The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

If you've already checked out this week's featured album, you probably noticed that I submitted an album by someone who was primarily known as an actor.  And even though it's an obvious choice, this week's film starred someone who was primarily known as a singer.

Tim Curry's death was a blow to many.  Admittedly, he had not been doing well for some time, so it wasn't wholly unexpected.  But, at the same time, I think it hurt that much more because it came a day after losing musician, actress, philanthropist, and national treasure Dolly Parton.

I've always admired the hell out of Dolly Parton, particularly for her philanthropic work, particularly when it came to children's literacy.  And while she made headlines for her substantial charitable donations, I get the impression that there was so much more she did behind the scenes--anonymously--that we'll never know about and that makes me admire her even more.

As a person, she never ceased to put a smile on my face.  Whenever I saw an interview with her, she would always crack a joke or three, often at her own expense, famously pointing out that it cost a lot of money to make her look that cheap.  It was hard not to love her.

I always appreciated her humility.  Initially, she turned down induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because she felt that she was primarily a country artist.  I've always felt that anyone who turns down an honour because they genuinely feel they're not worthy of it is someone to be respected.  (SPOILER ALERT:  She "paid her dues" and recorded a rock album with a lot of rock based special guests and then agreed to be inducted.)

In spite of that, I must confess, it's only been in the last ten years or so that I've been able to appreciate her work as a musician.  I know I'm in the minority, but I never particularly cared for her voice.  I don't know what it was exactly--there were plenty of singers who had similar qualities to their voices and I didn't dislike them!  As I said, it has grown on me in recent years, and I can appreciate it a lot more than I used to.

But I tended to enjoy her acting work in such films as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Steel Magnolias as well as the occasional television appearance, usually playing herself.  (If you've never seen Seth MacFarlane's sci-fi/comedy "The Orville," I can't recommend it highly enough--even though it takes place centuries in the future, she actually appeared in one episode of the third season as herself--long story, you kind of have to see it.)

Like I said, this week's film choice is an obvious one, but when one thinks of Dolly Parton as an actress, this is usually the first film that gets mentioned--no doubt because it was actually her first film.  Co-star Jane Fonda actually picked her to play the role of Doralee Rhodes.  In addition to playing Doralee, she also wrote the title song to the film, receiving her first of two Oscar nominations for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture.

In the film, Parton, Fonda, and Lily Tomlin play office co-workers who have had it with their "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" of a boss (played as only Dabney Coleman could play him).  Through an extraordinarily comic turn of events that involves not just undermining his authority, but also accidental poisoning, kidnapping, and humiliation, they get to live out everyone's fantasy of getting even with a bad boss--especially if you were a woman in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Released in 1980, the film was directed by Colin Higgins who also co-wrote the film with Patricia Resnick.  Co-starring Elizabeth Wilson, Lawrence Pressman, Henry Jones, and the great Sterling Hayden, please enjoy 9 to 5.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

One of my favourite things about The New York Times is their obituary section.  I know it sounds kind of morbid, but it's a great way to learn about people.  As an example, I read their obit on Noël Godin just the other day.  I'd never even heard of this guy, but he sounds like someone I would have liked to have known.

As I'm writing this, I'm just finding out about Jon Small, who long time readers might recognize from my post on 23 May of this year.  I also learned a lot about him that I didn't know.  In fact, one of the great things about reading these obituaries is learning things I didn't know about people that I already admired.

During the weeks I was away from writting these, we lost the great Tim Curry.  I was a fan of his work from the time I was a child when I first saw him in the villainous role of Rooster Hannigan in Annie.  (I even discovered we shared a birthday, which utterly delighted me.)  Over the years, I became quite enamoured with his work.  In spite of his penchant for playing villains, which I get the impression he relished, I loved watching him move so seamlessly between comedy, drama, horror, sci-fi, and musicals--and that was just in The Rocky Horror Picture Show!  He even managed to have a side hustle as a voice actor in many animated films and television series aimed at children.

His Times obituary mentioned something that caught me off guard.  Between 1978 and 1981, Curry released three albums.  I don't know why this caught me off guard--between Rocky Horror and Spamalot it's not like I was unaware of his singing capabilities.  I guess I just always associated him with stage musicals instead of more "pop" fare.  This intrigued me--and, frankly, continues to do so--so, naturally, I did further research.

