziness, so we are left with only two examples of what could have been an incredible body of musical parody masterpieces.

To the people that turned them into an Internet-friendly format and posted them on YouTube: Thanks, guys! Now  we'll have them forever!

Monday Music Break: O Mio Babbino Caro

To keep the opera theme going, with a twist, here's a scene from Mr. Bean's Holiday, featuring Rowan Atkinson lip-synching to O Mio Babbino Caro:

This is from the opera Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini. While this is one of my very favorite favorite arias, the opera itself is seldom performed since it is basically a one-act play and too brief for opera goers to feel that they really got their money's worth.

For those who are, like me, really into it, that's soprano Rita Streich actually singing the aria.

More:
   · Mr. Bean's Holiday on the IMDB
   · Mr. Bean's Holiday (Full Movie) on YouTube
   · O Mio Babbino Caro on the Aria Database

Monday Music Break: La Donna È Mobile

Here is the incomparable Luciano Pavarotti with the most famous aria from Rogoletto by Giuseppi Verdi,  "La Donna È Mobile":

Yes, in stark collision with all that I outwardly portray, I am actually an opera buff! I can't count the number of people who have known me for a while -- sometimes quite a while -- and yet are surprised when they learn that.

She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and I had the equivalent of "season tickets" to the Seattle Opera for many years until "other priorities" militated against renewing them. Still, we try to catch one or two operas a year at McCaw Hall.

You will no doubt recognize this song. It has been used, to various effect, in a ton of movies, but the best cinema use of it, IMHO, was in the fight scene between good-guy Frank Castle and "The Russian" in 2004's The Punisher.

See also La Donna È Mobile on the Arias Database.

Monday Music Break: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Here's Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole with the old Judy Garland classic as you've never heard it. This guy's voice is incredible:

"IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole was a noted Hawaiian singer/musician who died in 1997 at the early age of 38. He was a native Hawaiian (a rarity on the islands these days), and as you can see in this video, morbidly -- tragically -- obese. He was also a supporter of Hawaiian sovereignity.

Monday Music Break: One Toke Over the Line

This is one for your "now I've seen it all" file. Lawrence Welk and the fresh-faced-and-glassy-eyed Gail and Dale, with the "modern spiritual", One Toke Over the Line:   

Watch old Larry the Whelk -- you can't see even a glimmer of a knowing grin, not even an ironic raise of the eyebrow, as he introduces this "modern spiritual"...

Modern spiritual, huh? As you might expect, Mike Brewer and Tom Shipley, the song's writers and original performers, just happen to see it a little differently...

Monday Music Break: Blackbirds

Here are Voices on the Verge from their only album, Live in Philadelphia, with "Blackbirds":

I first heard these "girls" on a low-watt indie station out of Philly while I was driving up rural Clark's Valley, in Eastern Pennsylvania a few years back. I had no way to write down who they were or the name of the song, and I had a hell of time after I got home trying to find out more. But find them I did, and bought their album on CD ("buying an album", even on CD, sounds so quaint, so ... I don't know, "yesterday"...). I haven't regretted it.

Monday Music Break: Quel Temps Fait-Il A Paris

From one of my favorite movies of all time, Mr. Hulot's Holiday:

This is also "must-see cinema". If you've never seen this hilarious movie -- or want to see the restored "director's cut" -- get it from Netflix -- it is available from various streaming locations, but you will want to see it in the best quality and the way director wanted you to see it. Be sure to look for the introduction by former Monty Python Terry Jones on the DVD as well.

