listening

     I like to listen to

"The Blues Had A Baby And They Named It Rock And Roll"

by Muddy Waters

and then

"Corrine, Corrina"

by Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton
(Taj Mahal on vocals)

back to back.

----------------------------------

The Muddy Waters song is like a freight train roaring down the tracks -- the rockin' flyin' Chicago blues!

"Corrine Corrina" is more of a dancy, light, New Orleans-jazz-influenced celebration, with movements -- each instrument-group gets its turn to solo, to speak:  the video goes 10 minutes, so you don't have to go back right away and pick another song or play it over...

     It kind of has a spirit, almost, of forest creatures skipping happily, yet it rocks:  "Well - I - wake up-in-the-mornin'...!"

------------------------------------

Makes me want to say whisperingly, accentedly, floatily, dreamily, yet firmly:
"Just as long as it's the best"...

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magnificence and detail

wish to share and celebrate

"The Blues Had A Baby And They Named It Rock And Roll"

"Corrine, Corrina" -- Wynton Marsalis w/ Eric Clapton

Blonde On Blonde

Rubber Soul


     When recommending songs and albums, I do it because I find them to be so good.

     I think of Jackie Kennedy in her 1962 televised Tour of the White House where she says, about 17 minutes in, "I think the entertainment that's given at the White House should be the best!  [she says something else, I can't remember, and then finishes her thought] -- Just as long as it's the best."

     Not -- "best" as in, "better than you, so there!" -- not that tone; she's recommending that we strive for excellence -- celebrating excellence.  Delighting in, and celebrating, excellence.

     "Just as long as it's the best."

     To listen to her say that -- you are left sort of spellbound.  Her voice is floaty, drifty, like a stealth diplomat ... with her mysterious mid-Atlantic accent from the early 20th Century -- lost, now, in History's inexorable folds.  (No one sounds like that, anymore!)

"Just as long as it's the best."

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all you people, you know the blues got a soul

Type in

Muddy Waters, the blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll

and 

Play.



     That is some Chicago Blues.

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the blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll

I would like to get into a time machine and travel back to the 1950s or '40s and be in Chicago when Chess Records was recording the early rock music and blues.

[The Rolling Stones recording at Chess - 1960s]

Yes, want to be there in the '60s, too -- want to hang with Keith....

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the roll in the rock

Fred Below (accent on the first syllable) -- BEE'-low


"Too Much Monkey Business," recorded by Elvis Presley in 1968, was written and recorded by Chuck Berry in 1956.

     In the Elvis version it says, "Been to Vietnam, been a-fightin' in the war..."
     In 1956 Vietnam was not going on yet, the original lyrics were, "Been to Yokohama, been a-fightin' in the war..."


On You Tube, we can listen to Chuck Berry's original recording, and there is also a video, if you scroll down, with Rolling Stone Keith Richards playing it with him (recorded in the 1980s for the documentary "Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll").

     In that documentary, drummer Steve Jordan

gave credit to 1950s-era drummer Fred Below who played on "Too Much Monkey Business" when they first laid it down at Chess Records in Chicago.  Jordan said Below "put the roll in the rock" with his technique.

     On the Elvis version of this song, a listener on You Tube Commented, 
"That's Jerry Reed on the acoustic guitar!"
     The Uploader of the video stepped in and answered, "Yes it is."

Jerry Reed:
"East Bound and Down"
"She Got the Goldmine, I Got the Shaft"
"Down on the Corner"


     In the online free encyclopedia, it says "Too Much Monkey Business" influenced Bob Dylan writing "Subterranean Homesick Blues" --

     ...Watch the plain clothes
     You don't need a weatherman
     To know which way the wind blows

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same thing every day

Runnin' to and fro, hard workin' at the mill
Never failed in the mail, yet come a rotten bill
Too much monkey business,
Too much monkey business
Too much monkey business -- for me to be involved in


Salesman talkin' to me, tryin' to run me up a creek
Says you can buy it, go on try it, you can pay me next week
Ah, too much monkey business,
Too much monkey business
Too much monkey business -- for me to be involved in