The albums featured covers of songs by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Irving Berlin, John Sebastian, The Beatles, Squeeze, Burt Bacharach/Hal David, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins.  Starting with his second album, Curry began recording his own compositions, co-writing six of the album's original nine songs, the bulk of them with either guitarist Dick Wagner (who had previously worked with Lou Reed and Alice Coooper) or famed composer Michael Kamen who also played keyboards and oboe on the album.  That formula, for lack of a better word, continued on his third and final album.

This week, primarily because I don't remember anyone else mentioning it in all the TV news reports I saw, I thought I would submit Tim Curry's second and--peaking at #53 on Billboard's Top 200 Album chart--most commercially successful album.  Originally released in 1978, the album featured, in addition to Wagner and Kamen, legendary musicians such as David Sanborn on the saxophone and Motown bassist Bob Babbitt.  Please enjoy Fearless (the expanded edition featuring "single edits" of certain songs).  God knows I did.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that it's not easy having a good time.  Even smiling makes my face ache.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents The Album of the Week! (One From the Vault!)

Due to other things going on, I haven't had a chance to write anything new, although not for lack of having something to say.  I will do my best to return next week.  In the meantime, I wanted to share one from the past.  I wrote the following on Facebook on 27 January, 2024.  I found myself listening to the album again yesterday and consequently found myself feeling the same things I felt then.  It's interesting how some things stick with you like that, even years after the fact...

 

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I must admit, I'm returning to these a little later than I had initially planned. It's been an odd couple of weeks and I'm in a bit of a funk. Everything's been happening all at once and our recent spate of winter weather pushed me closer to the edge than I like to get and it certainly did my joints no favours. Maybe... possibly... perhaps, it pushed me close to the edge because it did my joints no favours... just guessing.

During my absence from these weekly missives, I've discovered some new titles, some of which I'm sure I'll be sharing in the upcoming weeks, and I've been revisiting some "old friends" that I hadn't listened to in their entirety for some time.

One of those "old friends" is the album I'll be sharing with you this week. At some point during the holidays, I went through a period of binge-listening the artist in question. Some of the songs on one album in particular kind of hit me in a certain way. I didn't just hear them—I felt them. On some level, I'm still feeling them, especially (tonight) the title track... that's been happening a lot lately. So this week please enjoy John Hiatt with his 2001 album, The Tiki Bar Is Open .

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock and roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

 

 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

Honestly, I should have done this a couple weeks ago, but I wanted a chance to re-watch the movie in question.  Strangely enough, as great as I thought it was nearly 20 years ago when I first saw it, I had really only seen it... well, once.

In the movie, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová play "Guy" and "Girl."  Guy works with his father repairing vacuum cleaners, but his true passion is music.  In his spare time, he can be seen busking on the streets of Dublin playing his songs with aspirations of moving to London to try to make a living as a musician.

Girl happens to see him playing and approaches him.  The two strike up a conversation where Guy discovers that Girl also plays piano.  He shows her his songs and they start playing together.  Over the course of a few days, before he heads off to London, they get together with some other musical friends to record some of Guy's songs in a professional studio.  As you might guess, Guy and Girl fall in love.

The film became the darling of the Sundance Film Festival and was one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2007.  In 2008, it went on to win an Academy Award for the song "Falling Slowly" (written by Hansard and Irglová), beating out three songs from Disney's Enchanted.

I received a text a couple of weeks ago from my uncle (whose name, oddly enough, is actually Guy), informing me that Hansard had been killed in a motorcycle accident.  I was loosely familiar with Hansard's music outside of the film, but immediately felt bad that I wasn't as familiar with his work as so many music geeks my age.

Hansard had begun his career in the 1990s as a member of the Irish rock band The Frames.  Over the years, he also worked as a solo artist and formed the band The Swell Season.  He and Irglová even continued to work together both professionally and personally for a couple of years after the success of the film.  I'm sure his sudden death will prompt me to explore his music further and wish I had been more familiar with it when he was alive. 

This week's film--the one that was all the rage at Sundance back in '07--was written and directed by John Carney, who was a former bassist and vocalist for the Frames and knew Hansard well.  Hansard had last acted nearly 15 years earlier in the classic The Commitments and had been primarily focused on his music.  But Carney convinced him to do it and the results speak for themselves.  I don't know why I waited so long to re-watch the movie and I'm sad that it took Hansard's death to get me to do so.  Now that it's a little more fresh in my mind, I'm sure I won't wait as long next time.  This week, please enjoy Once... preferably more than once.

