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.
An evening pause: Performed live 1977.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman, who considers this her favorite Camel song.
An evening pause: Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An evening pause: From the youtube page:
The Puttin’ On The Ritz music video is a creative collaboration between Alpert, artist Glenn Kaino and filmmaker Afshin Shahidi with choreographers Napoleon & Tabitha D’umo from So You Think You Can Dance and produced by Kerith Lemon. One long camera shot follows the lead dancer, Vincent Noiseux on a musical journey and features musicians Lani Hall, Bill Cantos, Hussain Jiffry and Michael Shapiro as well as corps dancers like Kherington Payne and others that have been seen on So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Best Dance Crew, Dancing with the Stars, This is It, Step Up and more.
Hat tip Tom Biggar, who notes that Albert makes some cameos, which I think includes both the bus driver and the bartender.
An evening pause: On this day of remembrance, this song seems fitting. And as the lyrics boldly state,
I won’t be made to ever feel ashamed
that I’m American made
I got American parts
I got American faith
In America’s heart
Go on, raise the flag
I got stars in in my eyes
I’m in love with her
And I won’t apologize.
The image that best reveals what America represents, as a messenger of freedom, is that photograph of the American soldier gently cradling a baby refugee from war. Or as said in the 1993 movie Gettysburg, “We are here for something new. This has not happened much in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free.”
An evening pause: Hat tip to Thomas Biggar, who wrote, “This piece was written by Michel Colombier and released in 1971. Emmanuel was written to honour the memory of his son who died when he was only 5 years old.”
An evening pause: Kinda calm and relaxing.
Hat tip Thomas Biggar Rex Ridenoure of Ecliptic Enterprises.
Both have been generous with their suggestions, I just got them confused for this particular pause.
An evening pause: Two songs on this appearance on the Tonight Show on December 7, 1987, plus a bit of their interview afterward with some interesting tidbits.
Hat tip Thomas Biggar.
An evening pause: I am not a jazz fan, but these guys (especially the flutist and violinist) seem to be having so much fun!
Hat tip Diane Wilson.
An evening pause: I like this far better for Labor Day than anything else I’ve thought of. It’s cute, sweet, nice, and hopeful. And it somehow seems fitting as we close out the summer of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
Hat tip Frank Kelly.
An evening pause: Some jazz, that starts like 1950s cocktail music, and transcends into something very different.
Hat tip Diane Wilson.
An evening pause: I think only someone who was raised speaking Russian (or some variant) could naturally be able to achieve these deep sounds.
Hat tip Thomas Biggar.
An evening pause: We could also call this Hollywood vs Bollywood, the West vs the East, America vs India.
Or we could simply say it is a wonderful example of how music can transcend culture.
Hat tip Jeff Poplin.
An evening pause: The dancing here is as good if not better than anything you will see in an Astaire & Rogers movie.
Hat tip Thomas Biggar.
An evening pause: Don’t ask me, I’ve never seen the show, but the guitar work here is fun to watch.
Hat tip Cotour.
An evening pause: I really have no idea who is performing this, as the Vimeo link provided no information. Web searches also came up dry. I couldn’t even find the lyrics.
Nonetheless, it is beautiful, and worth more than one listen.
UPDATE: I have finally located a description of this work of art. It is called The Wound in the Water,
music by Kim André Arneson (2016); libretto by Euan Tait (August 2015). This is from part 2, “The cry of the exile” and is called “Song of the Sea Exile.” The lyrics:
I, the exile,
my heart burning,
my lost life
a terrible fire,
songs of loved ones
crying all around me.
Oh endless,
endless home, the sea.
Oh my missing,
I am listening,
yet your silence
cannot answer me.
There, we left
our singing unfinished,
and our lives now
fall into the endless sea.
This the broken
gift of love:
the exile calls,
remembered names.
What you were
scorched on me,
your wounded names
sung to the endless sea.
Waves like voices
roar around you:
we’re not silenced,
but cry out like the
sea.
Your anger,fiery, living
is like love
that bleeds
like the endless sea.
Oh our exile,
torn by love,
singing words
you can no longer sing,
where’s the shores,
the harbour, the horizon,
wanderer,
calling to the endless sea
calling to the endless sea?
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
