Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DXCVII--Tim Curry: Working on My Tan

[Blogger's Note:  Hold your horses--while it is Friday, I'm late as noted below.  You'll still have to wait for my once-a-year music post that's actually on the correct Friday....]

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya, Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya, Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya, Oh, Lord...I'm (seven days) late again....

My introduction to this week's tune came, for the umpteenth time, via my time at Camelot Music.  'Twas very early in my career--first year in fact--and my guess as to why a relatively neophyte musical performer would be given such prominence in our in-store play would most assuredly be his career making role as Dr. Frank-In-Furter in first the play, then the movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  If memory serves (though often it doesn't), the album--though decidedly not a hit--was very popular with our team....

Tim Curry was born in Cheshire, England in 1946, and contrary to just about every artist featured here on Friday Night Jukebox has had the vast majority of his success as an actor.  Curry's big break came in 1968 with a role in the London cast of the musical Hair, and then in 1973, again in the London cast, with the role noted above.  Since then, he has had a steady supply of acting work, mostly in supporting roles, in a wide variety of plays, movies, and television shows.  Curry has been nominated for three Tony Awards, two Emmys (winning a Daytime Emmy), and a Grammy Award (for spoken word).  Surprisingly to me, Curry's music career was rather short-lived.  He released three studio albums between 1978 and 1981, and in the late eighties a greatest hits package.  A previously unreleased album from 1976 debuted in 2010. His last two studio albums did hit the charts, and his second album yielded a top 100 single.  Curry has also penned a memoir.  Sadly, he suffered a major stroke in 2012 and has been confined to a wheelchair ever since.

Fun Fact:  The movie version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1976) is still in limited release as of this year and is the longest running theatrical release in movie history (for those who suck at math, fifty years).

"Working on My Tan" was the first single from his final studio album in 1981, the rather sincerely entitled, Simplicity.  The single did not chart, while the album peaked at #112. Also, the album was the only one of his three to chart in Canada, hitting #45 (so many cool kids in the Great White North!).

Sometimes a song doesn't have to be earth shattering and can just be fun, and "Working on My Tan" is one such song.  It's right up my alley--catchy stanzas, catchy chorus, and a lovely theme of living the chill life in the sunshine.  The music is reggae inflected, and Curry sings it with a respectful Jamaican accent.  The lyrics make generous use of simply rhyming patterns (always enjoyable when singing along), and the "oh man" in the chorus is just to die for.  An ode to the sun that is simply divine.

Lyric Sheet:  "Hunt yourself an island/Hitch down to the beach/The sun belong to everyone/In everybody's reach..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDXX--Los Lobos with Antonio Banderas: Cancion del Mariachi (Morena De Mi Corazon)

 It's not often, either now or in the past, for me to purchase a nearly twenty-dollar CD for one song, but this week's song is one of those instances where it was worth it.  I bought the soundtrack from the movie whence it came, and truthfully couldn't tell you about another song on it...but after listening to our tune of the week during my half-assed research it sounded just as good as it did back when I first heard it in the movie Desperado.

I was kind of at a loss as to how to proceed on this week's bio, as the song is a one-off for both Antonio Banderas and Los Lobos.  As I wrote about Los Lobos (sort of) in a previous Friday Night Jukebox post, I decided to go with a brief "they're still touring and recording" announcement (that's not a knock on Los Lobos who are a great band) and do a short bio of Banderas.  Banderas is originally from Spain, where he began acting in the 1980's.  Madonna brought him to the attention of American filmmakers, and he made his American debut in 1992.  In the intervening years, Banderas has had numerous roles and managed to garner Oscar, Emmy, and Tony nominations.  Near as I can tell, his performance for this week's song is the only one of his career (excluding musicals)--i.e., he's never released an album of his own material.

Fun Fact:  If you've never seen Desperado, by all means do.  It's one of those films I caught late at night and was surprised as hell at how good it was and have proceeded to watch numerous times over the years. It also has one of my favorite movie lines (Banderas character prays this in a church), "Give me the strength to be what I want, and forgive me for what I am."

"Cancion del Mariachi (Morena De Mi Corazon)" was not released as a single, and, surprisingly enough, appeared on the album Desperado:  The Soundtrack (nice touch to call it Desperado:  The Soundtrack as opposed to...the soundtrack to Desperado).  Near as I can tell, the album did not hit the charts, though Los Lobos did win a Grammy Award for the closing song on the album, "Mariachi Suite."

Written by Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, "Cancion del Mariachi" opens the movie giving us a glimpse of El Mariachi (Banderas' character) before a drug lord killed the woman he loved and shot his hand so he could never play the guitar again.  Banderas gives an impassioned performance as a man who loves his guitar, a good drink, and his brown skinned girl--and Los Lobos just nails the song instrumentally (the guitars are just to die for--especially the solo).  It's another fine example of how often musical forces inexplicably come together and make magic--and "Cancion del Mariachi" is nothing short of magical.

Lyric Sheet:  "Ay, ay, ay, ay/Ay, ay amor/Ay, mi morena de mi corazon..."

