Tag: music

Movie review: 20 Feet From Stardom

Merry Clayton sings on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”; juxtapose that with her cover of Neil Young’s “Southern Man.”

It pretty much starts off with Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side”: “And the colored girls go do doo doo, do doo …”. The movie 20 Feet From Stardom is an exceptional documentary about the generally ignored, unknown, but tremendous backup singers, often black women, who perform on some of the biggest hit songs and albums of all time.

Meet Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, Merry Clayton, Tata Vega, Claudia Lennear, and Judith Hill, most of whom are or were figuring out whether they had the egos necessary to be solo artists, or whether the craft they engaged in, making the star performer look good, was good enough. Love, who was thwarted commercially by producer Phil Spector more than once, was cleaning houses when she heard one of her own songs on the radio and had to come back as a singer. Listening to Clayton’s voice on the Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter, bare without the instrumentation, is chilling.

There is some insight from folks such as Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger, and music producer Lou Adler, among others. We also hear wisdom from former Raelette (background singer for Ray Charles) Mabel John, who has a second career. The film touches briefly on some of the folks who were background vocalists and became stars, such as Luther Vandross.

A couple highlights for me: the segment on Clayton’s role in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”, especially juxtaposed with her cover of Neil Young’s “Southern Man,” the latter of which is on the soundtrack album for the film. Also on there is Love’s cover of Bill Withers, appropriately with three of the background singers we had already seen in the movie.

How shall I put this? If you have enjoyed the popular music of the past six decades, see 20 Feet from Stardom, if you can. There were only a dozen people at the Spectrum in Albany when my wife and I saw it Thursday night. Certainly catch it on video, because it’s quite likely NOT playing at a theater near you.

The “Slow Audience Participation” movement

Exasperated, I turned around, said nothing since that would have been likewise disruptive, but gave that universal palms-up symbol for, “Will you please shut up?”

The Wife and I saw Les Miserables at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady a couple of months ago, and it was as marvelous as the reviews in the Times Union and Metroland suggested. I had never seen any stage production of Les Miz before. Though I didn’t love the movie adaptation, we were both glad to have seen it so we would better understand the plot.

Here’s what I didn’t like: During that last, very stirring, song, six or eight people got up and left, which I found really distracting, especially since they were seated near the front and in the middle section. If they were so worried about getting home, they should have left at intermission to beat the crowds. I’d never seen that particular behavior before.

It wasn’t the only annoying activity during the performance. Someone, two or three seats from us kept turning on his mobile device. I don’t know if he was texting or just checking the time; no one of his generation seems to know what a watch is. I’ve seen similar behavior at the movie theaters, even the tony Spectrum Theatre in Albany. Even someone using their device on the opposite aisle and two rows up I will notice because the illumination distracts me from the film.

At the end of Billy Elliot at Proctors in June, the lead leaves the stage via an aisle on the theater. When he makes his return, he’s literally bumping into folks getting ready to leave. (I was so annoyed.)

Some folks at the Albany Symphony Orchestra at least wait for the final note before they rush off. Likewise, moviegoers depart when the credits come up, even when a bit of the movie is still going on, such as in Hope Springs and Bernie.

I was at a conference at the end of April, and two guys were talking through the introduction of the speaker, and even when the speaker began. Exasperated, I turned around, said nothing since that would have been likewise disruptive, but gave that universal palms-up symbol for, “Will you please shut up?”

Apparently, even Broadway audiences are not immune to bad behavior.

The slow food movement>was designed so that people could ENJOY eating more, by eschewing fast food, processed products cooked in the microwave, and the like. Not only is it healthier, but it’s also more enjoyable to be part of the process.

In a similar mode, I’m suggesting a “slow audience response” movement. Please stop talking when the speaker/movie/concert starts, and wait for the event to actually end before fumbling with your keys. You may actually enjoy it better if you are “present” at the event, rather than treating it as one more thing to check off the to-do list. I KNOW your fellow audience members will appreciate it.
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The Muppets of Sesame Street tell you how to watch a movie…

 

June Rambling: an atheist’s prayers, and stillness of the soul

101 Ways to Say “Died” that appeared in early American epitaphs

Useful phrases for the surveillance state.

Long-lost diary of Nazi racial theorist and Hitler confidant recovered.

George Takei remembers the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, which included himself.

Why three states dumped major private prison company in one month. I’ve long been suspicious of private prisons with them “extracting guarantees of 100 percent occupancy.”

Cereal bigotry, Arthur’s response to the Cheerios ad controversy.

SamuraiFrog feels this is the most eloquent and exact statement about fat-shaming ever. And Lefty’s wanting to shake his disease.

Gay Men, Male Privilege, Women, And Consent.

In the literally OMG category: Christian Domestic Discipline… is a movement that seeks to carry out God’s will. “Which specific plan of God’s? Oh, you know, just that all women obey their husbands fastidiously — a dynamic that CDD thinks is best maintained through doling out corporal punishments.”

An atheist’s prayers.

Awkwardneϟϟ, Ken Jennings at his son’s elementary school for the annual “Festival of the Famous.”

Astronomy Picture of the Day: June 18 – A Supercell Thunderstorm Over Texas.

Steve Bissette Working On A Book About Alan Moore, Asks People To Publish His 1963 Stories Online For Free.

Meryl expands on the New York Times Magazine, “Who Made That?” article.

American and British pronunciation of Spanish (loan) words.

How Bugs Bunny saved Mel Blanc’s life.

Shooting Parrots likes to write about roguish folks you’ve never heard of – I’VE never heard of – such as Eugène François Vidocq and Ignáz Trebitsch-Lincoln. Interesting stuff.

To Parents of Small Children: Let Me Be the One Who Says It Out Loud.

Mark Evanier on the wealthy Zukors, the sweet but terrified Stearns, and his compassionate father, who worked for the IRS, part 1 and part 2.

My buddy and former neighbor Diana’s Lean In story.

Melanie: harp lessons, Italian rain, and traveling the world from home. Also, how stillness is a quality of the soul.

I wrote Love and cheating, and what I don’t understand.

Little by little things are disappearing from my house.

According to IMDB, Richard Matheson wrote 16 episodes of the TV show Twilight Zone, which included the “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” segment that was also used in the Twilight Zone movie.

101 Ways to Say “Died” that appeared in early American epitaphs.
to me

There’s a great new documentary out called 20 FEET FROM STARDOM. The movie is about backup singers – those incredibly talented musicians who you rarely hear about but are on all your favorite records. Coming to the Spectrum in Albany on July 5 – I WILL see it.

How a maudlin song became a children’s classic.

Great Coverville podcast honoring Cyndi Lauper, who won a Tony AND turned 60 this month; oh, I might have suggested it. Dustbury celebrates as well.

I’ve been ear wormed by Our State Fair, the opening song from the 1962 film ‘State Fair’, not a great movie, but the first non-kiddie film I ever saw.

In honor of summer, a visual representation of The Rite of Spring.

Tom Lehrer singing about The Elements, then and THEN.

K-Chuck radio: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and cover songs and songs about Superman.

And speaking of the guy from Krypton: Superman was promoted at the 1940 New York World’s Fair. But who played him? It is a mystery! Also, Original ‘Superman’ Co-Star Interrupts ‘Man of Steel’ Conversation in Movie Theater Restroom.

Get Up, Stand Up

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” – Robert Frost.

There was an education rally in downtown Albany on June 8. My wife, who’s not prone to activities such as mass demonstrations, attended; so did her mother, and her brother and sister-in-law, which she didn’t know about until she ran into her brother quite by accident. New York in particular was one of two states that has opted to mandate these idiotic standardized tests for its students even sooner than the rest of the country. This despite the fact that the teachers, by and large, hadn’t been trained in it. I’ve said this before: the tests were a waste my daughter’s education time. (Here’s a defense of education spending.)

