87. Smoke on the Water &...

Lyrics

We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn't have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water, fire in the sky

They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky Claude was running in and out
Pulling kids out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place 

But Swiss time was running out

It seemed that we would lose the race
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky, smoke on the water

We ended up at the Grand Hotel
It was empty cold and bare
But with the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside
Making our music there
With a few red lights and a few old beds
We make a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know, I know we'll never forget
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky ,smoke on the water

The first chords of this song are of course legendary, if only because seemingly everyone trying to learn to play guitar starts by playing these chords. The rest of the song is also pretty awesome, and Deep Purple are absolutely aware of the song's awesomeness. It's quite strange that no (at least major) movie has been made about the shenanigans at Montreaux, or the shenanigans at the classic rock scene of the 70's in general. Almost Famous doesn't count here, because that was about a fictional band. Besides the main subject of the movie was Patrick Fugit's character. So I chose a movie about the shenanigans of another music scene to link this song to.

The Movie: 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom, 2002)

Having now seen three movies by Michael Winterbottom, I don't think I am a big fan of him, despite the fact that two of his movies were quite good. First of all he comes off as someone who seems to despise the idea of telling a completely fictional story. He goes out of his way to assure us that what we are watching has at least some basis in reality, even when this assurance is unnecessary, and sometimes even detrimental to the movie. Secondly, and even more importantly, he does not seem to love or even like film very much. He seems above all interested in giving the viewer information about a subject, and film just happens to be the medium through which he does that. This is less of a problem when the subject is interesting/important, such as it is here or in In This World, but much more so in a movie such as The Trip. I am not familiar with the show on which that film was based, but the movie did not make me very interested in it either. It was pleasurable, because any movie with Steve Coogan in it is (That Winterbottom often collaborates with Coogan obviously speaks for him), but also it was one of the most banal films I had ever seen.  Now I must stress that all I wrote in this paragraph about Winterbottom probably is entirely not true. It's just the impression I personally got from merely having seen three movies of his. He's made much more.

Having said that I couldn't help but (unfavorably) compare 24 Hour Party People too Boogie Nights. To me 24 Hour Party People sometimes plays as if Winterbottom was watching Boogie Nights, and enjoying it, but at the same time thinking 'Man I wish Anderson had spent less time thinking how to make this an awesome movie, and more time trying the teach his audience something about the LA porn industry in the 1970's'. Thereby not realizing that Boogie Nights actually might give us more interesting insights about the the the 1970's LA porn scene than 24 Hour Party People does about the 1980's Manchester punk scene. I was quite excited to see this movie as it is often discussed as one of the best recent unconventional biopics, full of fascinating characters, fun scenes, and great dialogue. I enjoyed it quite a lot, as it does have fascinating characters, some fun scenes, and some good dialogue. But it's not all that unconventional, and the elements that are considered such are not even all that interesting here. To clarify, there are not that many fictional biopics made like this. But there are quite a lot of documentaries made like it. The movie often times basically plays like a Steve Coogan-narrated BBC documentary about the rise and fall of Manchester's punk scene, only instead of using archival footage or other similar techniques to show us what happened, important events have been re-staged with actors, including Steve Coogan himself, which makes it a bit self-referential. Now these re-staged scenes are for the most part very compelling, but, come on, this is not groundbreaking work. Apart from the self-referentiality there have been countless documentaries/movies made like this, which blur the line between fiction and reality. This is in itself obviously no problem at all. But Winterbottom seems to do this, because he believes that it is rebellious, and that thus his movie has something of a punk sensibility, reflecting its subject. That may to some extent be the case, but this is still a pretty restrained movie, especially compared to the punk singers we see on screen. I think that the movie could have been much more punk if Winterbottom had made a fictional movie in which he had gone all out, similar to what Anderson did in the more 'conventional' Boogie Nights.

Having said all this, I must emphasize again that I liked the movie quite a lot. I mean, how could I not? This is exactly in my wheelhouse. It is about how media and culture affect society and vice versa. It has some wonderful insights like this one: "And tonight something equally epoch-making is taking place. See? They're applauding the DJ. Not the music, not the musician, not the creator, but the medium. This is it. The birth of rave culture. The beatification of the beat. The dance age. This is the moment when even the white man starts dancing. Welcome to Manchester". It is also a movie that's surprisingly critical of the movement it celebrates. It subtly connects the rise of Joy Division to the rise of neo-fascism in the United Kingdom of the mid-1970's. Though it makes clear that Joy Division did absolutely not intend neo-fascism to be associated with it, it doesn't present them as entirely blameless. Of course, it probably rightfully posits that above all the decline of British society at all levels was the main cause for that rise of neo-fascism. Less subtly is the connection made between the rise of the punk scene and the rise of drug-related crimes and deaths in Manchester. It makes quite explicitly clear that the punk scene is to blame for that. 

