Charlie Louvin RIP

Satan is Real, The Louvin BrothersCountry music legend Charlie Louvin died this morning due to complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 83.

Charlie Louvin, born Charlie Elzer Loudermilk in 1927, and his brother Ira formed the Louvin Brothers, known for their harmonies and described by Allmusic.com as “one of the most influential musicians of the ’40s and ’50s.” After the Louvin Brothers stopped recording together in 1963, Charlie continued to record on his own, including a couple of well-received CDs in the last several years. Ira, who battled alcoholism, died in a car crash with his wife in Missouri in June 1965.

The Louvin Brothers, who started out with gospel music and then branched into secular songs, had many great recordings, including some original compositions such as “If I Could Only Win Your Love,” which later was Emmylou Harris’s first hit.

Although rock and roll played a part in the Louvin Brothers’s declining popularity in the early 1960s and their eventual break up, many “younger” people like me discovered the Louvin Brothers through later rock artists who were influenced by the Louvins, like The Everly Brothers and The Byrds. I first discovered them through Gram Parson’s recording of their song, “The Christian Life” (as well as Roger McGuinn’s version with the Byrds). I do not know if Kurt Cobain ever heard the Louvin Brothers’s recording of “In the Pines, (Where Did You Sleep Last Night)” but one could see a connection between their version and his intense haunting MTV Unplugged version. Although Cobain’s version is generally considered to be more connected to Lead Belly’s version, one might hear Cobain transform the Louvin’s yodels of pain into anguished screams for help.

One of my favorite album covers of all time is the cover of the Louvin Brothers album Satan is Real. The album features the smiling brothers in whites suits standing in hell with a cartoonish devil in the background. I love the cover song too, as I also love their song “The Great Atomic Power.” Even though the songs do not preach my type of religion, I find the songs beautiful and terrifying, with a touch of humor.  Uncle Tupelo also did a nice cover of the Louvins’ “Great Atomic Power.”

Here’s to you Charlie. Thanks for the music. I hope today you found out heaven is real.

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    Oscar Roundup

    The 2011 Academy Award nominations were just announced. The King’s Speech received the most nominations, with twelve, followed by True Grit, with ten. The Social Network had eight nominations. It is not surprising that those three received the most nominations, as the battle for Best Picture is most likely between The Social Network and The King’s Speech.

    The ten movies nominated for Best Picture are:

    127 Hours
    Black Swan
    The Fighter
    Inception
    The Kids Are All Right
    The King’s Speech
    The Social Network
    Toy Story 3
    True Grit
    Winter’s Bone

    Oscar Academy AwardThe Academy switched to having ten Best Picture nominations instead of five last year. Under the old format, which five would have been nominated? The King’s Speech, The Social Network, and True Grit would have been nominated for sure. The other two probably would have been The Fighter and Black Swan (based on the hype about the movie), but one could replace Black Swan with The Kids Are All Right (or even Toy Story 3 or Winter’s Bone).

    For some news about the nominations, here are some links:

    The full list of nominations is here (link no longer available).

    Entertainment Weekly has a list of the five biggest surprises of the nominations.

    NPR also discusses the few surprises in the nominations.

    Zap2It also discusses the surprises, such as that there was no Best Director nomination for Christopher Nolan’s work on Inception.

    The Week has a pre-nomination article about five important facts to know about the nomination process.

    For those concerned about money, the San Francisco Chronicle has the dollars for the top nominees (link no longer available).

    Play the Slate Oscar winners prediction game here.

    Which 2010 movies were your favorites? Were you surprised by the nominations? Leave a comment.

    The Missing NY City Hawk & John Denver

    Here in New York, amid all of the celebrity couples, one of the most famous couples has been the red-tailed hawks who have lived for nine years above a Fifth Avenue co-op building overlooking Central Park: Pale Male and Lola. They even have a Facebook page. (Chimesfreedom recently added a Facebook page too.)

