No one cares about this, evidently.
4: Oh dear.
Meanwhile, over here, we're listening to an assortment of songs that sample Toto's "Africa."
For starlets turned musicians, Zoe Deschanel is really really good. (The band "She and Him".)
You know what album I really like? The Holly Cole Trio's Temptation, particularly her rendition of "The Heart of Saturday Night".
It's called Anywhere I Lay My Head.
6: Unless I miss my gues, Zooey was a chanteuse first.
I've heard ScarJo do an adequate version of "Summertime," but this whole Tom Waits business seemed like a bad idea from the start.
Um, wow. I thought I was misunderstanding what you meant by ScarJo. Scarlett Johansson sings? Right off the bat that sounds suspicious.
Anyway, I kind of like Shawn Colvin's version of Heart of Saturday Night. Also her Killing the Blues. Which is not a Waits song, I hasten to add.
I heard an Israeli band do a version of Summertime recently. Extremely unusual, but good.
Ever since I saw some 80's Tom Waits movie which was just a long music video, and painful, he lost most of his gravitas to me.
Unrelated to ScarJo or Tom Waits, but I've decided I really like Crystal Stilts.
14: Watch the episode of "Fishing With John" where he gets seasick and tries to put a fish down his pants. It'll restore your faith.
I'll be willing to redact 14 for a small fee.
End of the "Heebie is right!" spree?
Hey, don't shoot the messenger.
17 - The Outsiders. Heebie hates Ponyboy, for reals!
We're just trying to ascertain the sobriety of the messenger before we shoot them.
I think it was Big Time. Big Boring Time!
What-ev. I'm new cool. Sorry, Pops, but your train has left the station.
She obviously drunk and just looking for trouble, DS. Pay her no mind.
She obviously drunk and just looking for trouble
I do believe this is a possible explanation. If so: Heebie Awesomeness Reinstated!
If I were so drunk, could I do THIS:
I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical.
No. I couldn't.
29: You so cut-and-pasted that. You're not fooling anyone.
More people sing G&S drunk than sober, I'd bet.
Isn't Big Time a concert movie? Aren't concert movies supposed to be big music videos?
Heebie is right a modern Major-General!
31: That's what I meant. Could I have cut-and-pasted that if I were drunk?
35: Yeah, the edges were straight and everything.
33: See, this is my whole point.
35: A touch, I do confess it.
this whole Tom Waits business seemed like a bad idea from the start
Yeah. I confess that I'll probably buy this when it comes out, but her choice of Waits to cover doesn't thrill me at all. When half of the time Waits can't make Waits' songs interesting, Scarlett doesn't stand a chance. Leonard Cohen would've been a much better choice. I wish she'd either gone the divalicious route and done a CD of Rachel Stevens-esque dance pop or else an album of pop-folk à la Cat Power or Joanna Newsom. (Shirley Collins, that's who she should've covered. Or Annette Peacock.)
When half of the time Waits can't make Waits' songs interesting
GRRRRRRRAAAAARRRRRR
And may I add: or else an album of pop-folk à la Cat Power or Joanna Newsom
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGHGHGHGRRR
(P.S., 38: But I think I agree with you about Shirley Collins.)
Willie Nelson is a better songwriter and musician than Tom Waits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guXuQTbgwNk&feature=related
Right, so this is Scarlett Johansson singing? That's not a joke, I see. Singing Tom Waits songs? That is difficult to understand.
43: She actually has a good singing voice, not overtaxed. But yeah, the Waits oeuvre is a little more demanding. I couldn't see her pulling it off.
44: I was just drunk and looking for a fight.
I think the drunken point was that no one trying to be hip would either cover or write about Willie Nelson, because he's declasse despite being great.
we're listening to an assortment of songs that sample Toto's "Africa."
Both the poppy band and the prog-ish band I play with have worked on covers of "Africa". It's a very hard song to pull off.