Enjoy:

Republicans = Losers

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXCVII--Barbra Streisand: The Way We Were

 When my father passed away, I inherited his record collection, and after I got them all (a few hundred LPs) to my apartment, I set about to play each and every one of them.  I never came close to listening to each one, but the few I did get to each seemed to have a tune or two (or three or four) that I came to love.  One of those songs was this week's featured tune, though I have to admit having liked it (and the movie from whence it came) before having listened to it in the wake of my father's death.  Still, knowing the song meant something to my father increased its stature, and that stature has not waned in the now twenty-seven years since he passed away.

Over the course of the last fifty some odd years, you'd be hard pressed to name too many entertainers who were as successful and as beloved as Barbra Streisand.  You'd also be hard pressed to summarize her staggeringly varied career (singer, songwriter, actress, music producer, director, movie producer) in a paragraph, too.  A short summary:  one of the few individuals to have a career EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), she's been nominated for 43 Grammys and has won eight, she's been nominated for five Academy Awards and won twice (Best Actress, Best Original Song), starred in nineteen movies and directed three, and has sold over 150 million records.  For her musical career, Streisand has released 36 albums, nine of which have gone to #1 (she's also had a soundtrack and a compilation--which is the album my Dad had--hit the top spot), and 117 singles of which five peaked at the top of the chart.  Streisand is also well known for her politics (Democratic Party to her core), fighting for women's rights and LGBTQ rights, and her numerous philanthropic efforts.

Fun Fact:  Streisand attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn (she graduated at age 16), and among her classmates were future music star Neil Diamond and future World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer (whom Streisand admitted she had a crush on).  

"The Way We Were" was originally released as a single in conjunction with the movie of the same name, and its success lead to the quick release of the deftly titled LP, The Way We Were.  Both the single (with a bullet!) and the album hit the number one spot on the Billboard charts.  The single also went on to win the Academy Award for Best Song, as well as the Grammy for Song of the Year.  Based on a Google Search, near as I can tell it is the only song to ever complete such a trifecta, though "Lose Yourself" by Eminem hit #1, won an Oscar, and won a Grammy for Rap Song of the Year.

As my regular readers (both of you) know, emaycee is a big fan of female vocalists and "The Way We Were" has a heaping helping of an incredible female vocalist.  Frankly, at the beginning and ending of the song Streisand hums along with the melody and she probably could have done it for the entire three and a half minutes and it still would have been a great song.  Add in the fact that it chronicles the sad fate of two star crossed lovers, and you have a ballad beyond compare.  Just a stunning piece of music by a stunning talent--a hundred years from now it will still sound as fresh and passionate as it did upon its release in 1973....

Lyric Sheet:  "Can it be that it was all so simple then?/Has time re-written every line?/If we had the chance to do it all again/Tell me, would we? Could we?...

Enjoy:

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXXVIII--Keith Carradine: I'm Easy

In another Friday Night Jukebox first, this week's tune is the first to be featured that won an Academy Award for best song...even better, it's not one of those schmaltzy Disney numbers but is a nice slice of American pop right up there with other winners like Springsteen's "Philadelphia" or Eminem's "Lose Yourself."  In another first for FNJ, it also the first tune to win the Golden Globe for best original song.

The musical career of Keith Carradine was very short--he released two albums, one in 1976 capitalizing on his Oscar win, and a second just for shits and grins (kidding--I'm sure the success of the first led to another shot at even more music success).  Not that his original career-acting--didn't pan out--Carradine has appeared in 64 films and 71 television shows/movies.  He's been nominated for an Emmy Award and twice for Tony Awards.  He also comes from a family of actors--his father John, brothers David and Robert, and daughter Martha Plimpton have all had quite some success on both the big and small screens.  Not too bad for a kid who grew up in San Mateo, CA--just a stone's throw from where I grew up:  the metropolis of San Bruno.

"I'm Easy" was originally featured in Robert Altman's epic film Nashville, and after the film's success and song's Academy Award win, was rushed out on an album entitled, appropriately enough, I'm Easy.  The song would reach #17 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album would reach #61 on the album chart.  They were the only two charting records of Carradine's brief foray into music.

For me, the most impressive part of "I'm Easy" is that a virtual musical novice--Carradine--wrote the song.  Don't get me wrong--it's not "Backstreets" or "Night Moves," but it's still a thoughtful song with a catchy yet subtle arrangement.  If you've seen Nashville, you know that Carradine plays a womanizer and in the scene where he performs the song, several woman who he's had relations with are in the audience--each of whom, save one, believes the song is written for herself (I've always felt the song was actually written for the one woman who doesn't seem to either realize or care who the song is written for).  Carradine weaves a tale about a man who's in love with a woman and will easily follow her lead, but who can't seem to make about her mind about him.  The instrumentation is sparse--it's mostly a pair of acoustic guitars, with a nice strum and pluck playing off one another.  Carradine sings so that one feels the protagonist's longing, though his measured tones also conjure the easy nature of his desire for her.  The last few weeks the theme seems to be songs that added up to more than the sum of the artist's parts, and "I'm Easy" is another such song, a small moment of triumph for an actor turned momentary musician.

Lyric Sheet:   "And when your eyes throw light at mine/It's enough to change my mind/Make me leave my cautious words and ways behind..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee