Blame It On Woody Allen, Okay?
CD REVIEWS
Yes, here is one more thing to blame on Woody Allen, as if he hasn’t had enough problems in his life. Earlier this year I watched and reviewed in this space the film Radio Days that Woody directed. Every since then in the deep recesses of my brain the tunes Paper Dolls and Sentimental Journey have been pounding away. Hey this is music made before I was born, although maybe I picked it up in the womb. Why is it in my head? I am still a child of my generation (the Generation of '68) and fought the anti-Vietnam War fight to the tunes of Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row and The Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter but I think I can make a little room for this, if only to keep my brain from stopping that pounding. Directly below are a few comments from my Radio Day review that fit here and below that some specific comments on the CDs being reviewed.
"…I am a first generation child of the television age, although in recent years I have spent more time kicking and screaming about that fact than watching the damn thing. Nevertheless I can appreciate Director (and narrator) Woody Allen’s valentine to the radio days of his youth. I am just old enough, although about a half generation behind Allen, to remember the strains of songs like Paper Dolls and Autumn Leaves that he grew up with and that are nicely interspersed throughout his story as backdrop floating in the background of my own house.
I am also a child of Rock 'n' Roll but those above-mentioned tunes were the melodies that my mother and father came of age to and the stuff of their dreams during World War II and its aftermath. The rough and tumble of my parents raising a bunch of kids might have taken the edge off it but the dreams remained. In the end it is this musical backdrop that makes Radio Days most memorable to me……
….Allen’s youth, during the heart of World War II, was time when one needed to be able to dream a little. The realities of the world at that time seemingly only allowed for nightmares. My feeling is that this film touched a lot of sentimental nerves for the World War II generation (that so-called ‘greatest generation’) whether it was his Jewish families (as portrayed here) on the shores of New York’s Far Rockaway or my Irish families on the shores of Quincy, Massachusetts. Nice work, Woody."
Songs that Got Us Through WWII- Vol. 2, various artists, Rhino Records, 1994
The highlights here are Vaughan Monroe’s There I’ve Said It Again. This is the time of the male crooner and the big band orchestra and Monroe combines both here. Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters hit with Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby. Male crooner and three female harmonies was another trade mark of the times. Billie Holiday’s Lover Man. Let me keep this one simple- I could get through war, pestilence and the apocalypse as long as I had a Billie album with me.
Sentimental Journey- Vol. 1 (1942-1946) various artists, Rhino Records, 1993
The highlights here include, obviously, Les Brown and his band doing Sentimental Journey with a young Doris Day on vocals-nice. Dick Haymes doing You’ll Never Know is something like the crooner voice of World War II. Of course, Paper Dolls by the Mills Brothers done here with a little jump middle section is classic. A nice version of Cole Porter’s Night And Day by one Frank Sinatra. It will not replace Billie Holiday’s rendition but is very nice and with the trademark Sinatra phrasing. The top tune here though is Lena Horne doing an incredible version of Stormy Weather. I have heard this tune done by many vocalists- male and female- this is the first time I stopped what I was doing to make sure I gave it its proper due.
The 1940’s, Volume I- 16 Most Requested Songs, various artist, Columbia Records, 1989
Highlights here include the classic Sentimental Journey with Les Brown and his band. Harry James and his band doing a bang up job on You Made Me Love You. A startlingly beautiful version (I didn’t expect it to be in this kind of compilation) of Some Enchanted Evening from the Broadway musical South Pacific done by Ezio Pinza. Kudos here. The surprise is a very sensuous Latin- tropical version of Amor in Spanish done by Xavier Cugat and his band with an unknown (to me) Carmen Castillo on vocals. Wow.
16 Most Requested Songs, Rosemary Clooney, Columbia, 1989
Yes there was a musical world before 1956 and the Elvis explosion. That musical world, however, was the world of the parents, including mine, of the Generation of ’68. One of those voices was that of Rosemary Clooney. Then I thought she was square- you know with that smooth voice and ‘good girl’ image and all in a film like White Christmas with Bing Crosby. Then, several years ago, before she died I heard her in an interview on National Public Radio where she admitted to a drug problem and other little indiscretions. Of course, for this reviewer that meant that I might have to reevaluate her work now that I knew she was not really that ‘good girl’. Now a lot of her sound is still beyond the pale for me and her seeming addiction to bebop novelty songs like Mambo Italiano is off-putting but she certainly is more interesting as a singer to me now. I like the sound of Come On-A My House but what really is nice is Ms. Clooney's way with a ballad. Try Hey There and Tenderly on for size. Then work your way to Half As Much and then a nice little version of Blues In The Night and Too Young. It only took me 50 years to recognize it but Rosemary- you done good.
