I have to say that I’m partial to a song with a rich history. It makes me wonder how it survives for years and years. It takes on its own life in some way. Such is the case with a song sometimes called “the Cajun national anthem.” One confusing thing about this song is the title and the spelling can vary. One of the more rocking versions of “Jole Blon” is a duet with Bruce Springsteen and Gary “U.S.” Bonds.
There are some live concert clips of these two performing it as well. Another more traditional sounding version was recorded by Stanley Dural Jr. — better known as Buckwheat Zydeco. His version was called “Buck’s Nouvelle Jole Blone.”
Appropriately, this BZ version was on “The Big Easy” soundtrack. Louisiana has produced some great music and musicians… and Buckwheat Zydeco is one of the ones I put near the top of the list. Apparently, an artist named George Rodrigue painted his interpretation of Jole Blon (Pretty Blonde) and it used to hang in Jolie’s Louisiana Bistro. I Googled the Lafayette, LA eatery, but it looks like it’s closed. I assume Jole Blon was like the Helen of Troy in the bayou.
As I mentioned, there are many more versions of this song — some in French, some in English — including some other big name country stars and rockers. I may post some of those in the near future.
If I had to describe the 1983 film “Bad Boys”, violent would have to be the first word that pops to mind. The story centers around a shaggy redheaded teenager named Mick O’Brien (Sean Penn). O’Brien lives in a tough Chicago neighborhood and has to deal with Paco Moreno (Esai Morales), who sees himself as a rival for the affection of O’Brien’s girlfriend J.C. (Ally Sheedy).
Both O’Brien and Moreno are involved in street crime and have the juvenile rap sheets to prove it. As the story unfolds, O’Brien gets arrested again and sent to live in a juvenile correctional facility. During the violent scene where this happens, viewers get to hear a snippet of “In the Dark” by Billy Squier which seems appropriate.
From a cultural standpoint, I don’t think of it as an “eighties” film, but it still sort of is. The presence of Ally Sheedy alone seems to say that. Not only that, but the image of the character named Viking’s (Clancy Brown’s) big hair and boombox tend to date it as well. I read there’s a cameo with Jamie Lee Curtis, but I didn’t see her.
As I mentioned, it’s a violent prison movie. I think the main themes include not only machismo, but also rivalry and survival. One memorable character in the film is Penn’s cellmate Horowitz (Eric Gurry), who is a sort of a wise-ass who overcomes his small stature by dabbling in homemade explosives. I remember a couple of older guys talking about another scene in the film before I had watched it. (It involved the odd, but effective improvised weapon of soda pop cans in a pillowcase. Insert your own Michelle Obama joke here?)
Writing credits for the film go to Richard De Lello. It was directed by Rick Rosenthal. I think a remake of the film could be interesting, but outshining this one of a kind 1983 effort would be tough.
Bob Dylan is an interesting dude. Like all musicians with mainstream success, he has had his various periods or phases. First, he became the king of folk and protest by basically “going Guthrie.” (I just made that up.) Then he abandoned the acoustic thing and “went electric”. By the way, was the electric thing just to piss off everybody….because I think it worked. In December of 1967, he released an album which I’ve seen described as everything from semi-acoustic to agrarian-themed. I think I was first exposed to the song “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” via the Concert for Bangladesh, but it was originally released on the album “John Wesley Harding.”
I’ve always liked this song. It’s basically a twangy country waltz. Big surprise, it was recorded in Nashville! I really like the bridge or middle section’s lyrics — especially, the vocal phrasing on the last line “We’re gonna let it – you won’t regret it, Kick your shoes off”, etc.
From what I can tell, the song has been covered well over a hundred times. If you were going to pick two of the least likely singers to record this twangy Dylan tune, would you ever have guessed a duet with Ian Gillan (Deep Purple) and Joe Elliott (Def Leppard)?
The album Gillan’s Inn was released in 2006. To my ears, this version is a little less twangy and a little more Tex-Mex, but I have to say I like it. I don’t remember it, but apparently there was a version of this song on the Cocktail Motion Picture Soundtrack which featured Robert Palmer and UB40. How Very Eighties!
There are plenty of country-ish versions you can hear like Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Norah Jones, and even John Hammond, Jr. The Hollies also have a unique take on it.
I had some bizarre dreams last night….It might help to know that I consumed some spicy chicken and Mike’s Harder Lemonade before bed. I should also preface this by saying my TV streaming has been problematic lately. It could be the connection to my internet or the actual Roku TV I’ve had for several years. In any event, I haven’t done my usual excessive amount of watching movies lately.
Having said all of that, I think my lack of viewing led me to create my own movie of sorts while I slept last night. For whatever reason, actor Ed Burnswas the protagonist. (You might remember him from “She’s the One” or as Reiben in “Saving Private Ryan.”) In the dream, Burns played some sort of high school athlete. I’m guessing football or basketball. The first scene I remember is Burns was riding shotgun in his girlfriend’s car when her ex started maniacally following them in a brown parcel delivery truck. The countryside was hilly so it made it harder to keep tabs on this dude.
