In my Fred Eaglesmith post on Saturday, two comments caught my attention. One was Keith telling me when he was a DJ they would play car songs at certain times. Then Obbverse mentioned… that would be a good post for someone…and indeed he was right.
When I was a teenager…a car wasn’t just a car…it was freedom. It was a key to an adult world we wanted eagerly to jump into. Ok…I’ll have songs with either the word “car” in them or with a model of a car in the title only. If not I would have 80 percent of Springsteen songs…not a bad thing at all but I will play by those rules.
Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz
Let’s start with Janis Joplin. This is based on a song called C’mon, God, and buy me a Mercedes Benz by the Los Angeles beat poet Michael McClure. Joplin saw McClure perform it, and on August 8, 1970, she reworked it into her own song, which she performed about an hour later.
There are three credited songwriters on this track: Joplin, Michael McClure, and Bob Neuwirth. McClure says he never earned a cent from his poetry, but “Mercedes Benz” paid for his house in the Butters Canyon section of Oakland, California.
Janis Joplin never got a Mercedes Benz, but she did have a 1965 Porsche that was painted to become a piece of hippie art.
Wilco – Bull Black Nova
Many thanks to Obbverse for recommending this one. This song is a dark one…very dark. It’s somewhat cryptic and open to interpretation but one thing it does show… guilt, betrayal, and the consequences of one’s actions…and the narrator possibly killing his girlfriend. This song was released in 2009 on the album Wilco (The Album). The song was written by Wilco… Glenn Kotchie, Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Mikael Jorgensen, Nels Cline, and Pat Sansone.
If I am the one, blood on the sofa Blood in the sink, blood in the trunk High at the wheel of a bull black Nova And I’m sorry as a setting sun This can’t be undone, can’t be outrun
Bruce Springsteen – Cadillac Ranch
I could probably do a post just on Cadillac songs.
This song is a great little rocker off of The River. This is one of many early Springsteen songs featuring cars. Some others were “Thunder Road,” “Backstreets,” and “Racing In The Street.” Bruce used the Cadillac image again in 1984 on “Pink Cadillac.”
Springsteen used Cadillac Ranch as a metaphor for the coming of death.
There is a real Cadillac Ranch.
In 1974 along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3’s fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt
T Rex – Jeepster
This song was on the 1972 album Electric Warrior. The music was supposedly based off of the Willie Dixon song You’ll Be Mine.
Jeepster was recorded live in the studio. The recording happened entirely organically and was not overdubbed. Marc Bolan, amid a performance, jumped up and down as he played his guitar, shaking the microphone stands. The sound of those stands was kept in the song. Producer Tony Visconti saw them as important features of the overall mood of the track and chose to include them.
K.C. Douglas-Mercury Blues
Mercury Blues was written by the Blues musicians K.C. Douglas and Robert Geddins in 1949. It was originally titled “Mercury Boogie.” The song was made famous 44 years later by Alan Jackson, whose 1993 cover peaked at #2 on the Billboard Country charts. The song has also been covered by Steve Miller, David Lindley, and Meat Loaf.
Dave has asked us…The magic that is Christmas is that you can invite any musician (or person from the music world) to be your guest. Even if they’ve passed away, they can be at your table for a meal and a few stories. So, who would you invite? And any little musical gift you hope they might possibly come with?
Well, I’m cheating a bit…my Christmas guest left the earth in 1964 and yes, he was a musician…just not a rock musician. He played the harp and played it quite well…his nickname even contained that name…Harpo Marx. But Max…why not a rock musician? If I had to pick a rock musician, it would be one of two people. John Lennon or Keith Moon. I would say Lennon would be my number one choice but I wanted to go a different route.
Why am I picking Harpo? He hung out with the top artists, writers, musicians, and athletes of his time. He was always at peace with himself. He has said he never had a bad night’s sleep. The guy was close to what you see on screen. He had so many stories about his life that just those would keep you entertained. There are more reasons…but here are some of the things he did.
The man was born in 1888 and grew up in New York. He didn’t graduate from high school…no, he jumped out the window of his second-grade classroom and never went back to his teacher Miss Flatto. Did the lack of education stop him in life? No, not at all as you will see.
In 1909 his mother Minnie roped him into appearing on stage with his brothers in a singing play. He was dressed in a duck suit and promptly peed in his pants. “Coney Island, New York. Made my debut at Henderson’s and peed in my pants. I felt shamed and disgraced, but Minnie wouldn’t let me quit the act on any such flimsy pretext. She hung my trousers out to dry in the sea breeze between shows. By the second show, I was much less scared, so enthusiastic in fact that everybody was afraid I might sing. But I didn’t. I just opened my mouth when Groucho did.”