I alos enjoyed the movie a lot because I didn't really know anything about punk or Tony Wilson, 'played' here entertainingly and with a lot of wit and sarcasm by Steve Coogan. The movie makes the case that Ian Curtis was the one true genius of that scene and that his death was an enormous tragedy. It makes this case rather convincingly in fact. The scenes involving Curtis are the most interesting and powerful in the movie. Love will Tear us Apart is also quite easily the greatest song to come out of the punk scene depicted here. Lastly the funniest part of the movie comes at the end, or even in hindsight, when we realize that Tony Wilson had both enormous bad luck/judgement. He loved the alternative music scene around Manchester and believed that bands from that scene could have had great success. He was right, but while the bands he signed did go on to become quite succesfull, the bands he just missed out on, or rejected were the bigger successes, such as the Sex Pistols, The Smiths, and Simply Red (which he rejected, because lead singer Mick Hucknall was a ginger).  

86. No Woman No Cry &...

Lyrics

No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry

Said said
Said I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown
Oba, ob-serving the hypocrites
As they would mingle with the good people we meet
Good friends we have had, oh good friends we've lost along the way
In this bright future you can't forget your past
So dry your tears I say

No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry
Here little darlin', don't shed no tears
No woman, no cry

Said, said, said I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown
And then Georgie would make the fire light
Log wood burnin' through the night
Then we would cook corn meal porridge
Of which I'll share with you

My weed is my only courage
So I've got to push on through
But while I'm gone...

Everything's gonna be alright
Ev'rything's gonna be alright
Ev'rything's gonna be alright
Ev'rything's gonna be alright
Ev'rything's gonna be alright
Ev'rything's gonna be alright
Ev'rything's gonna be alright
Ev'rything's gonna be alright

No woman, no cry
No, no woman, no woman, no cry
Oh, little sister, don't she'd no tears
No woman, no cry

No woman, no woman, no woman, no cry
No woman, no cry
Oh, my little darlyn no she'd no tears
little sister don't shed no tears, no women no cry

No woman no cry, no woman no cry
No woman no cry, no woman no cry

Say, say, said I remember when we used to sit
In a government yard in Trenchtown
Obba, obba, serving the hypocrites
As the would mingle with the good people we meet
Good friends we have, oh, good friends we've lost
Along the way
In this great future,
You can't forget your past
So dry your tears, I say

No woman no cry, no woman no cry
Little darling, don't she'd no tears, no woman no cry
Say, say, said I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown
And then Georgie would make the fire light
As it was, love would burn on through the night
Then we would cook cornmeal porridge
Of which I'll share with you
My fear is my only courage
So I've got to push on throught
Oh, while I'm gone

Everything 's gonna be alright, everything 's gonna be alright
Everything 's gonna be alright, everything 's gonna be alright
Everything 's gonna be alright, everything 's gonna be alright
Everything 's gonna be alright, everything 's gonna be alright
So woman no cry, no, no woman no cry

Oh, my little sister
Don't she'd no tears
No woman no cry
I remember when we use to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown
And then Georgie would make the fire lights
As it was, log would burnin' through the nights
Then we would cook cornmeal porridge
Of which I'll share with you
My fear is my only courage
So I've got to push on thru
Oh, while I'm gone
No woman no cry, no, no woman no cry
Oh, my little darlin'
Don't she'd no tears
No woman no cry, No woman no cry

Oh my Little darlin', don't she'd no tears
No woman no cry
Little sister, don't she'd no tears
No woman no cry

When I was choosing what bachelor to go to I went to an introductory class in Language sciences. I was blown away by the professor who claimed that you could read the expression here No Woman No Cry in two ways. As Please woman, don't cry it's gonna be alright. Or as If there are no women, there is no crying. I am now quite stunned both that I was so impressed by this and by the fact that the professor was seriously arguing this. It's not that he argued that theoretically, and divorced from any context you could interpret an expression such as 'No Woman No Cry' in both ways. No, the professor asked us to think whether Bob Marley  maybe intended us to interpret the meaning of No Woman No Cry in this second way. There is absolutely nothing in this song supporting that statement. 

