Goodnight Irene

Lead Belly Goodnight Irene As Chimesfreedom prepares for Hurricane Irene in New York, we wish others in the hurricane’s path to be safe in weathering the storm. Hopefully, we soon will be wishing Irene goodnight, as in the great song. Unlike the hurricane, “Goodnight Irene” is timeless, so that nobody knows where the song originated. Huddie Ledbetter, i.e., Lead Belly, made the first recording of the song while he was in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. His recording is a beautiful, haunting version of the song about the deep sadness of lost love, as the singer tries to warn others to avoid his fate (“Stay home with your wife and family / And stay by the fireside bright”).

Goodnight Irene, Lead Belly

Pete Seeger’s The Weavers helped make the song a national hit in 1950.  And there have been numerous covers through the years, including interesting upbeat versions by Fats Domino and by Brian Wilson (the latter is on the tribute CD, Folkways: A Vision Shared (1988)).

In the version below, Pete Seeger sings with the great Mississippi John Hurt, who tells a story about getting his first guitar. Then, the group, which includes folk-singer Hedy West (“500 Miles“) and banjo player Paul Cadwell, breaks into playing “Goodnight Irene.”

The above performance appeared on Rainbow Quest, a show Pete Seeger started on a local UHF New York television station in the 1960s. At the time, many television stations feared featuring Seeger, who had been blacklisted because he asserted his First Amendment rights before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Fortunately, through YouTube, many more people get the opportunity to see some great performances hidden away at the time. Seeger, who now is a respected sage from a different time, has always been a bit of a hurricane himself.

What is your favorite version of “Goodnight Irene”? Leave a comment. In times of natural disasters, it is always a good reminder to help others by donating to organizations like the Red Cross.

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    Charles Lindbergh: The Spirit of St. Louis

    Spirit of St. Louis On August 26, 1974, Charles Lindbergh died of cancer in Hawaii at the age of 72. Lindbergh was the first person to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean, and he is also the subject of one of my favorite bio-pics, The Spirit of St. Louis.

    Looking at the year he died, it is difficult for me to believe that Lindbergh’s life overlapped with my childhood, as he seems from another age.  And 1974 is not that long ago. Similarly, his talented wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh lived until 2001.

    The Spirit of St. Louis, directed by Billy Wilder, is the movie I saw in my childhood that established Jimmy Stewart as one of my favorite actors. It is a compelling movie about a unique type of heroism, and Jimmy Stewart must carry the movie. If he is not interesting, the movie fails, because a key segment of the movie is Stewart alone in the plane. But the film works and captures the drama, fear, and loneliness of that first solo transatlantic flight.

    Lindbergh’s solo 33-1/2-hour trip, where he had not slept for 55 hours, was a kind of isolation that is rare in this modern world with crowded airplanes, cell phones, and Internet access to the world. Like Michael Collins’s trip around the dark side of the moon after separating from Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, Lindbergh’s uncertain groundbreaking trip required a special resolve to face one’s fears alone.

    And the movie The Spirit of St. Louis does an excellent job of showing that isolation, as well as the logistics and preparation involved.

    After the Historic Flight

    Although Lindbergh’s life continued past his flight and even past where he saw Apollo 11 land on the moon, the film rightfully ends with Lindbergh’s heroic triumphant flight in 1927. Unfortunately, the rest of Lindbergh’s life would not always be so happy.

    In 1932, Lindbergh lost his son in an infamous kidnapping and murder.  And as World War II approached, his statements about the war made him a fallen hero. He argued against U.S. involvement in the war, making controversial statements supportive of the Nazis. But after the war broke out, he served in the Pacific as a military observer and flew combat missions.

    Each one of those stages are worthy of more discussion — or additional movies, because Lindbergh was a complex man. There is Forward From Here: Leaving Middle Age–and Other Unexpected Adventures, a book by Lindbergh’s daughter Reeve Lindbergh, where she recounts her discovery after her parents’ deaths that her father had three secret families in Europe. Using fiction to consider Lindbergh’s complexities, author Philip Roth wrote a novel, The Plot Against America, that imagines an alternate history with an anti-Semitic Lindbergh being elected president over Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

    It is difficult not to ask questions about the choices that Lindbergh made in his life, where he resided on the edge between being a hero and a villain, between joy and tragedy, between order and chaos. We may revisit some of these topics in the future, but for today, on this anniversary of Lindbergh’s death, if you are interested in the heroic flight, the James Stewart movie is a great place to start.

