Greatest Song Evah - 3/8/24

Rocks Off

This week’s selection is a perfect example of the characteristic sound The Rolling Stones developed in their most fertile period. They perfected a style that I can best describe as sludge, and I mean this as a complement. The instruments melded together into one in a way that no other bands could pull off as well. It’s probably no accident that this specific sound coincided with the Mick Taylor era of the Stones. He added something to the formula that wasn’t there before.

Rocks Off was the lead track from Exile On Main Street, and the opening riff along with Charlie Watts’ drumming set the ideal tone for the rest of the album. Like a lot of Exile, the vocal mix was done in such a way that you could pick out a phrase here or there but otherwise Mick Jagger’s vocals were essentially as much a part of the instrumental track as anything. And the horns do a great job of carrying the momentum forward.

The series of albums the Stones recorded from Beggars Banquet to Exile On Main Street just might be as strong of a run as any band has ever had. That was just an astonishing sequence of classic album after classic album.

Ballot Breakdown - Lenny Kravitz

Quite possibly the single coolest human being on the planet, Lenny Kravitz mixes almost every musical ingredient into a sonic bouillabaisse. Hard rock, soul, psychedelia, you name it. And yet, I like his music but I often find it to be a bit too derivative to really love it.

His debut album Let Love Rule came out in 1989. He wore his influences on his sleeve, and it was impressive to see the way that rock radio and MTV eagerly embraced such a retro sound. His particular mixture of talent and charisma helped make him a strong presence for more than a decade, and he accumulated so much goodwill that he remains in the public eye well after his chart reign faded. He never became a super duper star, but he could always be counted on to provide a strong radio hit, several of which crossed over to Top 40 as well.

This writeup is shorter than what I have generally put together, but I actually find it harder than I thought it would to think of much to say about Lenny Kravitz. He knew how to write a good monster riff, and he knew how to construct a solid record. He is a perfectly fine mainstream artist, but there’s nothing truly special about his output. He has a very commanding aura, which does help him stand out from the pack. And you can’t ignore the fact that rock radio has too often been sadly lily white. Kravitz. Role through those barriers, which is worth acknowledging.

So, my short answer is that Lenny Kravitz is good, but not Hall of Fame good. He does seem to have a tremendous amount of respect in the industry, so a strong showing in the balloting would not surprise me in the least. I would be fine if he does in fact get in, but I would not be particularly enthused.

If elected, will he perform at the ceremony? - No doubt. He has performed and/or presented in past ceremonies, in fact as recently as last year. He’ll be there.

Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hit - Again

My Personal Favorite - Are You Gonna Go May Way?

TV Of the 21st Century - Breaking Bad

In this feature I’ve generally tried to avoid speaking about the more highly praised, highly honored shows. In the Peak TV era, Breaking Bad is one of the peakiest. There have been plenty of features written about how great it was; there’s little I can say that hasn’t been said already. Instead, I’ll use this show as an opportunity to discuss how preconceptions can change over the course of a series’ run.

When promos for the show began to air, I thought it was going to be a comedy, or at the very least a drama with heavy comedic overtones. It premiered a few years after Weeds, which had a similar “outside circumstances force a lead character to get involved in the drug trade” premise. Plus, it starred Bryan Cranston. He acted in a lot of dramas in the That Guy phase of his career, but at the time of Breaking Bad’s premiere he was well known for Seinfeld and Malcolm In the Middle. It stood to reason that such a madcap funnyman would bring the same energy to a new show. Besides, the very first scene of the series showed him standing in the desert in his tighty whities. A comedy, right?

Not so much. Yes, at least in the early episodes there were some comedic overtones to the characters of Jesse and Hank before they were fleshed out some more. But it was soon clear that it was a serious prestige drama. This was made obvious in one of the early episodes in which Walter & Jesse had Crazy Eight chained up in the basement and needed to decide if they would kill him or let him go. Walter had written a pro & con list; one of his listed reasons to spare him was “Judeo-Christian principles.” The tipping point was the bullet point that read “he will kill you and your entire family if you let him go.” The show did not hide from the serious stakes.

I’ll also admit that it took me much longer than it should have to recognize that Walter was a bad guy. Part of it was the way he and his plight were portrayed at the outset. He was a high school chemistry teacher who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He already had to hold a second job at a car wash to make ends meet, now he was suddenly facing astronomical medical bills. After his DEA agent brother in law took him on a ride along, he had his light bulb moment and realized that he could use his scientific knowledge to cook high quality meth, providing the money his family would need following his death.

Series creator Vince Gilligan famously described the premise as “Mr. Chips becomes Scarface.” But what was actually the case was that he really was Scarface after all; he had simply been masquerading as Mr. Chips his entire life. I couldn’t accept that reality, this was Hal from Malcolm In the Middle! He’s a nice guy! Look at the way his students mocked him when they saw him at the car wash! He deserved a win! It wasn’t until season 3 that I finally admitted to myself how wrong I was. In the episode in which he blew up the chicken man, he was afraid that there could be killers waiting in his house. To make sure the coast was clear he conned his elderly neighbor to act as a canary in the coal mine and check on something in the house. When he saw there was no assassin to kill her, he knew it was safe. Not cool Walt. In that same episode it was confirmed to the audience what had been earlier implied; that he had poisoned the young son of Jesse’s girlfriend. Doubly not cool Walt.