Blonde haired, good lookin' -- tryin' to get me hooked
Wants me to marry, get a home, settle down, and write a book
Ha -- too much monkey business,
Too much monkey business
Too much monkey business for me to be involved in


Same thing every day, gettin' up, goin' to school
No need to be complainin' -- my objections overruled
Ah, too much monkey business
Too much monkey business
Too much monkey business -- for me to be involved in


Pay phone, somethin' wrong, dime gone, will mail
I ought to sue the operator for tellin' me a tale
Ah! -- too much monkey business,
Too much monkey business
Too much monkey business -- for me to be involved in


I been to Yokohama, been a-fightin' in the war
Army bunk, army chow, army clothes, army car,
Hah! -- too much monkey business,
Too much monkey business
Too much monkey business -- for me to be involved in


Workin' in the fillin' station, too many tasks
Wipe the windows, check the tires, check the oil, dollar gas
Uh-uh, too much monkey business,
Too much monkey business
I don't want your botheration, go away, leave me be


Too much monkey business for me!

______________________________________

Type in,
on Google
or You Tube:

Elvis Presley, Too Much Monkey Business

and Play.

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even though I know you're lyin'

On You Tube, when you type in

Elvis Presley, Too Much

two different songs come up --

"Too Much"

and

"Too Much Monkey Business."


     Today's song is the one with the two-word title:

"Too Much."


     The picture on the video is the same as that one for "Hound Dog" -- 

     After beginning with a "clunk, clunk, thunk, thunk" thing happening, the song deftly two-steps into its groove:  a beguiling, compelling, slidey backbeat is lobbying the listener....


     A guitar solo which boldly steps in to have its say after the first verse or two was, to me, almost like an "interruption" -- even though I love this song... You Tube Commenter Dean Bibb had a different take on it:

"Scotty Moore singlehandedly invented hard rock / heavy metal guitar work right here with this song!"

     I'll go with that.

And now, vanquish all bad news and negativity by tapping,

PLAY.

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train, train

     1955 - 1965 Alfred Hitchcock had a TV show where there would be a suspense story told weekly -- sometimes at the end Hitchcock would say to the audience, "I think we've had quite enough for one evening."  (I liked that phrase, for some reason.  Maybe it was the way he said it.  He has on-camera personality and magnetism, unembellished by physical beauty.)


     Another trademark phrase was the director looking into the camera and intoning ponderously, "Good evening."  In a documentary on You Tube, an associate of Hitchcock's told of riding in a taxi with him and they were stopped at a light; a teenage boy came up to the window and said to him, mimicking his style, "Good - EVE-ning!"

     Hitchcock didn't say anything to the young man; light changed, taxi drove on, and then the famous director turned to his companion and said, "Can you believe that?"...

__________________________________

Today's song to listen to is

"Mystery Train," by Elvis Presley.

There's an upload on You Tube where you see the yellow Sun Record Company label with a picture of a chicken under the word "SUN."



Under the picture it says,

"Mystery Train by Elvis Presley on 1955 Sun 78."
Uploader:  Irh1966

     On this song the guitar-playing is like the sound of a train -- a steady, insistent, jumping beat.


And now, Play

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sonar impact

Whenever you are listening to Elvis Presley's recording of "Hound Dog" on You Tube, the first thing that grabs you is the "cold start"

 -- no instruments playing yet, just the Elvis voice calling out:  "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog"...
     ... a good example, I think, of what music producer Jerry Wexler called the "sonarity" of a record -- how it "impacts instantly on the ear"...

As the song goes from that first phrase -- the instrumentation all thunk-and-thunder -- there are people clapping on the offbeat, there's backing vocals ("Ahhhhh, ahhhhh"), their rhythmic sweetness undercut by a gritty, meandering guitar part.

     The overall effect is that of people seemingly recording in a bare-walled room (that's mid-1950s recording, plus maybe also Sun Records style...).

     After the first verse the drumming bursts out like a machine gun.

     The result is organized chaos.

When you go on You Tube and type in this song, there's one upload that says "Vevo" in the lower-left corner of the rectangle representing the song.  It says "Elvis" in the middle of the rectangle.  Elvis is in all capital letters except for the "i" which is a number one ("1")

ELV1S

That is the one to listen to.
Now.
(you aint' NOTHIN' but a hound dog...)

