Martin Scorsese The Music Master.

'From the first shot of his first feature,” Roger Ebert wrote in 1990, “Scorsese has loved to use popular music as a counterpoint to the dramatic moments in his films. He doesn’t simply compile a soundtrack of golden oldies; he finds the precise sounds to underline every moment.” This quote from Gantsters Mixtape: The Rock and Roll music of Martin Scorsese  perfectly sums up the very idea of what music means to films and to life itself. A song can inflect and infer so much more emotion and mood that dialogue alone can. And Martin Scorsese is the maestro when it comes to using popular music to define action and narrative within film. Mt favorite film of all time is Goodfellas. For me this film, reminds me of my family specifically my mother. We would always watch this together when I was growing up. She was Italian and grew up in North Denver in the 50's. Her high school classmate Skip Laguardia was gunned down in his driveway by the mafia in Denver, which if you didn't think their was any mafia in Denver, their was. I remember eating a Gaetanos restaurant when i was a kid and hearing stories and being both intrigued and scared because that place was in a shit part of town. So i was of course always fascinated by the mafia and what makes Goodfellas greater than most is how this tale of gangsters is told along with the music. The music is juxtaposed in-between dialogue, the songs themselves often comment on the action happening on screen, and the songs instantly define each of the decades represented within the film, from the 50's through the 80's. When I hear Tony Bennett's Rags to Riches, I can only think of Ray Liotta slamming the trunk shut and opening the film. It is undeniable  and brilliant, and sets the tone of the entire film. The early songs in the film when Henry is growing up, like "Cant we be Sweethearts" by the Cleftones, and Speedo by the Cadalliacs, give the first part of the film an nostalgic romanticized look into the past, that in retrospect wasn't as carefree and innocent like the songs themselves. Studying the musical cues of Goodfellas exposes just how perfectly the songs go with the scenes themselves. "I Will Follow Him" by Betty Curtis plays when Karen tracks Henry down after he stood her up the first time.  During the legendary 3 minute steady cam shot of Henry and Karen walking through the kitchen up to the restaurant "Then He Kissed Me" begins playing by The Crystals. The song begins with the words "he walked up to me" and from Karen's perspective Henry is walking and leading her into his world both psychically and romantically.The song comments on the scenes itself. Classical compositions in film convey mood, but popular songs underlie meaning. And that's what Scorsese is great at. Even if a snip-it of a song  is played for a second then switches into another song altogether it would appear random but like the mind itself always racing from thought to thought the songs demonstrate the frantic emotions of being human.

80's Movie Musical Montage

 Some of the most iconic and indeminable moments in film occurred  when music was grafted onto a specific scene or played out during a  riveting montage sequence. When done right it can be a magical thing, that can live on outside the entire film itself. Most people haven't seen Saturday Night Fever, but they know John Travolta strutting down the street to Stayin Alive. They know Rocky, running up the steps to Flying High. Now their is one decade that is always underestimated, one decade whose music gets criticized, and whose  films overlooked. And that decade is the 80's. But I don't care I love the 80's. I love the big hair, the shoulder pads, the neon, the kitsch, Max Headrom, Ninja Turtles, Freddy Kruger you name it. I love it for all the reasons people don't. For all its faults, it remains an identifiable decade. For me and i don't want to sound like an historical chauvinist, but since the Millennium, I cant distinguish it. It is a time of everything and nothing at the same time, does 2000-2010 feel or look different in its appearance to 2015? I don't know, and I dont really care. Anyways back to the 80's, it is easy to overlook and compartmentalize the music of the 80's. Yes, Pop music was fueled by synthesizers, and one hit wonders, who carved out their own niches between Michael Jackson and Madonna. But when I watch Ferris Buellers Day Off and Ferris sees Cameron's Dads, Ferrari and Oh Yeah comes on by Yello, it doesn't get much better than that. Or when Judd Nelson raises his fist at the end of The Breakfast Club and Dont You Forget About Me starts playing by Simple Minds i'm reminded at how perfect that song ends the film. Its easy to overlook the lyrics but if you take the time that song encapsulates the emotion of high school. Its no coincidence that those two films were made by John Hughes, who in my opinion stands well above  most filmmakers. As a writer and director he always managed to incorporate music in his films at the right place that always invoked a felling or image that was undeniable. Ferris Bueller lypsinging to Wayne Newtons Danke Schoen to the Beatles Shake it up Baby reveals Ferris as a character both childlike and sincere and a rock star at the same time, which is what he was. Or who could forget John Candy mimicking playing the piano to Ray Charles Mess Around, while driving down the highway in Planes Trains and Automobiles. Both hilarious and endearing and by the time and by the time the film reaches the last shot with John Candy and Steve Martin walking together to Every time You Go, your heart cannot well up fast enough. Thats how powerful music can be when appropriately integrated within a film. This got me thinking about other classic songs from films in the 80's, of course their is Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News from Back to the Future, Ghostbusters from Ghostbusters Ray Parker, and one of my personal Favorites, Call Me by Blondie from American Gigolo. Eye of The Tiger, Rocky 3, View to a Kill from the James Bond film of the same name by Duran Duran. Old Time Rock and Roll, Bob Seger, from Risky Buisness which is still a classic scene, and  thats the only rock song in the whole film the rest is Tangerine Dream and In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins. Then you had musicians contributing to the entire film soundtrack like what Prince did with Purple Rain and Batman. Jack Nicholson as the Joker, desecrating  all that artwork to Party Man by Prince perfectly encapsulates the Joker. And not mention my favorite band of all time AC/DC providing the soundtrack to Maximum Overdrive. When the drawbridge opens on its own in the beginning killing the people on the bridge and Who Made Who comes on, you know your in for a ride. Everyone knows the scenes from Dirty Dancing, Footlose and Flashdance. They have become like parodies of themselves, but that shouldn't diminish them, and besides that theirs also plenty of other great stuff in the 80's that gets neglected when it comes to the films and the music.

