As the summer movie blockbuster season approaches, it is a good time to look at the trailer for the movie that incorporates the biggest actors and the biggest scenes. The Movie: The Movietrailer debuted on Jimmy Kimmel Live and features stars such as Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron, Martin Scorsese, George Clooney, Gabourey Sidibe (“Once you go black Hitler you never go back Hitler”), Chewbacca, and many more too numerous to mention.
If you want more, there is also The Making of “Movie: The Movie.”
Breaking news is that Levon Helm, the singer and drummer of The Band as well as a solo artist, just passed away, surrounded by family in friends. Heaven just got a great singer and drummer. Check out a recent interview with Helm, and check out this video of “The Weight” with John Hiatt. RIP man.
Also here is Helm’s haunting vocals on “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” from Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz.
On his Facebook page yesterday, The Band’s Robbie Robertson wrote of going to visit Helm one last time, concluding, “Levon is one of the most extraordinary talented people I’ve ever known and very much like an older brother to me. I am so grateful I got to see him one last time and will miss him and love him forever.” So will we all.
At around 5 a.m. on April 19, 1775, approximately 700 British troops marched toward Lexington, Massachusetts. Their plan was to seize weapons and Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
As the soldiers approached Lexington, they encountered 77 minutemen with arms. During the encounter, “the shot heard ’round the world” was fired by an unidentified musket, and the Patriots were routed. Eight Colonists died from the battle. Ten more were wounded, with one British solder injured.
But that as not the end of the fight. Due to warnings by Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes, the British encountered more Patriots on their journey through Lexington and Concord. The result was 300 British casualties by the time they returned to Boston. The American Revolution had begun, and the world would never be the same.
The Beatles’ “Revolution”
Another revolution with both American and British connections is the song, “Revolution,” written by John Lennon and performed by the Beatles. The song was a reaction to political protests occurring in early 1968.
The Beatles released the rock version of the song that you usually hear as a B-side to “Hey Jude” on August 26, 1968. That version, which Rolling Stone ranks as the thirteenth greatest Beatles song, appears at the end of this post.
The Beatles recorded another slower version of the song first. They called this slower version “Revolution 1.” That version appeared on the 1968 double album The Beatles (aka “The White Album“). The band recorded “Revolution 1” before “Revolution,” remaking the song for the single release. Below is the original slow “Revolution 1.”
The White Album also included the experimental “Revolution 9.” The Beatles created this song out of parts of what was originally in “Revolution 1.”
Although the rock “Revolution” did not have quite the same impact as the American Revolution, it did cause some controversy. Many focused on the line, “But when you talk about destruction / Don’t you know that you can count me out.” Some on the far left saw the “out” as a betrayal. And those on the other end questioned the ambiguity of the “Revolution 1” version which stated the line as “count me out . . . in.”
Most agree though that “Revolution” preached a different kind of revolution than the violent American Revolution. The song was still causing controversy in 1987. That year, many Beatles fans hated to see the music they loved being commercialized when “Revolution become the first Beatles song licensed for a commercial (for Nike).
But the legacy of the song is that it will come up anytime someone talks about a revolution. It is the first song you think of when you think about revolutionary changes.
The opening scream of “Revolution” is the revolution heard round the world.
BONUS TRIVIA: The live television performance above appears to be from The Smothers Brothers Show in 1968. Although you see Paul McCartney doing the scream at the beginning of the performance above, on the record Lennon’s voice does the scream. McCartney does the scream in the live video because Lennon could not do the scream and be ready to sing the first line. Finally, do you know how many times does the word “revolution” appear in “Revolution”? Answer will appear in the comments.
What do you think of “Revolution”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Dick Clark passed away from a heart attack this morning at the age of 82. As a TV host and producer, Clark is known for a number of shows such as New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and the game show The 10,000 Pyramid. But he forever will be considered one of the early great promoters of rock and roll with his show, American Bandstand. Clark originally started out as a substitute host on a local Pennsylvania show Bob Horn’s Bandstand, taking over full time in 1956 and then renaming the show American Bandstand when it moved to ABC in 1957. The show ran regularly — first every weekday and later weekly — through 1987 and then a few more years in syndication. As Clark himself described the show, “I played records, the kids danced, and America watched.”
In this interview from several years ago on Up Close with Patsy Smullin, Clark talks about his career.
I’d like to think that somewhere Clark is sitting in a crowd of teenagers holding up a record album and introducing Buddy Holly. RIP gentlemen.
One of the most highly anticipated films of the upcoming summer is The Dark Knight Rises, the conclusion of the Dark Knight trilogy with Christian Bale that started with Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008), the latter of which starred the late Heath Ledger. The trailer for the new film makes me want to see it even more than I did. And now a new version of the trailer in Legos makes me want to see a Legos version of the film too.
Here’s the trailer that is remade in the Lego trailer scene-for-scene:
For an extra treat, press the start button on both videos, syncing the first scene, and you can watch the same scenes in both real and Legos versions at the same time. The non-Legos human version of The Dark Knight Rises comes to theaters on July 20, 2012. The film also stars Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine. What movie trailer would you like to see in Legos? Leave your two cents in the comments.
“). The band recorded “Revolution 1” before “Revolution,” remaking the song for the single release. Below is the original slow “Revolution 1.”
