which came first, the music or the misery?
It’s got a plot that’s rolling paper thin, but in some ways, that works in its favor. The boy meets girl story of “Across the Universe” is just a stringing device to link every 60’s cultural and political touchstone imaginable. But the (generally) well-done Beatles covers and whacked-out staging save it from being just a history lesson. I had the feeling of being back at some off-campus party, wandering from room to room in some huge old house rented by friends of friends, staying for some conversations and getting the hell away from others, and it makes perfect sense that every few minutes you move from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. Linearity can be grossly over-rated. (But the theater popcorn odor was definitely the wrong olfactory cue to be in sync with the other senses here)
Only real downside: having major characters with names like “Jude”, “Lucy” and “Max”. It gets you waiting for the song tie in. In one case it worked well, in one it was grossly contrived, and in one it was only hinted at in an annoyingly Important way. Your left either groaning from being hit over the head with it, or wondering when the head hitting is going to begin.
Anyway, the movie’s been out forever and may not be your thing, but I was struck enough with some of the covers to want an excuse to put them here. First, a song that my mother would sing. She’d crack us both up, but Cocker does it better. Really good bass on this.
Joe Cocker, Come Together
And a good, gospely take:
Carol Woods, Let it Be
categories: film, music
tags: Across the Universe, Beatles, Carol Woods, Joe Cocker, Let it Be
posted by what at 11:37 pm
I bet I sing along worse than your Mom but thanks for a song I haven’t heard in a long time.
The music industry had a major presence during WWII and Vietnam. It certainly has not, however, been a comfort or unifying force for the last decade or so. If anything, it has become more divisive and negative. Come Together… how’s that supposed to happen given the state of the music industry today??? Where’s a white guy who sings old soul music supposed to have his voice heard? BET? No radio station will play him but my grocery store does. Radio stations won’t play Hannah/Miley either even though she’s the undisputed pop princess of the last several years (don’t believe me, ask any 7-14yo). No wonder many former music fans are scratching their heads and walking away. Come Together… no, it’s splintering into warring factions and falling apart.
Music should unify,not divide.It is the most powerful form of communication we have.Music reflects the times and the mood of the people,what is the reason it no longer does ? I wish we knew the answer to that question,then perhaps we would know how to reverse the current trend !
I think, like any form of communication, music can both unify and divide, just as it always has. Not everyone who heard “Imagine” got behind its message. Vietnam era songs about war were mainly protest songs, WWII era ones were mostly in support of the war (but focussed on bringing people home). But in both times, there were people who were not in support of those sentiments. Post Vietnam, for a long time, neither protest nor patriotic really fit where most of the country was, I think. The toll was too heavy to make pro-war, patriotic songs seem anything but naive. And there was a strong desire not to do anything to make the burden of the veterans any worse.
I think we’re coming out of that period - finding a place both for public protest and public patriotism. People have long realized that those ideas are not opposites but are actually the same thing, and it’s showing in how we use music in times of community stress. Look at the immediate and profound response from the music community to 9-11. It was completely in synch with the mood of the country and offered the catharsis that is its job. Pain, outrage, hope, unity, all of it expressed across the arts community, doing its job when we really needed it. And that set a blueprint for a response to Katrina. To me, it felt that, as a country, we almost surprised ourselves to find that we had that common tongue, and that there was so much good that it could do. It was the double blessing of finding that we not only had this unity of feeling when it came to the fundamentals, but that we still had music as a common language for doing important work.
I think like always, music reflects what people are feeling. But you can’t look to radio as a guage of that, because it’s probably the most reactionary format around. Live concerts, internet, and television all are quicker to convey the real music pulse of the community, IMO.
what,Excellent thoughts on the why music can reflect the pulse of the community.I agree that radio no longer is a guage for what people are feeling.Most of what is being played has little or no meaning at all ! This is why I so strongly believe that children need to learn the history of music,the what and the why’s of a song.How music affects the times and so on ! Listening and getting nothing from it is meaningless !To listen and truly feel it,it’s done it’s job !This is a great question and opinions will differ but it makes you relize the importance of music in our lives!
What said: “Look at the immediate and profound response from the music community to 9-11. It was completely in synch with the mood of the country and offered the catharsis that is its job. Pain, outrage, hope, unity, all of it expressed across the arts community, doing its job when we really needed it. And that set a blueprint for a response to Katrina.”
but I just don’t see it. What song comes to mind? Toby Kieth wrote a passonate hit but controversity surrounded it when he wasn’t allowed to sing it on TV. The Dixie Chicks were dropped by country music fans but adopted by the anti-Bush left who supported them based on not music but politics. People seem to buy music more to make a statement than to enjoy the music. That also includes, btw, all the idol shit that has gone on.
Taylor got me back interested in music and I’ve been sorely disappointed in what I’ve found. I feel like going back in hiding. I don’t even get my local paper any more since the music critics seem to enjoy making fun of us MAWomen.
I haven’t voted for anyone on the TV since Taylor but I warned my husband that I’m voting for Marie Osmond next week. Someone needs to stand up for MAW-power and she’s my last hope.