Rock Films and Gimme Shelter.

Rock documentaries or Rockumentaries as they are refereed to in the article On the Cutting Room Floor, have always appealed to me, as have rock biographies that have been made into feature length films as well. Reading about the chronological order in which they have evolved is a fascinating account. The article chronicles the birth of what essentially was a filmed concert known as the T.A.M.I.(Teenage Awards Music International) show in 1964 which featured an impressive array of talent. From the Rolling Stones to The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Leslie Gore, Chuck Berry, James Brown, and Bo Diddly to name a few. It wasn't so much a look into the private lives of the performers which would define the later rockumentaries but more in the  vain of being a spectator in a concert hall with the best seat in the house. Then came Monterey Pop the film which was documented by D.A. Pennebaker who had previously chronicled cinema verite style Bob Dylan in Dont Look Back. Whats interesting in the trajectory of rock films up till then was how they retained a cult status, whereas they were films seen by the hard core fans only rather than the mainstream. This of course changed with the release of Woodstock which was filmed and released by Warner Brothers in 1979. Woodstock functioned as an event film directed by Michael Wadleigh the film featured "visual effects, consisting of split screens, superimposition's, and double framing, as well as interviews with the crowd as well as the concert footage made this documentary something special." This concert film had a higher ticket price of $5.00 it was a documentary that transformed the subject according to "Cutting Room Floor" to cinematic art". The film was a huge financial success. If Woodstock set the mode for the future of rock films, then Gimme Shelter set the tone of cutting edge documentaries regardless of the subject matter. What began as a chronicle of the Rolling Stones by the Maysles brothers and their Madison Square Garden concert turned into something far more disturbing and revealing. After the Garden performance the Maysels followed the Stones to the Altamont Speedway in California. The Maysels like they did with the Beatles when they first visited the States, approached the film with a direct cinema approach whereas the audience is a fly on the wall. But similar to what would be seen in news documentaries they did play the footage back while Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts looked on giving it a film within a film experience. What sets Gimme Shelter apart is that it at first appears to be a straight forward look at the Stones performing and letting their guard down somewhat. The footage isn't a Hollywood production like Woodstock, or in other rock films made currently but a single camera view of a great band. But then things turn once they reach the speedway, and the Maysles were their to chronicle it as if they were journalists covering a war zone. From the beginning of the free concert the crowd begins to arrive en-mass, but the vibes and general ambiance of the crowd is off. It is almost a palpable feeling that something is going to happen and its going to be bad. Once the Hells Angels arrive, you new it wasn't going to end well. When it was over four were dead, and the summer of love was officially over. Whats amazing now is looking back at the reception Gimme Shelter received at the time of its release. Critics labeled it "one of the most unpleasant, bleak, depressing movies they've ever encountered." They obviously missed the point. Filming a concert doesn't constitute anything other than a representation of what you couldn't see on your own. The notion that these films are made to expose the artists with their guard down, is somewhat of a fallacy because they still know their  being filmed, regardless of what they lead you to believe. But what the Maysles brothers did was have enough foresight to turn their attention away from the concert and show the cultural disintegration that was happening right in front of them. It was a clash of cultures fueled by drugs and violence that shattered the Utopian reality of Woodstock a mere two months prior.

