Hump Day Hit 1/25/17

I bet you think I forgot about Music Monday this week, and you’d be half right in that I practically slept through Monday after an early start to the day. So this week, let’s have a #HumpDayHit! The week can be long and arduous, so as we head downhill to the weekend we look at a song lamenting how hard it can be out there. The Spinners are an outstanding group who found a way to capture that wonderful Philly sound after they moved to Atlantic Records following a six year run with Motown. They had an array of hits with Atlantic. A wonderful time period where the songs were on point and Philippé Wynne was at his peak as one of the primary leads. In “Games People Play” however, he only provides background as Bobby Smith and Pervis Jackson give us that tired feeling of the daily grind the world throws at us. Evette Benton joins in to segue us into the chorus. All of it, including a wonderful piano break, adds up to another million seller for the group, and a top 5 hit on the pop charts. 

Music Monday Follow-Up 1/17/17

Follow up to yesterday's #MusicMonday. I love me a good crossover, and so did Motown, having quite a few acts team up for various albums. The Four Tops teamed up with The Supremes—post Diana at this point—for three different albums in two years, with the super-pairing (and 1st album) being referred to as "The Magnificent Seven". Quite fitting as they did some pretty good work covering "River Deep, Mountain High" and yesterday's selection, "Without the One You Love"; with "Without the One You Love" seeing a more typical funk production of the label at the time. Glad they kept the strings. It allows the lifting feeling of the original to remain here.

Music Monday 1/16/17

After starting off #MusicMonday with two female artists, let’s switch to four men! The Four Tops were an amazing group from Motown’s classic era, lead by the outstanding, late Levi Stubbs. They had a litany of hits over the course of their time with Motown, which ended for the first time in 1972 when the label moved to Los Angeles. This isn’t one of those hits. “Without the One You Love (Life’s Not Worth While)”, released in 1964, only peaked at #43, but the emotion they pack in it is present aplenty. As a follow up to their previous hit “Baby I Need Your Loving”, it continues along the lines of expressing how important the subject’s love is to the group. It’s a simple song with so much to give; with the echo sound, strings, and use of session vocalists The Andantes giving this a heavenly, rising feeling. And with the superb Levi Stubbs giving it his all as he always did, you can hear the emotion pouring out, even if to a melodramatic effect. So much so, that I just can’t help but sing along. While there isn’t much to the song, I wish it ran longer that its 2:47 runtime. A wonderful listen.

Music Monday 1/9/17

It’s around this time of year that an annual tradition would start and millions would enjoy it numerous nights a week. I’m talking about American Idol, and for the first time since 2002, really 2003, that won’t be happening as the show concluded its run last year. A tradition of the show was the winner of the season singing and releasing a “debut” single referred to as their “coronation song”. In the beginning, as the show exploded in popularity, many of those songs charted high, even going to #1. Today, I present my favorite, and what I think is the best, of the coronation songs, Fantasia’s “I Believe”. Fantasia is probably one of the best winners in the of the show. She performed amazingly well, and consistently, week after week as she competed in Season 3, with her performance of “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess being one of the greatest singular performances in the show’s history. By the time it came down to the end, it was no competition between her and Diana DeGarmo as to who would win. The #1 debut of the song made Fantasia the first female artist to have such a debut with her first record and for good reason. The song is such a journey of hope and inspiration, I find it hard for me to not sing along as builds towards the end and Fantasia delivers its spirit as only she can. It was a high watermark to start of an amazing, yet understated career. Fun side note, Season 1 finalist Tamyra Grey was the writer of this song. It’s so great that she could be given this opportunity and come through exceptionally. I could go on about Idol for ages as it was a favorite of my family for years. I shan’t, but enjoy this wonderful song.

Music Monday 1/2/17

So, I’ve decided to do something to express myself here on Facebook/online a bit more than I did in 2016. So let’s try to do a weekly #MusicMonday bit and see where it goes. To start things off, let’s go with one of my all-time favorite singers. While people will go out “stanning” for Rihanna, Lady Gaga, or Beyoncé (and I have no problem with any of them, cool your jets), I’m also out stanning for Ella Fitzgerald. Now, I love me some Sarah Vaughn or Lena Horne, but I consider Ms. Fitzgerald to be the Queen of Jazz. Given a voice sent from high above, she used it to the greatest of her ability in a career that spanned over 50 years. I often consider her to be the greatest singer of the 20^th century. Here we listen to her cover of “How High the Moon” from the late 40s. Oddly enough, while Ella had a few songs that were introduced by her, her strongest suit was having a superb arrangement of an already established song as she belted it out as only she could. This song was introduced in a Broadway play called “Two for the Show” back in 1940. You could probably consider the most famous version to be that by the great Les Paul and Mary Ford. I can get into a whole other paragraph about how great an impact Les Paul had on music, but not today. In that version—seriously, go listen to that version—the music break is handled by seamless guitar playing from Paul and wonderful, groundbreaking multi-track effects of Ford’s voice. Here, Ella eschews the structure of the song to just guide us through with the skill of scat, her specialty. I guarantee this will not be the only time Ella Fitzgerald gets a mention from me.