The brothers hit the vaudeville circuit and any rock stars who say their beginning was rough…they don’t know what rough is. The Brothers would stay in boarding houses when possible but sometimes slept in the park. They ate food that was infested with bugs and people treated them terribly because show people were frowned upon at that time. They were in Vaudeville from 1909 to 1924. That was a lot of hard living and the brothers were in their mid-thirties before they hit Broadway.
The review that would change Harpo’s life came in 1924 in their first play (I’ll Say She Is) to make Broadway. The review was written by the author Alexander Woollcott. He wrote glowingly about all the brothers, but Harpo is the one he singled out. Woollcott met Harpo backstage and soon introduced Harpo to some of the most sophisticated writers and artists of that time. Harpo soon became a member of the Algonquin Round Table. That was where witty and cutting remarks flowed like water. Groucho said it was like falling in a den of lions. Some of the regulars were Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Broun, Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, George S. Kaufman, Franklin P. Adams, Marc Connelly, Harold Ross, and Russell Crouse. Harpo has said that he was a professional listener. Despite only having a 2nd grade education he could hold his own and was a vivacious reader.
Kaufman would co-write 2 plays for the brothers, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. They were Broadway smashes and soon the brothers would be making movie versions of both. In 1929 they made The Cocoanuts movie in New York while acting in Animal Crackers on Broadway. They would make Animal Crackers next and then move to Hollywood. Their film career lasted from 1929 to 1949 with a movie called Love Happy with Marilyn Monroe. They made 13 in all.
Harpo was a happy bachelor until he met Susan Fleming in 1932 and they were married in 1936. He was very much like his character on the screen except he talked of course. He hung out with royalty, artists, and even toured Russia in 1933 and carried secret papers taped to his leg out of the country for America. He never found out what he risked is life for though. Some FBI agents got the papers as soon as he got to New York.
Harpo and Susan wanted children, so they adopted. Harpo had said he wanted a child in every window when he went to work. So, they adopted 4 kids and from all accounts…was one of the best dads you could possibly get. If he came home late, he would sometimes wake one of his children just to play games with them. None of his kids ever wrote books on how bad he was or ever said anything bad publicly. He did have a set of rules that he went by and had them pinned up. This is them and I had the same rules on our refrigerator when Bailey was small, although a few were altered because we had no pool table or harp.
Life has been created for you to enjoy, but you won’t enjoy it unless you pay for it with some good, hard work. This is one price that will never be marked down.
You can work at whatever you want to as long as you do it as well as you can and clean up afterwards and you’re at the table at mealtime and in bed at bedtime.
Respect what the others do. Respect Dad’s harp, Mom’s paints, Billy’s piano, Alex’s set of tools, Jimmy’s designs, and Minnie’s menagerie.
If anything makes you sore, come out with it. Maybe the rest of us are itching for a fight, too.
If anything strikes you as funny, out with that, too. Let’s all the rest of us have a laugh.
If you have an impulse to do something that you’re not sure is right, go ahead and do it. Take a chance. Chances are, if you don’t you’ll regret it – unless you break the rules about mealtime and bedtime, in which case you’ll sure as hell regret it.
If it’s a question of whether to do what’s fun or what is supposed to be good for you, and nobody is hurt whichever you do, always do what’s fun.
If things get too much for you and you feel the whole world’s against you, go stand on your head. If you can think of anything crazier to do, do it.
Don’t worry about what other people think. The only person in the world important enough to conform to is yourself.
Anybody who mistreats a pet or breaks a pool cue is docked a months pay.
Harpo played in some of the seediest joints you could imagine and had to endure a lot of antisemitism, but he was loved by all around him including children and animals.
His son Bill, who is a talented musician, released a book a few years ago. He said in 1964 that Harpo loved The Beatles when they first arrived. Bill was a professional piano player and he didn’t think The Beatles would last. Harpo told him that he better get used to them because they would be remembered in history because they were starting something new. Bill said six years later he was playing a gig and many of his songs were Beatle songs. He thought… “Dad was right again” while playing Let It Be.
Here is an intro that Harpo wrote to Harpo Speaks…I thought you would enjoy this…he gives a brief story of him.
I’ve played piano in a whorehouse. I’ve smuggled secret papers out of Russia. I’ve spent an evening on the divan with Peggy Hopkins Joyce. I’ve taught a gangster mob how to play Pinchie Winchie. I’ve played croquet with Herbert Bayard Swope while he kept Governor Al Smith waiting on the phone. I’ve gambled with Nick the Greek, sat on the floor with Greta Carbo, sparred with Benny Leonard, horsed around with the Prince of Wales, played Ping-pong with George Gershwin. George Bernard Shaw has asked me for advice. Oscar Levant has played private concerts for me at a buck a throw. I have golfed with Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. I’ve basked on the Riviera with Somerset Maugham and Elsa Maxwell. I’ve been thrown out of the casino at Monte Carlo. Flush with triumph at the poker table, I’ve challenged Alexander Woollcott to anagrams and Alice Duer Miller to a spelling match. I’ve given lessons to some of the world’s greatest musicians. I’ve been a member of the two most famous Round Tables since the days of King Arthur—sitting with the finest creative minds of the 1920s at the Algonquin in New York, and with Hollywood’s sharpest professional wits at the Hillcrest. (Later in the book, some of these activities don’t seem quite so impressive when I tell the full story. Like what I was doing on the divan with Peggy Hopkins Joyce. I was reading the funnies to her.) The truth is, I had no business doing any of these things. I couldn’t read a note of music. I never finished the second grade. But I was having too much fun to recognize myself as an ignorant upstart. I can’t remember ever having a bad meal. I’ve eaten in William Randolph Hearst’s baronial dining room at San Simeon, at Voisin’s and the Colony, and the finest restaurants in Paris. But the eating place I remember best, out of the days when I was chronically half starved, is a joint that was called Max’s Busy Bee. At the Busy Bee, a salmon sandwich on rye cost three cents per square foot, and for four cents more you could buy a strawberry shortcake smothered with whipped cream and a glass of lemonade. But the absolutely most delicious food I ever ate was prepared by the most inspired chef I ever knew—my father. My father had to be inspired because he had so little to work with. I can’t remember ever having a poor night’s sleep. I’ve slept in villas at Cannes and Antibes, at Alexander Woollcott’s island hideaway in Vermont, at the mansions of the Vanderbilts and Otto H. Kahn and in the Gloversville, New York, jail. I’ve slept on pool tables, dressing-room tables, piano tops, bathhouse benches, in rag baskets and harp cases, and four abreast in upper berths. I have known the supreme luxury of snoozing in the July sun, on the lawn, while the string of a flying kite tickled the bottom of my feet.
I can’t remember ever seeing a bad show. I’ve seen everything from Coney Island vaudeville to the Art Theatre in Moscow. If I’m trapped in a theatre and a show starts disappointingly, I have a handy way to avoid watching it. I fall asleep. My only addictions—and I’ve outgrown them all—have been to pocket billiards, croquet, poker, bridge and black jelly beans. I haven’t smoked for twenty years.
The only woman I’ve ever been in love with is still married to me.
My only Alcohol Problem is that I don’t particularly care for the stuff.
Who wouldn’t want to talk to this man? Thank you…and as far as a musical gift… I would love to hear Harpo play either the Harp, or piano, or just tell me Vaudeville stories!
The good thing about Star Trek being over is…I can start posting a couple of music things on Saturday and Sunday.
I grew up near Nashville so it did leave its imprint on me but I don’t listen to modern country music. I do include some songs that are more country/rock but they fit what I like. They are in no particular order…well my favorite admittedly is the top one.
Hope you enjoy the small sample platter of country songs.
This song is my favorite of the Flying Burrito Brothers. It came off their great album The Gilded Palace of Sin. It didn’t chart at the time. Parsons wrote this song with Burrito bass player Chris Ethridge while the band was living in their San Fernando Valley house that was dubbed “Burrito Manor.”
Merle Haggard was a constant on the radio here with my parents. He wrote so many classic songs and this is one of them…Mama Tried.
Merle Haggard wrote this song while serving time in San Quentin prison for robbery. The song is based on his life, and how his mother tried to help him but couldn’t… Mama Tried came out in 1968 and peaked at #1 on the Country Charts and #1 in the Canada Country Charts in 1968.
The man had 38 number-one hits, 71 top-ten hits, and 101 songs in the top 100 in the country charts. Merle is one of my favorite country artists. If only the new ones would listen and learn.
Hank Williams is one of my favorite country artists. He could write songs of great quality but the ironic thing is…this one is one of the few he didn’t write. His nickname…The Hillbilly Shakespeare is true to form. Hank Williams released this song in 1949 and it peaked at #12 on the Country Charts. It was written by Leon Payne.
Loretta Lynn is my favorite female country singer with apologies to Dolly Parton. This is a song that she did with Jack White called Portland Oregon. If the modern country was like this…I would listen. Their voices go really well with each other. Country radio would not play it but the album still peaked at #2 on the Country Charts and #24 on the Billboard Album Charts and #1 on the UK Country Charts in 2004.
They didn’t win any country music awards but came away with two Grammys.
I love the build-up to this song…Jack White builds this up and Loretta starts singing around 1:40.
Now to finish it out with 5 songs…I thought I would add Dwight Yoakam who was inspired by Buck Owen’s Bakersville Sound. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Country Charts and at #3 in Canada in 1993. It was written by Yoakam and produced by Pete Anderson.
The song was on Dwight’s album ThisTime. The album peaked at #4 in the Billboard Country Album Charts, #1 in the Canada RPM Album Charts, and #25 in the Billboard Album Charts.
This is one of the places where rock and roll began.
