Ramblin' with Roger

Bubbling Under #3: #101 or less

Goin’ Down

Here’s a third list from the book Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100, 1959-2004. These are more songs that I own that didn’t get above #101 on the primary US singles charts.

My Male Curiosity – Kid Creole & the Coconuts, #110 in 1984, from the movie Against All Odds, starring Rachel Ward and Jeff Bridges
20th Century Man – the Kinks, #106 in 1972
A Whiter Shade of Pale – Annie Lennox, #101 in 1995
Straight Shooter – the Mamas and the Papas, #130 in 1967, B-side of Twelve-Thirty (#20)
Hey Girl – the Mamas and the Papas, #134 in 1967, B-side of Glad to Be Unhappy (#26)

George Martin and His Orchestra

All are from The Beatles’ A Hard Days Night soundtrack on United Artists
And I Love Her, #105 in 1964, B-side of Ringo’s Theme (This Boy) (pop #53)
I Should Have Known Better, #111 in 1964/
A Hard Day’s Night, #122 in 1964

Waterfalls– Paul McCartney, #106 in 1980

Roger Miller

Roger is such a GOOD name
It Happened Just That Way, #105 in 1965, AC 26; B-side of One Dyin’ And a Buryin’ (#34)
I’ve Been A Long Time Leavin’ (But I’ll Be a Long Time Gone), #103 in 1966, CW #13; B-side of Husbands and Wives (pop #26)
Me and Bobby McGee, #122 in 1969, CW #12

Why Do Fools Fall in Love – Joni Mitchell with the Persuasions (live), #102 in 1980
Goin’ Down – the Monkees, #104 in 1967; B-side of Daydream Believer (pop #1)
Nights in White Satin, #103 in 1968; longer edit made #2 in 1972
Gypsy – Van Morrison, #101 for two weeks in 1973
Bright Side of the Road – Van Morrison, #110 in 1979

I Used to Be A King – Graham Nash, #111 in 1971
Open My Eyes – Nazz, #112 in 1968, featuring Todd Rundgren!
Over You – Aaron Neville, #111 in 1960, RB #21 (spelled as Arron Neville, co-written by Allen Toussaint )
I Love L.A. – Randy Newman, #110 in 1983, an MTV staple in the day

You Can’t Do That – Nilsson, #122 in 1967
Everybody’s Talkin’ – Nilsson, #113 in 1968; rerelease reached #6 in 1969 thanks to its use in the movie Midnight Cowboy
Wedding Bell Blues – Laura Nyro, #103 in 1967
It’s Gonna Take a Miracle – Laura Nyro with LaBelle, #103 in 1972

Outside of a Small Circle of Friends – Phil Ochs, #118 in 1968
Looking for Clues – Robert Palmer, #105 in 1980
Alive – Pearl Jam, #120 in 1996, #107 in 1998
American Girl – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, #109 in 1994; first released in 1977, when it did not chart

See Emily Play – the Pink Floyd, #134 in 1967
29 Palms – Robert Plant, #111 in 1993
Steam Heat – Pointer Pointers, #108 in 1974
Suspicion – Elvis Presley, #103 in 1964
(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear – Elvis Presley, #105 in 1978, originally #1 pop in 1957

Louie Louie – The Pretenders, #110 in 1981
Uptown – Prince, #101 in 1980
Peach – Prince, #107 in 1993
Me and the Boys – Bonnie Raitt, #109 in 1982
Right On – Rascals, #119 in 1971

We’ll finish next time.

Movie review: Just Mercy (2019)

tangle of conspiracy and political machination

Before Just Mercy was a major motion picture, it was a book by Bryan Stevenson. The young Harvard-trained lawyer from Delaware “founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system.”

I have not yet read the book. But my wife has, and she feels that the movie treatment is a fair representation of the narrative. “One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian (Jaime Foxx in the movie), a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder” of an 18-year-old white female “he insisted he didn’t commit.”

“The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.” There was a great deal of evidence proving McMillian’s innocence. “The only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie.”

That story was the basis of the movie. Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) meets with Eva Ansley (Brie Larson), a local white activist, and he starts the EJI. Seemingly simple acts such as getting office space, is a challenge.

Anger?