CD REVIEWS
Yes, here is one more thing to blame on Woody Allen, as if he hasn’t had enough problems in his life. Earlier this year I watched and reviewed in this space the film Radio Days that Woody directed. Every since then in the deep recesses of my brain the tunes Paper Dolls and Sentimental Journey have been pounding away. Hey this is music made before I was born, although maybe I picked it up in the womb. Why is it in my head? I am still a child of my generation (the Generation of '68) and fought the anti-Vietnam War fight to the tunes of Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row and The Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter but I think I can make a little room for this, if only to keep my brain from stopping that pounding. Directly below are a few comments from my Radio Day review that fit here and below that some specific comments on the CDs being reviewed.
"…I am a first generation child of the television age, although in recent years I have spent more time kicking and screaming about that fact than watching the damn thing. Nevertheless I can appreciate Director (and narrator) Woody Allen’s valentine to the radio days of his youth. I am just old enough, although about a half generation behind Allen, to remember the strains of songs like Paper Dolls and Autumn Leaves that he grew up with and that are nicely interspersed throughout his story as backdrop floating in the background of my own house.
I am also a child of Rock 'n' Roll but those above-mentioned tunes were the melodies that my mother and father came of age to and the stuff of their dreams during World War II and its aftermath. The rough and tumble of my parents raising a bunch of kids might have taken the edge off it but the dreams remained. In the end it is this musical backdrop that makes Radio Days most memorable to me……
….Allen’s youth, during the heart of World War II, was time when one needed to be able to dream a little. The realities of the world at that time seemingly only allowed for nightmares. My feeling is that this film touched a lot of sentimental nerves for the World War II generation (that so-called ‘greatest generation’) whether it was his Jewish families (as portrayed here) on the shores of New York’s Far Rockaway or my Irish families on the shores of Quincy, Massachusetts. Nice work, Woody."
Songs that Got Us Through WWII- Vol. 2, various artists, Rhino Records, 1994
The highlights here are Vaughan Monroe’s There I’ve Said It Again. This is the time of the male crooner and the big band orchestra and Monroe combines both here. Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters hit with Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby. Male crooner and three female harmonies was another trade mark of the times. Billie Holiday’s Lover Man. Let me keep this one simple- I could get through war, pestilence and the apocalypse as long as I had a Billie album with me.
Sentimental Journey- Vol. 1 (1942-1946) various artists, Rhino Records, 1993
The highlights here include, obviously, Les Brown and his band doing Sentimental Journey with a young Doris Day on vocals-nice. Dick Haymes doing You’ll Never Know is something like the crooner voice of World War II. Of course, Paper Dolls by the Mills Brothers done here with a little jump middle section is classic. A nice version of Cole Porter’s Night And Day by one Frank Sinatra. It will not replace Billie Holiday’s rendition but is very nice and with the trademark Sinatra phrasing. The top tune here though is Lena Horne doing an incredible version of Stormy Weather. I have heard this tune done by many vocalists- male and female- this is the first time I stopped what I was doing to make sure I gave it its proper due.
The 1940’s, Volume I- 16 Most Requested Songs, various artist, Columbia Records, 1989
Highlights here include the classic Sentimental Journey with Les Brown and his band. Harry James and his band doing a bang up job on You Made Me Love You. A startlingly beautiful version (I didn’t expect it to be in this kind of compilation) of Some Enchanted Evening from the Broadway musical South Pacific done by Ezio Pinza. Kudos here. The surprise is a very sensuous Latin- tropical version of Amor in Spanish done by Xavier Cugat and his band with an unknown (to me) Carmen Castillo on vocals. Wow.
16 Most Requested Songs, Rosemary Clooney, Columbia, 1989
Yes there was a musical world before 1956 and the Elvis explosion. That musical world, however, was the world of the parents, including mine, of the Generation of ’68. One of those voices was that of Rosemary Clooney. Then I thought she was square- you know with that smooth voice and ‘good girl’ image and all in a film like White Christmas with Bing Crosby. Then, several years ago, before she died I heard her in an interview on National Public Radio where she admitted to a drug problem and other little indiscretions. Of course, for this reviewer that meant that I might have to reevaluate her work now that I knew she was not really that ‘good girl’. Now a lot of her sound is still beyond the pale for me and her seeming addiction to bebop novelty songs like Mambo Italiano is off-putting but she certainly is more interesting as a singer to me now. I like the sound of Come On-A My House but what really is nice is Ms. Clooney's way with a ballad. Try Hey There and Tenderly on for size. Then work your way to Half As Much and then a nice little version of Blues In The Night and Too Young. It only took me 50 years to recognize it but Rosemary- you done good.
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