Steve Hackett – After the Ordeal
An evening pause: Performed live in 2015.
Hat tip to Diane Zimmerman, who also discovered Hackett was performing in a Tucson concert tonight, so that is where we are, even as you watch this video.
Tag: entertainment
Paul Robeson – Ol’ Man River
An evening pause: From the 1936 movie adaptation of the Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein Broadway musical Showboat. While some of the visuals are a bit overstated and feel a bit preachy, this is still the best movie version of this song I have seen. Rather than strut about with big visuals, the film focuses on Robeson, who sings the song introspectively, as if it is something he is thinking.
A bit of trivia: The film’s director was James Whale, the man who made the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
The amazing ibex climbing a dam
An evening pause: I know its silly, but watching this made my palms sweat.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Best of Wingsuit Flying Compilation
An evening pause: I have posted several previous evening pauses on wingsuit flights, in 2011, 2012, and 2015. It has been awhile, so let’s do it again. The music is Prologue by Philter.
Hat tip Cotour, who added that this is “Without a doubt the most exhilarating and dangerous sport that humans participate in.”
The Smothers Brothers – I Am A Pilot
A evening pause: From I think 2011.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Buddy Ebsen – I’m nuts about you
An evening pause: Ebsen is joined by Eleanor Powell, Jimmy Stewart, Una Merkel and Sid Silvers in this dance number from the 1936 film, Born to Dance.
Ebsen is remembered most for playing Jed Clampett in the tv comedy series, The Beverley Hillbillies, but he started out as a dancer in movies.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Roger Hodgson – The Logical Song
An evening pause: Hat tip to Edward Thelen, who continues to be the one evening pause suggester who tries to find sources other than youtube. Competition is a good thing, and Google and youtube need some competition.
Unfortunately, there was no way to embed the video shown at the Brighteon link, so sadly I still had to use youtube.
Hetty & the Jazzato Band – Tu Vuo’ Fa’ L’Americano
An evening pause: The title means “You Want to Be American”. The song was written in 1956, and is “about an Italian who affects a contemporary American lifestyle, drinking whisky and soda, dancing to rock ‘n roll, playing baseball and smoking Camel cigarettes, but who still depends on his parents for money.”
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Panache Quartet – Old songs
An evening pause: Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Camel – First Light
An evening pause: Performed live 1977.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman, who considers this her favorite Camel song.
Joe Ely – Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes
An evening pause: Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
The Ventures – Wipeout
An evening pause: Recorded live in Japan, 1966.
Hat tip Frank Kelly.
The Interviewer
An evening pause: The most dangerous thing one can do is make false assumptions about people, based on superficial knowledge.
Hat tip Mike Nelson and his sister Carol Nelson.
Liberace – Malaguena
An evening pause: Stay with it, because after the music Liberace and Sammy Davis do some comedy and a dance number that is pure light-hearted entertainment, the kind of thing that was normal on television in the 1960s, and now seems so difficult for modern performers to achieve.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Climax – Precious and Few
An evening pause: Hat tip Diane Zimmerman, who had not thought of this 1972 song until we saw the band make a quick cameo playing it on a 2001 Simpsons episode.
New York Mets – September 24, 1969
An evening pause: This pause was first posted by me back in 2011. As tonight is the fiftieth anniversary of that grand moment, I post it again, if only to remind the jaded and pessimistic youth of today that miracles really can happen. As I wrote then,
In 1969 the lowly New York Mets, doormats in the National League from the moment the team was created in 1962, came out of nowhere to win the pennant and the World Championship of baseball. … I and my friend Lloyd attended the game in which the Mets clinched first place in the National League Eastern Division. Below is video showing highlights of the game plus the final out, with the crowd pouring onto the field. Though you can’t see me, I am in that crowd, jumping for joy at this most unlikely sports miracle. There was no rioting, only happy fans chanting “We’re number one!” in exuberant disbelief.
And I still have that small piece of turf from Shea Stadium, collected on that night, proof that the unexpected and improbable is always possible.
The unlikeliness of the Mets championship in 1969 cannot be overstated. Before 1969, the team had never finished higher than next to last, each season losing more games than they won. Then, in 1969 they posted a 100-62 record, while coming from far back to overtake the favored Chicago Cubs for the pennant. Moreover, during that 1969 season all kinds of unusual things kept happening. To give just one example, they won a double header by scores of 1-0, with the pitcher in both games driving in the winning run.
As their first manager and Hall-of-Famer Casey Stengel would say, “You could look it up!”
In 1973 the Mets won the pennant again, following the motto “You gotta believe!” pushed by their relief pitcher Tug McGraw. McGraw was so right. Combine talent, dedication, hard work, and an unwavering belief that all things are possible, humans can sometimes do amazing things.
Luca Stricagnoli – Can’t Stop
An evening pause: Song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers – They Can’t Take That Away From Me
An evening pause: Another movie pause tonight, this time showing the films themselves. This clip includes two performances of this song, from two different Astaire & Rogers films. The first, from Shall We Dance? (1937), has Astaire singing the song, knowing that the Rogers character is leaving him. Of course she ends up not going.
The second clip is from The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), their last film together and done after a split of ten years. They knew then this would be their last film, and now the words have a meaning far greater than the story in the film. When they exit at the end of this song, they know it is pretty much for the last time.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime.
Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger
An evening pause: The theme song from Goldfinger (1964) might have been one of the best theme songs among all the Bond films. This live performance by the voice from that original film is from 2011, when she was 78 years old.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
Wayne Hancock – Thunderstorms and Neon Signs
An evening pause: The visuals here have a very nice documentary feel, even those shots which were clearly staged. They all invoke the highway world of travelers, almost anywhere in the U.S.
Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.