Monterey POP

Looking back at the Monterey Pop music festival that was held in 1967 in California i can only wish that somehow I could go back in time and be their in person. Be their to  witness the historic American debut of Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Ravi Shankar, not to mention the incomparable Janis Joplin, giving a performance of a life time only to have it not be recorded. Reading about the Monterey pop festival from Flowers in the Dustbin, I am in awe at how this event was in a sense teh perfect meeting between folk music and legitimate Rock and Roll, standing side by side, in unison although To quote James Miller Monterey Pop integrated the hardest rock and Roll into the mainstream of the global music business. And after the summer of love Rock and Roll was no longer a genre of popular music it was Pop music." To me it seems that the Monterey Pop festival is somehow overlooked by Woodstock two years later, but for me Monterey was more tight knit, and welcoming. Woodstock was too big, a festival in excess, whereas Monterey Pop was still about the music first, before it become something garish. For me watching Ottis Reading in one his last performances before his premature death in an airplane crash six months later is both humbling and spectacular at the same time. Watching him sing Respect, and Satisfaction, backed by Booker T and the Mg's only enforces that he was the master of soul. In Flowers in the Dust Bin, Miller describes "Janis Joplin as someone of modest technical means, who shrieked and screamed, as if possessed in the grip of a demon." He would later say that upon Janis's first powerful performance which was accidentally not filmed, that her second performance wasn't as great, because hysteria is hard to fake a second time. I couldn't disagree more. I think to say that Janis Joplin was limited in her singing is an understatement. I believe that she was a master of vocal control, who chose to sing from the depths of her soul.  To describe her performance as hysterical, is an insult, especially to women, hysterical being an infliction that was imposed on women in the 18th century. What Janis Joplin did as a singer and performer was something akin to James Brown, or any other rhythm and blues singer. With each performance she left a piece of her soul on the stage. Watching her sing it is raw and gritty, and wholly original for a woman to be in the same league as her male counterparts.  Watching her sing Ball and Chain even if it was the second time is nonetheless spectacular.
    Other highlights of the show that were impressive, were of course The Who, who appropriately sang My Generation, a fitting tribute for the changing times and culture as witnessed by the massive crowd of hippies and counterculturealists sitting on the ground. It is safe to say that watching DA Pennebaker's film of Monterey Pop their is a sense of one-up-man-ship going on between the performers. Which leads to Jimi Hendrix. Its hard to top The Who, especially Pete Townsand, but I feel that Hendrix new that he could out-guitar-him, so to speak, and he did. Watching him bang out Wild Thing is at first disconcerting, then mesmerizing. He made it look effortless, as he strummed the guitar, and contorted it, exacting every conceivable sound form it, in every possible position. And when the guitar could no longer emulate the song Jimi simply offered it to the rock gods, and set it on fire. But whats funny is that it didn't seem pretentious, it was just a humble offering from a master. And to conclude the film is of course a 20 minute clip from Shankar's four hour performance. The performance acts as a cleanser, it is so original, the sitar just washes over you, clearing your mind of all worry and thought you become almost trance-like listening to it. I can only imagine sitting their for four hours, and what effects it would have had, especially high.

