Category: Music

Posted on

Bill’s Top 50 Canadian Singles of All Time

Bill’s Personal Choices: Canada’s top 50 singles.

On the CBC’s list:

There are some great songs on the list, but “Four Strong Winds” as number 1??!! “Snowbird”, that bland, vacuous, treacly, schmaltz at #19? “Life is a Highway”? Tell me, do you think anyone else ever thought of the highway as a metaphor for life? Or flogged “all night long” as a chorus? “Summer of ’69”? An embarrassing rehash of Bob Seger’s most obvious lyrics.

There was an obvious, alarming tendency to prostrate us all before the gods of international popular acceptance. So Sarah McLachlan had to be on the list, even though it’s hard to think of a single song by her that was so outstanding that it deserved to finish ahead of, say, “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” written by Bruce Cockburn and performed by the Bare Naked Ladies. Or even fluff like Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”, which I can’t believe even she herself took seriously…. (“Court and Spark” would have been a far more interesting choice.) And where, in heaven’s name, are the Northern Pikes and Crash Test Dummies? Oh– I get it. Didn’t have any U.S. hits.

If you think “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” is so great (#6), tell me, when was the last time you actually listened to it?

And all those factories and businesses that the railroad brought to Canada– “for the good of us all”?

It could have been worse. Celine Dionne and Walter Ostenak did not make the list, though Paul Anka did.

My number one is Neil Young’s “Helpless”, because it captures that resigned Canadian acceptance of over-arching doom, and its shadings of hopes and dreams– so Un-American in it’s denial of personal control. And it has one of the greatest lines ever, in Canadian music: “In my mind, I still need a place to go; all my changes were there”.

“If I had a Million Dollars”– is it a novelty tune like “Hockey Song”? Maybe. But it’s also wittier and funnier and quintessentially Canadian– who else would buy Kraft Dinner with their million dollars?

Bill’s Highly Disputable List of Top Canadian Popular Songs.   Not quite 50 yet…

No, “Snowbird” does not make the list.

Rank Song Artist
1 Suzanne [1966] Leonard Cohen
1.1 Helpless Neil Young
2 Famous Blue Raincoat Leonard Cohen
4 Early Morning Rain Gordon Lightfoot
4.1 That’s What you Get for Lovin’ Me Gordon Lightfoot.
5 Cowgirl in the Sand Neil Young
6 Echo Beach Martha & the Muffins
7 Lovers in a Dangerous Time Bruce Cockburn.
8 Venice is Sinking Spirit of the West
9 Old Man Neil Young
9.5 The Weight the Band
10 Both Sides Now Joni Mitchell
11 Heart of Gold Neil Young
12 Barrett’s Privateers Stan Rogers
12.5 Superman’s Song Crash Test Dummies
12.75 Dream Away Northern Pikes
13 Court and Spark Joni Mitchell
14 Tears of Rage the Band
14.1 Where Evil Grows Poppy Family
14.2 American Woman The Guess Who
15 You Were on my Mind Ian & Sylvia
15.5 Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Crash Test Dummies
16 Montreal Blue Rodeo
17 Stage Fright The Band
19 Born to be Wild Steppenwolf
20 First We Take Manhattan Leonard Cohen
21 Down by the River Neil Young
22 Hallelujah Leonard Cohen
23 Wake Up Arcade Fire
24 Scared Tragically Hip
25 Old Man Neil Young
26 Hey Hey, My My Neil Young
27 Home for a Rest Spirit of the West
28 Carrie Joni Mitchell
29 If I Had a Million Dollars Bare Naked Ladies
30 What a Good Boy Bare Naked Ladies
31 Tokyo Bruce Cockburn
32 Universal Soldier Buffy Ste. Marie
33 Tell Me Why Neil Young
34 Raised on Robbery Joni Mitchell
35 1234 Leslie Feist
36 Take This Longing Leonard Cohen
37 Which Way You Goin’ Billy Poppy Family
40 Sh-Boom [1955] the Crew Cuts
41 Superman’s Song Crash Test Dummies
42 Woodstock Joni Mitchell
43 So Long Marianne Leonard Cohen
44 For Free Joni Mitchell
45 A Man Needs a Maid Neil Young
46 Heart Like a Wheel Kate and Anna McGarrigle
47 Complainte Pour Ste-Catherine McGarrigle Sisters
48 Black Day in July Gordon Lightfoot
49 Come Calling Cowboy Junkies
50 Come all Ye Fair and Precious Ladies Rankin Family

Absolutely positively never ever going to make my list: K. D. Lang’s awful, overwrought delivery of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, the pinnacle of self-serving, claustrophobic, look-at-me-sing-oh-god-I’m-so-humble-I-can’t- believe-it-narcissism.  Her rendition robs the lyrics of every ounce of meaning and context and it’s a performance calibrated for people with a shallow understanding of “she tied you to her kitchen chair/she broke your throne and she cut your hair”, a vague sense of titillation, and a conviction that the louder, more ostentatious voice, the deeper the meaning.