    I have been to the spot on Long Island from where Lindbergh began his historic flight.  But unfortunately, it is a shopping mall.

    Fortunately, Lindbergh’s body received a better burial. After he died, he was buried on the coast of Hawaii next to the ocean. The inscription on his tombstone includes a phrase from Psalm 139: “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.” Although the Psalm continues, the inscription on Lindbergh’s tombstone ends there, leaving the reader mid-sentence, wondering if you do that, then what? Just like Lindbergh’s life, the inscription leaves one with many questions.

    Have you seen The Spirit of St. Louis? What did you think of it? Leave a comment.

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    Willy DeVille: More Than a Storybook Story

    On August 31, 2011, the B.B. King Blues Club in New York is hosting “Spirit of Mink DeVille”: The 2nd Annual Willy DeVille Memorial Concert. Willy DeVille — who passed away two years ago this month and was born in 1950 this Thursday, August 25 — had a long career as a musician, singer, and songwriter. He formed the band Mink DeVille in 1974, and it lasted until 1986. He recorded in a number of styles, ranging from punk rock to New Orleans R&B to an Academy-Award-nominated ballad. Later in his career, he became interested in Spanish-American music and began exploring his Native American background. At various times he was more popular in Europe than in his home country of the U.S., but he continued to create music throughout his life.

    Willy DeVille Storybook Love

    DeVille struggled for success throughout his career, and he battled a heroin addiction. After getting off heroin in 2000, his second wife, Lisa Leggett, committed suicide in 2001. Then, in 2009, he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, and during treatment, doctors discovered pancreatic cancer. He died three months later in August 2009.

    For those who have never heard of Willy DeVille, you most likely know one of his songs, “Storybook Love.” The song is from The Princess Bride and was nominated for an Academy Award. DeVille wrote the song with Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame. It is DeVille’s voice you hear at the end of the movie, and it is a perfect song for a perfect movie. Check out this 2002 live performance of the song (available on his Live in Berlin CD).

    To get a sense of DeVille’s range over the course of his career, compare “Storybook Love” to this Mink DeVille recording of “Spanish Stroll.”

    Overall, it is a pretty impressive career for someone whose name is unfamiliar to many people. Thanks to Mike for introducing me to these compelling performances by DeVille.

    What is your favorite Willy DeVille song? Leave a comment.

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    • Is That All There Is?: Jerry Leiber, Rest in Peace

    Leiber and Stoller Hound Dog On August 22, 2011, Jerry Leiber, part of the great song-writing team with Mike Stoller, passed away at the age of 78 from cardiopulmonary failure.

    Leiber’s impact on your life may be best summarized by this list of songs he co-wrote, mostly writing the lyrics while Stoller handled the music: Big Mama Thornton and Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” Elvis’s “Jailhouse Rock,” Dion’s “Ruby Baby,” The Drifters’ “There Goes My Baby,” The Coasters’ “Yakety Yak,” The Searchers’ “Love Potion No. 9,” Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?,” Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” (written w/ Ben E. King and also recorded by John Lennon), Ben E. King’s “Spanish Harlem” (Leiber and Phil Spector), George Benson’s “On Broadway,” and Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle With You.”

    Take away Leiber’s work and you have to imagine Elvis without “Jailhouse Rock,” or the movie Stand By Me without the song — or Reservoir Dogs without “Stuck in the Middle With You” (not for the faint of heart).

    Although many may not recognize the name, the above songs and others will be there for generations. Rolling Stone has a nice article about Leiber’s career.  A career that included forming a partnership with Stoller that put them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

    Rest in peace Mr. Leiber, and thanks for the songs, including this advice from “Is That All There Is?”:

    For I know just as well as I’m standing here talking to you,
    When that final moment comes and I’m breathing my last breath, I’ll be saying to myself,

    Is that all there is, is that all there is?
    If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing;
    Let’s break out the booze and have a ball,
    If that’s all there is.

    UPDATE (Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011): After the above story was posted, we learned that we lost another great songwriter. Nick Ashford died of cancer at the age of 69. Like Jerry Leiber, Ashford was famous for writing great songs with a partner, Valerie Simpson, who eventually became Ashford’s wife too. Their songs included Diana Ross’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Reach Out and Touch,” Ray Charles’s “Let’s Go Get Stoned” and “I Don’t Need No Doctor” (covered here by John Mayer and John Scofield), Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” (covered by Whitney Houston too), and one of my favorites, the Marvelette’s “Destination Anywhere,” which was featured in the movie The Commitments. Ashford & Simpson had success as performers too, including a hit with a song that has a title that described Ashford’s songwriting talent: “Solid (as a Rock).”

