Author: chimesfreedom

Editor-in-chief, New York.

Favorite Live Albums: An Evening With John Denver

John Denver Concert One of my favorite live albums is An Evening With John Denver.  Denver recorded the double album on August 26 through September 1, 1974 at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles during a time when his career was soaring.  The album reveals an artist confident in his choices before a crowd hanging on every note.  Additionally, the album also has special meaning for me.

In the early 1970s, we saw and heard John Denver everywhere.  In 1971, he scored a hit with “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”  In 1972, he released “Rocky Mountain High,” followed by four number one hits in 1974-75 (“Sunshine on My Shoulders,” “Annie’s Song,” “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” and “I’m Sorry”).

Denver also was beginning an acting career, including an appearance on McCloud in 1973.  In 1975, he won the Entertainer of the Year Country Music Association Award.

The Television Special

An Evening With John Denver appeared as a television special, winning the 1974-75 Emmy for Outstanding Special, Comedy-Variety or Music. Watching the show now on YouTube, I’m reminded that there were of course additional parts of the show that do not appear on the double album, like appearances by Jacques Cousteau and Danny Kaye.

The special begins with Denver flying an airplane by himself.  It would be the same way he would die decades later in 1997.

“An Evening With John Denver” Through the Years

Denver continued to record and tour until his death.  And I would periodically listen to new music from him, but those amazing successful years in the 1970s must have had a special resonance for him.  He gave joy to a lot of people in those years, including me.

Sometimes it is hard for a reviewer to separate a personal connection from the objective perspective.  And that is especially true when I think of this album, which remains one of my favorite live albums.  Yet, I cannot say whether or not it objectively is one of the best.  All I know is what the album means to me.

Although the album was recorded during the summer months, it remains a winter album for me.  Denver released the album in February of 1975.  And my mom bought me the album at a local five-and-dime store during that especially snowy Ohio winter.  I listened to An Evening With John Denver repeatedly through several school snow days.

Since then, I have periodically returned to An Evening With John Denver throughout my life. Changing technology has altered the ways I’ve listened to it. The album is among the few I have saved in LP form, but I subsequently owned cassette, CD, and MP3 forms of the album too.  Later versions added some additional bonus recordings, but for the most part, the recording is still the same for me.

Now, listening to An Evening With John Denver as it streams from my uploaded collection on Google Play, I cannot help thinking back to the first times I played the record in a warm house as the winter winds blew.  In it, there remains something comforting for me, like a cup of hot chocolate after shoveling snow.

All of the people who lived in that house where I first played the album are gone except for me.  But I am listening to Denver sing now in my own house this winter, looking out the window at the snow while my wonderful wife is  downstairs.  And I cannot help but think of the thread between that winter in 1975 and now.

One of the powers of music is the connections it brings us — and the way it can bring us home.

What is your favorite live album? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Song That Played Over Carl’s Last Days Montage on “The Walking Dead”

    Bright EyesAlthough we knew what was coming on this week’s episode of The Walking Dead for the mid-season premiere for Season Eight, it was still sad to see Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) die.  While watching it, though, you might have wondered about that song that played when they showed the flashback to Carl’s days after the bite from the walker.

    In the montage, we see Carl playing with Judith. We see him writing letters to his loved ones as he prepared for his death. And we hear an upbeat sounding song.

    We must talk on every telephone,
    Get eaten off the web;
    We must rip out all the epilogues
    From the books that we have read;
    And to the face of every criminal
    Strapped firmly to a chair,
    We must stare, we must stare, we must stare.

    The song was “At the Bottom of Everything” by Bright Eyes.  The band features Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and Nate Walcott (often helped by other musicians).

    “At the Bottom of Everything” appeared on the 2005 album I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.   In the recording before the tune begins, Oberst introduces the song with a story about a man and a woman on a plane right before the plane begins to go down.

    The music video directed by Cat Solen includes the story. It stars Evan Rachel Wood and Terence Stamp.