And that goes double for Rufus Wainwright’s whiney, weaselly cover.  And shame on “Shrek” for trivializing the whole thing by putting into a cartoon about a troll that farts.

Check John Cale’s version for a corrective.

 

Posted on

The Music From “Shark vs Eagle”

I made this list because all of the music selected for this movie, “Shark vs. Eagle”, an odd, quirky little film by Taika Waititi, is unfamiliar to me, but interesting on some level.

That’s all: here it is.

“80’s Celebration”
Performed by The Reduction Agents

“I Love You, Awesome”
Written by Samuel Flynn Scott & Conrad Wedde
Performed by The Phoenix Foundation

“Lily’s Theme (Apples & Tangerines)”
Written by Samuel Flynn Scott
Performed by The Phoenix Foundation

“Cosmic Danse”
Written by Luke Buda
Performed by Luke Buda

“Seaworld”
Written by Luke Buda & The Phoenix Foundation
Performed by The Phoenix Foundation

“The Pool”
Written by J. Milne
Performed by The Reduction Agents

“I Don’t Want”
Written by Age Pryor
Performed by Age Pryor & The Marvelous Medicine

“Blue Summer”
Written by Luke Buda
Performed by Luke Buda

“I Don’t Want (Reprise)”
Written by Age Pryor
Performed by Age Pryor & The Marvelous Medicine

“Seaside”
Written by Luke Buda
Performed by Luke Buda

“Funny Shadow”
Written by Tessa Rain
Performed by Tessa Rain and Age Pryor

“The Body Breaks”
Written by Devendra Banhart
Performed by Devendra Bernhardt

“Brain”
Written by Samuel Flynn Scott/The Phoenix Foundation
Performed by The Phoenix Foundation

“Let’s Dance”
Written by David Bowie
Performed by M. Ward

“Wholly Molly”
Written by Samuel Flynn Scott
Performed by The Phoenix Foundation

“This is the One”
Written by Ian Brown / John Squire
Performed by The The Stone Roses (as Stone Roses)

“Idillio Italiano”
Written by The Doro Kraus String Quartet
Performed by The The Stone Roses (as Stone Roses)

“Hitchcock”
Written by William Ricketts/Luke Buda/The Phoenix Foundation
Performed by The Phoenix Foundation

Soundtrack List

01 – Lily – The Happiest Man – 0:50
02 – The Phoenix Foundation – I Love You, Awesome – 2:49
03 – The Phoenix Foundation – Blue Summer – 3:37
04 – Luke Buda – Cosmic Danse – 1:28
05 – The Reduction Agents – The Pool – 2:29
06 – Lily – Apples and Tangerines – 1:51
07 – Jarrod & Lily – Mum and the Cow – 0:19
08 – The Phoenix Foundation – Hitchcock – 3:27
09 – Age Pryor and the Marvelous Medicine – I Don’t Want – 4:32
10 – The Phoenix Foundation – The Hill 1 – 0:49
11 – The Phoenix Foundation – Sea World – 3:39
12 – Luke Buda – Seaside – 3:08
13 – Jarrod, Mason & Lily – Tomorrow – 0:40
14 – The Phoenix Foundation – The Breakup/The Hill 2 – 3:26
15 – Tessa Rain and Age Pryor – Funny Shadow – 2:49
16 – The Reduction Agents – 80’s Celebration – 2:21
17 – Jarrod – Justice is Waiting – 0:41
18 – The Phoenix Foundation – The Hill 3 – 0:53
19 – The Phoenix Foundation – Brain (Live at Helens) – 3:52
20 – The Phoenix Foundation – Wholly Molly – 2:09
21 – The Phoenix Foundation – Apples and Tangerines – 4:11
22 – Lily & Jarrod – Do the Blues – 0:43
23 – M. Ward – Let’s Dance – 5:06
24 – The Stone Roses – This is the One – 5:01
25 – The Phoenix Foundation – Going Fishing – 4:57
26 – Taika Waititi – Not So Hidden Track – 2:53

Posted on

The Wonder Years Without the Music

Here’s my second brilliant idea of the month!