In another scene, Burns was in an older style record store. He had his back to the camera and I recognized the album cover to the Beatles-in-Hamburg-film “Backbeat” in the shot. Pretty random, huh? I’m taking the liberty of re-writing the scene to include some music in it because I think Burns was actually doing some sort of lame white guy rap in it.
There were also some scenes where he was getting into these reluctant confrontations with rival athletes, etc. I think there was another where his father was kicking him out of the family home for some reason because his various pennants were being boxed up for removal. I think Burns’ neighborhood and school district were economically challenged because there was another scene about so-and-so’s brother going pro in football, which seemed to be a big deal.
Now that I’ve had a little time to think about this film dream, it seemed like it had an 80s feel to it — something which might normally have starred Matthew Modine or John Cusack. However, “Backbeat” wasn’t released until 1994. I don’t think there was any conscious time travel involved.
As for any meaning in all of this…your guess is as good as mine. Freud probably couldn’t fix it with a ten foot couch. There was a really funny scene in “She’s the One” where Burns ‘ father referees an extremely short boxing match between him and his brother. That might have been a factor. If I ever get to the bottom of my streaming, maybe I’ll watch it again.
I have to give some credit to filmmaker Martin Scorsese. His documentary “The Last Waltz” really opened my eyes (and ears) to the music of The Band. The film featured interviews and the group’s last concert along with some big name guest musicians like Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, and Neil Young to name a few.
One criticism I’ve read of the film is guitarist Robbie Robertson is in almost every scene. Despite this, I have always liked the Robertson-penned song “It Makes No Difference”, which was sung by bassist Rick Danko.
Obviously, The Band had some great harmonies on this tune and many others. I’ve also read that Robertson might have received more than his fair share of the songwriting credits on Band songs in general. Who knows?
One thing I only recently discovered is singer Solomon Burke did his R & B take on the same song.
Some great harmony in his version as well. Lyrically, I think the first line of the song is a memorable one:
I think I will always prefer the Last Waltz version, but maybe that’s because it’s what I’m used to hearing. There are some other versions out there by My Morning Jacket and an acoustic one by a group called The Shaken Bakers.
I suppose the alternate title to this blog entry would be Old Flames and Burning Souls, but that sounds a little too fire and brimstone for me.
We all have our favorite flavors of this and that…breakfast cereals, ice cream, chewing gum, and even alcoholic beverages. I don’t know where and when it happened, but it’s a bit overwhelming when you get down to it. During my college years, it seems like your primary beer choices were something like Bud, Busch, Bud Light, and Coors Light. (Busch Light was an innovation then. For some reason, it didn’t seem like plain old Coors was on the radar.) In any event, things have definitely changed.
A few years ago, I had a part-time job working at the local stadium where our Major League Soccer Team plays. I worked in the warehouse and we had a room full of liquor which was kept under lock and key. One time I was sent to get a bottle of Vodka. I had an epiphany when I saw shelves full of different brands like Smirnoff, Svedka, Absolut, and Tito’s. It’s not so much that the choice of BRANDS was overwhelming, but they each had AT LEAST A DOZEN FLAVORED CHOICES: orange, strawberry, watermelon, raspberry, green apple, peppermint, peach, pineapple, whipped cream, caramel, cherry, and blueberry. The only appropriate tribute song I can think of is “Tutti Frutti” by Little Richard.
By the way, Smirnoff has a “Blue Raspberry Lemonade” flavor. I’m not kidding. Who exactly thought of that? I’ve never tried it, but it just seems a little too specific to me. Was it a scientist locked in a secret underground Eastern European laboratory….was it the CEO’s daughter-in-law…or an overpaid marketing moron? Also, what exactly is “citrus” flavor versus orange, lemon-lime, or pineapple? Shouldn’t lemon and lime be offered as separate flavors just in case the options aren’t diverse enough as is? If you’d rather avoid the whole tropical citrus thing, you might sleep better tonight knowing there is “Hard Truth Cinnamon Vodka.” Sounds like a good excuse to play Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s “Cinnamon Girl.”
Again, I’ve never tried it, but it’s out there. There’s also an Australian company called Newy Distillery which sells a Banana Vodka. I didn’t know Australia was known for its bananas, but maybe kangaroos carry them around — you know, their joeys leave the pouch and then they’re in the mood to drink, right? Or maybe they just do an Uber kind of thing with wayward chimpanzees? In addition, I didn’t know Australia was known for chimps. I don’t really even seek out Vodka as a drink, but I actually have some Burnett’s Vanilla Vodka. How did this happen?
Shifting from Vodka to beer, when did “Summer Shandy” become a thing? I’d love to put a couple of current 21-year-olds in a time machine and send them to a 1980s college party. I think they’d be in for some puzzled looks when they request any drink with tapioca in it.
