A cartoonist is informed, via email, that her marriage is over--and, after finding "solace in the sweet-voiced jazz stylings of Annette Hanshaw and the Ramayana" goes on to create, on her computer, a film that rivals the very best in animation. As the LA Weekly put it, "Pixar has nothing on Nina Paley's India-influenced animated musical for adults", and this homemade film is now #42 on IMDb's list of the "50 Best Musicals of All Time". SitaSings the Blues has been available for online free viewing for awhile. (It can be found on here on Roger Ebert's website. On Twitter today, he called this film "a legend of indie filmmaking.) As of today, it has a perfect score of 100% at Rotten Tomatoes. Sita Sings the Blues has to be one of the most culturally diverse works I've ever come across; it successfully mixes together 1920's jazz, the complicated love story between Sita and Rama from India's Ramayana, and a starring character who is a new incarnation of Betty Boop--lip-syncing to Annette Hanshaw's bluesy vocals. If nothing else, Sita displays the universality of pain, loss and redemption.
So said Steven Van Zandt of The T.A.M.I. Show, filmed in 1964 before a screaming capacity crowd at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. It's an incredible line-up; it seems as if anyone who was anyone in rock and roll showed up, except for the Beatles. (T.A.M.I. stood for 'Teenage Music Awards International', even though there were no awards, just an unforgettable concert. There were no complaints about the non-existent awards.)
The show was produced by Steve Binder; four years later he would take part in another chapter in rock and roll history when he produced Elvis' transcendent '68 Comeback Special. While that has been widely available for decades as a cultural touchstone, The T.A.M.I. Show basically disappeared after its initial release. As recounted in Entertainment Weekly, "It premiered in Los Angeles in November 1964, with a wider release just
after Christmas that year, but before long was chopped up — in
particular, the Beach Boys performances were removed — so that the full
film has never been publicly available since that first release and is only out now on DVD for the first time". Again, EW:
It was filmed just eight months after the Beatles made their debut on The
Ed Sullivan Show, but you can see and hear how the culture shock
that the Beatles represented had already rippled out into the world.
Everyone in the movie, on stage and in the audience, is very polite,
because “the 1960s”hadn’t happened yet. And yet the show, which is
brilliantly paced, with a momentum that builds and builds, keeps
pointing to the eruption that’s about to be unleashed.
One especially notable aspect to The T.A.M.I. Show is that it clearly reveals--and celebrates--rock and roll's indebtedness to, and conflation with, rhythm & blues. Rock and roll n' roll burst on the scene the same year that the civil rights movement kicked into gear; that was no mere coincidence, and here we see the on-stage state of things ten years later.
Even in 1964, a vast majority of the audience that ate up the music of
Elvis and the Beatles had little to no idea that the basic rhythms they
were grooving on were the creation of black rhythm-and-blues artists. The
T.A.M.I. Show makes that thrillingly explicit. From the get-go, it
mixes black and white musicians into a Utopian jamboree."
It ends in dramatic fashion with a face-off with the final two acts, James Brown and his Famous Flames, and the Rolling Stones. Rick Rubin has called Brown's appearance "the greatest rock and roll performance ever captured on film". Some say Brown won the day. Others think the Stones did. I consider it a perfect stand off.
The T.A.M.I. Show didn't just point to issues of race, but also feminism--pointing to another eruption about to be unleashed:
They scream when Lesley Gore comes out in her Tracy Turnblad flip, her
movements just staid enough to make her look like the Hillary Clinton of
teen idols. Don’t be fooled by her appearance, though — she’s
incredible! A one-woman pop powerhouse! Standing in the spotlight, Gore
turns “You Don't Own Me” into a searing manifesto, The Feminine
Mystique squeezed into three soaring minutes."
Here's two clips from "The T.A.M.I. Show', The first part of James Brown's performance, and Lesley Gore singing "You Don't Own Me"...
It appears that a number of signs have been spotted at Tea Party rallies that suggest that these groups have a way with words. A very creative way, that is. President Obama, according to various protest signs that have been photographed and can be viewed here, wants to ignore the constution, force socilism on are country, mortage our daugters' future, and turn us into Gemany. But, by keeping infromed from Fox News, resisance can grow, and we can repeel Congress, kick out bad polititions and impeah Obama. (Oh, and Obama also wants alliens to cross the boarder and never learn the English langaguage.)
This isn't a new phenomenon, however; check out this photo from 'o8--at an anti-Obama protest before he moved into the White House.
(My apologies if this post has driven your spell check crazy!)
According to Wikipedia, Americana music is "American roots music based on the traditions of country...the musical model can be traced back to the Elvis Presley marriage
of 'hillbilly music' and R&B that birthed rock 'n roll". Strangely enough, some of the best Americana is originating far away from America itself. (Scary that other countries are not only making products we used to make, but now also making the music we used to make!) Kasey Chambers, a singer from the Australian outback who gave this performance
on NPR, was called "the
freshest young voice in American roots music" by Rolling Stone a few years ago.
And now, from Iceland, there'sLay Low (birth name Lovisa Elisabet Sigrunardottir) who recently also performed on NPR; on her latest release, 'Farewell Good Night's Sleep', "draws inspiration from country music of the 1950s and '60s, and even
replicates recording techniques from that era". Here's Kasey Chambers, followed by Lay Low...
Neil Young'sCowgirl in the Sand is the musical version of a perennial flower. Here is his original electric version, a later acoustic version when he was part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and finally a new version by dream-folk musician Marissa Nadler, "the melancholy East Coast singer/songwriter" who "blends the
traditions of British folk and dream pop into an atmosphere all her own". (And here she also blends both the acoustic & electric versions of Neil Young's versions of 'Cowgirl'.)