    What is the song about? There are various interpretations, but at its heart is an attempt really to get at “the bottom of everything.” In other words, it is about trying to discern some meaning from life when so much of what we do is pointless.

    And into the caverns of tomorrow,
    With just our flashlights and our love,
    We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge;
    And then we’ll get down there,
    Way down to the very bottom of everything;
    And then we’ll see it, we’ll see it, we’ll see it.

    What does the song have to do with Carl in the episode entitled Honor? Maybe the producers chose the song because it gives a happy tune to Carl’s final days.

    But maybe the lyrics also connected to what Carl was trying to say to his father Rick about searching for a more important end game than just surviving.  Like the man and the woman on the plane, in the face of death, Carl wanted something more besides blending into the choir and memorizing nine numbers while denying we have a soul.

    What did you think of the Honor episode? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Who Was Blaze Foley?

    Blaze Foley If I Could

    Blaze Foley, who was born as Michael David Fuller on December 18, 1949, died less than 40 years later from a gunshot wound on February 1, 1989.  The singer-songwriter never achieved the fame that some of his friends did, but Blaze Foley, as he became known, left us some beauty from his troubled life.

    I ran across Foley’s name recently while reading John Prine: In Spite of Himself by Eddie Huffman. In the book about singer-songwriter John Prine, it mentioned that one of Prine’s recordings I really like was a song written by Blaze Foley.  Prine is quoted about falling in love with the song before realizing that he had known the songwriter many years earlier. The story made me look up more about the man who wrote “Clay Pigeons.”

    Foley also wrote “If I Could Only Fly,” a song Merle Haggard performed for decades before making it the title song on his 2000 album. Foley hung around in that Texas group of songwriters that also included Townes Van Zandt.

    Foley lived an interesting, although short, life.  Townes even wrote a song about Foley (“Blaze’s Blues”) as did Lucinda Williams (“Drunken Angel”).

    Foley was shot dead in 1989 reportedly because he was protecting an old man from being abused by his son.  Foley was only 39.

    Below, Foley performs “If I Could Only Fly” at a friend’s wedding.

    Movies and a Book About Foley

    There are a number of resources to learn more about Foley, such as the book Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley (North Texas Lives of Musician Series), written by Foley’s lover Sybil Rosen about her experiences living with the singer. He wrote “If I Could Only Fly” about her.

    There is a documentary about Foley’s life entitled Duct Tape Messiah (2011 and 2013), with the title referencing Foley’s practice of using duct tape to decorate his clothes. The movie was directed and produced by Kevin Triplett.

    You may find out more about the documentary on the film’s website. There, you may also watch a short version of the film, Duct Tape Messiah.

    Finally, Foley likely will be more well known soon. At the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, a movie about Foley recently garnered significant attention. The movie, Blaze (2018), is directed by and written by Ethan Hawke. Benjamin Dickey stars as Foley. Additionally, Kris Kristofferson plays his father, Alia Shawkat plays Rosen, and singer-songwriter Charlie Sexton plays Townes Van Zandt.

    Although Foley never achieved the fame he deserved during his lifetime, somewhere there is a drunken angel laughing.

    What is your favorite Blaze Foley song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Enrico Caruso on Film

    Caruso MoviesThe great opera singer Enrico Caruso was born in Naples, Italy on February 25, 1873.  Apprenticed to a mechanical engineer when he was 11, Caruso also sang in church, eventually finding his true calling as a great singer.

    Caruso became a popular tenor in Italy before debuting at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1903.  By 1904, he began his American recording career, with records bringing his wonderful voice to more people than could ever see him.

    Before he died in a hotel in Naples on August 2, 1921 at the age of 48, Caruso achieved worldwide fame.  Fortunately, his career coincided with the use of recorded sound so we can still hear his voice today.  The timing was fortunate for Caruso too, as he managed his business affairs well and the recordings made him a wealthy man.

    Below is a recording of Caruso singing “Vesti La Guiba” from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (1892).

