Music that came up in my April 29, 2009 The Tentacle column, “The Mockingbird’s Song”:

Music that came up in my April 29, 2009 The Tentacle column, “The Mockingbird’s Song”: http://tinyurl.com/de9vh7
http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=3134

Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ “The Mockingbird’s Song” -

The reclusive and enigmatic childhood friend of Truman Capote, Harper Lee, celebrated a birthday yesterday. She was born Nelle Harper Lee on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama…

She is best known for her one and only book, which just happened to be a Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” published in (July 11,) 1960, when she was 34 years old.

Ms. Lee and “Mockingbird” come to mind for a number of reasons which I thoroughly do not understand; and that’s just fine with me.

I’ve been told artists dream of castles in the clouds, writers live in them and psychologists are the landlords that charge rent.

At my advanced age, I’m comfortable with the concept that my cloud is my castle, and I own it and I’m too tight to pay rent.

[…]

From those long-gone lazy days, I usually associate “Mockingbird” with short stories like Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” “Rain” by W. Somerset Maugham and “Portnoy’s Complaint” by Philip Roth – and why I’m still traumatized by the word spatula – except when Rachel Ray says it on her cooking show.

I think of the film “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” by Robert Altman. I was initially introduced to him when he directed a number of episodes of “Bonanza.”

“McCabe” introduced me to Leonard Cohen – and later his song “Famous Blue Raincoat.” Remember: “It’s four in the morning, the end of December. I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better…”

(An outtake: “Many of the “summer anthems” also come to mind when I recall those childhood summers. Who can forget “Summer in the City” by the “Lovin’ Spoonful,” “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry, “Summertime Blues” by “The Who,” or one of my favorites, “Red Rubber Ball” by “The Cyrkle.”)

I think of Carole King’s “It’s too late,” and Carly Simon’s “That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be” – “My father sits at night with no lights on. His cigarette glows in the dark…”

It was over 40 years ago in the summer of 1967 that I first heard the song, “Ode to Billy Joe,” by Bobbie Gentry on WCAO on the AM dial of the car radio.

[…]

*****

“Ode to Billy Joe,” by Bobbie Gentry
http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2007/11/20071101-today-billy-joe-macallister.html

Famous Blue Raincoat Leonard Cohen
http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2009/03/famous-blue-raincoat-by-leonard-cohen.html

Carole King “It’s Too Late” released April 1971
http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2009/04/carole-king-its-too-late-released-april.html

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) Directed by Robert Altman
http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2009/04/mccabe-and-mrs-miller-1971.html

Carly Simon’s “That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be”
http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2009/04/carly-simon-live-in-grand-central.html

20090429 Music that came up in my Apr 29 2009 Tentacle column

Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/)

McCabe and Mrs. Miller 1971

McCabe & Mrs. Miller

(Robert Altman directing Warren Beatty and Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Photograph from Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Material Store)

(1971) Directed by Robert Altman. Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, William Devane, Shelley Duvall. Music by Leonard Cohen (121 min.)

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971) Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXA4Do_JzUk

Trailer for McCabe & Mrs. Miller directed by Robert Altman.The screenplay is by Robert Altman and Brian McKay from the novel McCabe by Edmund Naughton. The cinematography is by Vilmos Zsigmond and the soundtrack includes three songs by Leonard Cohen which had been issued on his 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen.

Cast:

Warren Beatty - John McCabe
Julie Christie - Constance Miller
Rene Auberjonois - Sheehan
William Devane - the Lawyer
John Schuck - Smalley
Corey Fischer - Mr. Elliot
Bert Remsen- Bart Coyle
Shelley Duvall - Ida Coyle
Keith Carradine - Cowboy
Michael Murphy - Sears




*****
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - McCabe (Warren Beatty) & Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie) meet for the first time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0hs77bu3gY

McCabe & Mrs. Miller, the unconventional 1971 western directed by veteran Robert Altman, could maybe best be described as "what reality TV would have looked like, if TV had existed back then". It's a very natural, bare bones, approach to film making, as if the audience gets a peek at the normal, every day doings of settlers in a new town. Warren Beatty is excellent in one of his best roles as John McCabe, small time entrepreneur and card player, who is riding on the reputation of some McCabe who - as the movie informs us - according to myth, is a legendary gunman. The McCabe who seeks residence in the newly developing town, however, is a far cry from the cowboys that we know from more conventional westerns.

But his mistaken identity helps him become the big man around town and soon he sets up several businesses, a whorehouse with possibly the most unattractive "chippies" ever put on celluloid being one of them.

This is mostly an atmospheric movie, that is filmed in chronological order, unlike most films. So, the actual sets were being built as the movie progresses, meaning they double as the expanding town. Beatty and Christie are excellent in their unassuming roles and all the bit players and extras deserve special compliments, as many of them were not real actors, but set builders and locals.

The wonderful and oddly fitting songs by Leonard Cohen complete this uniquemasterpiece. Also starring John Shuck, Rene Auberjonois and William Devane.

Related: My Wednesday, April 29, 2009 http://www.thetentacle.com/ The Tentacle column: “The Mockingbird’s Song”: http://tinyurl.com/de9vh7

20090429 SDOSM 19710000 McCabe and Mrs Miller
Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/)