As you may or may not have heard, a well-regarded TV series, “The Wonder Years”, has never been released on DVD. Why not? Lots and lots of people want it. Well, the problem is that “The Wonder Years” used a lot of popular music in the background of many episodes. At the time, the cost of using pop music in a tv show or movie was negligible. Now it is not. Everyone got greedy. Of course, the owners of “The Wonder Years” are also greedy– they are dissatisfied with the amount of money they will make if they have to pay all those royalties.

The funny thing is, you could probably acquire most of the songs used in the show for a very reasonable cost, if you just bought them on iTunes. Maybe you already have copies of those songs. In fact, if you are fan of the “The Wonder Years”, chances are pretty good that you already have a fully licensed, fully paid for copy of the songs used in the show.

So what we need is software.

What we need is for the owners of “The Wonder Years” to release the series on special DVD’s without the expensive already paid-for music. You put the DVD in your computer and this special software scans your hard drive, finds the missing music, and synchronizes it. Then it burns the entire DVD to a new blank. Problem solved.

The only problem is that this would make naked a little-understood fact about copyright: you are paying twice, three, four times for the right to listen to the same song, whether you have the album, the CD, the iTunes version, or a movie or TV show with that song on it, your wedding video (if your videographer paid for and charged you for the rights– not likely.)

And by the way, it’s not the artists who are greedy, of course. It’s people who usually swindled the artists out of their rights in the first place. They’ll be damned if you get to watch “The Wonder Years” or the great documentary on the civil rights movement, “Eye on the Prize” with the music.

Fred Savage, who played “Kevin” on “The Wonder Years” grew up surrounded by some of the most beautiful and, in the case of his co-star Danica McKellar, smart, women in Hollywood.

Who did he end up marrying? Someone he met in kindergarten.

I had stopped watching “The Wonder Years” after a year or so because I thought it was getting too precious, and I began to find the narration annoying. I just read a TV critic who feels that the narration “made the show”. Hey, maybe I was wrong. I don’t know. I won’t be able to re-examine the idea until it does finally get released on DVD. Or not.

Posted on

Tears of Rage: American Patriotic Hymns

See “Tears of Rage” by The Band.

Do I feel guilty?

I think I’m one of the ones who went out to receive all that false instruction that you never could believe.

But you didn’t “point us the way to go”. You gave us weapons and sent us off to get ourselves killed on behalf of your own masters, who deceived you into thinking they had something you should protect, and that they, in turn, would care for your interests. We lost our legs and arms and souls for you only to find out you didn’t even know the words to your patriotic hymns.

And oh you looked so manly with your hand on your brow, so solemn and pious in front of our gravestones.

I found it hard to forgive the totally unnecessary, contrived, phony crisis that you could see coming a mile away.

“Tears of Rage”, however, is a great song by the best rock band ever.

The Best Reactionary Rock’n’roll Songs:

  • I’d Love to Change the World (10 Years After Undead)
  • Who’ll Stop the Rain (Creedance Clearwater Revival)
  • The Night They Drove old Dixie Down (The Band)
  • Sweet Home Alabama (Allman Brothers Band)
  • My Way (Frank Sinatra/Paul Anka)

Why does “Having my Baby” not make the list: because it’s a piece of shit not worthy of being on any list..

Same goes for “Ballad of the Green Berets” and “Okie From Muskogee”.  See Haggard Haggard.

Posted on

Phony Flash Mobs

If I told you I saw a video of a choir performing the Hallelujah Chorus in a food court in a mall, would you be interested?

Probably not. Firstly, the acoustics would not be that good. Secondly, the choir– having displayed their standards of professionalism by agreeing to perform in a food court– would probably not be all that good.

Thirdly, why would you want to hear the Hallelujah Chorus in a food court?

But that is exactly what the so-called “Hallelujah Flash Mob” is. It is neither a flash nor a mob. The entire event was meticulously planned out to the last detail, other than the unsuspecting shoppers. The event was staged not only with the approval of the mall owners, but with the active sponsorship of a camera store (note the number of cameras shown in the video).

The singing was pre-recorded and then dubbed.

This one, at least, is not dubbed.  The original dubbed one doesn’t seem to be available anymore.

