Harley Davidson

Campy enough for you? French movie star warbling about American things she probably has no idea about. I’m not entirely sure if Brigitte Bardot has been to America, or even speaks English. She’s never made a movie in Hollywood, that much is known. It doesn’t matter; she is Bardot and the world still worships her. She’s a sex symbol only rivaled by Monroe, and unlike Monroe, she’s still alive. Watch the video and tell me what it is about BB that every two-bit ingenue wants to copy a bit of her magic, why her look is on every runway from Tokyo to Sao Paolo. Her singing isn’t great. Is she a good actress? Are any of her movies still watched and loved the way MM’s are? I can’t say for sure, but the two I’ve seen were both awful.  Et Dieu… créa la femme was vile with misogyny even by fifties standards, and Contempt just made me fall asleep. I’m not even sure I like her as a person. Yes, she was one of the first celebrities who supported animal rights, and after retiring from movies, she’s dedicated her life to the cause. She now lives as a recluse, presumably with 500 cats, marshaling funds and support for animal rights organisations from her home in St Tropez. She’s helped draw attention to seal hunting, dolphin killing, horse slaughter and many, many other issues. All of which is admirable, and I would call her a hero, except for the niggling matter of her pronounced racism. She’s been charged and fined multiple times for ‘inciting racial hatred’ against Muslims, taking a right-wing position on France’s immigration issues, supporting nationalist political parties, and making racist and homophobic statements in interviews and in print. Her intolerant, uber-nationalist attitudes are repugnant, while her unflagging dedication to animal welfare is admirable. Does one balance out the other? I don’t think most of her young fans on the internet are aware of either. They just recognize her image as a gold standard of beauty and sexuality.

Harlem Shuffle

In the 80′s Paul Abdul wasn’t the only one making videos with animated cats of questionable racial sensitivity. Unlike Paula, The Rolling Stones lived it down though. Because, one, no video for Harlem Shuffle can be without hep cat stereotypes, and two, they’re the bloody Rolling Stones and they can do whatever they want to. No one expects political correctness from the Stones. And, you know, it was the 80′s, an unkind decade for everyone. There’s been many a debate as to when exactly The Rolling Stones died creatively, never settled because, as it happens, they never did. Though their output in the 80′s was limited in quality and quantity, for personal reasons I’ve mentioned before, they still brought out enough singles that still hold up as classics today. Harlem Shuffle was a hit that never left radio rotation. For the clear reason that it’s one of the funkiest grooves ever recorded, although that’s no credit to The Stones. They just brought fame and attention to a song by Bob & Earl that’s been kicking around since 1963. A lot of R’n'B legends from Booker To to The Righteous Brothers have cut versions, but connoisseurs agree that French/Moroccan singer Vigon’s version is definitive. Actually, I just made that up. The Rolling Stones’ version is without question the most well known and therefore definitive, but Vigon’s video is a classic.

 

 

Hares On the Mountain

What did I say a while ago about how the English folk revival has died and nobody cares about that kind of music anymore? I stand by that, by and large. You’re not going to see Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Mandolin Players cover story anytime soon. The mainstream, even the hipster mainstream, cares not a whit for traditional music. But that’s not saying the genre doesn’t still have fans. There’s fans out there, and even though there isn’t exactly a flood of up-and-comers for them to get excited over, they’re still finding things to get all steamed up about. There seems to be a hot debate as to whether Steeleye Span or Fairport Convention is the more authentic. You’ve got what I imagine to be portly geezers with salt and pepper ponytails arguing online that Steeleye Span’s Tam Lin is too twee compared to Fairport’s. Which is hilarious, because appreciate or hate it, this kind of music is kinda twee by definition. There’s an element of nostalgia inherent in playing songs that were written whilst King Henry (any Henry) was still walking the earth. If you’re reviving traditional English music, then obviously a part of that is having an affection towards English tradition, rose garden cliches included. Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention and The Pentangle and Clannad and The Incredible String Band are all thoroughly twee, and about equally authentic for all that. Personally I think Steeleye Span and Clannad are the least twee, but that’s a purely subjective opinion. The Incredibles are too twee even for my high tolerance – they give me the impression that they’re trying to be extra-twee just to piss people off. Nothing is more twee than traditional English folk music, except maybe Donovan sometimes, and there’s no point in making an argument about who is the worst offender.

Hare Krishna

Now for some actual Hare Krishna. The mantra has been around for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t until the 1960′s that it gained popularity in the West. Partly thanks to clever gurus who set their sights on deep European pockets, and more importantly, thanks to the enthusiastic promotion of rock stars like The Beatles. Outside the rock scene, the jazz clarinetist Tony Scott was a promoter of Eastern spirituality and meditation. Starting in the sixties he began to incorporate exotic influences into his music, using instruments like sitars and recording a version of the Krishna chant. In later years he became a leading light in the New Age movement. Since the vogue for everything Indian blew over and Hare Krishna has become associated in most peoples’ minds with  robed, bald-headed crackpots who panhandle in airports (a crude stereotype – everyone knows airports don’t permit panhandling) it’s only through the occasional pop song that the mantra still penetrates pop culture. Tony Scott’s Hare Krishna popped up again in 2002, as part of Verve’s popular and surprising remix series, which greatly improved it.