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    Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Hudson Brothers?

    Some people noticed that a current episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm contained a reference to filmmaker Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, etc.). And others laughed at the episode’s references to Pinkberry frozen dessert, “chat-n-cuts,” and “pig parking.” But few caught that the Harlin conversation on the show also referenced the 1970s television and music stars, The Hudson Brothers.

    On the episode (“The Vow of Silence“), Tessler (Michael McKean) invited Larry David to stay at Renny Harlin’s apartment in New York, referring to his own involvement in filming “Pandemonium,” based on a “Hudson Brothers movie.” There is no Hudson Brothers movie “Pandemonium,” but McKean’s comment about the “Hudson Brothers” refers to the singing brothers who had their own television show in the 1970s and did a movie named Hysterical. Since I started writing this post, a comment on a another page clarified that “Pandemonium” was a film with Tommy Smothers, so McKean may have accidentally referenced the wrong movie. But who are the Hudson Brothers?

    Hudson Brothers Hysterical

    If you were not around in the 1970s, you may not have heard of the brothers Bill, Mark, and Brett. They started out playing music in the 1960s, had a few minor hits in the early 1970s (“So You Are a Star,” “Lonely School Year,” and “Rendezvous”). But most young Americans at the time knew the group from their two U.S. TV shows. During the summer of 1974, CBS gave a TV variety hour to the Hudsons on Wednesday nights. Variety shows were big back then, with The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour ending around that time, and Tony Orlando & Dawn then getting a variety show that year to take over the divorcing couple’s time slot. The Hudson Brothers, however, were only in prime time for the summer. Later that fall, the network moved the brothers to a half-hour show on Saturday mornings. That show, The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show, ran for a year from September 1974 to August 1975.

    When they were sent to Saturday mornings, the humor understandably became a little more juvenile, as you can see in the opening to the Saturday show, which is available on DVD. I still remember some of the characters from the show who made me laugh, including Chucky Margolis, about a kid who never saw his parents and lived in a basement. And I was not alone in enjoying the show. Their friend John Lennon once referred to them as “The Kings of Saturday morning.”

    Here is one of their songs “So You Are a Star.” Two of the brothers performed the song more recently in 2008. Below is the original version with all three brothers.

    The above song was supposedly written for Goldie Hawn, and many Americans may only connect with the brothers’ name through actress Kate Hudson, who has genes and a last name from one of the brothers. Bill, who was married to Goldie Hawn for awhile, is Kate’s father (although unfortunately father and daughter are estranged). But The Hudson Brothers had more than their fifteen minutes of fame. Behind the scenes, they have done various music and television projects through the years. They seem to be still around and working together. Mark Hudson, who has written a number of songs including Aerosmith’s “Livin’ on the Edge,” was recently spotted in Chicago at a Beatlefest. In 2007, Bret explained how the brothers are still close even if they do not see each other all the time. And the brothers have a MySpace page.

    After the two U.S. TV series, the Hudson Brothers had a short-run series called Bonkers in the UK in 1979, and several years later the Hudsons performed in the movie that McKean probably meant to reference on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Despite my fond memories of the television show, I have not seen the  movie Hysterical (1983).

    In 2007, Brett Hudson was diagnosed with Stage Four throat cancer. He has made a serious film about an alternative to the usual American medical system. His website explains how Cher led him to the discovery of a treatment center that Hollywood knows about, but most Americans do not. The movie has a Facebook page. The most recent news I found, which was from 2009, stated the great news that Brett was found to be cancer-free. This clip from Extra tells Brett’s story and his recollection of Farah Fawcett and her struggle with cancer.

    About a year ago the brothers made a video to promote a new television show in Canada called What The?. I cannot find what happened to the show.

    Anyway, it was nice and a funny obscure reference when Michael McKean remembered The Hudson Brothers on Larry David’s show. So it gave Chimesfreedom an opportunity to recall some Hudson Brothers memories and provide a very long explanation for the Curb Your Enthusiasm reference and why I found it funny. . . in case there is anyone in the world besides me who wondered about it. How about a guest appearance of The Hudson Brothers on Curb Your Enthusiasm?

    Do you remember the Hudson Brothers? Leave a comment.

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