Bideodromage
Joaquin Phoenix, who won the Oscar for best actor, and Billie Eilish, who performed a subdued, poignant, and haunting version of Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday”, were two of the vastly gifted artists amongst the assemblage at the 2020 Academy Awards ceremony.
Immortal music from Delaney & Bonnie, Lee Michaels, The Carpenters, Daddy Dewdrop {Richard Monda}, Ocean, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose, Brewer and Shipley, Tommy James, Paul Revere and the Raiders {featuring Mark Lindsay}, and The Stampeders.
Featuring the remarkable voice of Marilyn McCoo.
Memorable moments from Melanie Safka, Don McLean, Argent, Todd Rundgren, Clint Holmes, The Stylistics, The Main Ingredient, The Hollies, a youthful Michael Jackson, Looking Glass, Gallery, and Climax, featuring Sonny Geraci. So there.
The angry, but smartly suited, young men of The Jam, featuring vocalist and “Modfather Paul Weller, combined briskly tempoed rock with Motown R&B to exceptional effect. Weller went on to further fine doings with The Style Council before launching a solo career.
Composer/Vocalist Townes Van Zandt is responsible for many poignant masterpieces; this represents merely a small-ish sampling. Loretta would be a prime example; though the lyrics are warm, a sense of melancholy nonetheless pervades the song. His “hit” Pancho and Lefty was covered by Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard, and wistfulness clearly prevails. The powerful Waitin’ Around to Die speaks for itself.
Tremendously influential, Van Zandt led a life that was quite troubled, being tormented not only by his bipolar condition, but by numerous addictions which eventually cost the great man his life. He contributed in ways difficult to fathom, however, to the musical landscape, and will not soon be forgotten.
Dwight Yoakam can simply do the impossible with his voice. See North to Alaska, among many others, for evidence. He steps into the very large shoes of legend Johnny Horton, and…whoa. A transcendent, jaw-dropping, awe-inducing performance. And, the same can be said of his live 2013 reading of the Red Simpson-penned Close Up The Honky Tonks. Even a young, inexperienced Yoakam—in his 1985 performance above, he shyly asks the audience if they like the show—kills it. A not-many-times-in-an-epoch talent.
The Clash formed in 1976, led by the charismatic/titanically intense vocalist/guitarist/composer Joe Strummer. The group cut a swath through the burgeoning punk rock scene, with furiously kinetic performances that whipped all and sundry into a frenzy. World domination quickly ensued.
Let ∰ = “The High Priest of quasi-androgynous Synth-Pop/Electronica, the Impassive Alien Deity, The Gary Numan.” What heretofore had been used to calculate Flux Densities, and whatnot, now is more—much more—much, much more.
He created aural landscapes which allowed access to the unfathomable. His performances have been described in so many ways. Strikingly “robotic”. Otherworldly. Mesmerizing. And moreover, there’s an unease, a disquiet, accompanying his trenchant intelligence; a wariness. Aware of a certain danger we cannot grasp. The ritual held out in the open, hauntingly obvious, yet impenetrable. A language we’ve forgotten; mind-argot beyond our ken.
Go ahead. Choose a realm, any realm. Ian’s not from there; he’s never taken up residence there, and, for that matter, spends precious little—if any—time there. Yes. It’s been proven.
The composer/vocalist of Joy Division hails from some different locale than do most human beings. Ian’s lodgings come rent-free, and he’s been awarded the keys to The City.
We’re not talking about earth, which he departed many years ago, alas, in 1980. He certainly left his mark here on this planet, but his realm is, and has ever been, elsewhere.
Bideodromage 