I knew this sounded familiar…ZZ Top reworked this into their 1973 hit “La Grange.” In 1992, Bernard Besman, who was Hooker’s producer and controlled the copyright to “Boogie Chillen,” sued ZZ Top, but a court eventually ruled that Hooker’s song was in the public domain.
I love any version of this song out there but the two I like the best are the original and when Hooker played with Canned Heat on the album…Hooker and Heat.
In 1948, Hooker showed up at the office of a Detroit record store/label owner named Bernard Besman and presented him with a demo. Besman provided the studio and produced this song for Hooker. They worked together for the next four years, recording many of Hooker’s songs, but Boogie Chillen was the big hit.
The song peaked at #1 in the R&B Charts and sold over a million copies after Besman leased the rights to distribute the song to Modern Records. When the song took off, Hooker still had his day job working as a janitor in a Chrysler factory.
Hooker is the only person performing on the song. The only sounds are his voice, guitar, and stomping feet. The tapping sounds came from bottle caps attached to the soles of his shoes.
“Chillen” is Southern slang for “Children.” This was the first song Buddy Guy learned how to play on guitar. Growing up in Lettsworth, Louisiana in a small house with no electricity or running water, Guy heard this song when a family friend, Henry “Coot” Smith, would come over and play it on his guitar.
Boogie Chillen
Well, my mama ‘low me just to stay out all night long Oh, Lord Well, my mama ‘low me just to stay out all night long I didn’t care she ‘low, I would boogie anyhow
When I first came to town, people, I was walkin’ down Hastings Street Everybody was talkin’ about the Henry Swing Club I decided I drop in there that night When I got there, I say, “Yes, people” They was really havin’ a ball Yes, I know
Boogie Chillen’
One night I was layin’ down I heard mama and papa talkin’ I heard papa tell mama let that boy boogie-woogie It’s in him and it got to come out And I felt so good Went on boogin’ just the same
Whenever I’m asked if I like country music…at first, I wonder what country they mean. If they mean commercial top 40…then not. If they mean Hank Williams, then a big fat yes. In this country, I hear a little rockabilly and country mix…which is a great thing.
Hank Williams as a songwriter is up there with the greats. Bob Dylan and more idolized him and his writing. This song was his first big hit. The song was written by the man himself. He released this song in 1947. Two years later, he received his invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry after his successful recording of the minstrel era song, “Lovesick Blues.”
Move It On Over peaked at #4 in the Country Charts in 1947.
Despite never learning to read music, Williams was a prolific songwriter including country music classics such as “Hey, Good Lookin’,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” He recorded a total of 66 songs in his six-year recording career, 37 of which became hit records. It was not unheard of for Williams to record three hit songs in one afternoon. Now think about this… out of 66 songs recorded…37 were hits… That is like batting over .500.
Williams was plagued by back pain throughout his life, likely due to spina bifida. Life on the road as a Country singer only made it worse. An operation in 1951 gave him no relief and actually increased his pain. The combination of unending physical pain and the pressure of being a successful recording artist led to Williams seeking solace in drugs in alcohol.
Many of you will remember this song by George Thorogood released in 1978 and picked up a lot of airplay.
Move It On Over
I come in last night about half past ten That baby of mine wouldn’t let me in So move it on over, rock it on over Move over little dog, the mean old dog is movin’ in
She told me not to mess around But I done let the deal go down Move it on over, rock it on over Move over nice dog, a big fat dog is movin’ in
She changed the lock on my back door Now my key won’t fit no more Move it on over, rock it on over Move over nice dog, the mean old dog is movin’ in
She threw me out just as pretty as she pleased Pretty soon I’ll be scratchin’ fleas Move it on over, slide it on over Move over nice dog, a mean old dog is movin’ in
Yeah, listen to me dog before you start to whine That side yours and this side mine So move it on over, rock it on over Move over little dog, the big old dog is movin’ in
Yeah, she changed the lock on my back door Now my key won’t fit no more Move it on over, rock it on over Move over little dog, the big old dog is movin’ in
Move it on over, move it on over Move it on over, won’t’cha rock it on over Move over cool dog, the hot dog’s movin’ in
It’s been too long since I posted about the big E. How could someone, not like a song with a title like that?
Elvis didn’t want to record this song because he thought it was too Country, so drummer Johnny Bernero from Memphis was added to the mix. Up until this time, there was only Scotty Moore on guitar, Bill Bass on bass, and Elvis on rhythm guitar. This added an up-tempo beat…Elvis liked it and recorded the song, which became a Country hit. I know Elvis is Elvis, but his backing band was just as special to me. Scotty Moore was one of a kind.
This song was released twice. The Sun Records release first charted the following week (September 17, 1955) at #14 on Billboard’s Country Charts. On November 21, 1955, it was released yet again. On that day RCA Victor purchased Elvis’s contract from Sam Phillips. As part of the deal, RCA obtained the rights to all of Presley’s Sun recordings. Soon after, RCA pressed and distributed a single of “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” and “Mystery Train” on its own label.
