Greatest Song Evah 8/16/24
Silver Springs
Silver Springs was a terrific song in its initial incarnation. This particular version of the song moves it into legendary status. Originally written and recorded during the Rumours sessions, it did not make onto the album, instead serving as the B-side to Go Your Own Way. That was oddly symmetrical; Silver Springs was just as much as an f-you from Stevie Nicks to Lindsey Buckingham as the other song was in reverse. Silver Springs floated around in the ether for years; for example it appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s box set. When the classic Mac lineup reunited for a reunion special, the song came back in a big way.
The performance of Silver Springs was the highlight of The Dance. Nicks pines for the one that got away, pledging that he will forever regret losing what he could have had. So many of the lines grew in relevance more than two decades later. “I’ll follow you down till the sound of my voice will haunt you.” “You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman who loved you.”
As for Nicks’s performance of the song in the special, wow! It feels like she let loose every spec of bitterness and contempt that she had held for Buckingham in one 5 minute performance. She barely looked in the direction of the audience, instead turning to her side and staring daggers at Buckingham. You can almost feel the bile coming through the speakers. You have to wonder at which point in the song it is when Buckingham finally realizes that he’s being eviscerated so savagely. “Don’t look up! Maybe if I stare at my guitar no one will notice!”
The psychology of the dynamics in Mac’s assorted interpersonal relationships is quite the doozy. As much as I love Go Your Own Way I must admit that it wasn’t cool that Nicks had to watch her old lover sing “shacking up is all you want to do” over and over through the years. She sure got a taste of sweet revenge this particular evening.
More Olympic Thoughts
Two things can be true at the same time. We don’t need to pay attention to movie box office numbers/Billboard chart rankings/TV ratings, etc. The pleasure we receive from movies/music/TV has nothing to do with any sort of popularity or lack thereof. At the same time, that data is important. Box office scores help the studios determine which future projects they will greenlight or cancel. Music streaming data determines how heavily a record company will promote an artist’s next release, or even their future on the label roster. TV ratings not only factor into whether a show is canceled or renewed, but what sorts of programming the copycats will place on future schedules.
This applies to the Olympics because the ratings for the last 2 games have been pretty dire. Not that there was ever any consideration that NBC would find a way to get out of its contracts - I believe NBC has future broadcast rights until the moment that the meteor hits - but the losses from Tokyo & Beijing certainly affect the bottom line. Network brass could justify the poor numbers by pointing out that the combo of COVID & the time zone difference that comes with games held in Asia were detrimental to ratings, but they couldn’t be certain of that until after Paris.
Well, Paris answered all questions. Not only was this Olympiad exceptionally exciting as a sporting event, but it was a tremendous success for NBC by any objective standard. Ratings soared in both primetime & daytime, and the traffic numbers on Peacock were exactly what they had hoped for. There is no longer any doubt that the Olympics remain a valuable television event, and anyone who feared for the future of the Games need not do so any longer. On a related note, it was such a pleasure to watch a sporting event without any gambling content. No Fan Duel ads, no mentions from the broadcast team of the odds that Simone Biles will nail her next routine, and I didn’t hear the phrase “promo code” once.
I’ve mentioned this before, but boy have the fans in the stands made a difference. There are few things quite like the roar of a capacity crowd, and there were near sellouts in every stadium and arena enthusiastically cheering on the athletes. Looking back to Tokyo, NBC & the Tokyo Organizing Committee made the best of what they had. The FaceTime calls that medal winners had with their families were a nice touch, but it wasn’t the same. You could feel the improvement this year. No matter how many times I saw a medal winner in Paris rush to the stands to share their special moment with loved ones it hit me Every. Single. Time. All the feels.
One of the nicer moments from the Tokyo Games occurred in the men’s high jump final. The competition ended in a tie for gold between close friends Mutaz Barshim of Qatar & Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy. Rather than hold a jump off to determine gold, they chose to share first place. Both have remained among the top high jumpers in the world in the intervening years, but in Paris Tamberi struggled with injuries and finished well out of the medals. Barshim won bronze, which is an impressive feat as it appears that he was running low on battery power.
Current Chicago White Sox Pace
39-123, and they are almost certain to be mathematically eliminated from the wild card race by the end of the weekend.
With the Sox seriously threatening the 1962 Mets record for most losses in a season, the question among many of my fellow Mets fans is how should we feel about that. Should we wear the infamy as a badge of honor, or should we gladly pass it on to a different franchise? I’m leaning towards the latter, largely because there is something special about the specific ineptitude of that Mets squad that will remain even without the record. These White Sox aren’t just a bad team, they are a boring bad team. Because the ‘62 Mets were a first year expansion team, and because old Dodgers and Giants fans were thrilled to have a National League team back in town, the fanbase warmly embraced that team no matter how poor the record was and made some of the players beloved cult figures. Colorful anecdotes about players such as Marv Throneberry, Choo Choo Coleman, and Elio Chacon lived on for generations. Is there anyone on the current White Sox team who will be spoken of so fondly years later? Unlikely. Even if the record gets broken, that 1962 Mets team will always have a special place in history.