I’m sure I’ve already written a few things about The Doors, but this will be a bit more. While it’s true the name of this blog is derived from Jim Morrison’s personally invented pseudonym, they aren’t my favorite band of all time or my least favorite. I’ve found many people either or love or hate them. Personally, I like to ease into the day with some of their mellower songs. While I wouldn’t put this song into the mellow category, I recently found myself listening to their self-titled first album including the track “Soul Kitchen.”
Ray Manzarek’s keyboard is a big part of the song’s sound, but it has a great funky groove to it as a whole. I was surprised to find a cover version by former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth on 2003’s “Diamond Dave” album.
It’s a pretty true to the original arrangement with Roth’s great one liner around the 3:00 minute mark. If you’d like to hear a different take on “Soul Kitchen” there’s always the instrumental version by Buddy Rich Big Band.
It’s interesting to hear this instrumental because Morrison’s lyrics are always such a big part of Doors’ song. Appropriately, it was recorded live at the Whiskey a Go Go.
Then there’s the high octane cover by L.A. punk band X.
Apparently their version was produced by Ray Manzarek. The original songwriting credits are shared by all 4 of The Doors: Morrison, Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore. I could get into the whole inspiration for the song, but I must have learned to forget that part.
Do you remember the 1992 film “Scent of a Woman” with Al Pacino? It was the film where he played a retired military dude who happened to be blind and said, “Hoo Ahh!” about 99 times throughout the film. One thing I noticed the first time I saw this film was a brief scene where Pacino’s character is listening to the radio. The song which was playing in the background was “Evangeline” by The Band and Emmylou Harris. I first encountered this song while watching The Band’s farewell concert film called “The Last Waltz.”
It’s a fairly simple country song with some great harmony vocals from Harris and The Band, but I always wondered why “Scent of a Woman” director Martin Brest chose this particular song? Is he a Band superfan? Does he think Pacino’s character would have liked the song? I’ve always wondered about it. Stuff like that bugs me. Maybe I should try to track down Brest and ask him.
As for the song, I wondered about the origin of it as well. If I remember correctly, I was writing a paper in college and found out these reference books called Contemporary Literary Criticism actually had some reviews of music in them, too. That’s where I discovered the inspiration for the song was a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called “Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie.”
I’m not going to pretend to understand the poem, but, from what I’ve read it’s about the Acadians being driven from their French colony in the Maritime provinces of Canadaby the British. Longfellow’s poem and The Band’s song (credited to Robbie Robertson) are both told from the perspective of a young woman named Evangeline who is looking for her long lost love. It sounds like a pretty heavy concept, but I think the song’s story line is easy enough to understand.
In any event, this film-song-poem combo has been on my list for quite some time. Hopefully, you enjoyed it.
You have probably heard of O.M.D. — Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, O.P.P. — “Other People’s Posse”, but O.W.B. is my own abbreviation for a song called “Outside Woman Blues.” The first time I remember hearing this one was on a show about the making of Cream’s psychedelic album “Disraeli Gears.” While not an original, Eric Clapton arranged the song and also sang the lead vocal. It also appeared on the Cream B.B.C. Sessions as well.
It’s got a catchy guitar riff in it, some thought provoking lyrics…then there’s also the musicianship of Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce, too. I like the rhythm or groove to this one. I didn’t know this until today, but the band Atlanta Rhythm Section also has a good version of this one, too.
I hear some tasty blues guitar leads in their version, too. In case you’re wondering, the song was originally written and recorded by a guy named Blind Joe Reynolds. Apparently, he lost his eyesight as a result of a shotgun blast. That makes me wonder if the lyric about “buying a bulldog to watch his old lady whilst he sleeps” was written before or after said incident.
It’s strange how certain songs can evoke specific memories many years after the fact. I can’t recall where I was when I first heard David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, but it was probably on my local classic rock station. That’s the “Ground control to Major Tom” song. A few years later, MTV exposed me to Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom (Coming Home)” around 1983 or 84.
I re-watched the video today and didn’t remember a whole lot about it, but I enjoyed seeing the boat-sized Chevy Monte Carlo in it. One of my neighbors had one and I always loved the look of it. However, that’s not actually the specific memory I associate with the song.
During 8th grade English class, we were reviewing proper nouns and we had to name an astronaut. Naturally, 99% of everyone wrote down Neil Armstrong — he’s sort of the astronaut archetype. (You know, “Hockey is to Wayne Gretzky as space travel is to _____ _______.” ) I had the idea to list “Major Tom” instead and one of my buddies and I had a good laugh about it. To make things more memorable, the English teacher had to verify this was a specific astronaut so I got credit for that one. Score!
I hadn’t heard it before today, but a guy named Jonathan King released a combo of the two songs in 1984. Apparently, it charted in the United Kingdom.
Getting back to the Peter Schilling video, it seems obvious to me now that he wasn’t an American. However, the 8th grade version of me didn’t seem to know or care. The sound of the song is very “Euro.” If you don’t agree, then listen to the German version of it.
The official title of the German version is Major Tom [völlig losgelöst], ‘Major Tom [completely detached’. That sounds more dramatic than just “Major Tom”, but that’s life.
Mojo Horizon 