Breaking Bad also benefitted from serendipity in many ways. The first season was cut a bit short by a WGA strike, one result of which is that it prevented the writers from killing off Jesse as was initially intended. Jesse of course was the heart and soul of the show; I can’t conceive of the show without him. In addition, Raymond Cruz, the actor who portrayed Tuco, was also a regular on the series The Closer. That limited his availability, so his story ended prematurely. What that meant is that two first ballot Hall Of Fame characters came into prominence, Gus Fring and Mike Ehrmantraut. You’d be hard pressed to find too many acting performances that were better than Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks in those two roles.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of the litany of elements that made that show so great. Wonderful side characters such as Badger and Skinny Pete! Jesse Plemons as one of the most banally evil characters you will ever see! A series finale that perfectly stuck the landing! Am I forgetting something? Oh yeah, the introduction of Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman, who would go on to become the lead character in a brilliant series in its own right.

Whenever someone asks me what I would consider the greatest show of all time, I try to change the subject. It’s impossible to answer, there are too many apples to oranges comparisons inherent in such a question. If I was forced to come up with an answer, Breaking Bad is one of the strongest contenders.

Originally aired on: AMC

Currently streaming on: Netflix

Time To Hand Out Some Trophies

The Oscars are Sunday night. I’ve always looked at it as the most authentic of the EGOT level award shows. There have been the occasional head scratching winners (Green Book? Really?) but in recent years there has been less of a tendency to honor what used to be considered Oscar Movies - you know, those sort of Very Important Movies that a lot of people admire, yet few love and are unlikely to wind up on the average movie fan’s rewatch list. We’ve come a long way from the days of reflexively giving the award to an emotionally distant 3-hour long epic to the current era in which the likes of Parasite and CODA are your champs.

Having said that, with the plethora of guild awards handed out in the weeks before the Oscars, there is little suspense come Oscar night. 3 of the Big 6 are done deals (Christopher Nolan, Robert Downey Jr. & Da’Vine Joy Randolph.) I can only imagine how much of a chore it must be for their fellow nominees to put on their Sunday finest for a different award show each week and practice their smiles knowing they’ve got no chance and will have to sit through listening to yet another acceptance speech from the same competitor. Oppenheimer is the clear favorite for Best Picture, although the fact that this category uses ranked choice voting means there is always a possibility for a curveball. The lead categories aren’t quite as set in stone. Emma Stone is still the clear favorite, but Lily Gladstone’s victory at the SAG Awards at least raises the chance of an upset. Best Actor is the only tight race; Paul Giamatti won most of the early awards, but Cillian Murphy has garnered the majority of the recent W’s; so he may have seized momentum in the same way that Jamie Lee Curtis overtook Angela Bassett last year. Basically what it comes down is that if you want to win your Oscar pool you will really need to rack up points in the short subject categories.

As for the ceremony itself, which will start one hour earlier than in years past - much to the delight of east coast viewers who want to be able to go to sleep at a reasonable hour - all 5 of the Best Original Song nominees will be performed by the original artists. That means we get Gosling At The Mic. And by this point Billie Eilish & Finneas have become as much of a regular Oscar presence as Jack Nicholson used to be.

One big change to the evening will be the return of a concept that was first used around 15 years ago. Instead of the usual tradition of last year’s acting winners presenting the award to the corresponding category for the opposite gender, this year the producers will once again have a group presentation from 5 past winners in the category. That was an idea that sounded nice in theory - a welcome to the club moment - but in practice really slowed down the ceremony. Presenter A would say about nominee A “your performance as ____ in ____ moved us all. You are truly an inspiration!” Then the camera cuts to the nominee blowing a kiss towards the stage. Sounds like a nice moment, until you realize that this exact same interaction between stage and audience was going to take place 20 times.

Anyway, being that there is little chance that the Academy will honor Green Book this year, they’ve already come out ahead.

SNL Preview

Who gets to portray Katie Britt? My money’s on Heidi Gardner.

Is everyone as surprised as I am to learn that this weekend will be Josh Brolin’s third time hosting SNL? True, the show has been on for 49 seasons. Of course that means that some hosts will stand out more than others. But you would think that if a host is brought back for a second stint, never mind a third, that it would have been due to a plethora of memorable moments. But I’m hard pressed to think of anything from either of his first 2 episodes. He clearly made an impression on somebody, however. Maybe third time will be the charm for me. Ariana Grande is this week’s musical guest. I sometimes wonder how singers who had done the dual host/musical guest gig feel when they return as musical guest only? Does it feel like a bit of a letdown? Or does it feel like a relief; you don’t have the pressure of needing to carry an episode and only have to perform your 2 songs + possibly making a cameo in a sketch?

Programming Note

For a numbers of reasons - more than just the fact that Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend - I’m not gonna have time to put together a newsletter in time for Monday like I usually do. So for next week only I’ll send my ramblings out on a Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday schedule. Please schedule your days accordingly.

Closing Laughs

The gods giveth, and the gods taketh away. A mere week after we gain a day, we lose an hour. Thoughts and prayers to the guy working at a clock store who has to set every timepiece in the shop one hour ahead. Have a great, albeit short, weekend & see you on Tuesday.