A decade on, the Coen brothers' woefully underrated
O Brother, Where Art Thou? [alt] is remembered for
a lot of things: its sun-drenched, sepia-rich
cinematography (a pioneer of
digital color grading), its
whimsical humor,
fluid vernacular, and
many subtle references to Homer's
Odyssey. But one part of its legacy truly stands out:
the music.
Assembled by
T-Bone Burnett, the soundtrack is a cornucopia of American folk music, exhibiting everything from
cheery ballads and
angelic hymns to
wistful blues and
chain-gang anthems. Woven into the plot of the film through radio and live performances, the songs lent the story a
heartfelt, homespun feel that echoed its cultural heritage,
a paean and uchronia of the Old South.
Though the multiplatinum album was recently
reissued, the movie's medley is best heard via famed documentarian
D. A. Pennebaker's
Down from the Mountain, an
extraordinary yet
intimate concert film focused on a night of live music by the soundtrack's stars (among them
Gillian Welch,
Emmylou Harris,
Chris Thomas King, bluegrass legend
Dr. Ralph Stanley) and wryly hosted by
John Hartford, an accomplished
fiddler,
riverboat captain, and
raconteur whose struggle with terminal cancer made this his last major performance. The film is free in its entirety on
Hulu and
YouTube -- click inside for individual clips, song links, and breakdowns of
the set list's fascinating history.
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Dec 22, 2011 -
107 comments
In 1982,
Steve Wozniak sank a lot of his own money into creating the
US Festivals -- the first large concerts to celebrate the
merging of music, technology (and money). For the second (and final) US Festival in 1983, Van Halen was given
1.5 million dollars, up front, to headline the
1983 US Festival. What did they give back to their fans?
Well, about eighty-four seconds into their first song, David Lee Roth screamed, "
I forgot the f@¢₭n' words!" Along with
a swipe at the Clash, the set that followed remains
evar a
drunken classic of
testosterone-
fueled pop metal campiness. About 3:20 into
this clip, DLR launches into his epic fail version of "God Bless the Child" -- 'nuff said.
posted by not_on_display
on Oct 10, 2008 -
36 comments