A Woman Of Considerable Influence
With the death of Gena Rowlands at the age of 94 following a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s, we have lost as great of a film actress as this country has ever seen. I wrote a piece on A Woman Under the Influence a few months ago, and what I said then still holds. You would be hard pressed to find a performance rawer than that one. That was just one of many brilliant entries in her filmography.
Because the majority of her work was done in independent film, she never became the star that her talent merited. Arguably her highest profile role came late in her career, as she portrayed the older version of the Rachel McAdams character in The Notebook - ironically as a character facing advanced Alzheimer’s - in a film directed by her son Nick.
One of the highest compliments I can pay to an actor is if they are so good that it doesn’t even look like they’re acting. That’s something that can be said about Gena Rowlands. She always seemed so natural. Any of the movies she was in directed by her husband and creative collaborator John Cassavetes are worth watching, but I also highly recommend Jim Jarmusch’s Night On Earth.
Word also came out yesterday that Peter Marshall died at the age of 98. He had a long career in show business, but he is best known as the host of the first incarnation of Hollywood Squares. All due respect to Shadoe Stevens and Jim J Bullock, but there is only one real version of Hollywood Squares, and that’s the one with Paul Lynde, Rose Marie, Wally Cox, et al. Marshall was the emcee who held the whole thing together without letting it get too far off the rails. He even had a baseball connection. Marshall wasn’t his real last name, it was actually LaCock. His son Peter was a first baseman for the Royals and Cubs in the 1970’s.
Greg Kihn also died this week at the age of 75. He released a string of power pop albums, most of which were titled using puns of his last name. Kihnspiracy, Next Of Kihn, Kihntinued, Rockihnroll, etc. He had his first big hit, and I would say his most enduring, with The Breakup Song, which included the memorable “uh uh uh, uh uh uh uh uh” verses. His biggest hit was Jeopardy, one of the signature songs of the early MTV era. Greg Kihn was proof positive that it’s hard to beat the pleasure of a wonderfully produced pop single.
The Oscar Mulligan - 1990
Best Picture: Dances With Wolves
Other Nominees: Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather Part III, Goodfellas
This year is one of the easiest choices. It was clear as early as 1990 that one of this year’s nominated pictures was bound for the Canon Of Great Movies, and time has proven that idea to be correct. Goodfellas remains timeless, and it has every element that a great movie should contain - it’s eminently quotable and rewatchable, it contains memorable characters and performances, has classic scenes, and as we have moved into the social media age, it is a fantastic incubator of memes.
But let me first pause to acknowledge the other nominees, including the much maligned winner. I’m not gonna hate too much on Dances With Wolves. It’s not a full blown white savior movie; instead I’ll call it white savior adjacent. Its reputation is also harmed by Kevin Costner’s later work as a director and/or producer; time has proven him to be a very self-indulgent filmmaker. Despite Dances With Wolves’ length, I find it to be well-paced. It rarely drags, and the buffalo stampede sequence is spectacular.
Awakenings was well done; it could have easily crossed the line into overly sentimental schmaltz, but it doesn’t go there. Ghost is a movie I wanted to hate, but it is a perfect romantic thriller. As for Godfather III? I’ll be generous. The bad parts of the movie are really painful, but I think it successfully wrapped up the Corleone saga, and Andy Garcia commanded the screen in every one of his scenes. He’s been a steadily working actor, but he should have been a major star.
None of the other movies come anything close to Goodfellas. In my opinion it is Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece, which says a lot considering his massive body of work. I would also rank it above the first two Godfather movies as the very best mafia movie ever made, for this reason. The one flaw I find with the Godfather saga is the way that it overly romanticizes the life. Goodfellas holds no such illusion. It shows what is appealing about getting into the mob in the first place & why Henry Hill always wanted to be a gangster. But it doesn’t pretend that there is any honor among thieves. There is no doubt that these are terrible people who will stab each other’s backs in a second.
The movie of course is overflowing with memorable moments. The long tracking shot while entering the Copacabana. The cameos from the likes of Jimmy Two Times. The Layla montage. “Now go home and get your shine box.” “Tell Michael not to let the sauce stick. Keep stirring it.” The prison kitchen sequence. And of course, “funny, how?”
That scene works as well as it does because by this point in the movie viewers were well aware that Tommy is so volatile that his temperament could make such a drastic 180 at the snap of a finger. Henry had every good reason to fear that he was in deep trouble.
There are many years in which Dances With Wolves could have been a perfectly acceptable choice for Best Picture. Not in a year which included Goodfellas, however. That movie is not just great, it’s inner circle great.
Closing Laughs
This weekend is the 55th anniversary of the historic moment when Sha Na Na performed in front of a half million rabid fans. I understand there were a few other bands on that lineup as well. Let’s all go to the hop & have a great weekend. See everyone again on Monday.