#40. I'm not a real big fan of Cat Power or Joanna Newsom, but both of their styles are ripe for stealing by a young woman making her first album and I don't think that either Cat Power's angsty folk-rock or Newsom's twee-folk are beyond Scarlett Jo's talent to emulate. That said, I would've advised her to choose someone a little offbeat to cover--like Shirley Collins (or Sandy Denny or Nico or Patti Smith or maybe Maria McKee)--her audience would eat that up, I think--or else to take the expected dance pop route.
46.2: Best reason for someone trying to be hip to cover or write about him. Unclaimed music nerd ground, huzzah!
I'm not a real big fan of Cat Power or Joanna Newsom, but both of their styles are ripe for stealing by a young woman making her first album
Newsom is shit, but I disagree about Chan Marshall. Her style is pretty close to impervious to theft by the aspiring starlet-turned-musician, precisely because it's underproduced and crazy and aggressively non-pop. (Unless you count The Greatest or Chan's own forays into dance-pop, but these are the least remarkable parts of her oeuvre. You know, for Real Cat Power Fans.)
45: She actually has a good singing voice, not overtaxed.
Forgive me for saying so, but I don't care. She's not a musician. I have become cranky, but really. The only actress turning to music I've respected in the recent past is Minnie Driver. Perhaps ScarJo is another one such.
47: Africa was good. Toto was a supergroup, you know. You shouldn't fault yourself for being unable to match them.
The next frontier: Roseanna! Solos for everyone! And mandatory mustaches and sunglasses!
Forgive me for saying so, but I don't care. She's not a musician.
I'm there with you. I am feeling your pain. Trust me.
Roseanna! Solos for everyone!
We played Roseanna in high school marching band, and the trombones had the melody. Bum ba dum da dum bum da dum da dum da dum de dum is see your eyyyyyyes.
Further to 49: and what about Merle Haggard, you liberal elitist aristocrat?!
Unless you count The Greatest or Chan's own forays into dance-pop
That's what I was thinking of. Not the earlier crazee Chan Marshall. Not to mention that Scarlett Jo has never demonstrated any ability to actually play a musical instrument, so that's right out.
She's not a musician.
Doesn't matter. Lots of vocalists/pop-stars aren't musicians as such. Maybe Scarlet Jo lacks even those talents, but failing to be a "musician" has never barred anyone from a successful musical career.
54: we can all learn from Willie:
http://www.commotionpr.com/media/bruceRobison_williedo.mp3
Willie for President!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb5P-jUopUU
what about Merle Haggard, you liberal elitist aristocrat?!
Hey, I love Merle (although I think even he would admit he's not quite Willie). But he endorsed Hillary a year or two ago, and I'm trying to be a healer and peacemaker here at Unfogged. Willie would want that.
For those who think that singing actresses are a new phenomena, I think tinaturnerfan84 puts it best:
Thank God Tina dont do drugs that Margaret one whoever she is? Jesus high as a kite.
"Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas,
With Waylon and Willie and the boys.
This successful race we're running,
Got us feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys.
Between George Bush's pain songs,
And Sterling Newberry's train songs,
An' "Blue Eyes Cryin' In The Rain",
Out in Luckenbach, Texas,
Ain't nobody feeling no pain."
After Obama accepts the Democratic nomination, he and Clinton should perform a duet of that song.
60: But he endorsed Hillary a year or two ago
Most of us did, afore'n she endorsed McCain. No sin.
It aggrieves me that Toby Keith has tried to appropriate Haggard's legacy. He isn't fit to shine the man's boots.
It aggrieves me that Toby Keith has tried to appropriate Haggard's legacy. He isn't fit to shine the man's boots.
Toby Keith has tried to appropriate Haggard's legacy
Good point. Sometimes, when I'm not depressed enough, I re-watch this video.
On preview, pwned-ish. But man, what a terrible, terrible video.