    John Denver Aerie

    In the last month, though, Lola has been missing and observers suspect she might have died. Pale Male, who has fathered 26 hawks since first being observed in 1991, has apparently moved on and is courting another mate.

    I am the hawk and there’s blood on my feathers,
    But time is still turning they soon will be dry.
    And all of those who see me, all who believe in me,
    Share in the freedom I feel when I fly

    The story about Lola reminds me of the John Denver song “The Eagle and the Hawk” (maybe you expected The Kinks?). The song was on his 1971 album, Aerie. In the 1970s, John Denver was everywhere. He had numerous hits, he had an Emmy-winning special, he guest starred in TV shows, he hosted the Grammys, he was in a movie with George Burns, and he even guest hosted The Tonight Show. By the end of the 1970s and into the 1980s, though, perhaps partly due to a backlash because of so much exposure or perhaps because he began devoting more of his time on humanitarian and environmental causes, he seemed to largely disappear from pop music. Denver asked to participate in 1985’s “We are the World” recording, but producers denied his request because they thought his participation would hurt the credibility of the project because he was no longer popular.

    Denver died in 1997 in a flying accident. One irony is that during his lifetime, he did more for humanitarian causes than many of the other people who participated in “We Are the World.” And, while many still see him as a lightweight pop star, in later years many have come to recognize his contribution as a great writer of pop songs such as “Rocky Mountain High,” “Annie’s Song,” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Had he spread out the big hits over his lifetime instead of releasing them in a few years during a huge burst of creativity, maybe he would be more highly regarded than he is.

    While one of his first hits came when Peter, Paul, and Mary covered “Leavin’ On a Jet Plane,” he also had a great voice. The power of his voice and his range is on display in singing “The Eagle and the Hawk,” originally written for a documentary and a beautiful song. Maybe if you play it loud enough, Lola will return.

    Bonus “What Were They Thinking Video”: I have no idea why this amateur video of “The Eagle and the Hawk” with a guy in a tie mouthing the words and dancing in the woods has almost 500,000 views.

    What do you think? Leave a comment.

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    The following websites discuss some very good movies you might have missed:

    (1) Captain Obvious discusses David Lynch’s The Straight Story (1999), about an old guy who drives a tractor from Iowa to Wisconsin to see his brother. The movie, based on a true story, is unlike most of David Lynch’s movies, although there are some nice small Lynch touches.  Richard Farnsworth was a great actor, and this may be his best role.

    (2) Concrete Hunter talks about Please Give (2010), one of the best movies from last year that received good reviews but was more overlooked than it should have been. The movie follows two families living in New York and how their lives intersect, and the characters seem very real.

    (3) You likely have seen this one, but if not, run out and get The Night of the Hunter (1955). The Onion has a review of the new Criterion DVD release.

    (4) Salon has a good slideshow discussion of 10 Brilliant Comic Book Movies, featuring several interesting surprises and reappraisals of flawed but compelling movies.

    Finally, in the category of “Movies You Wish You Would Have Missed,” Popdose has a fun article about movie sequels that killed the good will of the originals, thus called “Killogies.” Star Wars anyone?

    Missed Movies is our series on very good movies that many people did not see when first released.

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    Top 10 Coen Brothers Movies

    The Writing-Producing-Directing team of Joel and Ethan Coen have had another success with True Grit. It is difficult to think of another team that has produced so many high quality movies. Many of their movies are made from various combinations of of humor, action (often involving murders), and witty dialogue. In honor of their most recent release, Chimesfreedom ranks the top ten Coen Brothers movies so far.

    (1) Fargo (1996)
    Fargo is the best representative movie of the Coen canon. It is a perfect balance of the three Coen factors of humor, action, and witty dialogue. At the center of the movie is perhaps the biggest heart of any of the Coen films: Frances McDormand as Marge Olmstead Gunderson, the pregnant chief of police in Brainerd, Minnesota. Fargo’s final scene of the couple in bed discussing stamps is one of the most touching scenes filmed by the Coens.
    Famous Quote: “You Betcha!”