I found Just Mercy to be a compelling story about fighting injustice in a dangerous situation. It’s interesting that 99% of the Rotten Tomatoes audience found it compelling but only 84% of the critics. Most of the latter use terms such as: “There’s too little anger and dirt and fear in this story.” Another: “calibrated… with an eye to not offending White viewers with anything remotely resembling Black anger.”

These people have totally missed the point. The black folks are angry, but generally resigned to an unjust system that requires an unnecessary strip search. Or the fear of death when Driving While Black. A courtroom protest, shown in the trailer, will land you in jail. When the deck is so stacked against you, anger tends to be modulated.

A.O. Scott writes in the New York Times: “Just Mercy is saved from being an earnest, inert courtroom drama when it spends time on death row, where it is opened up and given depth by two strong, subtle performances, from Foxx and Rob Morgan.”

I was moved by Just Mercy. It wasn’t a showy cinematic experience. But it told an important story well.

Frozen; The Band’s Visit- Proctors

Frozen: technically brilliant

Band's Visit.playbill One of the perks of retirement is that I’ve gotten season’s ticket to see musical matinees at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady. Oh, I’ve had them before, but it’s been a few years that I went to the THURSDAY matinees. Those particular matinees mean three things: cheaper tickets, a lot of older patrons, and best of all, a discussion with the cast after the shows.

In some ways, the after-show talk is the best part. For instance, there were three cast members fielding questions from the audience at the mid-November 2019 performance of Frozen. I had seen the movie when it came out and thought it was though it was fine.

The cast let us know that they were up in Schenectady running technical rehearsals. Probably for geographic reasons, Proctors is often the first show on national tours. This involves making sure the show is set not just for that venue but all of the subsequent ones.

The three performers were a guy who was in the ensemble, a woman with a small role who was otherwise in the ensemble, and the guy who voiced the Olaf the snowman puppet-like creature. The first two had to make costume changes after almost every scene. The controller of Olaf had less changing, but had to make sure it was the snowman, not the person operating him, who was the focus.

Technically, Frozen was brilliant. Thanks to lighting, smoke and other effects, one believed the country was getting colder. There were audible gasps and even applause with the transition. The show was well-performed, but the extra songs did not enhance the narrative. I thought the second act in particular dragged. But I blame the script/songs, not the performers.

2018 Best Musical

Here’s the plot of The Band’s Visit. “When an Egyptian police band gets stranded in a tiny Israeli town, the musicians wait in a cafe — and get to talking with the locals.”

It is “one of four musicals in Broadway history to win the unofficial “Big Six” Tony Awards, which include Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical. It won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.”

My wife and I enjoyed a performance in late December. The woman behind me clearly did not. “Thank God it’s over!” We surmise it’s because there’s no big numbers in The Band’s Visit to let one know It’s A Broadway Show. It’s more subtle than that.

The four cast members we saw afterwards, all men, were particularly engaging. A couple of them were from the Middle East. One said he loved the show because it’s an antidote from being told he could only play a doctor or a terrorist.

Not incidentally, two of the leads in the show were played by understudies. Was that to allow them a chance to play a show or two each week? NO, the usual leads were not available.

Silly political quiz and process

NYS presidential primary April 28

voting.booth The New York Times had an online quiz that I filled out a couple weeks ago. It asks you how you stand on certain issues. It then supposedly tells you who your ideal candidate would be, picking from among those still in the Democratic race.

Strictly by the criteria, Bernie Sanders was my #1 pick (10/10), followed by Elizabeth Warren (8/10), Michael R. Bloomberg (5/10), Tom Steyer (4/10), Pete Buttigieg (3/10), and Joseph R. Biden Jr., Amy Klobuchar, and Andrew Yang (2/10 each).

Except, as Mark Evanier noted: “Here’s the problem with a quiz like this. I have to answer each question Yes or No and I don’t think either choice correctly describes my position on most of these questions.” Quite true.

“Do you view President Trump’s election as an anomaly? My answer isn’t Yes or No. It’s more like, “I’m not surprised that a lot of Americans wanted what he was offering. I think it’s an anomaly that so many people became convinced he was presidential material and could or would deliver on those promises.”

Moreover, one could find 10, or 100 more questions, meaningful questions, that would totally skew the results.