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a small, sinister delight

----------------------------------

The Guardian
"My favourite Hitchcock:  Shadow of a Doubt"
written by Dallas King
Wed 15 Aug 2012

reader comments

goldbug30
--------------- This film was a revelation to me when I first saw it.  It's not generally held up amongst the 'top tier' of Hitchcock films, but it is as elegant and creepy a film as he ever directed.  Joseph Cotten, who most people probably know as Jed Leland [Citizen Kane] or Holly Martins [The Third Man] is very scary in this role.

MikeMorris2
--------------- Agreed, it's got a special creepiness to it and Cotten is superb.

zerocinemablog
-------------------- Probably Hitchcock's best film.  Certainly a contender, although there are 4 or 5 that are vying for supremacy.  The uneasy, evolving... chemistry between Wright and Cotten elevates it to that kind of level.


buntyman
---------------- Cotten is indeed superb.

...The dinner table scene in Shadow... has much in common with the word game in Suspicion, with different modes of murder being lightly discussed in front of Cary Grant's Johnnie who may possibly have a thing for killing old rich people.

colddebtmountain
------------- Hitchcock was a maestro of character portrayal and the darker side of life was very well demonstrated in "Shadow of A Doubt".  

He lets us know who not to trust very early on and then castigates us for feeling that way by polishing the edges off of the Joseph Cotten character.  

The film admirably demonstrates his masterful way of twisting us around his directorial finger.  

He even encourages us to find "good" in nasty characters just to highlight our gullible, trusting or misguided natures.  

A film not so much about doubt as the shadows we do not go too near for fear of what we might find.  
     The comfort zone perhaps.

I think Hitchcock enjoyed black and white for its dramatic effect when his films were composed of several layers of grey and in that genre "Shadow of A Doubt" was one of his best, and beautifully acted too.

OldHazlittean
------------------------- Hitchcock's most underrated picture, in my opinion.  

Not as obviously technically virtuosic as some others (e.g. Vertigo, The Birds, Rear Window) but the general plainness of the presentation -- the pale, even lighting, the masterfully small-town pacing etc - are a brilliant counterpoint to the submerged chiaroscuro character of affable ole Joe Cotten.  

A small, sinister delight of a movie.

holzy
------------------- I watched this movie recently and finally realised its theme:  perfection.

...The...angst that comes with discovering the perfect American small town family life is nothing more than a series of fragile burdens - the precocious child who talks across the demure mother's telephone conversation; the fidgeting child; the father's hobby nothing but misdirected inarticulate hunger for just one thrill in a dull, dull life; the endless constraints of public life...

A stunning film.


swanstep
-------------------- Very nice film. ...

While never as influential as Strangers On A Train or Psycho, Shadow of a Doubt continues to impact upon some of the best modern film-makers.  

For example, Lynch's transitional jitterbuggers in Mulholland Drive seem to me to owe a lot to Shadow of a doubt's spooky, transitional ballroom dancers, and Lumberton in Blue Velvet owes more than a little to Shadow's Santa Rosa.  


For another example, the Coens explicitly modeled The Man Who Wasn't There on Shadow Of A Doubt (setting it in Santa Rosa), but more importantly, the note that the Coens often reach for 

(e.g., in Fargo and in No Country) 

of having good characters express how they can't understand the genuinely evil ones (and that it seems to be almost dream-like in the daylight of their own lives) ....

PierreGn
------------------------ Probably the most powerful Hitchcock film, Cotten is truly creepy; but the film has lost a lot of its power through the sets,
costumes, cars, that give it a feel of a period film.  I'm looking forward to a remake by Wim Wenders with Leonardo de Caprio as Uncle Charlie.

fabrisse
-------------- I adore this movie.  Teresa Wright's performance is an anchor to reality, and she does a superb job.


Bracebridge
-------------------- Having grown up in small town Canada, this film isn't too far from the truth....This and Notorious 

are my two favourite Hitchcock films


AntiFylfot
------------------- Teresa Wright's first films were Mrs. Miniver, Pride of The Yankees, The Little Foxes, Shadow of A Doubt and Best Years of Our Lives.  Sensational actress.

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