 

Hare Krishna

Actually has nothing to do with the Hare Krishna religion, except possibly in making mockery of religiousness generally. In this sequence from the film Hair, Claude experiences an LSD-induced dream sequence. Claude’s Midwestern fantasy of a traditional white wedding is chaotically interrupted by his shocking new hippie friends. The message is clearly; let go of your old-fashioned values and expectations. The pomposity of the church wedding is obsolete, as is your ideal of the blushing bride. Your life is about to become crazier than you could ever expect. And chanting the Hare Krishna chant is just as ridiculous as the old church rituals. Though Hare Krishna was just coming into popularity in the West during the Sixties, but it was already ripe for parody. The writers of Hair changed the chant to suit themselves, and I for one still find their line “I am high on you-know-what” hilarious. In fact the only thing that prevents this sequence from being completely perfect is the nagging fact that LSD doesn’t actually cause rolling blackout-style hallucinations like that. I don’t know hard you’d have to fry your brain to descend into a dream state that deep, but in my experiments I’ve never come even close. On the other hand, you can’t really blame the filmmakers for using an LSD trip as an excuse to produce a good old fashioned out-and-out dream sequence. Because the real effects of acid are slightly less videogenic and less conducive to choreographed social metaphors.

The Hardest Part

Oh, this Blondie song isn’t about stalking some dude. Unless it’s about running him down on the highway. It’s more like one of those songs that sound cool but the words are basically gibberish, but no matter, because it’s great anyway. Because, well, just watch the video. Debbie Harry’s video dance moves are wooden, especially by today’s standards. The dark wig doesn’t suit her, and her teeth look weird. No, who am I kidding? Debbie is perfect. She looks amazing as she always does, wig or no, and she doesn’t need choreography to be a magnetic presence. Why can’t all pop music be this much fun?

The Hardest Button To Button

Here at last is the legendary Hardest Button video. Which I confess I’ve never seen up until now. Not entirely bizarre though; I wasn’t online quite as much back then as I am now, and I most certainly could’t have caught it on  TV, although I heartily wish I had. It would have made me very happy at the time. Seeing it now makes me happy too. As much as I appreciate everything Jack White does in his career (almost everything, let’s pretend the ICP thing never happened), there’s nothing to compare with the impression Elephant made on me. I think I may have mentioned that before, on numerous occasions. Let’s just say it was a once in a lifetime thunderbolt. Of course I’m always going to be particularly fond of The White Stripes, and Elephant and all the songs on it.

The Harder They Come

I recommend that you watch The Harder They Come. It’s a classic. Not because of the story it tells. The movie is incoherent and I had trouble making sense of the actors’ accents. What made the film a hit in 1972 and what makes it still worthy today, is that is showed a world most American had never seen before. The bustle, hardship, violence, and vitality of life in Jamaica was novel then and it’s still novel now. It was vivid and it still feels authentic. Jamaica has become a major tourist destination, thanks in part to the worldwide popularity of its music, but outside of the fancy beach resorts, life hasn’t changed all that much since The Harder They Come was filmed. The poor neighborhoods of Kingston are still often torn by violence, and many gifted young men have turned, tragically, to crime, just like Jimmy Cliff’s character in the movie. What the people still turn to for solace and self-expression is the music. The music is what makes The Harder They Come a great movie – it’s not just a soundtrack, it’s part of the story, part of the culture, part of what keeps people alive.

Hard Times of Old England

English folk music appreciation post here, with Steeleye Span, my favorite English folk revivalists. My opinion is, a traditional song can be arranged many different ways, but this one didn’t need the addition of a saxophone. Other than that, the Span’s musicianship still can’t be faulted. Yeah, they’re all really old now, as are a lot of the best people nowadays, and it’s been a few decades since they were anywhere within breathing distance of cool. But, by God, they still can play, and Maddy Prior still can sing. Appreciating folk music was hip enough in the sixties and early seventies, but it’s been left for dead now by everyone save the NPR crowd. So it’s really kind of sad that the best English folk music still comes from Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, and a few other geezers. Because I don’t see any young people taking an interest in traditional songs or traditional instruments. Maybe the Ren Fair crowd? No, they take off their chain mail and go back to their death metal. Goat cheese nibbling hipsters? Naw, they’ve not caught on to anything that’s not buzzing aggressively around the internet. Nobody can sing like Maddy Prior, and nobody even wants to. What will happen when Maddy dies?

Hard Hearted Hannah

Here’s some Ella Fitzgerald in action, from the movie Pete Kelly’s Blues, 1955. Yeah, it’s pretty evidently a lip sync job, but take what you can get. It’s a tragedy that none of the jazz greats left much of a visual trace of themselves, besides photos. But live performances just weren’t filmed in those days. Filming concerts didn’t become a big thing until the 1970′s. That’s largely due to technological limitations. In the 40′s they just didn’t have small lightweight cameras that could shoot high quality in a smoky dark club, or outdoors. Also, it probably didn’t occur to anyone that an Ella Fitzgerald performance would be a historical artifact that fans in another century would long to see, or even that Ella would still have fans in another century. Of course today it’s the opposite – everybody’s every sneeze is newsworthy nowadays. Does it cheapen an experience when everybody is filming everything? When I go to a concert and take photos, those photos have no historical worth, just because 50 other people have taken identical ones. Someone who saw Ella Fitzgerald sing at a concert where not a single picture was taken will take that experience to the grave. Does that make it more or less a valuable experience for not being documented? How do we know it even happened? How do I know if something happened in my life if I don’t document it? And is a video a better document than a still picture, or a recording?