I don't think I've done this blog post before, though I've mused on it, but you never know, perhaps I'm wrong. So if I'm plagiarizing myself, mea culpa. You people never remember anything I tell you anyway.
Mr Indemnity loaned me a whole box set of Muddy Waters to rip to my iPod, and some Slim Harpo and...I don't remember who else. But, anyway, the main reason he did this was not just because he's a nice person and the (emotionally-challenged foster) brother I never had, but because it bothers him greatly--greatly, I tell you!--that I listen to and love all this blues-oriented stuff, but not much actual blues. Which he is kind of an expert about. And I was saying to him that the thing about the blues is that, even though I do like it very much, it all sounds more or less the same to me. If I'm listening to Muddy Waters on the CD, I'm hard-pressed to notice when one song ends and the next begins.
That's not a criticism. Right now I'm listening to Exile which, besides (as already alluded to in here many times) being one of my favorite albums ever is also the kind of blues-oriented stuff that my love thereof drives Mr Indemnity to distraction, and it's exactly the same. I could not name one song off the album that I'd consider in my top 30 favorite songs of all time, but the CD (and, of course, back in the day, the vinyl) as a whole is in my top three and, 27 years after the summer I played it over and over in my crappy Allston apartment, I'm still never sick of it. There is music that is meant to be listened to as discrete songs, and there is music that is of a piece, meant to be listened to as an ongoing wall of sound.
That's what I think.
xoxo
3 comments:
Having just seen Cadillac Records last night, I'll mention that there was one scene where Willie Dixon tells Leonard Chess that he should write some songs for Muddy Waters because "his songs mostly all sound the same".
Given the many factual/historical inaccuracies in that film (even if I did enjoy it) and given that I've never heard that story before, I'd guess that scene was made up by the screenwriter-director. However, the fact that she put it in at all may mean that your opinion on the similar sound of many blues songs is shared with at least a few others.
I rather disagree... probably should just give you more CDs till you change your mind. ;-)
So! You saw it. Is it true that Beyonce can actually act? :-)
Well, even with an exec producer's credit Beyonce didn't actually have that big a part in terms of screen time, but the part she did have actually required some real acting, and it was just fine.
The person who could really act, though, was Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters. I mean, he was the most important character in the script, but wow, what he did with that part was just terrific, really subtle at times, flamboyant on stage, growing throughout the almost 30 year course of the film. I could see why every review I saw (and heard on NPR) was going ga ga over him.
I'll blog about it myself in a day or two, but even if you didn't like the music, Wright's performance alone is a great reason to see the film.
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