It is an average, possibly even mediocre choir performing one of the most over-exposed pieces of the music in history in front of a group of surprised shoppers. The entire “flash mob” thing is a con. There really are flash mobs and they really are spontaneous, and this is not one.

So why have 10 million people watched the video? Because the initial wave of viewers– upon whom “going viral” depends– thought it was this coolest thing they heard of, a “flash mob”, that is just so cool, and they heard it was cool, and they knew a little about flash mobs and they were supposed to be cool, so if I e-mail my friends about the video and tell them to watch it and then e-mail all their friends and Facebook it and tweet about, then I will be cool.

The flash mob aspect– the suggestion of spontaneity and risk– is the grossest deceit of the this video. There was not the slightest spontaneity nor risk involved in the making of the video. There is not much special about the video at all, other than the faked cache of the name.

There is a second aspect of the popularity of this video that I find disturbing. When you read the comments about it on Youtube, you find a kind of triumphalism among some Christians who are resentful of the courts removing overt testimonies of the Christian faith from city halls and courtrooms in the U.S. In your face, liberals! When the people are permitted to voice their convictions unfiltered by the left-wing media, they are overwhelmingly in favor of Jesus! It’s almost like we are all kind of martyrs.

The choice of “The Messiah” seems to prove that Christians can not only be as sophisticated as anyone else (the flash mob) but that they also have good taste (even if the hallelujah chorus from “The Messiah” is the only piece of classical music they can identify).

But… here’s a performance of “Hallelujah Chorus” I really like.

And if you like a good choir performance.

To those who found the Hallelujah Chorus Flash Mob inspirational: I apologize. I know, it’s mean to find fault with something that seems that perfect. I can’t help it. We all crave the real, the authentic, the true. We owe to ourselves to not be taken in by people who just want to fake it.

Bill’s suggestion for future flash mobs to appeal to the same crowd that adored the Flash Mob Hallelujah Chorus:

  • Flash Mob “Amazing Grace” at a funeral (preferably of an atheist).
  • Flash Mob beer party at a Tea Party Event singing “Joe Hill”.
  • Flash Mob “Copacabana” at a symphony orchestra performing Beethoven’s 5th.
Posted on

Reactionary Pop Music

Back in the 1970’s, Ray Stevens was known for such socially progressive songs as “Walk a Mile in my Shoes” and “Games People Play”. Lately, he seems to be producing tasteless diatribes against illegal immigrants. Well, good for you. His songs always were kind of cheesy.

But it brings up the issue of conservative popular music.

  • “Okie From Muskokee” (Merle Haggard).
  • “I’d Love to Change the World” (10 Years After Undead, Alvin Lee)
  • “Who Will Stop the Rain” (Creedence Clearwater Revival, J.C. Fogerty)
  • “Ballad of the Green Berets” (Sgt. Barry Sadler)
  • “Taxman” (The Beatles)
  • “The Future” (Leonard Cohen)
  • “Is Your Love in Vain” (Bob Dylan)

That last one is so cheesy, so stupid, I’m not sure it should even be included.  It includes this absolutely wonderful image:

Fighting soldiers from the sky
Fearless men, who jump and die
Men who mean just what they say
The brave men of the Green Beret

I love the way they “jump and die”.  This will be a short-lived fetish.

 

 

Posted on

Paying the Artist

“The chart linked to the left gives you a rather dramatic picture of the state of the art in terms of artist’s earnings from recorded music. As you can see, the picture is rather dismal. It appears that an artist’s best chance of making any kind of living at all from his own recorded songs is to sell the CD directly to the public, at gigs or online.

Music Industry – the Chart!

You can’t ignore an omission (forgivable– that’s not what the page is about): the chart doesn’t account for the role of publicity and promotion in CD sales. But it does make it clear that the trade-off, for the artist, is absurd. In exchange for access to the “star-making-machinery” of Sony or BMG, you sell a gazillion units, and then get to turn over pretty well all of your earnings to the record company. No– you don’t even “turn over” the profits– you will never even see them, for the music industry skims off almost everything– and I mean that literally– almost everything– before turning over a pittance to the artist. But then, you get to be on TV. You get promoted. You get fame. You get the girls. You get broke.

I have said this before and I’ll say it again: I believe the government should step in and set standards for contracts between musicians and record companies which guarantee that the artist receives a “reasonable” portion of royalties for every unit sold. It also needs to regulate how much the recording industry can deduct from an artists royalties for the cost of “promotion”. To me, those charges have always seemed like General Motors deducting money from the wages of assembly line workers to cover “advertising”. Why the hell should the assembly line workers pay for the cost of doing business? Especially when you find that a lot of these expenses are fees paid to shadow entities that are actually owned by the record company itself– like “image consultants”, market researchers, arrangers, and so on.

