Twelve Films At Christmas - 9

I have a soft-spot for biblical epics, so you may find me a tad generous in my assessment of the plodding and worthy King of Kings. It was filmed in Super Technirama and is at least defensible as a lovingly constructed series of rich tableaux of the life of the Christ. I particularly like the portrayal of Barabbas, who probably deserves his own film - you can have that one for free. 58/100.

Twelve Films At Christmas - 6, 7 & 8

No great films to critique on this occasion but sometimes you don't want a great example of cinema. Sometimes you have eaten and drunk too much and want a movie to sort of lap over you rather than having to commit yourself to a headlong dive into its waters. That slovenly mood has been upon me for the past couple of days so these films fitted the bill. First up is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is a grand tale but the juvenile acting still lags embarrassingly behind the very fine adult talent on display. I would rather read Harry Potter than watch the films. Almost sacrilegiously I feel the other way round about Lord of the Rings. Does this make me a bad person? Oh well. The Potter film - 60/100. 

 Well-paced and nicely mixing slap-stick with occasional pathos, Planes, Trains and Automobiles delivers plenty of laughs. The bedroom sharing sequence is my favourite, closely followed by the build-up to the car crash. This movie has no pretensions to be high art but it is good at what it attempts - 61/100. I discover that it is to be remade with Will Smith in the lead. Why? But equally, I suppose, why not? As another incidental aside, I think that we can just about call this a Christmas film - on the grounds that, to European eyes, one can elide Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Finally another warm-hearted and affecting piece of comedy. Baby Boom could have been thoroughly dreadful - perhaps one of those made-on -the-cheap TV movies that litter the fag end of the film channels. But here we see the benefit of good acting because everyone delivers fine work, most particularly Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard. Even the baby (actually it's a pair of photogenic twins) is good. 61/100.

Twelve Films At Christmas - 4 & 5

Is Die Hard A Christmas film? You do not have to delve too deeply in the interweb thingy to hear both sides of this debate. So here is the definitive answer: of course it is not. That settled, is it actually any good? Yes it is - a thriller full of great effects and with a modicum of comedy that reassures you it is not taking itself too seriously. Bruce Willis in his vest (clever how the plot is framed to rid him of his shirt - and his shoes) is cool and Alan Rickman is a scene-stealing villain. 68/100.

But now for something altogether on a different plane. My old office wall was dominated by my poster of Bogart as Rick in the final scene of Casablanca. That picture now stands at the top of our stairs, and a print of the movie poster is above my desk as I write this. If Willis is cool in Die Hard then Humphrey Bogart is off the scale in this his most famous role. This is a great film - tightly scripted and never a moment too long. It has melodrama, cynicism, style and, of course most memorably, redemptive honour. 93/100. 

Advent 24

To bring us to a grand conclusion, here it is, the song that is my current idea of my favourite cover version. I go through fads of opinion just like anyone else but this has been my rediscovery of the year. In fact it was listening to and admiring this track that got me started on this iteration of the OG calendar.

Behind the coveted Door 24 we find The Byrds and their cover of Dylan's My Back Pages. Enjoy - and take time to decipher the lyrics. In them I find that spirit inculcated by my second exposure to tertiary education. I look back at my last years in private legal practice and I conclude that I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now. 

Thank you for your attention. Happy Christmas and may your God go with you.

Twelve Films At Christmas - 3

As screen-writing credits go the combination of Graham Greene and Terence Rattigan takes a bit of beating. They are together responsible for the script of Brighton Rock, an adaptation for the screen of Greene's own novel. That novel made an appearance in this blog as part of the 2012 advent calendar. The haunting conclusion is changed in the film but that should not put you off what is a skilfully realised portrayal of low-life gangsterism. The film enjoys the accolade of being the only four star movie of 1947 in my edition of Halliwell. Cinematically taut as a drum and Richard Attenborough is suitably terrifying as Pinkie Brown, the teenage hoodlum at the film's centre. 86/100.    

Advent 23

We're getting to the sharp end of this countdown now. Today's song doesn't seem to have an acknowledged author, rather it is a traditional folk song, recorded by many artists going back nearly a century. Those who've had a stab at it include Woody Guthrie and, rather exotically, Johnny Hallyday. However its definitve rendition has to by The Animals in 1964. Unrecorded is the version my mate Big Willy Mac (yes him again) launches into in the small hours of the morning in Irish bars. At those joyous moments my judgement is clouded by alcohol and I will swear that nobody does it better. Much as I love my mate, sober consideration comes down in favour of The Animals. The House of the Rising Sun. Brilliant.  