    But it was the early days of movies. So, even though Caruso appeared in the Paramount Pictures film My Cousin (1918).  Unfortunately, it was a silent film. Still, it is kind of cool to see him act. Check it out.

    The Great Caruso

    I have been to the Metropolitan Opera a number of times. My fondness for opera probably resulted from watching another Caruso movie while I was a kid. Growing up far from any place with an opera, my mom unwittingly introduced me to opera with the movie The Great Caruso (1951).

    So, when I picture Caruso, I always think of him looking like Mario Lanza, who did an excellent job portraying Caruso in the movie. Many future opera stars were also inspired by their exposure to Lanza, who also died at a young age (38). In this scene, Lanza sings “La Donna E Mobile” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto (1851).

    There are a lot of great places to learn about Caruso. His Wikipedia page includes a large number of audio clips of the singer. And, of course, Lanza’s portrayal in The Great Caruso is an entertaining story.

    Photo via public domain. What is your favorite opera? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    A Dark Humorless Somewhat Revisionist Western: “Hostiles” (Short Review)

    Hostiles movie Critics seem divided on the latest interpretation of the great American Western, Hostiles (2018).  Is it an “excellent modern take on the Western” or is it “a brutal, shallow Western“?  Well, there is truth in both views about the new movie directed by Scott Cooper.

    The film is set in the West during 1892 in the waning period of the American Indian wars, around six years after Geronimo has surrendered and less than two years after the Wounded Knee massacre.  Christian Bale stars in Hostiles as Joseph Blocker, a captain nearing retirement.  BLocker has seen and done horrible things during the wars with the Native Americans.

    Blocker’s final assignment is to escort an ill chief (Wes Studi) from New Mexico back to his tribe’s lands in Montana so the chief may die on his own soil.  Blocker, who has nothing but hatred for the Native Americans, does not want the assignment.  But he is forced into it.  So, he sets off with a few men and the chief and the chief’s family.

    Along the way, Blocker’s group picks up new people and loses others.  The film opens with some Native Americans killing a family, with the only survivor being Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike).  Soon, Blocker’s group finds Quaid, still traumatized from her own experience.

    The movie follows Blocker’s struggles with his beliefs about duty and about his old foes as he also tries to get his group to safety in a hostile land.  Some of the travelers have their own demons.  And other characters are somewhat developed, but the film mainly focuses on Bale’s character.

    Not the Greatest, But a Good Addition to the Western Canon

    There are echoes of other Westerns here.  Blocker’s changing assortment of traveling characters may remind one  of The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), for example.  But the most obvious connection here is to John Ford’s beautiful classic, The Searchers (1956).  That film followed John Wayne’s racist character searching for his niece.  One may also recognize echoes of the final shot from The Searchers in the final scene of Hostiles, one of my favorite touches in the new film.

    Hostiles does not rank among my favorite Westerns.  But it does a decent job telling a story steeped in realism as do many revisionist Westerns, even if one may debate how far the movie deviates from traditional Western stereotypes.  And the acting is superb all around.  The movie features another great performance from the always fascinating Bale, who also did a very good turn in the recent Western 3:10 to Yuma (2007).

    The movie, though, is not an enjoyable ride.  While there are scenes of horrible violence, the movie lacks the excitement and pace of most Westerns.

    Darker Westerns can still show flashes of joy or humor — as do The Searchers, Unforgiven (1992), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), and The Outlaw Josey Wales. But there is little human joy or laughter in Hostiles.  The story reveals some friendships and human connections.  But the dour movie could have done more with them.  Those few moments still seem buried in the darkness of the story, perhaps because the camera rarely leaves the grim Blocker.

    Hostiles is a good movie and anyone who enjoys Westerns should check it out.  I see why critics and viewers are somewhat split on the film, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 72% Critics Rating and a 71% Audience Rating. While Hostiles is not a fun ride and one may debate its success as a Revisionist Western, the film gets credit for trying to do something deeper than most recent action movies.

    What did you think of Hostiles? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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