This was Elvis’ first #1 on any chart. It peaked at #1 in the Country Charts and #2 in Canada in 1955.
The Beatles never recorded this song in the studio, but they did it for the BBC with George singing lead.
The song was written by Charlie Feathers and Stan Kesler. Kesler had already written Presley’s “I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone” when he had the idea for this song.
Stan Kesler:“At that time, I was on the kick of catchy titles,” Kesler recalled. “When I began to think about that phrase, it just expanded into ‘I forgot to remember to forget her.’ From there, I started working on it, and it all fell together.”
The Beatles version… live in the BBC studios.
I Forgot To Remember To Forget
I forgot to remember to forget her I can’t seem to get her off my mind I thought I’d never miss her But I found out somehow I think about her almost all the time The day she went away I made myself a promise That I’d soon forget we ever met But something sure is wrong ‘Cause I’m so blue and lonely I forgot to remember to forget
The day she went away I made myself a promise That I’d soon forget we ever met Well, but something sure is wrong ‘Cause I’m so blue and lonely I forgot to remember to forget
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House fulfills my romance portion of the draft.
In the 80s a loose remake of this movie was made…it was called The Money Pit…but it doesn’t stack up to this one in my opinion. I first saw this movie in the late eighties and have watched it many times since.
This movie was based on a true story, which was turned into a bestselling book. It was written by Eric Hodgins from his own experience. Hodgins and his wife had a house built and the initial estimate for building it came in at $11,000. It ultimately cost $56,000 to finish and nearly drove him into bankruptcy. He said the book “wrote itself.”
A New York advertising executive Jim Blandings (Cary Grant) lives in a cramped apartment with his wife Muriel, two daughters, and housekeeper Gussie. Anyone who has an apartment or starter home with a growing family will be able to relate to this movie.
They look on upgrading the apartment but after the 7,000 dollar estimate is shot down…Jim and Muriel start looking at houses to in Connecticut to live. They find an old house and Jim buys it without checking with his lawyer Bill Cole (played wonderfully by Melvyn Douglas) who informs Jim he got rooked. Jim still wants it…he says somethings you have to buy from the heart. They looked at the house more thoroughly and it is basically falling in.
After getting it checked out it is determined that it would be cheaper tearing the house down and building a new one. This is when the movie really starts. All the estimates seem to shoot up (as in real life) and the price they started with escalates. Partly because of the Blanding’s “small” requests. Anyone who has worked with a contractor can relate.
Wrong estimates, supplies shipped to the wrong address, Jim and Muriel’s naivety, and unforeseen problems in building the house has Jim wanting his head examined for attempting to build a house. All the while the house was being built Jim has to come up with a slogan for “Wham Ham” or his job could be in jeopardy.
The movie was released in 1948 so yes the prices are different now but many of the problems are just the same. It’s a very funny movie with the problems of the house along with Jim’s growing jealousy of Bill’s closeness to Muriel.
Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas are perfectly cast for this film. Grant and Loy were a great couple but the one that makes this movie tick is Melvyn Douglas as Bill Cole… Jim’s best friend and lawyer. He really stands out in this movie with comedic relief.
As with other movies in this era…the character actors flow in and out of the story and make a lot of scenes great. This is one of the reasons I like these older Hollywood movies so much. Pay attention to the well digger Mr. Tesander played perfectly by Harry Shannon. They add humor and the human element.
RKO (who made the movie) made a deal with 20th Century Fox who had 2,000 acres of landscape in the Malibu hills that served as their location ranch. After the deal was struck the house was built and is the one you see in the movie as it’s being built. It still stands and is now part of the Malibu Creek State Park, and it’s used for the administrative offices
Seventy three “replica” Dream Houses were built in 1948 to tie in with the promotion and release of the movie. Some were raffled off at the day of film release, after ticket sales held during public viewing prior to premiere, and others were put up for public sale by the contractors who built them.
A scene in the movie where Muriel is explaining the color scheme
“First, the living room. I want it to be a soft green. Not as blue-green as a robin’s egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodils. Now, the dining room. Not just yellow–something bright and sunshiny. If you send one of your workers to the grocer for a pound of butter and match that, they can’t go wrong.”
The painter turns to the guy next to him. “Got that, Charlie?”
Whenever I watch the Three Stooges it feels like I’m getting ready for school again. My sister would get me up in the morning and I would dress while watching the Three Stooges and get ready to run to catch the bus just at the end of our driveway.
I do like them at times. My dad never liked them…he said “they make me nervous as hell son.” I must admit when I got older and found the Marx Brothers, Chaplin, and Buster Keaton more in line with my comedic tastes BUT sometimes I just have to watch the Stooges!
I just watched one episode at random today. A Ducking They Did Go…they were all in a boat and Curly accidently shoots a hole in the boat…water starts coming up and the boat is sinking….so Larry gets the gun and shoots another hole in the boat. Moe asked him why…Larry says “I made another hole so the water will run out.”…ahhhh….the Stooges logic! I found a clip of that scene
The 1934 short, ‘The Woman Haters’ marks the first of 190 theatrical short films made by Columbia Pictures, which starred, ‘The Three Stooges’ between 1934 and 1959.
The culture impact of the Stooges was huge through the decades. They have been parodied by everyone from SNL, That Seventies Show, Simpsons, and so many more references.
Parents were concerned about kids copying the Stooges…they probably had a right to be. When I was in school I would hear the nyuk, nyuk but we didn’t hit each over the head with lead pipes.
Their 1940 short, You Nazty Spy!, was the first American production to openly make a mockery of Adolf Hitler’s regime. (Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator opened nine months later.) The short was perceived as a great insult by Hitler, who listed the Stooges on his own personal death list…Here is the episode colorized.
As popular as they were they never got paid what they deserved. They were in “shorts” which played before and between feature movies. They worked for Columbia who was ran by the notorious cheap Harry Cohn. Columbia’s shorts department thrived throughout the late ’30s and ’40s. Keeping its biggest stars in the dark as to their true value was a deliberate ploy to ensure they worked cheap.
Cohn kept the Stooges on one year contracts and claimed that the department lost money.
If you are reading this to hear me say “it’s overrated” then you have come to the wrong place. Some say it’s the best film ever made…I will not argue that statement. I have watched this 1941 film at least 8 times and have enjoyed it every single time. Before I watched this movie I had read all the accolades the movie received through the years. This is one of the few movies that lived up to them.
Orson Welles is the most natural actor in this movie I’ve ever seen. He IS Charles Foster Kane.
The camera work is still fantastic and holds up to this day and it’s been copied over and over. The below floor level shots and others make it a beautiful film to watch. You can see this movie’s influence in a countless number of movies that followed.
Orson based his character off of William Randolph Hearst and his mistress, actress Marion Davies. That fact brought Orson trouble that would haunt him. Hearst owned everything at that time…newspapers and businesses across the globe and had as much influence as a person could have. He didn’t care too much for this movie because it was too close for comfort. If you ever get the chance…see the documentary “The Battle Over Citizen Kane.”
He stopped advertisements in his newspapers and did everything in his power to stop and sabotage the film.
Orson made some great movies after this but never…to me reached this pinnacle again. That is really unfair because I don’t think anyone has reached this high again.
The plot? The movie, unlike other movies at the time, starts at the end. The mighty Charles Foster Kane dies but before he does he utters one last word “Rosebud” and everybody tries to find out what he meant by that. Reporters will go interview everyone in his life trying to find the answer and all the while…Kane’s story is being told. One of the lines in the movie is “I don’t think any word can explain a man’s life.” That is true but it’s what “Rosebud” represents that helps make this movie great.
The movie flows so well from beginning to end.
When the silent movie era ended…the first “talkies” were clumsy with the actors/actresses overacting with their theater training. The studios were also using bulky cameras and microphones that left the scenes stationary. This movie ended all of that. Citizen Kane changed the cinema for good. Up until this movie, we got the same old shots, stiff acting, theater makeup, and mediocre music scores… You couldn’t get by with that anymore after this movie.
Is it the best movie ever? That is subjective but for me, the answer is…yes.
Here is the cast from Wiki
Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland, Kane’s best friend and a reporter for The Inquirer. Cotten also appears (hidden in darkness) in the News on the March screening room.
Dorothy Comingore as Susan Alexander Kane, Kane’s mistress and second wife.
Agnes Moorehead as Mary Kane, Kane’s mother.
Ruth Warrick as Emily Monroe Norton Kane, Kane’s first wife.
Ray Collins as Jim W. Gettys, Kane’s political rival for the post of Governor of New York.
Erskine Sanford as Herbert Carter, editor of The Inquirer. Sanford also appears (hidden in darkness) in the News on the March screening room.
Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein, Kane’s friend and employee at The Inquirer.
William Alland as Jerry Thompson, a reporter for News on the March. Alland also voices the narrator of the News on the March newsreel.
Paul Stewart as Raymond, Kane’s butler.
George Coulouris as Walter Parks Thatcher, a banker who becomes Kane’s legal guardian.
Fortunio Bonanova as Signor Matiste, vocal coach of Susan Alexander Kane.
Gus Schilling as John, headwaiter at the El Rancho nightclub. Schilling also appears (hidden in darkness) in the News on the March screening room.[8]
Philip Van Zandt as Mr. Rawlston, News on the March producer.[8]
Georgia Backus as Bertha Anderson, an attendant at the library of Walter Parks Thatcher.[8]
Harry Shannon as Jim Kane, Kane’s father.[8]
Sonny Bupp as Charles Foster Kane III, Kane’s son.
Buddy Swan as Charles Foster Kane, age eight.
Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane, a wealthy newspaper publisher
Many times you cannot think of one person without thinking of the other. That is true for many on this list. From Lennon – McCartney to Romeo and Juliet. It was a lot of fun coming up with these famous duos. Here are a few in no order…
1. Lennon and McCartney – The most influential Rock/pop writing duo
2. Andy Griffith and Don Knotts – Andy and Barney…Great comedic timing between the two…with Andy being the straight man.
3. Jack Klugman and Tony Randall – The Odd Couple
4. Abbott and Costello – Who’s on first? Great comedy team. I still like Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
5. Belushi and Aykroyd – The Blues Brothers and part of the first cast of SNL
6. Orville and Wilbur Wright – Credited as creating the first motorized plane.
7. Jagger and Richards – The Stones Glimmer Twins
8. Simon and Garfunkel – American folk-rock duo
9. Laurel and Hardy – They made over 100 short and feature movies combined.
10. Martin and Lewis – The hottest act in the 50s.
11. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak – The Apple architects.
12. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield -Ben and Jerry’s I’ll take some Cherry Garcia, please.
13. Phil and Don Everly – Two voices blended as one
14. Gerry Goffin and Carole King – Two of the top songwriters in the 60s.
15. Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall – Laverne and Shirley
16. Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker – Infamous Bonnie and Clyde
17. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson – Mulder and Scully from the X-Files
18. Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith – Jay and Silent Bob
19. Batman and Robin – I couldn’t leave these guys out
20. Romeo and Juliet the two star crossed lovers from Romeo and Juliet….a tragedy written by William Shakespeare
There were three Rosebuds made to burn at the end of the film. Orson Welles directed all the insert photography and Welles was happy with the second sled they burned, and so the third sled was not needed, and that was put in storage at RKO Pictures.
After that…The sled had been owned by John Hall, RKO’s chief archivist, who had bought it from a studio watchman. The watchman had found it in a trash heap outside the prop vault in the old RKO studios in Hollywood.
Steven Spielberg bought Rosebud during a Sotheby’s auction in 1982. He paid $60,500 for the prop sled, beating out other bidders.
Spielberg has now donated the sled to the Academy Museum. The Museum is set to open on December 14, 2020, per their website.
Steven Spielberg:“It’s going to be at the Academy Museum eventually – the new Academy Museum. It’s in my office right now and it’s been there for years and years, ever since I purchased it. It was at home for a while and then it was in my office. But I think it really belongs in a museum so everybody can see it.”
I didn’t watch this great movie until the late 80s. All it took was one time and I haven’t missed a year of watching it. I don’t tear up very easy..but it never fails at the end of the movie when Zuzu says… Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings…it gets me every time. This movie was released in 1946.
Poor George Bailey. All he wanted to do was travel and get out of Bedford Falls to see the world. Every single time he gets close…so close that it hurts…something happens and George ends up doing the right thing.
Bedford Falls needs George Bailey…every town needs a George Bailey but many end up with only a Mr. Potter. There is one thing about this movie which was unusual. Mr. Potter was never punished for what he did…which drew criticism at the time but it was more in line with reality to me.
This is a Christmas movie but really only the last part of the movie is about Christmas. It is a movie for any time not just for December. We were thinking of names for our unborn child and couldn’t think of one…I was watching this movie in November of 1999 and it hit me…Bailey…so the movie means more than some movies do.
Here is a small summary from IMDB…don’t read it…watch the movie instead. If you haven’t seen it…give it a shot…whether it is Christmas or July.
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving of himself to the people of Bedford Falls. He has always longed to travel but never had the opportunity in order to prevent rich skinflint, Mr. Potter, from taking over the entire town. All that prevents him from doing so is George’s modest building and loan company, which was founded by his generous father. But on Christmas Eve, George’s Uncle Billy loses the business’s $8,000 while intending to deposit it in the bank. Potter finds the misplaced money and hides it from Billy. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent to jail and the company will collapse, finally allowing Potter to take over the town. Thinking of his wife, their young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide. But the prayers of his loved ones result in a gentle angel named Clarence coming to earth to help George, with the promise of earning his wings. He shows George what things would have been like if he had never been born.
This man was brilliant and so was the song but this is one song that Hank did not write. Leon Payne wrote and released this song in 1948. Blind since he was a child, Payne wrote hundreds of songs, some of which were recorded by Hank Williams, John Prine, Elvis Presley, George Jones, and Johnny Cash, and many more.
Payne had been hitchhiking around and working jobs. One day he needed to get home to his sick mother in Alba Texas. No one would pick him so he wrote this song on the side of the road.
Hank Williams released this song in 1949 and it peaked at #12 in the Country Charts. This song is one of my favorite country songs.
This song gave us two of the most famous metaphors in music: the Lost Highway and the Rolling Stone (from the line, “I’m a rolling stone, I’m alone and lost”).Both images represent a wandering spirit that keeps moving but often ends up in dark places. Many musicians who left town to pursue their dreams could relate to these concepts and used them in songs. The Lost Highway shows up in:“All I Left Behind” and “Guitar Town” by Emmylou Harris“Heart Is A Drum” by Beck (“You’re falling down across your lost highway”)“Happiness” by Lee Ann Womack (“Down by the lost highway cafe I met a man there with a map in his hands”)“Jesus Of Suburbia” by Green Day (“At the end of another lost highway. Signs misleading to nowhere.”)Those New Jersey ramblers Bon Jovi made their song “Lost Highway” the title track of their 2007 album; in 2009, Willie Nelson also released an album of that name. In 1997, director David Lynch released a suitably disconcerting movie called Lost Highway.
The saying “a rolling stone gathers no moss” dates to biblical times, but this song popularized it in the musical landscape. It was Williams’ version that gave Bob Dylan the title for “Like a Rolling Stone,” which has been the subject of many essays, including one written by Ralph Gleason, who used the phrase when he founded the magazine Rolling Stone.In 1950, Muddy Waters released the song “Rollin’ Stone,” which is where The Rolling Stones got their name from.
This became one of Hank Williams’ most famous songs, but he didn’t write it. It was written by a blind singer named Leon Payne, who released the original version in 1948. According to an interview with Payne’s widow published in the book , he wrote the song when he was hitchhiking from Texas to California when he got stuck for a stretch and was taken in by the Salvation Army.His version is surprisingly upbeat, featuring a string band and various quips by Payne throughout the song.Payne’s version didn’t reach the charts, but when Williams recorded it in 1949, that rendition made #12 on the Country chart. The song grew in popularity as Williams legend grew, as it was so associated with his itinerant lifestyle of wine, women and song.Payne, who died in 1969, also wrote the popular songs “I Love You Because” and “Psycho.”
Lost Highway was used as the title for an off-Broadway play about Williams that ran in 2003.
Artists to cover this song include Leon Russell, Tom Petty, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Osborne Brothers, Bill Frisell and Johnny Horton.
Lost Highway
I’m a rollin’ stone all alone and lost For a life of sin I have paid the cost When I pass by all the people say Just another guy on the lost highway
Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine And a woman’s lies makes a life like mine O the day we met, I went astray I started rolling down that lost highway
I was just a lad, nearly twenty two Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you And now I’m lost, too late to pray Lord I take a cost, o the lost highway
Now boy’s don’t start to ramblin’ round On this road of sin are you sorrow bound Take my advice or you’ll curse the day You started rollin’ down that lost highway
I discovered Neysa McMein through Harpo Marx’s autobiography “Harpo Speaks” and I looked up her artwork. I’ve seen her art plenty of times by reading and collecting 20’s and 30’s magazines but never knew the artist. She was also a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table.
She was born Marjorie Frances McMein in 1888 but after seeing a numerologist she changed her name to Neysa. Neysa had musical, acting, and artistic talent. She had a brief stint as an actress in 1913 but then started to work as an illustrator and portrait painter who studied at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students League of New York.
She sold millions of magazines with her covers for McCall’s, Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, McClure’s, Woman’s Home Companion, Photoplay, Liberty, Associated Sunday Magazine, Ladies World. Ad work: memorably for Palmolive; also Cadillac, Lucky Strike, Adam’s Gum, Coke, Hummingbird Hosiery, Gainsborough Hair Nets, Colgate.
She painted portraits of two sitting presidents, Warren G. Harding, and Herbert Hoover.
She also created the first Betty Crocker and updated her through the years.
During World War I, she traveled across France entertaining military troops with Dorothy Parker and made posters to support the war effort.She was made an honorary non-commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps for her contributions to the war effort.
Neysa marching in 1917 in a Suffrage Parade.
Harpo Marx said this about Neysa: The biggest love affair in New York City was between me—along with two dozen other guys—and Neysa McMein. Like me, Neysa was an unliterary, semi-illiterate gate-crasher at the Algonquin. But unlike me, she was beautiful and bursting with talk and talent. A lot of us agreed she was the sexiest gal in town. Everybody agreed she was the best portrait and cover artist of the times.
She taught Harpo Marx how to paint and according to Harpo she only had one failing as a teacher: Neysa had one failing as an art instructor. It was, as far as I knew, her only failing, period. That was her passion for fires. If a siren or bell should sound during one of our late-night seminars, that was the end of the seminar. Neysa was such a fire buff that she once dashed to Penn Station and jumped on a train when she heard there was a four-alarm fire burning in Philadelphia.
The Harpo quotes are from his autobiography “Harpo Speaks.”
Neysa died in 1949 and was inducted into the Society of Illustrators’ Hall of Fame in 1984.
