"Young
Bert Stern was already one of the leading fashion photographers of the 1950's when he resolved to shoot his first film before he was thirty. He made it, with two years to spare. The result,
Jazz on a Summer's Day, is a luminously breezy film that brings the rich color palette of Vogue or Harper's Bazaar of those years into the world of the documentary cinema."
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posted by carsonb
on Jul 5, 2010 -
19 comments
You Can't Catch Me, Music and Lyrics by Chuck Berry.
The Stones covered it. John Lennon was
sued (twice!) for
covering it and
appropriating the lyrics. If Iggy Pop and the Stooges were never sued for doing the same thing as "Come Together" in
1970, perhaps it's because nobody could understand what exactly he was saying,
not even the bands that took their names from the adapted lyrics. Perhaps JJ Cale was thinking of the chorus when he wrote
Call Me The Breeze in 1971. Finally, though Jonothan Richman's "Roadrunner" clearly took inspiration from the
Velvet Underground's Sister Ray and Bo Diddley's "
Road Runner"(
among other things), but,
as a Berry fan, you can hear Richman echoing the lyrics in the Spirit of 1956 going Faster Miles an Hour, with the radio on, tuned to Rock And Roll.
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posted by Potomac Avenue
on Jun 19, 2010 -
43 comments
The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival was held forty years ago today. Performers included: the Doors, Alice Cooper, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. The highlight for many was the appearance of John Lennon. Lennon was backed by the Plastic Ono Band, then comprised of Eric Clapton,
Klaus Voorman, and
Alan White (w/occasional vocals by Yoko). "We're just gonna do numbers we know because we've never played together before."
D.A. Pennebaker filmed it . YouTube videos of Lennon's set:
Blue Suede Shoes,
Money,
Dizzy Miss Lizzy,
Yer Blues,
Cold Turkey, and
Give Peace a Chance.
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posted by marxchivist
on Sep 13, 2009 -
11 comments
This week I've been perseverating on Chuck Berry's great 1964 song "You Never Can Tell", so now you get to too! Unless you're over 50, you probably know it from the
Thurman/Travolta dance in
Pulp Fiction, but here are some other versions worthy of your attention:
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posted by ubiquity
on Feb 10, 2008 -
14 comments
Chuck Berry turns 75 today. This man is unquestionably one of the greatest original Rock 'n Rollers. But is 75 too old to rock? Tunes like Johnny B. Goode and Maybelline may be timeless, but at what point should performers of what was originally young people's music think about hangin' 'em up? For that matter, is rock too old to rock?
posted by groundhog
on Oct 18, 2001 -
18 comments