    (2) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
    O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which is loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey, is one of the Coen films that is heavier on the humor and witty dialogue than on the action and violence. But the pitch-perfect soundtrack boosts this movie into the number two spot, along with George Clooney’s funniest role.
    Famous Quote: “We thought you was a toad.”

    Raising Arizona(3) Raising Arizona (1987)
    One could easily argue for any of these top three movies to be in the number one spot. All of the Coen movies have memorable great dialogue, but Raising Arizona probably tops them all. The long opening sequence that sets the story before the title appears is one of the funniest and best openings of any movie.
    Famous Quote: “Give me that baby, you warthog from hell!”

    (4) No Country for Old Men (2007)
    No Country for Old Men won the Best Picture Academy Award for the Coens, and contains excellent scenery and acting. It has some similarities to Fargo in that the Coens perfectly capture the Texas landscape here as they did with the Minnesota winter landscape in Fargo. Also, Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell evokes the heart-in-the-middle-of-chaos as Marge Gunderson did in Fargo. But we are ranking this one in fourth place for not featuring as much of the humor as Fargo, but it is still a great movie illustrating the randomness and unfairness of life, a theme the Coens would revisit two years later in A Serious Man.
    Famous Quote: “What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?”

    Miller's Crossing, Coen Brothers(5) Miller’s Crossing (1990)
    Miller’s Crossing is a beautiful movie about the battle between two Prohibition-era crime bosses with underling Gabrielle Byrne as Tom Reagan providing the heart and soul throughout a complicated double-double-cross. Although today the film is well-regarded, it was a box office dud when released. And what is the meaning of the hats? Is the hat some sort of MacGuffin? Worth repeated viewings.
    Famous Quote: “What is this, the high hat?”

    (6) The Big Lebowski (1998)
    Many might place The Big Lebowski higher on the list, and if you are talking about the movie with the most rabid fan base, then it would have to be this one. While it is full of clever dialogue and a great performance by Jeff Bridges, the above movies have more elements making them greater movies. The Big Lebowski, though, is still wonderful.
    Famous Quote: “The Dude abides.”

    (7) True Grit (2010)
    Chimesfreedom recently wrote about True Grit, comparing it to the original version of the movie. The Coen’s version is excellent, but the movie here is ranked lower than it might otherwise be because we already had the John Wayne original.
    Famous Quote: “I thought you gonna say the sun was in your eyes. That is to say, your Eye.”

    (8) A Serious Man (2009)
    A Serious Man grows on one upon repeated viewings. While the action element is nonexistent, there is great humor and dialogue in this movie, which raises important themes in its retelling of the Biblical story of Job with Larry Gopnik in 1967 Minnesota.
    Famous Quote: “When the truth is found. To be lies. And all the hope. Within you dies. Then what?” (Rabbi Marshak quoting Jefferson Airplane)

    (9) Blood Simple (1984)
    Many people love this neo-noir, perhaps because it was the Coens directorial debut, so we are including it in the top ten. Blood Simple features many of the elements that would appear in better form in later movies, but it was an excellent start.
    Famous Quote: “If you point a gun at someone, you’d better make sure you shoot him, and if you shoot him you’d better make sure he’s dead, because if he isn’t then he’s gonna get up and try to kill you.”

    (10) The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
    The Coen Brothers’ attempt at a classic screwball comedy with The Hudsucker Proxy bombed at the box office. It may have failed partly due to the fact that the movie was not what many expected. But it is an excellent homage to classic movies, and Tim Robbins as the unlikely rising business star is pretty funny.
    Famous Quote: “You know, for kids.”

    Hon. Mention: Barton Fink (1991), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), Burn After Reading (2008).

    Better Left Unmentioned: Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and The Ladykillers (2004).

    Which Coen Brothers movie is your favorite? Leave a comment.

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