The Jester Bod Dylan

James Miller summed Bob Dylan up Best when he said the "He could irritate, and engage. He could provoke an argument, cause a furor, polarize a tight knit subculture like the folk community while making music an art form that demanded for its sincere reception something like the shock of conversion." I find that a perfect summation of Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan to me cannot be categorized or pigeonholed within a single genre or ideology. He is his own in every sense of the word and whatever that is it doesn't matter. I've always been fascinated by what happened when Dylan played his electric guitar and the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 accompanied by an on stage band. When he began to sing Maggie's Farm the crowd goes hostile shouting jeers such as "Sellout,"and "Play Folk" music. Pete Seeger becomes so incensed he threatens to pull the electrical wiring out of the wall, while srceaming and shouting. All this because he decided to play in a way that didn't fit into the "folk" ideology of its time. Dylan was inspired by Woddy Guthie, and fell into the folk music scene, touting songs that were expansive lyrical poems. But I've always felt that Dylan played songs for himself first and foremost and it was the people who listened to them that extracted meaning out of them and interpreted them in their own way regardless of what Dylan meant, consciously or not. But at his heart Dylan was still a musician, where as Pete Seeger only used  music to promote a Utopian folk lifestyle. That's why Seeger was outraged that Dylan didn't play the humble folk guitar and wear the customary work shirt and blue jeans of the working man as a show for solidarity. Because it threatened what he was trying to create for himself and his followers. Its hard  to understand now because their is virtually no mainstream music that has any ideology other than to sell records. And if an artists establishes themselves through one genre of music, then abandons it, like lets say Taylor Swift did with country or whoever they are embraced as reinventing themselves. And that's what Dylan did, he continued to do what he wanted and play what he wanted, regardless of whatever genre it was and if he hadn't, he would have  be a footnote in folk music history, like Peter, Paul, and Mary, or The Kingston Trio. Because the ideology of folk music could only sustain itself for so long before becoming  tired and played out.And ultimately that's why Dylan was able to sustain his creativity through the late 60's and  70's and beyond making in my opinion some of his best work, Buckets of Rain, Knocking on Heavens Door, Lay Lady Lay, Hurricane and my personal favorite from Wonder Boys, Things Have Changed, and the great stuff he did with The Traveling Wilburys etc. Music that transcends genres.
   I think one reason why I like Bob Dylan so much is how he evokes emotion in his music. His voice although instantly recognizable, doesn't have a masterful vocal range, but  he is able to pronounce and emphasize words, that gives them meaning, beyond what other artists can do. Like James Miller points out in how Like a Rolling Stone on the page is a song that just lays their, but how Dylan drags out and pronounces "How do you FEEEEL" it turns the question into an insult." So for me every time I listen to his songs I notice and interpret things differently than I did when I heard them the first time. Its like rereading a good book, or re-watching a movie and discovering  more than you realize.  His songs give you more to think about, whether its about life, or love, or politics or all of it and I cant say that about much of the music I hear on the radio right now.

The Beatles: A New Appreciation

  Growing up I was always a little ambivalent about the Beatles. I always liked their music, I had the obligatory Beatles CD of their number one hits, but that was about it. I had friends in High School who lived and breathed the Beatles and immersed themselves in them. And they would talk about the Beatles first movie A Hard Days Night, and I would talk about The Wall. It wasn't until recently that I revisited The Beatles, their music and A Hard Days Night that I finally got it. Reading about the cultural phenomenon of Beatlemania from Flowers in the Dustbin was a revelation.  I had never realized that The Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan show in Feb 1964 came just a couple months after president Kennedy was killed and America was needing something new to embrace. Something different, wonderful and wholly original than what America had at that moment to offer. Seeing their press conference leading up to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan show it is evident how they appealed to the youth culture of America. Whereas Elvis was something mystical and unattainable, these four lads, where youthfully comic, honest and authentic. They might have been a little cocky  but not pretentious. And watching them I could understand how relate-able they were, you could identify yourself within them. To quote Kenneth Womak and Todd Davis's Beatles on Film article each one had their own attributes, "John, was the one with the sarcastic intelligence, Ringo had the affable personality, and good natured humor, George was quiet and reserved and Paul had the boyish charm and good looks."
 Those personalities were suited to be filmed, and A Hard Days Night is a wonderful expression of themselves as "personalities." It was inevitable that they would make a film, but that the film would stand alone as a good film that embraced the mythology of the Beatles without succumbing to the later expectations of what the Beatles were was pretty remarkable. Credit must be given to The Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who realized that film was a great way to expose the Beatles in new markets. From United Artists perspective they signed on to release the film "for the express purpose of having a soundtrack album." Of course the focus for a soundtrack album usually laid bare any notion of a good film, the best example being Elvis whose films were in large part no equal to the man himself. I think A Hard Days Night succeeds on the merit of the director Richard Lester. His bold vision to create a cinema verite' style film shot in black and white still manages to to endearing, honest, and genuinely funny in a subtle way. Its an impressionistic look at fame and the trials and absurdity of it. The film at its heart is a "pop musical that splices micronaratives about each band member together," And on top of that it creates the musical sub genre of getting the band together and to the show in time. Which  has been duplicated and copied many times in many other films. Ultimately what A Hard Days Night did in the end was cement the Beatles mythology, according to Womak and Davis. "Mythology finds its roots in our desires to tell stories about ourselves." And that's what the film did while integrating six new songs into it. I must say that  I Should Have Known Better is the best song in the movie, but what do I know. In the end the Beatles would make three more feature films Help, Let it Bet, and Yellow Submarine. Those films reflect a different Beatles, a band that had with each new album adapted and changed both in  their musical style, their personal lives and in their general outlook on life and fame. The Beatles are so ingrained in the culture it is easy to take them for granted but sometimes to re-discover and appreciate its necessary to start at the begining. Thats what I did.