As stated in my Album of the Week "sermon," I'll be taking the next couple of weeks off from writing these.  Until I return, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill 

 

 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

Long-time readers of this blog--if, in fact, they exist--know that I'm something of an old-school romantic when it comes to certain things.  However, the older I get, and the more technology changes--and not always for the better, in my opinion--the harder it is to do.

One thing that I've been adamant about for many years now is that Bruce Springsteen, particularly with the E Street Band, sounds better in a vehicle with a stick shift.  I scientifically proved this in the spring of 2002.  (Actually, I think I technically proved it in the fall of 1998 with The Who, but I didn't understand what I was experiencing in the moment.)

In fact, I've come to believe that any type of "driving music" sounds better in a stick shift.  George Thorogood, ZZ Top, Meat Loaf, Blondie... even great jazz music.  There's something tactile and visceral about the whole experience.  Part of it is the art of matching the music with environmental elements like weather or time of day--certain things sound better in the rain or at night or in the autumn than they do at other times.  I realize not everyone thinks of or even notices these things, so you're just going to have to trust me on this: Leon Redbone is best appreciated on a sunny Sunday afternoon in October, especially if you're going to be driving while playing his music.

Again, I know I tend to romanticize these sorts of things.  But if you've never shifted into a higher gear when Roger Daltrey lets out that primal scream in "Won't Get Fooled Again," well... I guess you'll just never know.

As I stated last week, I don't have room for my entire music library on my phone.  So I like to play certain CDs, particularly during my work commute, that I might not listen to otherwise.  Often, it's something I haven't listened to in awhile--something I likely knew I wouldn't listen to all that much which is why it's not on the phone to begin with.  When I listen to those albums again, I'm often transported back to a time when I first heard it, often evoking a lot of memories of and nostalgia for the period, reminding me of why I bought the CD in the first place.

My clutch burned out about three years ago.  Those things are expensive to replace and I've never been able to afford to get it fixed.  So I've been driving my backup car ever since... you guessed it--an automatic.  Even after all this time, I still find myself occasionally trying to put my left foot on something that doesn't exist.  Sometimes, because I have exceptionally wide feet, I wind up with both feet on the brake causing somewhat violent stops.  But at least I still have a car with a working CD player, something that's almost as hard to find as a stick shift these days.

A few days ago, I grabbed something off the shelf for my morning commute that I hadn't played in quite awhile.  If I were to place a label on it, I suppose I would call it techno.  Not necessarily something I dislike, but not exactly my go-to musical preference either.  I remember when the album came out.  I was quite taken with the obvious blues and gospel influences, backed up by this heavy club beat.  As I was driving, I realized that even though I was driving an automatic, the music was actually quite perfect for the drive.  Not only that, but I'm going to go out on a very narrow limb and say that this particular album may actually sound better in an automatic.  If I ever again get access to a stick, I may have to test that theory.  In the meantime, this week, get in your car and please enjoy Moby with his 1999 album Play.

Just to reset my brain, I'll be taking next two weeks off from writing these.  Until I return, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

 

 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

"The life of everyone on board depends upon just one thing:  finding someone back there who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner."

--Leslie Nielson as Dr. Rumack

I recently read a book that was such a delight that it prompted a re-watch of not one but two of the funniest films I've ever seen.  I bought the book in April.  I was actually trying to save it for a bit.  But I saw above the barcode a label that said, "Best If Read By:  March 2035."  It's the first book I've ever seen with a freshness/sell by/expiration date.  Even though I had roughly a decade, I figured comedy is better when it's fresher.

The book is titled Surely You Can't Be Serious:  The True Story of Airplane! (available at Barnes & Noble and other fine bookstores).  In it, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker--collectively known as ZAZ--recount what went into one of the most beloved and quoted comedies ever made.  And I have to be honest, the stories about making it are almost as funny as the film itself.

The three of them had worked together at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the early 1970s forming a theatre troupe known as the Kentucky Fried Theater.  It was successful enough that they decided to try their luck in Los Angeles.

KFT's stage show could best be described as "sketch comedy."  For inspiration, they would set up an early model VCR and let it record whatever was on television overnight.  The results were a lot of parodies of ads and movie trailers.

One night, they inadvertently recorded a B-movie from 1957 called Zero Hour! starring Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, the great Sterling Hayden, and former NFL star Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch.  In spite of the fact that the film was a drama, ZAZ found it to be unintentionally funny--even more so than the commercials on which they usually tended to focus.

