Paul Newman was a rare human being: a creative talent with a perfect face and a kind and giving soul. Through his company Newman's Own, he gave over $250 million to charity and as a philanthropist he donated his time, money and name to many organizations. I was very sad to hear of his recent passing and was reminded of this song, Plastic Jesus, which Mike and I had just talked about as a fitting song for this week's somewhat prison inspired picks. Now that Newman is gone, it's even more appropriate.

In the classic anti-conformist film Cool Hand Luke, Newman sings this song when he learns his mother has died; Ernie Marrs lent his voice for another version in the film but the folk song was originally recorded and written by Ed Rush and George Cromarty.

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Posted on October 6, 2008

Driving around in our new (borrowed) car, a Grand Marquis called the Blue Bomber we have been listening to a lot of classical and other public radio options a lot. Without an ipod hook up or a CD player, we're forced to because the alternative, basically any other station, is way too obnoxious and loud. If it's not the dj's making me bang my head against the window, it's the commercials.

Sometimes it makes me feel like an old person, and I wonder if this is how getting old happens to others. Like the other night, did we really enjoy being in middle of a Celtic smooth jams hour? Other times though, it introduces us to new things, well new to us but old to the world things like The John Kirby Sextet.

Billed as “'The Biggest Little Band in the Land” for their rich sound, the group often did amazing covers of classical tunes. Anitra's Dance is a cover of the Edvard Grieg opera based on the Henrik Ibsen play Peer Gynt. Anitra the character is described thus “The Arabic princess Anitra first met Peer Gynt when he was exceedingly rich with the wealth he had won from solving the riddle of the Sphinx. She charmed him, danced for him, cooed him into giving her all of his wealth, and then she told him to scamper off before she sicced Daddy's guards on him.”

This jazzy version would probably make her very happy if, a. she were a real person, and b. she had been around in the late thirties when Kirby (and his then wife singer Maxine Sullivan) had their heyday.

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Posted on September 22, 2008

Moon River, the oft covered, frequently adapted, over-used, and Academy Award winning song was written specifically by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini for Audrey Hepburn in the film adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Instantly recognizable, the tune is wistful and beautiful. Mancini even arranged the song to work within the limits of Hepburn's vocal range. Sadly, her famous rendition on the fire escape never made it onto the official sound track–in fact, it almost never made it into the movie at all; when an executive tried to nix it, Hepburn rightfully demanded it stay.

The lyrics, by the down-on-his-luck Mercer, are among pop music's most endearing:

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end–
waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.

I still love the original Hepburn version, wether it was deemed good enough by execs or not; but I wouldn't say no to Morrissey's epic live version either; or Andy Williams's version, which nearly became his life's theme song.

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Posted on September 8, 2008

Sure, George Michael's been sleeping in his car and he's gotten caught in public bathrooms enough times that even when buoyed by the best self mockery and sense of humor, it's beginning to get sad. But never say never! The world has considered the man on the outs before and he hit back, settomg his former image (literally) ablaze, supermodels by his side.

Of course, I'm talking about the double whammy punch of Freedom '90 and Too Funky that featured anyone who was anyone at that time in the supermodeling world. Linda, Naomi, Christy, Claudia, even Ty-Ty. And as side note, has anyone else noticed how these ladies?are still dominating (minus Nadja Auermann, who I might just miss the most) – it seemed like at least half of the new September campaigns feature these throwbacks.

It's good to see them in the pages of Vogue, but when they got dressed in their big sweaters and chewed gum on the runway for G.M., that's when they really mesmerized my twelve year old mind.

Freedom '90 (but friends can just call it “Freedom”) came first and that iconic video was shot by David Fincher. G.M. was sick of his old image, man! No longer desiring to be a whore for the cameras (later he'd make an acception for the Beverly Hills public toilets) he decided not to appear in front of the camera. Supermodels were flown in and the rest is early '90s pop culture history.

The campier, day-glo Too Funky was next, featuring the outrageous work of Theirry Mugler (see this week's style icon) and yet another bevy of models, including some more interesting choices like former Cat Woman lovely Julie Newmar and Pedro Almodovar's muse, Rossy De Palma Maybe I was just at the right impressionable age but in my book fashion and music have never made such good friends.?

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Posted on August 25, 2008

Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, the skinny/chubby duo I'd most like to hang out with (sorry Penn and Teller, but one of you is too f-ing loud), seem like joyful goofs–I mean, they named their band the Turtles after all. But you wouldn't know it from You Showed Me, the sultry, slow hit from 1968.

A hot and heavy ode to education in the bedroom, even Salt 'N Pepa found it sexy enough to inspire a song on their 1990 Black's Magic, an album I played on my 6th grade Discman fairly constantly; and De La Soul sampled it for a song called Transmitting from Mars.

It was originally written by Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds and later released on their compilation PreFlyte, but their take was a bit less interesting.

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Posted on August 11, 2008