Thank God For Bandstand

My mom always said thank god for American Bandstand because she hated the Hit Parade. The Hit Parade was on from 1950 to 59 and featured a whole host of clean cut kids singing bad renditions of the most popular hit songs of the day. It was like today's Kidz Bop. But In 1957 when Dick Clark's American Bandstand came on you were finally able to see who was singing your favorite songs everyday after school, and that was a wonderful thing. It was like hanging out with your favorite friends daily.  By today's standards American Bandstand seems an easy sell, but its not until I read more into the history of Bandstand from James Millers Flowers in the Dustbin that I now have an even greater appreciation for what Dick Clark achieved. The analyzing of teenagers in 1957 was incredible to me. The teen of the 50's was a "generation of teenagers to never have know an non prosperous world." They had not experienced the Depression and they were to young to know the horrors of World War 2. They had money to spend and were psychologically free to spend it on leisure items that their parents could not."Of course this included the freedom of expression to enjoy music and for that, the teenagers  needed a moderator, a gentle master of ceremonies to the music and Dick Clark was just the man. He realized that the young people of the country was a powerful element that had not been properly reached, or acknowledged. Now Dick Clark was above all else a shrewd business man and he approached the music industry from a business perspective, He wasn't a music enthusiast but in a sense that's what was needed for the show to work. Those who had a supreme passion for the music above all else were the ones who failed. Alan Freed cared more about the music itself and disregarded the rules, and ultimately lost. Dewey Phillips did the same thing and failed. So its no surprise that Dick Clark looked at those failures and set up a controlled format that left no room for scandal, or failure. The show was filled of course with regular white teenage dancers from 14 to 18 dancing to the music which anchored the show down. Strict clothing requirements made sure the censors were pleased. Boys had  ties and jackets, Girls had simple skirts and blouses tight sweaters and slacks were forbidden. The performers lip synced to their own songs. But by doing that it guaranteed it always sounded perfect and eliminated any room for error. By doing this Dick Clark minimized Rock and Roll as a negativism, and made it accessible to mainstream America. If Rock and Roll could be viewed in the capacity of a nice wholesome show, showcasing the popular music of its time then somehow that's ok and theirs nothing to fear in that. Racially speaking the dancers were a majority of Caucasian kids who were normal everyday kids which connected with the everyday kids at home. The network allowed no more than nine Negros on dancing on the show at a time, in the shows beginnings. Ironically the dances displayed on the show by the main dancers were dances developed by black kids, granted they were cleaned up, but the show did expose the country to the dances themselves. Dances like The Stroll, and The Twist. Dick Clark's hands might have been tied but by having his dancers display and slowly erode the physicality of this black intimate dances he was striking a blow for civil rights.  Dick Clark single handily turned Philly into a music mecca and in doing so he gave every performer a chance to fulfill their dreams. Acts who would have never been seen or heard gained instant celebrity. From The Ronetts, to Frankie Vali and the Four Seasons, to Frankie Avalon, and Connie Francis, Bobby Darin, all the way to the television debut of Madonna the list goes on and on till 1989. American Bandstand went for 32 years. Which is absolutely incredible, for a man who didn't have an ear for music, he did more for music and exposing it to the country than anyone. Long live the eternal teenager Dick Clark.