My favorite Van Morrison song. I first heard it nearly 30 years ago over the end credits of Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy.” Until it appeared on Van’s mega-selling “Best Of” album from 1990, the only place you could find it was “The King of Comedy” soundtrack which went out of print almost as soon as it was released. Since the song was nearly impossible to find and I loved “King,” I would always watch the film through the end credits to listen to it.
Sagittarius … and my name is Dave … and I love a woman who smells like Key Lime pie … and baby, if you think that … Oh I give up … This is “Float On” by The Floaters, a song that made it all the way to … I’m SOOOO not making this up …. NUMBER 2!!!!! on the Billboard charts back in 1977.
The Stones do a stellar version of this 1968 Stevie Wonder classic. It was recorded in 1969, but not released as a single until 1975, when it appeared on the odds and ends album “Metamorphosis.” It’s also included on the Stones box set “The Singles Collection.” Wonder’s original version appeared on his album “For Once in My Life” and was the B-side of his single “My Cherie Amour.”
From the 1980 album “Crazy Rhythms” (and if that’s not an accurate title, I don’t know what is). The Feelies play faster than almost anyone (including hardcore and speedcore bands), but with very little distortion. Very clean guitar lines, muted but still powerful percussion. The experience of this song is a lot like that “friend” who used to stand in front of you, put their hands together, tell you are travelling down a road at night, pulling their hands apart more and more rapidly, and then knocking you in the head and saying “Tree!” The difference with the Feelies is that there is no tree. A lot of insane buildup and perversely, no climax, or a very muted climax at best.
One of the first examples of “playing the dozens” in a pop song. The jokes here may be corny, but they’re still pretty damn funny.
Terrific modern blues by the late, great Warren Zevon. I’m sure anybody over 40 who dreads their annual physical can relate.
The emotional highlight from David Lynch’s 2001 masterpiece “Mulholland Drive,” this is a cover of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” sung entirely in Spanish by Rebekah Del Rio… and it’s devastating within the context of the film. “Blue Velvet” is my favorite Lynch film, but I have to admit that “Mulholland Drive” may actually be his best, a movie that never ceases to astonish me with its depth and meaning.
Here’s one that may come as a shock to most of you. A simple, beautiful, soulful ballad by one of the most popular … and underrated … singer / songwriters of all time. Neil Diamond is a great singer / songwriter undone many times over the years by his bad taste in arrangements and Vegas-y style. If you want to hear the most comically awful cover of all time, check out Diamond’s Vegas-y cover of “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables” … a song that should not only never be sung by a man, let alone in studly Sinatra-style fashion, but when you change the devastating last line of the song into something more “positive,” you’ve completely destroyed it.
Yes, I do enjoy Diamond’s bad taste stuff on one level (as do millions of others, ironically and non-ironically, who are devout fans). But Diamond’s album “12 Songs,” that he recorded with legendary producer Rick Rubin in 2005, makes me hate the fact that he ever put a sequined shirt. The arrangements are subtle and dignified.This is a beautiful, heartfelt, moving album of songs that highlights Diamond’s amazing voice, Just as he did with Johnny Cash, the Dixie Chicks, and many others too numerous to mention, Rubin has a knack for distilling what’s great about a performer, cutting out the bulls–t, and allowing people to be their best. Rubin’s collaboration with Diamond is an out-and-out masterpiece.
This film appears to be based on Carole King’s life … but not exactly. Because writer-director Allison Anders did a very smart thing when she came up with “Grace of My Heart.” Instead of going the straight biopic route … and getting raked over the coals for fudging details of what actually happened to keep the story moving, she fictionalized her account. This way, she could create composites of people, tell a compelling story, and keep people focused on her film. And, instead of trying to buy the rights to all of the great songs from the Brill Building era (which would have been cost-prohibitive), she hired the composers of that period (Burt Bachrach, Gerry Goffin, etc) and teamed them up with Elvis Costello and others to write new songs. This was another incredibly smart move, because not only are the new songs terrific in their own right, but having the old songs would have further distracted audiences from the narrative.
Anders script and directing are terrific. There’s loads of great actors in this film (Eric Stoltz, Matt Dillon, Patsy Kensit, Bridget Fonda, John Turturro), but Illeana Douglas towers above them all in the performance of her career as the lead, Edna Buxton. She should have copped an Oscar nomination for this. Unfortunately, even though Martin Scorsese was Executive Producer, the film was released by Gramercy Pictures (the mini-major created by Universal Pictures and Polygram Films), who botched the release of a lot of terrific films of the period (“Dazed and Confused,” “Mallrats,” “Bound,” “Kalifornia”) that are now considered classics. When they had the occasional hit (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Fargo”), it seemed purely accidental. But I digress …
This is the musical highlight of the film, in my opinion. “God Give Me Strength” was written by Burt Bachrach and Elvis Costello and is sung by Kristen Vigard (Douglas is lip-syncing).
If you want to hear a great podcast about this film, check out The Projection Booth’s episode on this film. It’s really terrific.
http://projection-booth.blogspot.com/2012/04/episode-60-grace-of-my-heart.html
Blues from hell, served burned to a crisp.
Dave's Strange World 