The three started writing their own parody script for an airline disaster movie.  They actually found Zero Hour! to be so funny, there were instances where they essentially quoted it verbatim.  (To avoid royalty issues, not to mention charges of plagiarism, they even bought the rights to the original film, which had been co-written by Arthur Hailey.)

Having never made a movie before, ZAZ wrote another film of seemingly unrelated sketches, more akin to their stage show.  The Kentucky Fried Movie debuted in 1977 and jumpstarted not just their careers, but also that of director John Landis.  (For more, feel free to check out my "Film of the Week" sermon posted on 7 September, 2024.)  While the film was both a commercial and critical success, they really wanted to direct their own movie.

They realized early on that the key to the humour was for the actors to play it as seriously as possible.  As such, they cast actors who were mostly known for dramatic work--actors like Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and Leslie Nielsen.  It seems hard to believe in hindsight, but none of these actors had ever really done comedy at that point and it wound up opening new doors for all of them.  In one more nod to Zero Hour!, which cast "Crazylegs" Hirsch as an airline pilot, ZAZ cast NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the co-pilot, Roger Murdock... who, of course, was actually Kareem in disguise.

The basic plot of the film involves former fighter pilot Ted Striker (played by Robert Hays) who boards a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago in an effort to win back the heart of his ex, Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) who happens to be a flight attendant on the plane.

Things take a turn for the worse when acute food poisoning runs rampant among the crew and the passengers.  Oh, and it's very important that a little girl (Jill Whelan) gets to Chicago because she's in need of a heart transplant and a donor has been found.

The film--the first to feature three credited directors--made back its production budget in two days and changed the face of film comedy.  It was the first film that taught me to actually pay attention to the credits as there could be the occasional joke(s) thrown in for good measure.  There might even be a little bit after the credits finish rolling.

(To this day, I've never seen the movie Gladiator.  In fact, I'm not even really a fan of that genre of film.  I often say it's because I'm afraid I'll get molested by Peter Graves.)

Featuring supporting performances and cameos from Lorna Patterson, Barbara Billingsley, Rossie Harris, Norman Alexander Gibbs, Al White, James Hong, David Leisure, Jonathan Banks, Gregory Itzin, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Charlotte Zucker, Ethel Merman, Maureen McGovern, Stephen Stucker, and, of course, Otto (who actually does have his own IMDb page) from 1980, please enjoy the classic Airplane!

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.  (So there.)

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

There's a new album that was released in the last couple of months.  It's called Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow.  It's a compilation of songs written by Tom Waits and/or Kathleen Brennan (his wife and musical partner) performed by other artists.  The recordings themselves had all been previously released by said artists between 1984 and 2020.  And even though I already had about a quarter of the performances on the album, being the Tom Waits fan that I am, I felt compelled to buy a copy.  I've listened to it a number of times now and I seem to be finding something new and different each time I do.

The fascinating thing to me is that it's also made me want to go back and listen to the albums that featured some of those songs.  I don't have enough memory on my phone to include my entire music library.  In fact, with the exception of Bruce Springsteen's rendition of "Jersey Girl," I didn't have any of those Waits covers that I already owned on my phone.  Because of that, I haven't actually listened to a lot of those albums in quite some time, and it's been a joy to revisit them.

This week's album in particular stood out to me because I remember how taken I was with it when it was released more than 20 years ago--long before I had any non-landline phone, let alone an iPhone.  As I write this, I'm listening to it again for the first time in many years and remembering why I was taken with it in the first place.  Full disclosure--I did have a bit of a celebrity crush on the artist.  I suppose if I'm honest, I still kind of do.

After a decade of mining classic pop standards from the "Great American Songbook," Diana Krall decided to branch out a bit for her new album.  While half of the songs on the album are covers, this time, they were more in a folk and blues vein including songs written by Mose Allison ("Stop This World"), Joni Mitchell ("Black Crow"), the aforementioned Mr. Waits ("Temptation"), and even Elvis Costello ("Almost Blue"), whom she married the year before.

However, the one thing that excited me was that she and Costello co-wrote the other half of the album's songs.  As a fan of her interpretations of standards, I was curious to hear what she was capable of writing--although, to be fair, I was already a fan of Mr. Costello's so I had a sneaking suspicion it would be at least pretty good.  Needless to say, I was not disappointed.  To this day, it's still one of my favourite albums of hers just because it does feel distinctly hers.  This week, please enjoy the one and only Diana Krall with her 2004 album, The Girl In The Other Room.  I keep hoping the two of them will do something like this again.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill