Artists You Wish People Could See for What They Are, Not for What Most of Their Fans Wish They Could Be

 Posted by
Apr 062010
 


I’m excited to see the new documentary on The Doors, When You’re Strange, which is playing for free in Philadelphia this Friday night, April 9. My excitement is for a range of reasons, from the fact that it’s directed by Tom DiCillo, who’s first three movies (Living in Oblivion, Box of Moonlight, Johnny Suede) were indie joys for me in the ’90s, to the fact that I like my share of Doors music as well as get a great deal of laughs out of the band’s pretensions and their even more incredibly pretentious diehard fans. I’m sure this film’s narrator, Johnny Depp, for instance, is going to match Ray Manzarek for jive-ass references to “shamen” and other mystical “native” nonsense that no white man who’s not a professor of anthropology should be caught dead talking about.

I’m suspect this film will only perpetrate the mythology around The Doors and Jim Morrison, but I wish more people could see The Door for what they really were, not for what most of their fans wish they could be. For instance:

  • The Doors were a solid psych-pop group with tight production, not groundbreaking avant-garde visionaries!
  • The Doors were a tough, little blues-rock combo, not the house band for the Weimar Republic.
  • Jim Morrison’s lyrics were usually pretty funny and only worked in the context of his committed approach to desiring transcendence within the confines of his solid, little psych-pop/blues-rock combo. He was no American Poet!
  • Jim Morrison’s not alive; he’s dead.

I’m not trying to degrade the work of The Doors. There’s so much to like over the course of their brief career that reasonable rock ‘n roll fans can’t be bothered to hear for what it is for the risk of letting any of the wacko cult-worshipping leak into their lives. I’m trying to uncover the true and meaningful legacy of The Doors. For those Doors fans who use the band as a means for compensating for their empty spiritual lives, get a practicing shaman to guide you!

Is there an artist you wish people could see for what they are, not for what most of their fans wish they could be?

Share

Bullshit On: Crazy Heart

 Posted by
Mar 222010
 

I finally got around to seeing Crazy Heart, and oh my! Despite a Herculean effort by Jeff Bridges to overcome the soap operatic acting talents of Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart was about the most pointless movie I’ve seen in a long time. Well, in not too long a time: that Sherlock Holmes movie I saw with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law a couple of months ago really made me question my existence for the 2 hours it ran.

The music scenes in Crazy Heart were good. Bridges actually played and interacted with his fellow musicians in a way that felt real and insightful. The songs helped tell what little story there was to tell. No beefs there!

Bridges was truly fine, but Oscar-winning performance fine? What did he do that the multi-untalented Kris Kristofferson didn’t do in A Star Is Born, for crying out loud? But I’m not here to knock Bridges. The work he did to keep this flat, overtold movie remotely watchable deserved an Oscar. And the Kristofferson comparison was uncalled for. Sorry, I get too much pleasure thinking about a scene from that film with Kristofferson’s character wasted and playing an out-of-tune guitar while seated on a couch.

QUESTION: Why wasn’t the Robert Duvall-produced Crazy Heart simply promoted as a prequel to Tender Mercies, the extraordinary tale of a recovering alcoholic, washed-up country singer trying to make it with a younger, farm-fresh woman and her little boy?

ANSWER after the jump!
Continue reading »

Share

Rock Town Hall Celebrates the Oscars: Best Portrayal of a Musician (Including Actual Musical Performances) by a Non-Musician Actor

 Posted by
Mar 052010
 

Disqualified!

Until the moment I put the finishing touches on this post I had no idea that actor Jeff Bridges had recorded an album of music. He seems to be a shoo-in to win the Oscar for Best Actor this Sunday night, but as a result of having released an album of his musical performances other than whatever he performs in his recent film, Crazy Heart, he is disqualified from this Battle Royale.

Specifically I’m asking that we determine the best portrayal of a musician (including actual musical performances) by a typically non-musician actor.

The actor needs to be portraying a musician; he or she cannot simply break out into song as a teenage greaser in a musical set at Rydell High. Beside, John Travolta, like Jeff Bridges, would also be disqualified for having released his own albums.

John Travolta, “Razzamatazz”

John Travolta, “Easy Evil”

Furthermore the actor needs to actually perform music in the film. Despite having seen the film about a half dozen times, I’m not sure if I know whether Justine Bateman or Julia Roberts actually played and/or sang in Satisfaction. Please research this issue before nominating either one of them. Same goes for Mary Stuart Masterson in Some Kind of Wonderful and countless other actors who were so convincing that it’s hard to tell if they could really play.

A few more contenders before I ask you to put on your thinking caps and hash this out…
Continue reading »

Share

What Movie (chock full o’ tunes) Comes Closest to Your High School Experience?

 Posted by
Mar 052010
 

As Rock Town Hall gears up for this Sunday’s Oscars extravaganza, I thought we’d take some time to revisit some past movie-related threads. Perhaps when this post first ran Townsman sammymaudlin‘s selection of Fast Times at Ridgemont High was so spot-on for most of us that there was not much to discuss. Perhaps there weren’t enough representative movies. Perhaps Townspeople were tired that day. Perhaps YOU weren’t logged in that day. Now you are, so see if this thread has any legs the second time around.

By the way, if you click on the tag at the bottom of this post that reads “rock movies,” you’ll be transported to a number of movie-related posts we’ve run. The actual Oscars can get boring at times, so these may be a good way to pass the time during the Sound Editing in a Foreign Animated Short Documentary award category, for instance.

This post initially appeared 8/2/08.

O4pc1WghH_0]

For as big a fan as I was (am) of the movie, I don’t remember a single thing about this TV series. Maybe because…

eq-EijvoMlQ]

As much as I’d like to say that Dazed & Confused (essentially American Graffiti set in the 70’s) was like my high school years, and my freshman year was close, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, soundtrack and all, was, for better and worse, pretty damn close.

I graduated high school in ’82, same year the movie came out. The soundtrack was so, so, so what was on the Phoenix radio stations then: Jackson Brown, (Henley, Walsh and Felder all have solo tracks), Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Poco, Billy Squier, Sammy Hagar, Jimmy Buffet, Quaterflash, The Go-Go’s The Cars… In hindsight the tuness play like a soundtrack to the death of 70’s radio rock and the birth of the 80s.

What say you?

Share

Spinal Tap Targets/Influences

 Posted by
Feb 252010
 

While reviewing that Kinks video from 1979, I got to thinking that Spinal Tap keyboard player Viv Savage could have fit in easily with that version of the band. But who is the actual inspiration for Viv? And who are the specific influeces for the Tap. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Jeff Beck is the visual inspiration for Nigel.

Rick Parfitt from Status Quo is the model for David St. Hubbins.

The Stonehenge prop is apparently based on a Black Sabbath stage prop that was so big that it wouldn’t fit into some theaters that they were playing.

Obviously bowing the guitar with a violin is an homage to Jimmy Page.

And I’ve seen a Def Leppard video in which the band members are shaking their satin-clad asses in the camera exactly like the Tap does during the live performance of “Big Bottom.”

What else am I missing? The more specific the example, the better (eg, choking on vomit is too frequent an occurrence to be linked to one incident).

Share

Dugout Chatter: It Might Get Loud Edition

 Posted by
Feb 182010
 

I just saw It Might Get Loud, the documentary featuring Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White discussing their musical influences, approach to, and general love of the guitar.

The only Jack White-related product that I own is the Loretta Lynne album and the only U2 album I have is the live album from the early ’80s (and it’s not mine so I’m not sure how it ended up in mixed in with my records). But even though I have only a casual interest in most of their music, I liked the movie and I found all three guys to be fairly engaging, although Jack White comes off as a bit affected. The Edge, on the other hand, seems like he’s in the running for “nicest, most down to earth mega star.” Anyway, some questions came to mind:

1. How would you rank these guys in order of your personal preference?

2. How would you rank these guys in order of their influence?

3. If you could replace one with another guitar player, who would it be (keeping in mind that your new guy must be in a high-profile band, must have a distinct style, and that style must be different from the other two remaining guys).

4. Is there any artist that you dislike so much that you won’t watch a documentary about them?

5. Will you watch the upcoming Doors documentary narrated by Johnny Depp? If so, will you mute/fast forward through the Ray Manzarek parts?

6. Does anyone have any idea how I ended up with that U2 album and several copies of Back in Black in my album collection and somehow managed to lose most of my Who and Led Zeppelin albums? I suspect that alcohol may have played a role.

Share
 Older Entries  Newer Entries

Lost Password?

 
twitter facebook youtube