Author: chimesfreedom

Editor-in-chief, New York.

You and Me and Cisco Know

Cisco

Folksinger Gilbert Vandine “Cisco” Houston was born in Wilmington, Delaware on August 18, 1918.  Houston is probably best-known for his work with Woody Guthrie, but he also performed with artists like Lead Belly and the Almanac Singers.

Houston had a great voice and was a wonderful interpreter of traditional songs and folk songs written by others.  But he also wrote some songs and worked for good causes with Guthrie, touring migrant camps and supporting workers’ rights.

Houston died at a relatively young age from stomach cancer in California on April 29, 1961.  Below Houston sings “The Preacher and the Slave (Pie in the Sky),” a song written by activist and songwriter Joe Hill.

Although Cisco Houston is not remembered as well as some of his contemporaries, he has always been respected by other folk singers.

Houston is referenced in a number of songs, including Steve Earle’s “Christmas in Washington (Come Back Woody Guthrie).” In that song, Earle laments, “To listen to the radio / You’d think that all was well / But you and me and Cisco know / It’s going straight to hell.”

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    “American Graffiti” Opens in 1973

    American GraffitiAmerican Graffiti opened in the United States on August 11, 1973.  The movie, directed and co-written by George Lucas, captured a nostalgia for a summer in 1962.  I can hardly believe that now we are more than four times as much removed in time from the movie as the movie was removed from its characters.

    American Graffiti follows two recent high school grads played by Ron Howard and Richard Dreyfus.  The two are spending their last night in town  before they are scheduled to leave for college the next day.  During the evening and night, their stories intertwine with a number of other young men and women cruising in cars around town. The movie not only captures a time and a place (and hot rods!), but it also reveals some of what it is like to be in high school.

    The coming-of-age movie featured a number of stars and future stars, including Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Candy Clark, and Suzanne Somers.  Also, radio DJ Wolfman Jack makes a special appearance.  The film also contained a lot of great music from the period and a wonderful soundtrack.

    Reception

    Critics and viewers generally loved American Graffiti. The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture.  The movie failed to win any Oscars and lost the Best Picture award to The Sting. But the film set in Modesto, California became a beloved classic.  It also aided the careers of many involved in the movie.  And it helped spawn a nostalgia for the 1950s and early 1960s.

    American Graffiti ends with title cards reporting what happened to all of the characters, even though Lucas’s co-writers did not like such an ending, which was largely depressing. That, however, did not prevent an interesting but mediocre sequel in 1979, More American Graffiti.

    When I was in high school, a few years after the movie was released, one of my teachers showed us the movie on a TV in class.  We were studying the period around the 1950s.  Our class was in the days before DVDs and VHS, so it was a big deal to see a commercial movie in class back then.  So, I will always have a special fondness for the movie.

    In the clip below, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel discuss American Graffiti for the film’s debut on television (starting at the 16:30 mark).  Check it out.

    What do you think of “American Graffiti”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    How Farah Fawcett Inspired “Midnight Train to Georgia”

    One evening in 1970, songwriter Jim Weatherly called up a friend from his college years, the actor Lee Majors.  Weatherly and Majors played in a flag-football league together.  But the actor was not home, and his girlfriend Farah Fawcett answered the phone, saying something that would inspire Weatherly to write the song “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

    After reporting that Majors was not home, Fawcett said she was packing for a trip.  More specifically, she said she was preparing to take a midnight plane to Houston to visit her parents.  Weatherly, who had a songwriter’s ear, immediately recognized a great phrase for a song.

    Weatherly’s “Midnight Plane to Houston”

    As Weatherly explained in the book Anatomy of a Song: The Inside Stories Behind 45 Iconic Hits, by Marc Myers, Weatherly created the song “Midnight Plane to Houston” in about 45 minutes.  Weatherly recorded the song on an album of songs, hoping a famous singer would record one or more of the songs.

    Below is Weatherly’s own recording of “Midnight Plane.”

    Cissy Houston’s Changes

    Cissy Houston, the mother of Whitney Houston, was the first to want to record “Midnight Plane.”  But because she was from Georgia, and because people she knew took trains instead of planes, she asked to change to title.  Weatherly agreed, and the title about a train going to Georgia was born.

    Houston recorded the song as “Midnite Train to Georgia” in Memphis in 1972 (released with spelling “Midnight” in the UK).  But without much support from the label, the song went nowhere. Houston’s version has more strings than the later hit recording, but it is still a very good recording.

    Gladys Knight & the Pips Create a Classic

    But then, Weatherly’s manager-publisher sent the song to Gladys Knight, who also was from Georgia.  She loved the song.

    Although she loved Houston’s version, she wanted a different sound.  She also made some tweaks to Weatherly’s lyrics with his permission.  Her producer added several horn players, including saxophone player Michael Brecker, while putting less emphasis on the rhythm section.

