Thursday, July 24, 2014
Mental Health Break -- Louis Prima
We celebrated the Fourth of July this year by attending an outdoor concert given by the Harrisburg symphony orchestra. As we approached the end of the concert, the conductor -- who had commented on his musical selections thoughout the evening -- declared that he has gotten sick and tired of July 4th concerts always concluding with the 1812 Overture. He said that he never understood what a musical piece about a victory of the Russian Imperial Army over the French was doing in a celebration about American independence. So, this time, he replaced the 1812 Overture with this American classic, written by Louis Prima and made famous by Benny Goodman. What music better captures the urgency and pandemonium of American life?
Note: the video is from the 1993 movie Swing Kids. Despite the presence of Robert Sean Leonard, the movie got mixed reviews at best. But it's a good enough backdrop for one tremendous song. By the way, this was released in 1936. Mom would have been 17.
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4 comments:
Now that's the way I picture the quintessential wedding reception.
This may also be, like The Grand Budapest Hotel, ripe for playing "Hidden is this picture…".
At the 1:17 mark you will notice a guy bent over with hands and feet on the floor. What's going on there?
I was so taken by this post ( I must have played it 20 times) that I rented the movie. This scene, in my mind, was so masterfully done that the movie had to be great, despite Myk's warning of "mixed reviews at best."
Unfortunately, this scene is not in the movie. Well, part of it is, but it comes at the wrong spot and doesn't achieve the idyllic frenzy the video gives. The movie weaves between cool fantasy and real youth disputes. I wish is took a more heighten path like "Moulin Rouge!" or "Clockwork Orange" (if those two are allowed in the same sentence).
I still think this video scene may be the greatest scene never released in a movie.
Sometimes the whole is less than the sum of its parts, and sometimes the whole is leass than one of its parts.
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