Further exploration:

• Les Vacanses de Monsieur Hulot -- a booklet of the film with many photographs and notes, both in English and in French
• Mr Hulot's Holiday on the IMDB
• Mr Hulot's Holiday on Rotten Tomatoes -- rated 100% Fresh!
• Roger Ebert Review
• The Restoration of Mr Hulot's Holiday 

Monday Music Break: Jerusalem

Here's incomparable soprano Lesley Garrett singing what is pretty much the only religious hymn that I can really stand*:

As you might imagine, the song itself has interesting history, and it has been proposed for England's National Anthem on several occasions. It's based on a longer poem by mystic English poet William Blake, and a phrase from the song lyrics and the poem, "Bring me my chariot of fire", appeared as the title of the 1981 film, Chariots of Fire. The hymn itself, performed by the legendary Vangelis, is played over the final credits of the film. But, given my predilection for sopranos, Lesley's version is still my favorite.

The movie won many accolades and  numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1981.

---

* Although, probably because both of my grandmothers had Scottish roots and I am an enrolled member of the Scottish Clan Kincaid, I am also kind of partial to Amazing Grace on the bagpipe. I intend for both of these to be played at my funeral/memorial, which ought to shock the shit out of all the people who know that I am anti-religious...

Monday Music Break: The Lion Sleeps Tonight

In 1961 a white five-guy doo-wop group calling themselves The Tokens had a mega-hit with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight":

Take a look at those guys and tell me which one sang soprano on this track.

Right. None of them. The actual soprano was the most famous singer you've never heard of, Anita Durian, who died just this month, at the age of 87. She had an incredible four-octave range and was in high demand for most of her career.

Her accomplishments include performing in everything from opera and classical recitals to television jingles and cartoon voice-overs. She appeared in several television productions of musicals and operas from the 1950s to the 1970s. It's too bad that she never got the stardom that she deserved, but she does deserve to be remembered, if only for that incredible voice.

The song itself also has an interesting history, being that it was originally composed in Zulu and first recorded in South Africa way back in 1939. That backstory comes complete with accusations of plagiarism along with various copyright issues stemming from its use by Disney in the soundtrack of The Lion King.

Monday Music Break: Show Biz Kids -- NSFW(!)

Here's a side of Steely Dan you've never seen . DEFINITELY this is NSFW:

But if you'll recall  the inspiration for the band's name, you'll likely not be surprised...

Monday Music Break: Fire

This goes out to all my Republican friends. Here's Fire by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, from 1968:

Monday Music Break -- Australia!

In 2004 we went on "holiday" (i.e., vacation) to Australia. It's someplace I'd always wanted to go, and we had the time and the money, so why not?

For nearly a month we roamed by rented camper-van the great Australian nation, from Sydney up to Brisbane out through the Outback to Broken Hill and then down to Port Fairy and along the spectacular Great Ocean Road to Melbourne (including, of course, a side trip to Phillip Island and its famous Penguin Parade and the Australian National Vietnam Veterans Museum, where I "bought a brick" by donation to support the endeavor and made a friend of a fellow Vietnam vet -- a tip of the ol' pint to Ziggy), and then we reluctantly circled back to Sydney for our flight home.

We did a lot, we saw a lot, we met a bunch of terrific people -- everyone went out of their way it seemed to welcome us -- and I felt we had driven millions of miles kilometers and had a "been-there-done-that" experience of Australia. But when I look at a map of Australia, it's a humbling experience -- we had actually covered only a small part of it, in the far southeast. That place is HUGE.

One thing I am glad that we discovered was Australian "country music". I grew up in Oklahoma and thought I'd had my full lifetime dose of country music by the time I was ten. I had no idea that Australia produced its own country music, that Banjo Paterson ("Waltzing Matilda") was not just a one-off, and I especially had no idea about a guy named Slim Dusty.

Here he is singing "Indian Pacific", about the famous railway line across Australia:

(Note: If you look carefully starting at about 0:58 you will see the same pointy peaks that appear in the classic dystopian sci-fi movie Road Warrior, still the best-ever Mel Gibson movie, which was filmed in the area around Broken Hill NSW. The Indian Pacific passes through Broken Hill on its long haul from coast to coast.)

Slim Dusty recorded an incredible 106 albums, and he had total sales in Australia of seven million -- in a nation of only 20 million people! It's kind of a shame that he is not more well-known in the United States.