I suppose it says something well and truly horrible about me that, 64 notwithstanding, I actually really very much like that Toby Keith song.
66: Dude. Brock. That song sucks. It's hilarious, in a parody-sort-of-way, but Weird Al didn't write it.
The lyrics to the Toby Keith song are hard to read without laughing if you've seen Team America.
Except it's not parody! It's serious! That makes it much funnier. And it's catchy.
I really liked Toby Keith's "Shoulda Been A Cowboy" at the time.
Nanci Griffith's cover of Waits's "San Diego Serenade" gets me every time.
88: Metallica's "Don't Tread On Me" more than matches the ridiculous cheesiness of the sentiment, and is a more listenable song.
After 9/11, someone gave my old boss a copy of "Proud To Be An American" by Lee Greenwood. He would blast it on his stereo and I would come into his office and put my hand over my heart. Since I left, the younger people in the office have carried on the tradition, though none is sure why.
I would rather listen to Sarah McLachlan singing "Ol' 55" than Waits singing it.
I eagerly await a Hübsch report.
I don't dislike Tom Waits the way I do Richard Cohen, but his acting has always done a lot more for me than his music.
Also I am totally psyched to read comment 88.
Because I don't believe 72 for even a minute.
I don't dislike Tom Waits the way I do Richard Cohen
Did you do that on purpose, Sifu?
79: ahahahahahahaha I totally didn't, either.
65: "This video is not available in your country." !
I eagerly await a Hübsch report.
Overall very good! The concert was an improvised duo with Gino Robair as the first set, and then sfsound conducted by Hübsch in some ensemble compositions as the second. The duo started and ended very strong but definitely had its longueurs (owing mostly, IMO, to Robair). The compositions were fantastic, especially the first one, Floating Fragments.
Each of Sifu's dislikes is a unique snowflake.
Even if the album isn't very good, SJ gets points for trying. It is a cool thing to attempt. Heck, *I'd* like to put out an album of Tom Waits covers, and the fact that it won't be very good isn't about to stop me.
Also, Heebie is wrong.
Even if the album isn't very good, SJ gets points for trying.
How do you figure?
84.
Sorry, she does not get points for trying. If she tried and it was halfway decent, she'd get points for trying, but she made something just so awfully tone deaf and shitty that she loses any "coolness" points she might have garnered for trying the Tom Waits route. Good lord.
Tom Waits is cool. Making a record is cool. Making a record of Tom Waits songs will inherit at least a little coolness from these previous two facts.
Tweety is gonna be really disappointed.
I find your metaphysics of coolness bizarre, rob.
This is a record that basically has no reason to exist.
87: But surely it could be like Matt Groening's eternal paradox of cinema? The French are funny. Sex is funny. Comedies are funny. But no French sex comedies are funny.*
*I disagree with this, but still.
I'm considering buying this album and listening to it until I find a reason to like it, just to spite you guys.
I probably won't, though, for the sake of my impressionable young children.
87 is just so weirdly wrong. There's so many really terrible covers of songs by good bands. Do all of those people get points for trying doing their level best to ruin a good song?
Something has to be wrong with any argument which includes the claim "comedies are funny." And it's conclusion (which you didn't endorse) is indeed bizarre.
I'm sure I meant "And it is conclusion" for some reason or other.
i know that tastes vary etc
but i do not understand generally why Scarlett Johansson is soo popular, i liked her in The girl with the pearl earrings? forgot the title, the other movies like Black dahlia, Lost in translation, just so-so, average, she is not Marylin Monroe regarding looks or Meryl Streep regarding her talent
but she is a nice girl and if she sings cheesy songs, may be i'll start to like her coz i like cheesy songs :)
i liked her singing Summertime, the song is just great anyone'd sing it and it'd sound just great
the best liked actress for me for now is Cate Blanchett, before it was Jodie Foster
rob, just go find a video of her doing "falling down." it's out there. it ought to cure you of any desire to actually put money on to this.