Film Notes
Caught Lightning in a Bottle on cable recently. This is a recording of a 2003 blues tribute staged at Radio City Music Hall to benefit the Blues Foundation. Performers include Buddy Guy doing Jimi (Red House, Voodoo Chile with Angelique Kidjo), Bonnie Raitt, Ruth Brown/Mavis Staples/Natalie Cole both soloing and as a trio, Shemekia Copeland and Robert Cray doing – among other things – “I Pity the Fool”, old-timers like Hubert Sumlin and Honeyboy Edwards, and sitting down for the most part (but still dominating the stage) BB King and Solomon Burke. It’s not a seamless show - it tries to “theme” more than it needs to; but there are far more hits than misses, and you should catch it if you have the chance.
I also caught two good movie music bios in close succession. On cable, I finally got around to seeing Ray, and yesterday, Mrs. DjStan and I saw Walk The Line. Both films were anchored by fine performances all around, particularly Jamie Foxx’s Ray Charles, Joaquin Phoenix’ Johnny Cash, and – not the least of the three – Reese Witherspoon conveying all the hardcore spunk, the honesty, and the country music aristocrat's noblesse oblige of June Carter. Musician bios follow a general pattern – struggling background, harsh truth of the business of music, drugs/booze, rise and fall and rise again through the redemptive love of a good woman. Both Ray and Walk follow the basic storyline, but they do it well.
Interesting side notes – both movies root much of the protagonist’s psychological problems in the loss of a brother (for Ray, a younger one; for Johnny, a much-loved older), both musicians need to be told (by a prescient producer – Sam Phillips for Johnny, Ahmet Ertegun for Ray) to “stop imitating [X] and make your own music”. Then there’s also the traditional drug division – Ray falls victim to the jazz drug (heroin) while Johnny gets caught up in the C&W thing (pills & booze). One common warning from both films: watch your ass carrying drugs across the border; both Ray and Johnny get nabbed by customs.
Final thought: both musicians are told that they're facing eternal damnation because of their music - Ray by a pair of prophetic hecklers, and Johnny by the hell-bound Jerry Lee Lewis. To paraphrase The Righteous Brothers, if there's a rock 'n roll Hades, you know they've got a heavenly band!
I also caught two good movie music bios in close succession. On cable, I finally got around to seeing Ray, and yesterday, Mrs. DjStan and I saw Walk The Line. Both films were anchored by fine performances all around, particularly Jamie Foxx’s Ray Charles, Joaquin Phoenix’ Johnny Cash, and – not the least of the three – Reese Witherspoon conveying all the hardcore spunk, the honesty, and the country music aristocrat's noblesse oblige of June Carter. Musician bios follow a general pattern – struggling background, harsh truth of the business of music, drugs/booze, rise and fall and rise again through the redemptive love of a good woman. Both Ray and Walk follow the basic storyline, but they do it well.
Interesting side notes – both movies root much of the protagonist’s psychological problems in the loss of a brother (for Ray, a younger one; for Johnny, a much-loved older), both musicians need to be told (by a prescient producer – Sam Phillips for Johnny, Ahmet Ertegun for Ray) to “stop imitating [X] and make your own music”. Then there’s also the traditional drug division – Ray falls victim to the jazz drug (heroin) while Johnny gets caught up in the C&W thing (pills & booze). One common warning from both films: watch your ass carrying drugs across the border; both Ray and Johnny get nabbed by customs.
Final thought: both musicians are told that they're facing eternal damnation because of their music - Ray by a pair of prophetic hecklers, and Johnny by the hell-bound Jerry Lee Lewis. To paraphrase The Righteous Brothers, if there's a rock 'n roll Hades, you know they've got a heavenly band!
posted by DJStan at 1:27 PM
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