Advent 22

It is close to impossible to like all of Prince's music, there is so damned much of it. But here is a cover of a song that he wrote for The Family who were one of his Paisley Park project bands. It was written in the mid-eighties and this Sinead O'Connor version was released in 1990. O'Connor seems to be even bat-shit crazier than was Prince himself (I do not count this altogether a bad thing in the creative realms) but this is one of the most perfect pop confections of all time. Nothing Compares 2 U. 

Twelve Films at Christmas - 2

 

The Man Who Invented Christmas is a charming confection comprised of some authentic Victoriana and some knowing modernisms. Charles Dickens (a winning Dan Stevens) is on his financial uppers and suffering on the back of two literary flops (Barnaby Rudge and Martin Chuzzlewit) and so, with the aid of a cast of ghosts/apparitions, he bangs out A Christmas Carol - hey presto, writer's block cleared and Christmas duly invented. Uniformly well-played (in particular Jonathan Pryce in scene-stealing form) this deserves a place in the seasonal canon. 71/100. 

Advent 21

Hanging on the Telephone is so identified with Blondie that it comes as a surprise to learn that it is a cover version. The original version was recorded in 1976 by The Nerves - no, me neither! You can track the original down on Spotify and it comes out sounding like an underpowered cover of Blondie. The famed Blondie version is a more layered rendition and the stand-out track on the brilliant album Parallel Lines. This is one of the songs of 1978, the year I met the Groupie. Happy days.

Advent 20

This really is a great track. It is a cover of what is itself a stellar piece of music - Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus. Here we have the inimitable tones of Johnny Cash giving the piece a whole new life. It says much that my great mate Big Willy Mac, a man who knows his music, loves this version of the song. Happy Christmas Big Willy.

Advent 19

I am no expert but Muse seem to me to be the natural successors to the virtuoso stadium prog-rockers of the seventies. We have seen them live on two occasions and it has to be said that they are terrific. So it is apt that they also do a mean cover version. Feeling Good has been recorded by umpteen artists but its most famous iteration is by Nina Simone. Here are Muse giving it large. 

Advent 18

Today we have an almighty musical collision. This is what happens when hip-hop decides to put rock and roll in its place. The colliding bodies are Run DMC and Aerosmith, the latter's career being revived by this brilliant conflagration. The video has vim, vigour and a substantial degree of wit, a quality never to be sneered at. Just a thought - how on earth is Steve Tyler still alive? The tales of his substance abuse reach almost (I did say almost) heroic heights. Don't try this at home. Walk This Way.  

Advent 17

In my teens you were marked by the bands you favoured. In our school the most popular were ELP, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Genesis. I went for none of these, preferring the Moody Blues, a predilection I shared with just one other adherent, whose good taste in this regard I still thank. But here's the funny thing, the only Moodies song any of the unconverted knew was the dirge-like Nights in White Satin. I found this mildly embarrassing since I have never really liked the track. 

And here's another funny thing - some people think American Punk is an oxymoron. All I know is that when my least favourite Moody Blues track meshes with American Punk we get this joyous confection from the Dickies.

Advent 16

Now for one beloved of carousing rugby players - I particularly remember singing this in the company of my fellow-travellers at King's. We were young and stupid but ultimately harmless, passing our wild days before entering the forbidding adult world that was the early-eighties. I suspect most of us did alright in the end.

The song's history is as a Bahamian folk tune, recorded by many but mastered by the Beach Boys, probably the most accessible track on their seminal Pet Sounds album. Sloop John B.

Advent 15

I am an admirer of the Boss but there is something about his Dancing in the Dark that doesn't float my boat. Can't put my finger on it, just one of those things. Nor is synth-pop usually my cup of tea but when the two things collide in the hands of Hot Chip - I think the result is excellent. Is it only me? Tomorrow, one for the rugby players out there. Bet that's got you worried/wondering.

Twelve Films At Christmas - 1

The Guardian labelled it possibly the worst film of 2019 but did find space, ridiculously, to praise the film's clumsy Brexit bashing. The film in question is Last Christmas, co-written by the highly estimable Emma Thompson. It aims to achieve the exploitative heart-stealing stunt of Love Actually. It fails. The central performances are too sickly-sweet to bear and the plot twist is telegraphed. Worst film of the year? Doubtful but will I watch it again (even at Christmas)? No. 51/100.

