"teenage genius who rose to become,
for a short and incandescent moment,
the most successful producer in rock and roll"
"He found his salvation in music"
writes Mick Brown, in The Guardian.
Many found their salvation in his music, his Wall Of Sound between them and the bad stuff, and today their sadness spans the music-loving world.
Having linked to a superior British music writer above, I will quote an American writer lifted from If Charlie Parker ... blog, on 'Music':
"And, of course, that is what all of this is - all of this: the one song,
ever changing, ever reincarnated,
that speaks somehow from and to and for
that which is ineffable within us and without us,
that is both prayer and deliverance, folly and wisdom,
that inspires us to dance or smile or simply to go on,
senselessly, incomprehensibly, beatifically, in the face of
mortality and the truth that our lives are more ill-writ, ill-rhymed and
fleeting than any song, except perhaps those songs - that song, endlesly reincarnated -
born of that truth, be it the moon and June of that truth, or the wordless blue moan,
or the rotgut or the elegant poetry of it.
That nameless black-hulled ship of Ulysses,
that long black train, that Terraplane, that mystery train,
that Rocket '88', that Buick 6 - same journey, same miracle, same end and endlessness."
-- Nick Tosches, 'Where Dead Voices Gather'
I'm nobody in Nowhere, tapping this out and weeping for The Music, but I know that simultaneously, really important writers are tapping out their Really Important view of The Man Who Built Walls Of Sound.
I hope one of them mentions that as well as creating the soundtrack of our life,
Mr Spector saved Tina Turner from Ike.
'the wordless blue moan' indeed.
11.4.09
Out to sea - Rhys and me
In 1964 my favourite music was by Little Walter, Howlin Wolf, SonnyBoy Williamson and Junior Wells. How does this come about in a baby girl in rural Victoria? Via The Beatles and the Rolling Stones mentioning those artists in press interviews of course.
By 1966 I was in the big city and 'Rhythm and Blues' was the Mod musical currency. Soul baby.
So yesterday, 43 years later, enthralled by the 129 wonderful minutes of The Boat That Rocked, and recognising two bars of Junior Wells's 'Snatch It Back And Hold It' ... underscoring a plot point perfectly, I just felt 17 again
Mods Gods featured in this film -
All Day And All Of The Night - Dave & Ray Davies
Friday On My Mind - Easybeats (Vanda & Young)
We Gotta Get Outta This Town - Eric Burdon & The Animals
For Your Love -The YardBirds
Dancin In The Street - Martha & The Vandellas
These Arms Of Mine - Otis
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) -Darlene Love
The Stones - Lets Spend The Night Together,
Jimi Hendrix,
and of course Miss Dusty Springfield.
To me, a negative Movie Show review is just a challenge.
Xan somebody reviewing for The Guardian called it 'pallid'.
Variety-the-showbiz-bible, said it was 'too long'.
WHAT WOULD ANY OF THEM KNOW?
None of them was a hip Mod teen in Melbourne 1966.
The Boat That Rocked was wonderful.
Nighy was wonderful.
Rhys Ifans was wonderful.
The music was wonderful.
The editing was too.
The 129 minutes not too long for anybody who first heard all that music when it was in it's chronological cultural context. Please do treat yourself to this film, and don't waste your money by expecting it to be a documentary, as it is in the mold of an Ealing comedy, the popular cinema of that era. It has a nod to Richard Lester's Sixties cinema-style. You will recognise that dippy secretary of Doc Martin's in it, it has Ken Branagh positively CHANNELLING Ealing comedy-era Peter Sellers characterisation in
I'm Alright Jack-
Ken is cast as the meanie again - he was the bad guy in the St.Trinian's film - is it because nobody likes him?
Did I mention that Rhys Ifans and Philip Seymour Hoffman give us Academy Award-winning performances?.
Rhys may have been catalytically-converting his angst over silly-Sienna, and the plot gives a nod to that kind of thing. You won't be seeing her in any Richard Curtis films I can tell you now.
Rhys plays a cool DJ.
Melbourne Mods didn't suffer the deprivation of London's.
We had a cool DJ and in 1964 all hip 5th-Formers had transistor radios in their schoolbags so we could listen daily at 4:30 pm. Melbourne's cool DJ was
Mr Stan 'The Man' Rofe.
He played the hip stuff.
Stan would have just loved
The Boat That Rocked.
You will love it too.
