Random Thoughts

After starting my blog with what I think was a great year in film, this week I’m going to open things up a bit and explore a few new ideas.  I have plenty of ideas in the tank for movie posts coming soon, but for this week, here are some random thoughts.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Let me start out by saying that this is not a topic that I am wildly passionate about, but one that I do think about once a year when the class of new inductees is announced.  The class of 2020 was recently unveiled and my favorite band was one of the finalists, but ultimately didn’t make it into the Hall, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts.

There are many gripes one could have when it comes to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  The one I read about the most each year is “that artist/band is not Rock and Roll.”  This year that argument centered around Whitney Houston and Notorious B.I.G.  I don’t subscribe to this one – to me, there is no bright line that describes Rock and Roll – it can include all sorts of music:  Classic Rock, Pop, R&B, Jazz, Rap, Metal, you name it.  The way music has evolved over the last century, it’s impossible to put a label on most artists.  Plus, what do you do with artists who record in multiple genres, like I mentioned last week with Linda Ronstadt (inducted in 2014, in her 19th year of eligibility)?  If you want to change it to the Music Hall of Fame, go for it.

Another big complaint is understanding the process for how inductees are determined and who makes the decisions.  We know that artists are eligible 25 years after their first record is released and we know that there is a nominating process by a committee, but how it exactly works (especially the criteria for induction) is undeniably opaque.  There is a fan vote each year that gets a lot of publicity, but means very little statistically (the top five bands get one vote, added to the over 1,000 committee member votes).  Unlike sports hall of fames which have statistical markers (number of home runs, number of touchdown passes, etc.), there’s no real framework of what makes a Hall of Famer, other than comparing to another artist.  If this artist is in, should that artist be in? 

And then, there are just the stupid things that the Hall of Fame does – for instance, not inducting the E Street Band with Bruce Springsteen because they weren’t listed along with his name on his albums.  The E Street Band was inducted 15 years later in a separate category, but unfortunately this was after founding members Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici passed away.  The Hall also has a habit of being overly prescriptive as to which members of a band are allowed to be inducted, if there have been changes to a band’s membership over the years.  Pearl Jam has had five drummers in their history and the Hall determined that only two of them would be inducted while the others would not be inducted with the other four members of the band.  Shouldn’t Pearl Jam make that decision?

It’s to safe to say that it’s an imperfect process.  Why do we care?  Because it’s fun to see our favorite bands get the ultimate recognition.  Seeing bands that were part of my formative youth (like R.E.M., U2, Bruce Springsteen, Nirvana and Pearl Jam) get inducted into the same place as legends like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and The Who is pretty cool.  I had extra motivation to see this year’s results because my favorite band (Dave Matthews Band) was one of the finalists in their second year of eligibility.  Unfortunately, they didn’t make the final list of inductees, even though they won the (meaningless) fan vote (beating Pat Benatar, who also didn’t get in this year).  Yes, it would have been nice to see them get honored and play a set at the induction ceremony.  There’s always next year, when hopefully they will get in along with Foo Fighters, another one of my favorite bands, who are eligible next year.  If not prepare for another blog post next year about this time…..

By the way, if you are interested in learning more about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I found this really cool website www.futurerocklegends.com.  I like seeing the future eligible dates – do you think Taylor Swift will get inducted in 2031 or Adele in 2032?

This month’s sign that I really might be getting old

Want to hear a story about the downside of being good with numbers? 

I was recently driving my daughter and her friend home from the mall, listening to E Street Radio.  Let me clarify – I was listening to E Street Radio – they were in the car.  I heard a couple of songs from the Born in the U.S.A. album – not my favorite Springsteen album, but I didn’t change the channel.  I started thinking of how my daughter and her friend were probably thinking “What is this garbage?”  Then I did some math – in retrospect, a bad idea.

Well, let’s see.  Born in the U.S.A came out about 35 years ago.  When I was my daughter’s age, it was the late 80s.  What would I have thought about driving with my father listening to songs that were 35 years old in the late 80s?  That puts us in the mid-50’s.  Wait a minute – are we really talking about the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly and Elvis?  Is that the right comparison?

Checks the math……

Holy crap – that’s old!  OK, don’t panic – let’s think for a minute.  Well, my father wasn’t into that kind of music.  He liked the old standards – Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Glenn Miller, that sort of thing.  Hell, we used to get stuck watching Lawrence Welk on Sunday nights when I was a kid back in the days when had only one (gasp!) TV.  Hold on – does that make the comparison better or worse?  Do people reading this blog even know who Lawrence Welk is?!?!?!?

Panic is setting in…..

Ok, let’s look at this rationally.  Granted, I don’t know most of the artists I listen to on Sirius, (unless it’s older music), but I have heard of a few of the artists, even if I start to like a song nine months after it becomes popular.  And in the last two years, I’ve seen U2, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews Band (numerous times, of course) and went to JazzFest that was attended by over a hundred thousand people.  I may not be cool, but I can’t be that old yet, right?  (Note to reader:  Don’t answer that in the comments.)

