Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale, who at the end of 2012 released their first joint album appropriately called Buddy and Jim (2012), recently stopped by the offices of National Public Radio. The result, which is part of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, was some great music and a lot of fun. Check it out.
The songs in the video are: “The Train That Carried My Gal From Town,” “It Hurts Me,” and “I Lost My Job Of Loving You.” As someone who likes Lauderdale and already has every Buddy Miller album, I may have to get around to getting this collaboration just for the excellent harmonies.
What is your favorite album by Buddy Miller or Jim Lauderdale? Leave your two cents in the comments.
I watched the U.S. version of The Office since it first premiered (after loving the British version), and I was sad to see the series end. Finishing a good book or ending a long-running TV series can do something that movies cannot accomplish by making you feel like you are losing a life-long friend.
There will be plenty of articles critiquing The Office finale and comparing it to other series’ final episodes. I might think about those questions at some point, but as the series ended I just enjoyed seeing the characters one last time. I discovered one thing, though, that I had missed as I watched the series all these years. I did not know that the character Creed Bratton, played by Creed Bratton, had been in the Grass Roots. How did I miss that?
The final episode noted that the character Creed had been in the Grass Roots. And then when he sang at the end while playing guitar, it made me realize that they were not joking.
After searching for the lyrics (along the lines of “I saw a friend today . . . we forgot each other’s names” and “all the faces that I know have that same familiar glow”), I found that it is indeed a Creed Bratton song, “All the Faces.”
Here is a live version of the real Creed singing the song he sang on The Office finale. Nice.
The Grass Roots & Creed Bratton
The Grass Roots were a popular rock band in the 1960s and 1970s, with a number of hits. Creed Bratton joined the Grass Roots in 1967 and played guitar for the band. He played on songs like the classic, “Let’s Live for Today.”
Creed is the guy in this video in the striped shirt on your left.
Bratton quit the band two years later. Creed more recently explained that he left the band when he objected to the use of studio musicians for its albums. The band had begun to use studio musicians with the album Lovin’ Things because they were busy on tour.
Creed on The Office
After leaving the band, Creed’s life did not go so well for awhile. By the nineties he was doing catering jobs. But then he got a big break when he got a job in 2005 on The Office playing someone with the same name as him.
Initially, Creed had a non-speaking role in the series. But in the second season, he got a speaking role in a Halloween episode where Michael Scott was struggling to fire him. Because of his performance, he was promoted to a guest star, then a recurring role, and eventually as a regular character.
During the run of the series, the real-life Bratton continued to work on his music. On The Office, viewers were mostly kept in the dark about the character’s musical past.
But until the final episode, there were hints of Creed’s career — as well as at least a couple of almost reveals early in his time on the series. For example, during the Season 3 episode, A Benihana Christmas, Creed sang a karaoke rendition of his song “Spinnin’ N Reelin’.” In perhaps a nod to his music career, in the fourth season episode Money, Creed claimed “he never goes bankrupt” because all his debt “is always transferred to William Charles Schneider” (Creed’s birth name).
Further, his Grass Roots career was revealed in at least two scenes that were deleted before broadcast. In a deleted scene from the season two Booze Cruise episode, he played guitar and revealed his Grass Roots past. Also, in a deleted scene from Product Recall (Season 3, episode 21), a reporter from the Scranton Times recognized him as being from the band the Grass Roots.
But it seems the producers ultimately decided not to reveal the Grass Roots past . . . at least until the final episode. I am not sure why they saved the reveal about his past for so long. Viewers would have assumed it was a joke, but it did make a beautiful touch to the final episode.
Creed is releasing new music with Tell Me About It, a three-part “audio biography.” Check out “Faded Spats.”
Two members of the Grass Roots — Rob Grill and Ricky Coonce — have passed away. In addition to Creed, Warren Entner is still alive. The two are still good friends.
In the final episode of The Office, near the end, the character Creed talks about how life is “arbitrary” in the way things happen in one’s life. But, he explains, no matter where one ends up, “human beings have this miraculous gift” to make a place their home.
With a life of ups and downs, the real Creed Bratton found a home on The Office and continues his creative journey. Although he will always be that odd guy on The Office to me, he is of course much more than that. It looks like we haven’t heard the last of Creed Bratton.
What is your favorite Creed moment on The Office? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The first interracial kiss on broadcast television is often cited as having occurred in a Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren.” The episode featured a kiss between Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk.
As discussed below and elsewhere, the kiss may not have been the first interracial kiss on broadcast television, but it was an important step and an early one on a regular U.S. television series. Maybe they were able to break this new ground because the alien Platonians used their telekinetic powers to force the two to kiss.
This scene aired on television on November 22, 1968.
In this video below , Nichols explains how the kiss caused some controversy on set. She also explains how Shatner becomes a hero of the story.
While making the episode, NBC forced the actors to do the scene again without the kiss so they would have options in what they used. Shatner, however, ensured the kiss would be used by intentionally screwing up other takes without the kiss.