An Ailing And Much Loved Family Member

I went to get my eyes tested last week. Nothing much to report on the general eyesight front - I'm getting some proper reading glasses but my distance sight is still fine, courtesy of the decade old laser surgery. Being me I managed to choose  a woundingly expensive pair of frames - Oakley don't you know, to go with my precious shades. The shades, as any fule kno, make me run faster so presumably this new pair will make me read more quickly. All good then.

Well not quite all good as it turned out. I mentioned to the optician (a very brisk and efficient young lady) that I had been suffering from a 'floater' in my right eye which had first appeared three weeks beforehand. So she had a a jolly good look and was concerned enough to write me a letter of referral and to despatch me post-haste to the Midland Eye Hospital at Dudley Road, there possibly being a retinal tear. And this is where the title of my piece today comes in - I'm not talking of myself but rather, figuratively, of the National Health Service. I read somewhere (I don't think it was me who coined it, but I have pilfered the phrase) that The dear old NHS is the nearest we thing we now have in this country to a shared religion. Now, let me be clear, my experience of dealing professionally with the NHS was often disspiriting - it has the nimbleness of an oil tanker (a bloody big one with a wonky rudder at that ) and I don't buy all that guff about its every employee being an angel. However it has safely delivered two children to us and it was there for me when I was at my lowest ebb. For all the inefficiency and waste it rather preferred that I should not harm myself when I was ambivalent (to say the least) on the subject. So God bless it.

My longish afternoon at the Eye Hospital confirmed that the service is creaking under the burden of demands but in the final anlaysis it just about got by. Despite the problem of patient numbers, the problem of multiple languages being spoken by patients and staff and the organisational demands consequent upon Covid, I was warned that it would take four hours for me to be diagnosed and that transpired to be spot on. I had expected as much and had a book with me, but this proved a false comfort once I had been triaged and had eye drops put in to dilate my pupils because I couldn't read a bloody thing. Anyway you will be relieved to know (well I am at least) that after a thorough examination (including with a rather creepy strong lens that actually skims the surface of the eye) I don't have a retinal tear. What I have is a posterior vitreous detachment which has stirred up the jelly in my eye. Time is the cure. So I felt relieved as I left the hospital and grateful to that much loved relative, for all its manifest faults. It remains a magnificent conception, though possibly one that can never be perfectly realised.       

Advent 14

If you do that interweb thingy and search for 'great cover versions', you will find plenty of lists and common to many of them is the Nirvana cover of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World. Now the Overgraduate is not swayed by such things so here is the earlier, and to these ears better, cover version by Lulu. That's right, Lulu. There's my street cred completely gone. But do not fear dear reader, tomorrow we have a synth-pop desecration of a rock classic. Nice.

Advent 13

Number 13 - unlucky for some? Never thought so myself but I suppose that we can accord the dread number some unintended consequence as the random number generator that is my notebook serves up the siren but tragic Amy Winehouse giving a memorable vocal account of Valerie. Props of course to Mark Ronson who provides the backing and to the Zutons whose song this this originally was. The Zutons - best band name ever? 

Advent 12

 Istanbul by They Might Be Giants is not even the first cover of this 1953 novelty song but it is the best. Absolutely brilliant and dig the video. Why is it so good? That's nobody's business but the Turks. Enjoy.

Advent 11

It's bad academic practice to cite Wikipedia as a source but on this occasion I'll make an exception. Torn

This gives you the varied history of what ends up being Natalie Imbruglia's fifteen minutes of pop fame. A cracking good song. A cover.

Advent 10

This won't be the last we hear of Bob Dylan. By way of a contrast to yesterday's nuclear holocaust chic here we have Olivia Newton-John's oh so sweet cover of Dylan's If Not for You. There is another justly famous cover of this song by George Harrison but the marginal vote goes to ONJ and that clear as crystal vocal. I bet you didn't know I had a soft side. More tomorrow.

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas

No, not the winsome song. If you want winsome you'll have to tune in for tomorrow's advent calendar entry. 

Instead I'm taking time out from the calendar to let you know that I set yet another PB on my three mile run this morning. All this really proves is that I have not hitherto been pushing myself, but, what the Hell, it keeps me happy, particularly as, touch wood, the old leg muscles are bearing up. All of which semi-strenuous exercise puts me in a good mood, the more so as Christmas looms on the horizon. It will be different, because of the Covid restrictions, just Groupie, the Pig, DN1 and DN2. But, and I have a feeling I'm not alone in this, I sense a societal desire to make the best of this bad job and a consequent elevation in public goodwill. People are certainly nice when I plod past them on the mean streets of Four Oaks. Let's hope I'm right.