Don't get up when the credits roll, sit and let
STAY WITH ME BABY
roll over you like a train.
Corey Maxson Tucker says:
"In 1965 Frank Sinatra was slated to record this but cancelled due to illness. Lucky for us, the studio and orchestra were booked and paid for allowing back-up singer Lorraine Ellison to step in.
Ellison unequivocally slays this track. Ellison's version starts with a calculated and soothing build up. The Janis Joplin cover crashes right into the pathos. Yet both renditions stop you in your tracks – Ellison and Joplin display a rare power to erupt in an
utter and desperate longing.
If these songs don’t make you emote and empathize with the singers,
then you are clearly dead inside and have a heart two sizes too small."
I am going to see this Mod-fest movie again.
I'm Alright Jack-
Ken is cast as the meanie again - he was the bad guy in the St.Trinian's film - is it because nobody likes him?
Did I mention that Rhys Ifans and Philip Seymour Hoffman give us Academy Award-winning performances?.
Rhys may have been catalytically-converting his angst over silly-Sienna, and the plot gives a nod to that kind of thing. You won't be seeing her in any Richard Curtis films I can tell you now.
Rhys plays a cool DJ.
Melbourne Mods didn't suffer the deprivation of London's.
We had a cool DJ and in 1964 all hip 5th-Formers had transistor radios in their schoolbags so we could listen daily at 4:30 pm. Melbourne's cool DJ was
Mr Stan 'The Man' Rofe.
He played the hip stuff.
Stan would have just loved
The Boat That Rocked.
You will love it too.
Don't get up when the credits roll, sit and let
STAY WITH ME BABY
roll over you like a train.
Corey Maxson Tucker says:
"In 1965 Frank Sinatra was slated to record this but cancelled due to illness. Lucky for us, the studio and orchestra were booked and paid for allowing back-up singer Lorraine Ellison to step in.
Ellison unequivocally slays this track. Ellison's version starts with a calculated and soothing build up. The Janis Joplin cover crashes right into the pathos. Yet both renditions stop you in your tracks – Ellison and Joplin display a rare power to erupt in an
utter and desperate longing.
If these songs don’t make you emote and empathize with the singers,
then you are clearly dead inside and have a heart two sizes too small."
I am going to see this Mod-fest movie again.
2.4.09
Some Light Relief
Lingerie needs to be pretty. This is French of course, by Aubade. Put that into Guugle image search and enjoy yourself.
1.4.09
R.E.Brand-ed
I first noticed his terrific update of the beloved Flash Harry in
The St.Trinians movie, then when I saw
You probably saw him on ROVE when they covered that. Rove failed to mention that Rusty also writes a great sport column in The Guardian
(sorry no more links, work with me here)
A truly renaissance man.
he was in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
If you are scoffing, please do follow this link to
Just look at this nice boy with this family in Malaysia (March 2009) - did I mention he was awarded Shagger Of The Year several times by The Sun?playing a British rockstar (named Aldous
fer godsakes,a blend of Doherty and Gallagher)
well I just lapped it up.
The man is a contortionist or half-spider.
My days have now gone to hell as I follow in his
My days have now gone to hell as I follow in his
@rustyrocket Twitter wake (along with a million
others, most of who seem to be women he met on
tour in Australia).
It's FUNNY.
or
Get yourself to amazon.com and buy his genuine autobiography 'My Booky-Wook'.
It was 'Biography Of the Year 2008'.
I hardly ever want anything ...
anything at all, I really don't,
but I do want Russell
There is nothing more wantable than a clever funny bad-boy,
and apparently, one does not get too old for it.
It's FUNNY.
or
Get yourself to amazon.com and buy his genuine autobiography 'My Booky-Wook'.
It was 'Biography Of the Year 2008'.
I hardly ever want anything ...
anything at all, I really don't,
but I do want Russell
There is nothing more wantable than a clever funny bad-boy,
and apparently, one does not get too old for it.
Peter Cook, who was much more than just funny
bless his heart and soul.
And now Russell Brand has appeared - and he
And now Russell Brand has appeared - and he
is just as good as Peter Cook.
If you are scoffing, please do follow this link to
where you can see he is in an Aldous sequel (of course) and also playing opposite Helen Mirren in Shakespeares The Tempest (no links required for that lot)..
You probably saw him on ROVE when they covered that. Rove failed to mention that Rusty also writes a great sport column in The Guardian
(sorry no more links, work with me here)
A truly renaissance man.
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