Was it really the first interracial kiss on television — or in a regular television series? Other sources cite an interracial kiss on a British television show in 1964 between the characters Dr. Mahler (Joan Hooley) and Dr Farmer (John White) on the show Emergency Ward 10. Some also note that Our Gang segments had played on TV where the character Buckwheat, played by Billie Thomas, had kissed white girls (and another source citing an alleged kiss on a 1954 Our Gang episode “Dog Daze” which involved Allen “Farina” Hoskins and Jacquelyn Taylor).
This informative and extensive discussion on Fake History Hunter also raises the question for this discussion about what is an “interracial” kiss. The post notes that in 1951 on I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball, of European ancestry, engaged with a kiss with Desi Arnaz, who was a Cuban-American. The post also goes on to address a kiss on the November 1958 Ed Sullivan Show featuring a performance of a scene from the stage play ‘The World of Suzie Wong” that ended with a kiss between France Nuyen (of Asian ancestry) and . . . William Shatner.
The article also documents other kisses, including an early interracial kiss between black and white people on U.S. television taking place on December 15, 1955. That kiss appeared in a televised production of Shakespeare’s Othellowith Gordon Heath and Rosemary Harris. Fake History Hunter concludes that the first meaningful interracial kiss on television was either the I Love Lucy kiss or the Othello kiss, depending on whether you limit “interracial” as black and white.
But even if Star Trek was not the first to broadcast an interracial kiss on television, it was certainly an early such kiss appearing between characters on a regular United States TV show.
The kiss was groundbreaking for a TV series during the 1960s, as was the role of Lt. Uhura. Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at one point told Nichols that she played an important role as an officer where her race and gender were not an issue.
What is your favorite rule-breaking scene from Star Trek? Leave your two cents in the comments. (Thanks to Fake History Hunter for some updates to this article.)
Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield yesterday uploaded a video made in space, which is, appropriately, a performance of David Bowie’s song about Major Tom, “Space Oddity.” This far-out video features cool shots of the view and of Hadfield in the International Space Station, where he has been since December. He will return to earth this week.
Check out his video for “Space Oddity.” [July 14, 2014 Update: Earlier this year Hadfield announced that the video was being taken off of YouTube because the publisher’s year-long license to post the song was expiring. But at least for now it appears he got another extension and the video is still available.]
According to the Canadian Space Agency, Hadfield has made several journeys into space. Regarding his latest mission, the website states: “On December 19, 2012 he launched aboard the Russian Soyuz, enroute to becoming the second Canadian to take part in a long-duration spaceflight aboard the ISS. On March 13, 2013 he became the first Canadian to command a spaceship as Commander of the ISS during the second portion of his five-month stay in space.” As for the guitar in the video, it has been in space since 2001 in the Space Station, providing diversions for many astronauts who have visited.
It is great that not only is Hadfield doing important scientific work, but he is helping spread awareness about the space program through these fun activities. He sings well too. We wish him well and that, unlike Major Tom, he gets home safe. You may follow Hadfield on Twitter (@Cmdr_Hadfield) and on Facebook. As for David Bowie, he already Tweeted his approval:
CHRIS HADFIELD SINGS SPACE ODDITY IN SPACE!“Hallo Spaceboy…”Commander Chris Hadfield, currently on… fb.me/24sZNW5ly
— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) May 12, 2013
What is your favorite part of the astronaut video? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On May 12, 1963, Bob Dylan walked off the set of The Ed Sullivan Show after CBS executives objected to lyrics in his planned performance of “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues.” The satirical song about the conservative John Birch Society and the organization’s fear of communists had not been a problem during dress rehearsal, and Ed Sullivan had not objected to the song. But CBS lawyers were worried that the song might subject them to lawsuits. Rather than sing another song or change the lyrics, Dylan left, never performing on the popular show.
Although many have repeated the legend that Dylan had a tantrum and stormed off in anger, contemporary reports indicate Dylan was polite about the affair. When a producer explained the options to Dylan, the singer just responded that he only wanted to sing “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues,” and otherwise he would leave.
Thus, Dylan, whose second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan had not yet been released, passed up the big break on national TV. The incident, however, received a lot of attention, actually helping Dylan’s sales, and in interviews Ed Sullivan stated he did not agree with the decision.
Thus, there is no Ed Sullivan Show performance of the song for us to hear. So below is another performance of “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” from the same year.
Reportedly, one side effect from the Ed Sullivan controversy was that CBS’s record division, Columbia, then became concerned about the song being on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. At that time, with only one weak-selling album under his belt, Dylan could not fight with the record company. So the song was pulled from the album, and Dylan used the opportunity to make some other last-minute song switches. A live 1963 performance of “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” would officially be released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.
Should Dylan have changed the lyrics like The Doors and Rolling Stones did for the same show? Leave your two cents in the comments.