I've located one good thing about the virus - it acts as a fine distraction as Brexit reaches its wholly predictable conclusion, that is to say, repeated failure to achieve a free-trade deal with the EU. Even those old Jobs at the BBC are struggling to summon- up angst about this 'catastrophic' denouement. The public outside the bubble, don't give a toss. When dealing with a protectionist leviathan like the EU, we should not expect anything else. The whole thing is weighed down by its own preposterous arrogance. Plu ca change as we don't say over here. 

More good news - I've already got my bumper Christmas edition of the Radio Times. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Advent 9

Funny how things work themselves into your consciousness. I was collecting Daughter Number 2's car from the garage the other day and, what with DN2 being a good deal more hip than her old man, the radio was tuned to Radio 6. They were playing something that I liked and I learned from the digital display (isn't science wonderful) that it was by a popular beat combo called The Postal Service. So when I got back home I fired up the old streaming service and listened to said combo. Nice but not earth-shattering. But lo and behold I also came across a cover of one of their tracks, We Will Become Silhouettes. Here it is in all its loveliness. By the Shins and imho notably better than the original. Listen to the lyrics. Quality.

Advent 8

And for my next trick - you've had Zeppelin doing a cover, and now I give you a fantastic cover of  a Zeppelin track. Accompanying the opening credits of the film of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this is Karen O with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and their stirring take on Immigrant Song.

Advent 7

We've had two great rock leviathans already - Pink Floyd being covered and Yes doing an exuberant cover. It is then about time we had a band of the same vintage, possibly the band of that vintage, Led Zeppelin. Here is their cover/expansion of a 1929 number (written and recorded by the magnificently named Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie) - When the Levee Breaks. 

Advent 6

In case you were wondering about Leonard Cohen's reaction to Sid Vicious' visceral interpretation of My Way, my (admittedly meagre) research suggests that he thought it a definitive version of a problematic song.

Now for one of Cohen's own compositions. The songwriter's own recording of Hallelujah is magnificent and it has been much covered, but never better than by another doomed youth, Jeff Buckley.   

Advent 5

Apologies to anyone who's tuned in expecting a bit more Sinatra. Here we have instead the most profane cover of a classic ever made - the tragic Sid Vicious and his charismatic rendition of the Paul Anka penned, hubristic My Way.

If you have a minute it is worth tracking down Leonard Cohen's observations on this song and in particular on the Vicious version. Cohen gets another mention tomorrow.  

Advent 4

And now arguably history's finest vocalist with a song from arguably his defining album, Songs for Swingin' Lovers. Frank Sinatra delivered this version of I've Got You Under My Skin in 1956, twenty years after it was written by Cole Porter and won an Oscar for its appearance in Born to Dance. Effortlessness as sublime as Sinatra's takes a lot of hard work!  

Tomorrow another Sinatra classic - but no more clues than that.

Advent 3

There is a sort of link to yesterday's entry. I commented (I'm not the first to do it) that The Milk Carton Kids put me in mind of Simon and Garfunkel. Well here we have the masters of prog-rock, Yes, with their ridiculously brilliant cover (at three times the length of the original!) of Simon and Garfunkel's America. The seventies - bad hair, bad clothes, bad industrial relations, but man we had some fun.

Advent 2

Another piece of Spotify serendipity brought this one to my attention. I had been listening to Foy Vance and let it run over, at which point Spotify (eerily or handily depending on your mood at the time) takes over and plays you other things it thinks you will like. On ths occasion it was right. Continuing the Pink Floyd theme, here is the Milk Carton Kids' fine cover of Wish You Were Here. Don't they put you in mind of Simon and Garfunkel?

Can't promise such a seamless segue into tomorow's track I'm afraid. But then again, I've just had an idea.

Advent 1

How's this for clever. Our theme this year is cover versions and our first entry is a weird (and thereby brilliant) cover of the very song that was door 24 in last year's calendar - here are Scissor Sisters with their take on Comfortably Numb. Some serious Pink Floyd fans regard this version as tantamount to sacrilege but rumour has it that Floyd themselves approve, not that they really need the royalties. Tomorrow a variation on this theme.