The most compelling paradox of the music industry remains this: would any artist be happy to know that his music is not being pirated? Yes, nobody’s stealing your music. You are so lucky.

So what’s a young recording artist/singer/songwriter to do? Would they really want to go back to the pre-internet lottery system: if you get chosen (by a record company) and you’re lucky and you get a contract, you get rich? And everyone else has absolutely no way to reach a potential audience.

I suspect that the current reality is what is going to work as well as anything can work in this world. New artists practice and play when they can, record their own CD’s cheaply with newly accessible technology, and sell them online and at their performances.

The music industry has never, probably, been so democratic: anybody can reach a large potential audience via the internet, post a video on Youtube, post their music at iTunes, and keep their fan base informed via Facebook.

But without the machinery of the music industry establishment, their prospects are dismal.

Posted on

Another You

I don’t even remember how I bumped into the Youtube video of the Seekers performing “I’ll Never Find Another You”. I’m sure I have not heard this song in 40 years– not since I heard it– overheard it, really– in the 1960’s, in the period shortly after it’s original release. It was a cross-over hit, a big one, for a young group from Australia, who stumbled into the songwriter, Dusty Springfield’s brother Tom, while touring as unknowns in England in 1964.

 

You would think this is a cliché: I’ll never find another you. Of course not. That’s what they all say in the first blush of infatuation. The odd thing is, it’s probably true, in more ways than one. We are all unique individuals, of course. But it is also true that finding someone compatible, whom you love, and who loves you back, and who wants to live with you and have children with you, is not really all that common. Sure most people get married. Most people have bad marriages. Most people get divorced.

If they gave to me a fortune
My treasure would be small
I could lose it all tomorrow
And never mind at all
But if I should lose your love dear,
I don’t know what I’d do
For I know I’ll never find another you.

The strange thing about those lines– I believe them, when sung by Judith Durham. Perhaps it’s the lack of desperation in her voice– it’s a calm, measured delivery, that reminds me of the characters in the movie “Once”: two people who quietly take the measure of each other, and are too smart to end up making ridiculous boasts. And, after all, didn’t Judith Durham walk away from a fortune when she left the Seekers in 1968 to pursue her first love– jazz? That’s the real “crazy heart”.

The saddest, most affecting lines are these:

It’s a long long journey
So stay here by my side
As we walk through the storms,
you’ll be my guide

This video is from their 1968 farewell concert, and was the last time they performed the song, before the inevitable 25-year reunion. None of them had a notable career, really, outside of the band. If you watch the 25th anniversary performance of this song and then jump back to the 1968 performance, you realize that it was indeed a long, long journey, and life has left its mark on all of them.

I was surprised at how good a singer Judith Durham was. You don’t see the power in her voice coming– she just quietly delivers the lyrics, intelligently, with a good feel for tempo, and then suddenly raises her voice for emphasis, then quietly draws it back in. This is what used to called tasteful. Not as spectacular as Janis Joplin, but if you are not Janis Joplin, you could do a lot worse. She reminds me of Judy Collins that way.

But mostly I just love the glasses on Athol Guy (playing the double bass). And the name.

The Seekers were regarded as somewhat “commercial” in their day. They were “sell-outs”, more interested in popularity than purity, in the same way that Peter, Paul, and Mary were regarded as sell-outs. The odd thing is that PP&M were relatively political– they marched with Martin Luther King Jr.– whereas the Seekers were not.

So what is commercial? Today, it’s light shows, faked performances (lip-synching is everywhere), revealing costumes, choreography. If the Seekers were “sell-outs” in the 1960’s, by today’s standards they seem as pure and unsullied as Odetta.

The suits are nifty. Judith Durham wears an elegant if dull dress. They barely move on stage. I admit I like it. It’s about the music. Not the purest folk music on the planet, and not particularly innovative– just nifty and pure and sweet.

Judith Durham has one of the few really great voices of popular music: exquisitely pure and subtle and effortlessly supple. Some others:

  • Judy Collins
  • Susan Jacks (The Poppy Family)
  • Jennifer Warnes
  • Art Garfunkel
  • Jimmy Morrison
  • Emmy Lou Harris
  • Elvis (yes, he did)
  • Janis Jopli
Posted on

The Harper Valley PTA

When I was very, very young, I actually kind of liked this song, even though it was country, and obviously a little cheesy.