Last Minute Obligatory Oscar Picks

It's the time again. The biggest event of the entertainment year, Oscar Night. Yes, a time when the Academy awards the best acting of the past year, while possibly giving out make-out awards to older stars who are "due". Yeah, yeah, I know that's how the industry is works and I know it's what Django Unchained and The Wolf of Wall Street did themselves to be eligible despite having Christmas releases. Still, it bothers me a little. They're simply pandering to the memory of the Academy, who probably has a median age of Methuselah. Granted that pandering didn't work for Selma, but what can you say. It happens. In any case, this is a rather boring year. Not many of the movies were great. They were good, but I wasn't clamoring to run to the theater to see a lot of them. My movie year pretty much consisted of all comic book movies. I just don't go to the theater to see the Oscar bait. It doesn't help that some of said "Oscar bait" is released at festivals and the like just early enough that it can be eligible while not seeing wide release until January (looking at you American Sniper).

In any case, that's enough my incessant rambling. It's time for Oscar picks from a completely uneducated person! I'll cover the majors and possibly a few others. Here we go...

Best Picture

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Selma
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

Many people don't see any of the nominees for Best Picture. Most of them are festival fare and for the ones that do see wide release aren't widely viewed. That's changed this year. American Sniper has become a phenomenon, and for good reason. It's a good movie about someone many would call a real life American hero, Chris Kyle. However, while his story is touching and Bradley Cooper's performance is affecting, it's not the best of the lot. Whiplash is my favorite of the bunch. But while J.K. Simmons' performance was powerful, it is literally carrying the movie. The race has come down to Birdman and Boyhood. They've run the table during the January awards season. Birdman for its surreal look at the industry. Boyhood for its amazing production technique. I'll say Birdman takes it because sometimes the Academy likes when someone breaks the fourth wall.

Best Director

• Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)
• Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
• Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher)
• Richard Linkletter (Boyhood)
• Alejandro G. Inarritu (Birdman)

The amount of planning and work that went into the making of Boyhood is astounding. Say what you will about its pacing, this is truly a work of out. I think that fact alone will be enough to award Richard Linkletter with the award. Wes Anderson delivers a fun movie, vivid in color with The Grand Budapest Hotel, but this is a tough competition here this year. He'll have to wait until another year.

Best Actor

• Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)
• Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)
• Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
• Michael Keaton (Birdman)
• Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

I'm going to go off script and predict Michael Keaton for the win here. The favorite among everyone else is Eddie Redmayne for his touching portrayal of Stephen Hawking. However, Michael just delivers the performance of a tired actor as only an actor could. Eddie Redmayne will probably walk away with the win here, and I'm perfectly okay with that. I'm just here to maybe call the upset.

Best Actress

• Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)
• Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
• Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
• Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
• Resse Witherspoon (Wild)

I think the race is hotly contested between Marion Cotillard and Julianne Moore. Based on what I've seen of the two, they're both very emotional and touching. I'll go with Julianne Moore based on the generalizations of spitted out and what very little I've seen of this race.

Best Supporting Actor

• Robert Duvall (The Judge)
• Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
• Edward Norton (Birdman)
• Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
• J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

I feel so sorry for everyone else in this category. They picked such a bad time to be nominated. Robert Duvall is of course the lovable stalwart, who could win on reputation alone. Edward Norton has been wowing people since he came on the scene. He deserves an Oscar by now. Same goes for Ethan Hawke. And it's nice to see Mark Ruffalo get on the board. But they were all blown away in the dust this year by J.K. Simmons. His role as a maniacal perfectionist bandleader is just a tour de force. He holds the movie up. He makes it compelling. He must win this award.

Best Supporting Actress

• Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
• Laura Dern (Wild)
• Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)
• Emma Stone (Birdman)
• Meryl Streep (Into the Woods)

Oh hi, obligatory Meryl Streep nomination. This woman is the modern-day Katherine Hepburn...just without as many wins. Ms. Arquette's commitment to this project over the length of the film is commendable. I think commendable enough to award her with the honor.

That does it for the majors. I'll cover a few of the other categories just briefly below after the jump.

Shake Up at Sony, Shake Up at Comedy Central, Shake Up at NBC

I recently posted some audio versions of my thoughts on some very big news stories from a few weeks back. Here they are. It is suggested that you listen to them in order.