The Band with the Staples, “The Weight”

 

Nothing further need be said …

Enjoy every serendipitous moment of pure joy and beauty. It’s good for you.

Today in 1977, “Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)” Reaches #1

 

This song was everywhere that summer and as a song it’s nothing special, but after seeing the movie you subconsciously fix it permanently in your mind with this unforgettable and revolutionary scene.

The music builds to a crescendo while he sprints up the many flights of stairs, all the way to the top, and the camera spins around him to show the skyline as he suddenly raises his fists triumphantly … chills, every time. 

Scenes like this became common, but this was the first.

Stereogum has a good summary of how unique and revolutionary it was.

With Rocky, director John G. Avildsen more or less invented the training montage, a convention that would become a staple of American movies for about the next 20 years. (We still get training montages, but now they’ve become a self-conscious, parodic trope. Often, they still use the same music as the Rocky movies.) In Rocky, Rocky Balboa has randomly been booked in a fight with the champion of the world. He’s only in there because he has a good nickname, because he comes from the right city, because he’s white, and because he can’t possibly win. Rocky knows he can’t possibly win. But thanks to his hardbitten, motivational trainer, that starts to change. He starts to believe. And then the montage hits. ... As we watch Rocky, we can imagine “Gonna Fly Now” as the music in his head, as his own monosyllabic inner monologue. Rocky loses the big fight in the end, but he wins respect and becomes a contender. He achieves his destiny. A downbeat bummer of a story becomes a triumph for the ages, a harbinger of an era when movie ticket buyers demanded uplifting spectacle. “Gonna Fly Now” has everything to do with it.

Exactly right.

And So We Enter the Post-Pat Sajak Era

TV shows come and go and therefore so too do the people in them come and go, into and out of our lives. Most shows only last two or three seasons— maybe six or eight if they are really popular. It’s a very transient world in that way.

It’s an extremely rare show that lasts a decade or longer. 

And then we have Wheel of Fortune and specifically Pat Sajak who hosted the show for 41 years until his retirement this year . His final show aired last Friday.

Pat Sajak became a legend because he is so likable and funny and unassuming and naturally at ease with random strangers that, over time, you as the viewer start to think of him as almost a friend. A guy you are happy to see on the screen. Every night. For over 40 years. 

Here is his farewell message. 

Classy, selfless, genuine.

I loved watching the show and so did my whole family. Time marches on I guess and there will be reruns and a new guy in the fall and I’m sure he’ll be fine.

One thing he won’t be is Pat Sajak.

Who Sings Lead, Well It’s Not Who You Think

 

Raise your hand if you too had no idea that the drummer sang lead vocals on the verses, not Frankie Valli…

That drummer is Gerry Polci and he is a fine singer. 

That’s not Valli on the falsetto, either — it’s bassist Don Ciccone. Wikipedia says that music executives came up with the idea to have Polci sing lead and bass player Don Ciccone to sing the falsetto with Valli handling the choruses.

Didn’t know that either!

Imagine a band with such strong singers — your drummer and bass player, no less — that you can make a hit song using legend Frankie Valli as the third featured singer, the equivalent of a hired background singer.

Just an amazing song and it always sounds fresh. Turn it up!

Clint Eastwood 70s Classic

 

Two thumbs up on both the title tune and the movie, and this video gives you a good taste of how it all goes down.

He drives around rural California fighting various dumbasses and losers, along with chasing his girlfriend around. An orangutan named Clyde is his partner and gets some of the biggest laughs in the movie, along with Ruth Gordon who is always a little cranky and not taking any bullshit from anyone.

Highly original and memorable. It’s been literally decades since I’ve seen it, but I plan to watch soon. It’s funny and filled with great music and is just a good time.

Bob Fosse in his Prime

 

I know very little about dancing but there are certain dancers that I immediately and instinctively like. Fred Astaire for his smoothness and grace, Gene Kelly for his explosive athleticism, James Cagney for his compact power, these are the main three that come to mind.

I’ve seen Bob Fosse as subject of the movie “All That Jazz”, about a dance legend turned choreographer, but had never him do any actual dancing in his prime. 

Then I stumbled across this song and dance video from the 1953 movie “The Affairs of Dobie Gillis “ with Bob Fosse, Debbie Reynolds, Bobby Van, and Barbara Ruick. Keep your eye on Fosse, in the sweater with white socks.

The whole clip is just fun to watch but Fosse is on another level here, so explosive and athletic, similar in my mind to Gene Kelly but with a smaller frame and (to me it seems) more movement in his extremities. 

He just moves differently than everyone other dancer, ever. Truly one of a kind.

He moved pretty quickly after that into choreography on Broadway, and his list of awards is pretty extensive:

He transitioned into directing and choreographing musical works including the stage musicals winning Tony Awards for The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), Redhead (1959), Little Me (1963), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), Dancin' (1978), and Big Deal (1986). He also worked on Bells Are Ringing (1956), New Girl in Town (1958), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), and Chicago (1975).