    When Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded their vocal tracks in Detroit, she thought of problems in her own marriage.  Her husband at the time was unhappy because she was on the road so much.  They would eventually divorce in 1973.  But, as Knight explained in Anatomy of a Song, “I was going through the exact same thing that I was singing about when recording — which is probably why it sounds so personal.”

    During the recording session, the leader of the Pips, Merald “Bubba” Knight asked her to ad-lib some gospel phrases at the end of the song.  Gladys had trouble coming up with good lines, so Bubba, who also was her brother, fed her lines through her headset.  The improvised lines included “My world, his world, our world” and “I’ve got to go, I’ve got to go.”

    The song was finally completed.

    After “Midnight Train to Georgia” was released in August 1973, it became the group’s first number-one hit song on October 27, 1973. It also won the 1974 Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus.

    And that is the story behind the song.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Movie Lovers Should Join The Important Cinema Club (Podcast Review)

    I have tried out a number of movie podcasts, and one of the best is The Important Cinema Club.  Listening to hosts Will Sloan and Justin Decloux feels like hanging out with your friends in the basement talking about movies.  But only if your friends knew a ton about movies and were able to talk about them without being smug or making you feel like an idiot.

    Movie Podcast In The Important Cinema Club, Sloan and Decloux explore great films, but they also talk about not-so-great movies.  They take a light-hearted approach, so you never feel like you are listening to movie snobs who think they know more than you.

    Although they do know more than you, Sloan and Decloux are not afraid to explain why they do not like a classic like Gone With the Wind while also heaping praise on Godzilla movies or the work of Jerry Lewis.  One of their recent episodes was devoted to Looney Tunes, and when they turned their focus on Steven Spielberg they decided to focus on his lesser-loved works.

    So, one of the great things about The Important Cinema Club is the range of topics. In one episode, they will be talking about Starship Troopers while just a few episodes earlier they devoted an episode to Vincente Minnelli. You will likely start listening by skipping around to episodes about movies you have seen.  But you also should listen to the episodes about movies, stars, and directors you have never heard of. Sloan and Decloux have a ton of knowledge, and The Important Cinema Club is one of the most educational podcasts I have found.

    But most importantly, the podcast is fun.  The best part is the interaction between Sloan and Decloux and their sense of humor. You can tell that they really like each other and that they love movies. Their self-effacing humor makes all of their knowledge both accessible and fun. These guys know their stuff, but they also know how to have a good time. In some ways, they are using their podcast to do what Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert did with television by elevating the conversation about movies while also making the conversation entertaining and fun.

    Host Justin Decloux writes about movies, while hosting another podcast called Loose Cannons with Matthew Kumar.  He is an editor at FilmTrap.com and also has written and directed films.  Will Sloan writes about movies, and has written for NPR and other places.  His blog and other writings cover other topics in addition to film.

    Most of the podcasts are free. But once you start listening to The Important Cinema Club, you might want to support the podcast through Patreon and gain access to bonus content.

    If you do not trust my recommendation, listen to my new “friends” Will and Justin tell you why you should listen to The Important Cinema Club.

    What is your favorite movie podcast? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Last Known Survivor Stalks His Prey in the Night

    On July 24, 1982, the band Survivor hit the top of the Billboard pop charts with the song “Eye of the Tiger.” The song from Rocky III (1982) continued to hold that position at the top for six weeks.

    Sylvester Stallone had sought out the band after hearing their 1981 song “Poor Man’s Son.” The songwriters in the band –Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik — responded to Stallone’s request for something with a “rock beat” with the hard-hitting “Eye of the Tiger.”

    “Eye of the Tiger” has some clunky lyrics, such as “They stack the odds ’till we take to the street/ For the kill with the skill to survive.” But it was a great song for the over-the-top Rocky III, and the band’s lead singer at the time, Dave Bickler, does a great job.

    Rocky III is one of my favorites in the franchise. After all, it has Hulk Hogan and Mr. T, introducing the latter’s catch phrase, “I pity the fool.” But the song title captures the essential theme of the movie about a man trying to find what made him find success in the first place after becoming complacent.

    Another cool thing is how the band named Survivor managed to work in the words “survive” or “survivor” so many times. The words appear at least six times in the song.

    The song’s six-week run at the top of the charts was longer than the run of the other hit from the Rocky franchise. “Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky).” That song from the first Rocky (1976) was the number-one song for one week in 1977. “Eye of the Tiger” also was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

    As for Survivor, they never matched the hit status of “Eye of the Tiger.” The band members changed over time, with some breakups and getting back together. And singer Jimi Jamison, who became lead singer after the success of “Eye of the Tiger,” passed away in 2014. “Eye of the Tiger” singer Bickler had joined the band again before that, but in 2016 he was fired. But, living up to the group’s name, the band Survivor is still around and continues to tour.

    What is your favorite Rocky music? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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