I get notices for rallies of one type or another, many of which I agree with philosophically, but if I attended them all, that would be all I do full time. Maybe if I ever work downtown again, or retire (as if)…

When I was younger, I went to countless events for civil rights and against the Vietnam war. No single event may have made a difference, but one felt that the collective effect of these actions might have had an impact.

The demonstrations against the Iraq war, in which I participate, obviously had no effect in preventing it. The Occupy movement, which I didn’t much involve myself with, may have had a longer-term impact than its critics have suggested; among other things, it’s gotten the term “the 1%” in the conversation. Whether that will lead to economic reform, though, is still an open question.

Maybe what we need right now is some mass demonstration against the massive government overreach that are these two sweeping U.S. surveillance programs of our phones and e-mail, in the US and abroad, just to make sure President Obama is quite clear that we don’t his benign analysis of our government’s intrusion. Theoretically, something could change; socialist Bernie Sanders and the Tea Party’s Rand Paul seem to be on the same side of the issue. (This is at least the second time this year I’ve agreed with Paul; the last time was on drones.) I certainly support the ACLU lawsuit against the Obama Administration Over NSA ‘Dragnet’ Surveillance.

Do you know who is gutsy? Rev. Stephen Heiss, a United Methodist minister in Binghamton, NY, my hometown, wrote a letter to his bishop admitting to actions that may cost him his job: “In the last few years I have officiated at several weddings for brothers and sisters who are lesbian or gay. One of those weddings—the highlight of my ministry—was for my own daughter and the woman who is now her wife. They are so happy!”

But these are BIG concerns. When I first started writing this, it was inspired by a much smaller issue in the grand scheme of things, an unreasonable, bullying landlord who [UPDATE – initially seemed to have relented, but the fight goes on.]

Whether the issue is international in scale or merely a neighborhood concern, this quote does seem appropriate: “Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” – Robert Frost. Now that’s WAY easier said than done, but it is something to aim for.

LISTEN to Get Up, Stand Up by Bob Marley, as relevant now as it was 40 years ago.

V is for Vanessa L. Williams

The discussion from some nattering nabobs of negativism, though, was that she won only because she was a light-skinned, green-eyed black woman.

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then “our ideal,” as Bert Parks used to sing at the Miss America pageant, the event about which he crooned, was, let’s say, limited in hue. In fact, until the early 1970s, “non-white women were barred from competing, a restriction that was codified in the pageant’s ‘Rule number seven’, which stated that ‘contestants must be of good health and of the white race.'”

Some of the more prominent winners were Bess Myerson (NY-1945, the only Jewish winner), Lee Meriwether (CA-1955), Mary Ann Mobley (MS-1959), and Phyllis George (TX-1971).

The result of this overt racism was the institution of the Miss Black America pageant in 1968.

Then in 1984, the first black Miss America, Vanessa Williams of New York was crowned. The discussion from some nattering nabobs of negativism, though, was that she won only because she was a light-skinned, green-eyed black woman, that she was not “black enough.” Then the terrible news that she was compelled to resign because of some pictures she had taken a few years earlier had found their way into Penthouse magazine. The mortification among many black people I spoke with at the time was quite great. Interestingly, the last seven weeks of that term were completed by Suzette Charles of New Jersey, yet another black woman.

One might have thought that the scandal would have snuffed out the career of Vanessa Lynn Williams before it started; it did not. She has reached stardom as both as a singer (her debut album in 1988 was The Right Stuff) and actress (Into the Woods, on Broadway; Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives, on TV), thus earning her “multiple Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award nominations. She is arguably the most successful Miss America winner in the field of entertainment.”

My favorite song of hers – yes, it’s out of season – is What Child Is This [LISTEN].

ABC Wednesday – Round 12

Ramblin' with Roger
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