Pamela, you’re right that there may be no song that’s universally associated with 9-11. It’s telling, I think, that most of the music that people turned to then was older. i mentioned “Imagine” above, in part, because it’s one that was such a significant help during that post 9-11 period, both Lennon’s and Neil Young’s brilliant cover from the 9-11 telethon. So maybe we don’t have a unified musical voice, but the fundamental roles of music are still there and it’s a common support we can use to come together when we feel that need. Thank God, we don’t always have that need.
I understand your frustration in craving more music and not yet finding something to satisfy that craving. All I can offer is what helped me - keep listening to everything that you think might be remotely connected to something you already love, and, if at all possible, make music yourself.
And I know that radio has changed a lot, but I have to say, from where I sit, it’s way easier to get access to a wide variety of music now than when I was a kid. My home town had a top 40 pop station and a similar one for country and no record store. If not for my parent’s collection, TV and live music, I’d have had no exposure at all to any classical, blues, world music, or alternative anything. It’s so much easier now to find music I like and music I want to explore. There’s just no comparison.
As far as critics go, find who you can trust and read them. Trust to talk about the music, that is. I’m reading a collection of Lester Bangs essays, and in the introduction, the editor mentions the fact that for a lot of people, music journalism morphed unnoticed into celebrity journalism. There’s a place for both, but reading the latter will never satisfy when it’s the former you’re looking for.
The trouble with newspaper journalists is that their objective is to sell newspapers, not concert tickets. Duh - I can be slow sometimes but I’ve finally figured that one out. With a circulation in the 6 or 7 figures FAR more readers out there are not even thinking about going to any given concert and a sarcastic slam that offends the fans will still be far more entertaining reading to the majority who are not fans. In total, however, the musicians suffer from all the negativity.
Is there an objective, non-negative music review site on the web for concerts and/or music?? I don’t really want an opinion of the concert itself so much as a despription of what it is so I can decide if I would like it or not. For example, don’t say Hannah M. is stupid lame bubble-pop; just say it is from a Disney TV show and full of bubbly fun. No need to insult the fans. Could we not celebrate all kinds of music and be happy for folks who find joy in whatever turns them on???
Maybe that’s a site that could be profitable since it would legitamently add value to the process and could perhaps take a small income from ticket and music sales linked from the site (and hotel and restaurant, etc.). btw, What, do you know Lenny at HDD because you guys seem to have a lot in common? just saying.
Um, no song for 9-11? There are tons of them…but we have Alan Jackson to thank for the best of them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9PwWkV4HQ4
And Katrina? True, we don’t seem to hear those songs on the radio, like we did for 9-11…but they are out there.
Here’s a very popular song that has been making the rounds on the internet…
http://www.hurricanesong.com/
Or Public Enemy “Hell No We Ain’t Alright”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSzfETQ209w
Or how about ‘Gov Did Nothin’ by The John Butler Trio? (yes, they are not even an American band.)
Hurricane Katrina inspired songs, but I don’t think we will be hearing many of them on the radio, These songs are not only full of pain, they are full of protest. And it seems to me that the protest songs of today are just not welcome on the radio.
T&Jam, I completely agree about Katrina and the role of specific music to help focus attention. With 9-11, it seemed that older music was more central, but maybe that’s just my perception. What it felt like to me was this: the immediate nature of that event left people reaching back for earlier musical touchstones. The music that then came as a response seemed to me to not have the same unifying effect, possibly because it was reacting to an event which hopefully and thankfully was largely over.
But I think the whole experience showed us that there was a place for protest and confrontation in music again. It never had gone away entirely, but it was more present after that it seems. With Katrina, it came even more to the forefront. Possibly in part because such a rich music center was hit, but also, I think, because the tragedy went on and on. The songs that were written in response were born in a situation that was just as critical as when the storm hit, so they had all the bite and urgency as anything that may have been said or sung at the beginning.
But I also want to make sure that I’m not implying that protest music only reapeared with 9-11. It’s been there in rap all along hasn’t it? It’s a genre that I don’t know well at all. I’m wondering if our perception of particular past songs being iconic to an era is really just the effect of time. Certain things have lasted, perhaps because they address the themes that have remained worth remembering. For example, the year that “Imagine” came out (and was a hit), it was bested on the charts that have sunk into relative obscurity, like “Mr. Big Stuff”, “One Bad Apple” and “Brand New Key”.
I think it’s too soon to tell what current music will be considered iconic later. And if we don’t have specific songs that are current, instantly recognized by virtually everyone and in some sense unifying, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It may mean that we’ve got such a varied menu that no one song is on everyone’s plate. To me, that’s a good thing.
The music that came after 9-11 was all in country music (Alan Jackson and Toby Keith are examples both mentioned above) but they were not embraced outside of the country music area and were rejected by Hollywood completely.
Come Together… that doesn’t have to mean “protest the USA federal government”. It doesn’t have to be mean, dirty nor negative - the best protest songs of the 60’s were celebrations of love and peace. The best WWII songs were upbeat.
…oh i got a pair of brand new roller skates…. so who do you think you are?
ya know… my parents would not understand that last sentence i just typed and something tells me the defining songs of these years is something my kids will have to explain to me when they’re my age. My Dad still says that music in this country went to hell when the Beatles came over and it’s been horrible ever since. At first I was shocked at that statement but then I thought of all the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals, the old country and gospel and the early rock and roll through Elvis… and I can understand his viewpoint even if I don’t agree.
Come together… maybe you’re right, maybe the defining point is that niche markets, micromarkets and individualism rules.