9 years after the death of the forgotten genius of the Beatles, George Harrison, I figured for the next edition of “Who Did it Better?” we would look at, in my view, Harrison’s greatest single musical contribution to the Beatles, the song ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ (this is up for debate I know but just go with the premise on this one). This time we have the original and two covers done, by arguably two men who rank in the top ten guitarist category of all times.
First up, the original:
Next up, we got Carlos Santana featuring Indie.Arie & Yo-Yo Ma
Lastly Eric Clapton & Paul McCartney
I am going with the original, but I gotta say Clapton is feeling it during his performance.
So on December 4th I am going to see Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order bassist) perform Joy Division’s debut album ‘Unknown Pleasures’ from beginning to end, and I have nothing but the highest expectations. For those that haven’t heard it ‘Unknown Pleasures’ is universally considered a classic album (and in my top ten), and is one of the most important albums of the 70’s (yes I said it and I will stand by it). Good news is set list wise, I know what I am getting, the album cover to cover with maybe some stuff from the second album ‘Closer’ thrown in as an encore (sadly lead singer of Joy Division Ian Curtis committed suicide after two albums). Bad news is performance wise I don’t know what to expect, for those who have heard Joy Division know that as strong as the music was Ian’s vocal’s is what really made the album special, so I don’t know who Peter found for vocal’s. Also will the experience be a pure rendition of ‘Unknown Pleasures’ or will it be a bassist focused version. Personally I would also love to hear stories about the old days too, but who knows if I will get that. In any case I know Ian is dead, the living members hate each other with a passion, so this is as close as I will ever get to seeing Joy Division live, so for one night I am looking forward to closing my eyes and pretend that it’s 1979.
Sunshine and Lolipops… and so much more. One of the finer pop acts around, give these (magic) kids some much deserved eartime.
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Speaking of Magic Kids…they are this week’s Band of the Week! Chris “compares them to Beat Happening. They are truly both themselves. Like Beat Happening, they make unabashedly upbeat coy (sometimes cheesy, but in a good way) music in music scenes that are oft-macho.”
Crazy Shit. Audiences nearly died from viewing The Exorcist on the silver screen in 1973. It became one of the main reasons I could not sleep well from ages 10-12 when it was re-released in theaters in 2001. Almost forty years later and it is still a gut wrenching tour de force. Speaking of which, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Okay, so I do this annually and if this looks similar to the post I made last year that is because it is! well, for the most part- not much has changed. Here we go:
Films (in no particular order):
1) It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
2) A Christmas Story (1983)
3) Home Alone (1990)
4) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
5) A Christmas Carol (in any of it’s versions, specifically 1951. I usually attend the play, as I will be in less than a week; one of the few plays I enjoy seeing)
6) The Santa Claus (1994)
7) Edward Scissorhands (1990) (okay, so only towards the end of the film this is applicable, but for me it gets me in the mood)
8) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (I suppose this is more apropos for Halloween)
9) Bad Santa (2003)
10) Die Hard (1988)
TV:
1) The Simpsons- Most of their Christmas specials are worthy, but specifically, “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire” (1989)
2) South Park- Same deal as above, but especially “Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo” (1997)
3) Family Guy- “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas” (2001)
4) At least one Johnny Cash Special
5) Dr.Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1964)
6) Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964)
7) Frosty The Snowman (1969)
8) It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas (2009)
9) A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
10) SNL- various skits
Literature:
A Christmas Carol By:Charles Dickens (1843)
A Story A Day Till Christmas Various Authors (1985)
The Catcher in the Rye By: J.D. Salinger (1951)
I usually end up viewing (or reading for that matter) only half of these! But, either way, I have a lot of work to do and I recommend others to watch/read them too. I would recommend music, but that will take too long. I’ll save it for another day. To kick things off, here’s Adam Sandler in a classic SNL skit. It’s too bad that Youtube doesn’t have the actual video, oh well.
Back with another edition of Who did it better? They were not around a while but Joy Division was and remains one of the most influential and sometimes copied bands of all times. This time we are looking at the first track off their debut album “Unknown Pleasures” (sadly they only have two albums due to the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis, the rest band would later reform under the name New Order)
Here is Joy Division’s ‘Shadowplay’:
Next is the Killers:
Lastly here is a Silversun Pickups version:
For me nothing comes close to the original Joy Division version, but the two covers aren’t without their own certain charm. Of the two though I like the Killers version a bit better though.
Full Title: Over the Edge Director: Jonathan Kaplan Year: 1979 Fun Fact: This was Kurt Cobain’s favorite film and served as inspiration for the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video. Comments: This here is a molotov cocktail in your very hands for you youngsters out there. Yeah, I know y’all didn’t catch my little Jerry Rubin reference, but catch this a town filled with tired and uninspired teenagers abandoned by their wealthy parents, whom only care about making more money while their community is rotting from the inside. Edge is the dark version of Dazed and Confused (1993); kids in the 70s, apathetic, anarchic, and ready to Rock and Roll: having a good time is the top priority. I must say being a fan of youth oriented/teen/coming of age films, I really dug this work and while watching it I had a myriad of reactions. It really felt like I was watching some sort of archive footage from the 70s. In some ways the story seemed schizophrenic, meaning I could not tell if the movie was rooting for the kids or for the adults. There was this afternoon made for TV movie special feeling to it (which was actually kinda cool!) and simultaneously a Rock and Roll High School (1979) youth rebellion aesthetic to it as well. I have come to the conclusion that this ambiguous combination serves as a reminder that life in general is never black and white and this film does not need to shove a message down your throat to say something. Overall, I have very little to no gripes with this film; I thoroughly enjoyed it and I look forward to watching it again and again. It is not perfect, but honestly I don’t think I would like this film if it was. Ya dig?
P.S.: Going back to Cobain, with the characters in this flick I could totally see a little Kurt in some of these kids- before you know it they will be at their first Minor Threat/Black Flag show!
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 