Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

Pete Seeger
1919-2014

From 1970: Gram Parsons Was A Genius

The best-known version of this song, "Wild Horses," is by The Stones, of course. However, the song was originally given to Gram Parsons by Keith Richards as a gift.

Gram...what can I say about him?  He had the voice of an angel and the soul of a tortured poet.  His life was a Tennessee Williams play.  He loved his drink and his drugs and American music in its purest forms.  His was a shattered soul, his voice about hopeful unreasonable love, and those hopes dashed on the ground.

He was far too beautiful for this world.

Gram Parsons

1946-1973

 

The Felt-Up Files: Moments In Love

Oh yes, on the couch with Josh M., it was October 1987, and we're in Sarah T.'s basement rec room.  I remember I was wearing the Benetton sweater that I got for my 17th birthday a few days earlier.  

"Benetton, nice." Josh said, partly into my lips, partly into my cheek.  I guess he saw the tag, or something, when I moved to his lap.

"Birthday," I whispered.  I kicked off my shoes.

"Oh, right," he murmured.   "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," I said.   The word had no sound.

***

Here's "Moments In Love," by Art of Noise, the song of choice for Making Out in those days.

This is not the official cut of the song, but it's my favorite arrangement, with the piano interlude at the beginning.

Have a wonderful Saturday night, everyone
...may you all get felt up tonight.

 

p.s.  The Eighties were a FABULOUS time to be young.

Plaza Sesamo: Lucas Hice Un Sandwich

I've found that watching Plaza Sesamo (that is, Sesame Street in Spanish) is a great way for me to work on learning the language, which I have found really difficult.

And Cookie Monster is funny in any language.  Enjoy.

I love it when he calls the little girl "Muchachita."

From 1987: Heaven Is A Kiss And A Smile

One of the most haunting records ever made.

On February 27, 1988, Father Figure topped the Billboard charts, staying there for two weeks. It was a track from George Michael's monster LP Faith, which was released in October 1987.

The model in the video is Tania Coleridge.

There isn't a bad track on Faith,
but this one has been my favorite for 25 years.

And Speaking Of Sandahl Bergman...

...here she is in what might be the most astonishingly beautiful dance sequence ever committed to film (the only other one that I think I might like more is "Cool," from West Side Story).

This is "Airotica," from 1979's All That Jazz. Now, you're all adults, right? So I don't need to mention to anyone that this very sexy clip has nudity in it, okay?

For those of you who haven't seen All That Jazz, directed by Bob Fosse, watch it as soon as you can get a copy. It's marvelous. Do I really need to rant against The Academy in its failure to give Roy Scheider an Oscar for his heartbreaking, infuriating, and often hilarious portayal of Joe Gideon, a thinly veiled take on Bob Fosse himself?

One more thing: I think Sandahl Bergman has quite literally the perfect body here. Ah, well, she is a fitness expert, after all. But still, those legs! (Life is so damned unfair.)

From 1968: The Most Haunting Song Ever Recorded

Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge...

On The Smothers Brothers Summer Show in July 1968, Bobbie Gentry performs her hit "Ode To Billy Joe" live.



It captured the mood that had engulfed the nation at that point: Bobby Kennedy had been murdered a mere month before, Martin Luther King, Jr., had been gunned down in April, racial unrest continued to tear the very fabric of the United States apart, and disenchantment among young and old alike about the Vietnam War continued to spread. And roughly a month after this broadcast, Chicago would erupt in violence at the Democratic National Convention.

"Ode To Billy Joe" was a smash hit in 1967, this odd little song with just Bobbie Gentry's sweet voice and her guitar accompaniment. There is speculation even today as to what the narrator and Billy Joe were "throwin...off the Tallahatchie Bridge."

Some say it was a veiled antiwar anthem; that the girl and Billy Joe were throwing his draft notice into the murky waters, and that Billy Joe committed suicide rather than be deployed to Vietnam.

A more common interpretation is that it is a tale of love gone wrong; that the narrator had had an illegal abortion, ostensibly Billy Joe's child, and that after throwing the aborted fetus off the bridge into the murky waters that would keep their secret, Billy Joe committed suicide in remorse.

Whatever the scenario, whatever the song's meaning, the ending is just perfect:

And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Wow.

From 1988: Lea Salonga Auditions For MISS SAIGON

Lea Salonga, 17 years old, auditions with Claude-Michel Schonberg for the leading role of Kim in Miss Saigon.

Not much can be said about this clip, other than to direct you to watch the reactions of the three men standing at the other piano. They are, left to right, Nicholas Hytner, Cameron Mackintosh, and Alain Boublil. And I think you can tell what they were thinking: We've found our Kim.

(If you have the chance to see Miss Saigon, go! It is my favorite musical.)




Do you see Kim's face?

From 1981: Stop Dragging My Heart Around

I can't stop watching this beautiful clip.

I idolize Stevie Nicks. One of the true great rock n' roll ladies (a dying breed).

This song appears on Nicks' first solo release, Bella Donna.

In this video, interestingly enough, the Heartbreakers are the backup band.



Now pardon me, I have to go put some beads in my hair.

This Early Seventies PSA Just Makes Me Want To Do Drugs Even More

I mean, isn't the point of this clip that drugs will cause you to star in your own super-groovy episode of Scooby Doo, along with Mama Cass and The Harlem Globetrotters?

Or Don Knotts? Or Jerry Reed?



Christ, I need a Scooby Snack. Where's the peppermint bark (get it? bark? Scooby Doo was a dog? No?) I bought the other day?

From 1979, Possibly 1980: You're The Poet In My Heart

Definitely from the Tusk tour. At the time, Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks were embroiled in a torrid, albeit off-and-on, affair.

It is my experience that the world is divided into two groups of people: those who get Stevie's genius, and those who don't.