The Top 2000 has rightfully been criticized lately that it underestimates and ignores black artists. It took us 86 songs to find the first, and is the only one in the top 100. It will take a while before we get to people like Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles and Tina Turner. Furthermore Radio 2 completely ignores hip-hop and R&B. That would be not so bad, if they outright said they only have room for rock and pop on the list, but they allow many other genres. There are comedy/novelty songs on the list, German schlagers, a song sung by a French children choir and even the theme from The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Besides they don't completely ignore rap. A Dutch semi-rap song can be found on the list. The whiteness of the list was also visible in my last two movie choices. A back-to-back of L'Avventura and Husbands and Wives is just about the whites back-to-back possible. So No Woman No Cry came at the right time in other respects too. It's time for some ass-kicking blacksploitation, my first entry in that genre.

The Movie: Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974)

There are too few movies made like this today. I do not necessarily mean movies with a strong black heroine, though there certainly should be made more of them too. But movies with strong black heroines have never been in abundance unfortunately. What I mean is that today there is a lack of mid-budgeted good movies that are simply content to be good movies. Basically, what I miss is serious entertainment for casual moviegoers. There are too few simple popcorn movies made today. Now, these movies want to provide awe at all costs and be the most spectacular movie possible. Their characters seemingly must save the world otherwise the stakes will be too low. On the other hand too many serious movies made today strive to be great art, and believe they have to say profound things about the world, humanity, or art. Some indie movies do not have this ambition, but they lack any ambition and are banal in every possible way. 

There is obviously not much wrong with these movies; I still love many movies, and there have been many great, and entertaining movies made this century. But still, there should be more movies like Foxy Brown. Foxy Brown is a movie that has some serious drama, some wonderful humor, some nice action scenes, and very good acting. It is mostly interested in telling a compelling story, but it does so stylishly, but the style never overshadows the movie's content. It's an entertaining movie that does not need you to shut off your brain completely to enjoy it. But it also doesn't need you to have a deep understanding of cinema to get it. It is an entertaining movie perfect for smart people who enjoy movies and take them seriously, but are not very interested in deeply analyzing them. I grew up on this kind of movies, like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop. The last two are with Eddie Murphy, and that's not a coincidence in this context. The blacksplotation movies with Pam Grier probably paved the way for him to become a star. I have only seen this blackspolitation movie, so I may be talking crap, but it seems to me quite clear that the Beverly Hills Cop movies and the character of Axel Foley have very much been influenced by Foxy Brown, and other such movies. Foley and Brown have the same wisecracking irreverent attitudes towards (often white) criminals. And they have similar motives in fighting them. It must be said though that the Beverly Hills Cop movies are much more lighthearted than Foxy Brown. Foxy is not only raped here, she is also betrayed in the worst possible way by her brother, and furthermore her husband is killed. The death of her husband is what Foxy Brown wants to avenge here, and that's why she goes after the drug dealers. It is to this movie's great credit that it seamlessly blends these serious scenes with humor, sometimes even very goofy humor. The scene in which Foxy and another woman seduce a stupid, immoral judge is a great example of that. And of course there are some nice action scenes, including a fight in a lesbian bar and an attack with an airplane. 

During all this entertainment, the move never forgets that it is blacksploitation. It calls attention to the underprivileged, and turns them into strong characters. It is greatly helped by Pam Grier, who gives a very strong performance. Perhaps even more importantly Grier makes visible how confident she is in giving this performance and how proud she is to give it. She would have probably been a star, if she were white. The movie also is unsubtle in connecting the privileged whites to the drug trade and showing that the drug trade mostly leads to the deaths of poor black people. In other words it very directly makes the claim that drugs allows the rich whites to keep exerting their power over the poor black people. But the movie is not only interested in the skewed relationship between the rich and the poor, and the black and the white, but also in the relationship between men and women. It gives women power over men. The bad guys here are quite hilariously presented as bunch of stupid macho's who may give the impression of authority, but are under the thumb of their boss Katherine Wall. She is played with manic glee by Kathryn Loder, an actress who I have never heard of before. She gives a great over-the-top performance here that equals Grier's performance. Unfortunately I found out that Loder only made 5 movies and died at a young age, due to diabetes. 

Lastly, of course Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown is a homage to Foxy Brown, and blacksploitation in general. Jackie Brown is a great movie, that is far better than Foxy Brown. But Quentin Tarantino's influences are often called to be disreputable. Many of those movies were indeed baldy made  It is important to note that some of those movies were considered disreputable, not because they were badly made, but because they dealt with stuff that was considered disreputable by the society they were made in. Foxy Brown is I think one such movie. This is quite simply a well-made movie. You absolutely do not need to watch it ironically to enjoy it.