The Harper Valley PTA sends a note home with a little girl. It’s addressed to her mother. The Harper Valley PTA has decided to take it upon itself to correct Mrs. Johnson’s approach to parenting. Mrs. Johnson, it seems, has been going around with men, drinking, and just generally “going wild”. She wears her dresses “way too high”.

The PTA just happens to be meeting that afternoon and Mrs. Johnson struts right over to the meeting and walks up to the front and lays it on the line for the Harper Valley PTA:

Well, there’s Bobby Taylor sittin’ there and seven times he’s asked me for a date
Mrs. Taylor sure seems to use a lot of ice whenever he’s away
And Mr. Baker, can you tell us why your secretary had to leave this town?
And shouldn’t widow Jones be told to keep her window shades all pulled completely down?

Well, well. I really do like the wrap-up:

And you have the nerve to tell me that you think that as a mother I’m not fit.
Well this is just a little Peyton Place and you’re all Harper Valley Hypocrites.

I liked that “as a mother, I’m not fit”– punchy and thunky. Wow. You almost feel sorry for this mythical institution, the Harper Valley PTA. I liked the song. Everybody did– it was a huge cross-over hit. I dare say I thought, there, that will be the end of hypocrisy in the world. Now that we’ve all agreed about how contemptible it is.

The funny thing, you just know that the thousands of Harper Valley PTA’s across the country all loved the song too. They all probably sang along, snapping their fingers, and shaking their heads at those hypocrites.

It calls to mind Jon Stewart’s joke at the Oscars in 2008: listing the films that dealt with important social issues, he closes with “and none of those issues was ever a problem again.”

Or fat, pant-suited, middle-aged women in Las Vegas joyfully singing along as Kenny Rogers contemplates putting Ruby “in the ground”.

There was a brief flurry of songs about hypocrisy in the early 1970’s and Joe South– improbably– won a Grammy with “Games People Play” in 1968.   There was “Signs” by Five Man Electrical Band and “Indian Reservation” by the Raiders.  There was “Billy Don’t be a Hero”.   and “One Tin Soldier”.

It was a veritable orgy of righteousness and purity.

It was real trend!

Don’t forget– this is the year the “Little Green Apples” beat “Hey Jude” as “Song of the Year”.

The New Seekers had a worldwide hit with a Coke jingle (“I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”). How sad is that? Wow. Makes me wish I could go back in time just so I could hate that song even more than I did.

Posted on

Crazy Heart

Even “The Village Voice” liked this movie. I liked it too but my expectations were too high. I found it hard to forgive the totally unnecessary, contrived, phony crisis that you could see coming a mile away.

Roger Ebert mentioned that a friend of his compared it to “The Wrestler”. I did too, but not to its advantage. Both films are about old, failed entertainers trying for one last shot at redemption. Both of the heroes fall short. But “The Wrestler” did not make the compromises “Crazy Heart” made. It didn’t pander. It didn’t become dishonest. When Bad writes his new song and Jean gets all weepy because now she’ll only remember her bed as the place Bad wrote that great song in before he left her… awful.

The other movie I thought of was “Once”. “Once” did something remarkable: it set you up for a song that is supposed to be great and delivered. Better yet– it didn’t force the actors to stand around afterwards telling you what a great song that was that you just heard– it just delivered it. Beautifully. The most memorable shot: the drummer, in the studio, listening for the rhythm. In “Crazy Heart”, he would have flashed a godawful grin at just how fabulous this poor misunderstood artist was. The director wouldn’t have cared what a drummer really looks like– he would only be concerned about hammering it home to the audience that this is a great song. He wouldn’t have trusted the audience to draw their own conclusion. In “Once”– amazingly– you can see the drummer listening for his rhythm.

Bad doesn’t seem to have a singing voice when he’s working on a new song. He doesn’t handle a guitar like a career performer handles a guitar. His dialogue with the sound crew at the concert with Tommy Sweet struck me as contrived: it’s too tidily what I think they think you think it would sound like.

I also had trouble believing that Jean would fall in love that quickly or easily with washed up, alcoholic, smelly old Bad Blake. I was waiting for the moment of charm or amusement or inspiration. Instead, I saw the neediness, the carelessness, and the desperation. Those are not usually attractive traits. “Crazy Heart” was in too much of a hurry to move on. It didn’t take up the challenge. When does she begin to see romantic possibilities, and why?