In the Wall Street Journal, Sheila Barr made The Republican Case for Elizabeth Warren. “She has independence and integrity and is no socialist. She just wants the market to work for everyone.”

Will my vote matter?

But the New York State Democratic primary isn’t until April 28. There’s no way to know who’ll even be in the race by then, besides Mike Bloomberg, who’s self-funding his campaign. My choices will be made by who’s left after the wacky Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire, which, unlike in closed primary New York, allows non-Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary.

Certainly, my options will be determined by Super Tuesday on March 3, when California, Massachusetts, Virginia and other states vote. I feel for supporters of those fallen candidates, such as Julian Castro, Kamala Harris, and Jay Inslee, whose supporters never even got to cast a ballot at all.

The Democrats, because they’re Democrats, will continue to snipe about whoever is the candidate as too liberal or too corporate or too whatever. The incumbent gets four more years, and the recriminations will continue. Incidentally, I think it was brilliant political theater that DJT held rallies in Iowa and New Hampshire in conjunction with the Democrats’ selection process.

I also think that the concentration on Ukraine in the impeachment process ended up hurting Joe Biden in Iowa. It’s likely that some Democrats were scared off by the sniff of scandal and preferred a candidate that wouldn’t have to defend against it in the general election.

Yes, I’m voting on April 28. But unlike some folks, I’m not promising to pick a certain candidate in the primary this far out. I’ve long thought primary voting is “from the heart”. Whereas the general election in November, I’ve already made up my mind.

Cybill Shepherd turns 70

Moonlighting (1985-1989)

Cybill Shepherd.Bruce Willis.Newsweek Cybill Shepherd turns 70 today. That, of course got me thinking about the television series Moonlighting. It was a very entertaining show at first, which ran off the rails for various reasons.

It occurred to me that if such a show were made now, not dependant upon a 22-show season, it might have worked better.

The Moonlighting set was, by all accounts, a miserable place. And it started so well. “After reading the script, [Cybill] immediately realized this was a part she wanted to do…

“During her first meeting with [Glenn Gordon] Caron and producer Jay Daniel, [she] remarked that it was reminiscent of a ‘Hawksian’ comedy. The two had no idea what she was talking about, so she suggested they screen Twentieth Century, Bringing Up Baby, and His Girl Friday, three of her favorites, to see how the overlapping dialogue was handled.”

The premise: “Top model Maddie Hayes [Cybill Shepherd] was betrayed by her investment adviser… All the unfaithful manager has left Maddie is her house, her unbelievable beauty and intelligence and the run-down detective-agency… renamed by Maddie into ‘Blue Moon’.

“Because of her lack of money, she wants to sell the agency, but the houses only detective David Addison [Bruce Willis] tries to convince her to join the agency as the new boss. So Maddie Hayes becomes involved in the work of a real private detective… While doing this Maddie and David… recognize their complete difference in life-style, humour, amusement and of course in the way how to run a detective agency.”

Too many words, too little time

Moonlighting was a hit with TV audiences and critics. But it became increasingly difficult to keep on schedule. “Typical scripts for an average one-hour television show run 60 pages, but those for Moonlighting were nearly twice as long due to the fast talking overlapping dialogue of the main characters.

“While the average television show would take seven days to shoot, Moonlighting would take from 12–14 days to complete with episodes and dialogue frequently being written by Caron the same day they were shot.”

The days were too exhausting for Cybill Shepherd from the beginning. Her real-life pregnancy a couple seasons in added to the stress. She was considered “difficult,” a reputation that dogged her in future projects.

Bruce Willis broke his clavicle during a skiing accident. Then when he had a hit movie, Die Hard, his patience with Moonlighting production delays grew thin. “‘Willis… suddenly cared a lot ‘about not working, about getting out of work, leaving work early,’ a source told People at the time.”

What if the show actually had a bigger budget, and more time to finish each episode? Would it have survived? No way to know. But the quality would not have plummeted, with the storyline shifting to secondary characters. Those early shows were lots of fun, at least at the time.

Big Man on Mulberry Street episode.
Maddie’s dream, from that episode, based on the Billy Joel song.
Theme, sung by Al Jarreau
The single Moonlighting – Al Jarreau, 23 pop, 32 soul in 1987