Ok, crisis averted – I’m going back in my bubble and listening to Born to Run (and stop doing math).

This month’s Deep Cut recommendation

What’s a Deep Cut recommendation?  It’s a movie, musician, or album that I think is essential, but may not be that popular.  Anyone can recommend watching The Godfather or listening to Abbey Road.  This will be a recurring feature where I will provide some suggestions that you might not have heard about.  First up is The Commitments, a music film directed by Alan Parker in 1991.

I still remember the first time I saw this movie at the Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton, MA back when it came out in the summer of 1991 and I instantly loved it.  It is the story of a group of unlikely musicians in Dublin, Ireland who form a soul band, under the leadership of their manager Jimmy, played by Robert Arkins.  It’s unlikely you’ll recognize anyone in the cast, except perhaps Colin Meaney who plays Jimmy’s father.  He has been in a lot of movies, but still isn’t that famous.  Jimmy assembles the group of underdogs who fight all the time, but make magic on the stage.  Speaking of the fighting, having recently rewatched it, I’m now convinced that this movie may have been the inspiration for Brian Cox’s masterful use of “Fuckoff” on Succession (great TV show if you’re not already watching).

Parker has a strong resume as a director including Midnight Express, Fame, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Mississippi Burning, and Evita.  The movie was adapted from a book, which makes me think how hard it must be to translate a story about a band into a film.  Speaking of which, last year I read a great book called Daisy Jones and the Six, about a rock band in the 70s – it has a bit of a Fleetwood Mac vibe to it.  Reese Witherspoon acquired the rights to produce the book into a limited series for Amazon and I’ll be very interested to see how they bring the story and music to life on the screen.

Back to The Commitments – besides the funny lines, what really drives this story is the music.  This movie has a killer soundtrack (there is actually a volume 2 that was also released) of mostly Motown era songs performed by the band, the self-described Saviors of Soul in the movie.  Although they all mostly played their own parts, the only band member that had any sort of music career after the film is Glen Hansard who plays the guitarist.  He starred in the wonderful music film Once in 2007, winning an Oscar for Best Original Song.  He’s also had a steady solo career, including opening for Eddie Vedder on some of his solo tours.  Actually, the biggest success following the movie was achieved by four siblings from Ireland, who all appeared in minor roles and later formed the band The Corrs.  The best songs for me in the film are Mustang Sally and a great version of Try a Little Tenderness, a song made famous by Otis Redding.  Check out The Commitments – you won’t be disappointed.

Epilogue: Quick Reaction to the Oscars

I thought I was done with 2019 movies, but decided to give a quick reaction to Sunday night’s Oscars.  Obviously, I was very excited for the Parasite Best Picture win (I had it as my second favorite movie of the year) and for Bong Joon-ho’s wins for Screenplay and Director.  All of those were a welcome surprise and his speech for Best Director was excellent, including some genuine admiration for Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.  The acting awards went as expected – great to see Brad Pitt’s win and it was nice to see recognition for Marriage Story with Laura Dern’s win.

I would have liked to have seen some more love for Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, but Quentin couldn’t overcome the Parasite momentum.  It was surprising to see The Irishman get shut out with no awards, despite ten nominations.  It was the only major movie that received no recognition.  It does make you wonder if there is some Netflix backlash from members of the Academy.  Despite 24 nominations, Netflix only won two awards – Dern’s win and Best Documentary winner American Factory.  Something to watch as next year’s award season unfolds. 

The biggest disappointment was the telecast.  I don’t know how they continue to get this wrong every year.  First off, there were way too many musical performances.  Show me movie clips and montages – I don’t need to see Eminem return 17 years after winning an Oscar to perform a song (I like the song, don’t get wrong)).  The forced comedy bits by the presenters was pretty bad and without a formal host, there were too many instances of people coming out just to introduce someone else.  There were definitely opportunities to cut down a 3 ½ hour runtime.  The speeches were mostly ok – some great, some well…..not so much (looking at you Joaquin and Renee).

I don’t want to end on down note, so I will say that the best part was so many movies getting recognized.  It was a great year for movies and we’ll see if 2020 can match it.  I’ll be working up some recommendations to keep your eye on based on what I’ve been reading.

That’s all for this week – thanks again for reading.  If you’d like to subscribe, you can do so on the right side of the home page here.  I’ll be back next week for a post about why I admire musicians who take risks in their careers.

6 thoughts on “Random Thoughts

  1. I sincerely appreciate your thought process as you navigate your place as the “adult” in the room. I like your insight of what you know and what you’re writing about but my interest is peaked at your personal reflections somewhere in the middle of all that. Thanks for sharing, keep going!

  2. I also loved the Commiitments. Great movie and great music! I also liked the movie Once which toured as a play too.

  3. Great read Steve, particularly enjoyed the segment on music from 35 years ago. Yikes!
    Totally agree on the Oscars telecast. They should have the same time limits on everyone, so painful to watch Joaquin and Renee drone on and on.

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