Y’all know what today is? Mais oui! I’m such a sucker romantic, I get shivers when the band starts to play… And by the way, I am shocked, SHOCKED to find that gambling is going on in here! More French goodies here.

Watch this video and listen to Orson Welles’ luscious voice, and you will want to make a film here even if you’ve never wanted to make a film before. (I love Fritz Wetherbee’s voice, too.) Get in touch with Matthew Newton at the New Hampshire Film and Television Office for assistance. Aren’t we lucky to live here?

Chicken farmer, I love you!

The radiant Grandpa Elliot singing “God Bless America” at Dodger Stadium, accompanied by Louis Mhlanga on electric guitar, and the one and only Ray Charles’s rendition of “America the Beautiful”. Only by chance that these two inspiring musicians are blind—in truth, are there not many ways to see? America, you’re beautiful! Blessings upon you as you enter your 235th year of independence.

“Most people associate Hendrix with wailing guitar anthems,” Alec Kerr says in the May 29 Conway Sun, “but if you dig deeper you can find album cuts like this one that have a chiller jibe, but rock just as hard.” Listen to this one on some “Long Hot Summer Night.”

Of “Summer in the City” by The Lovin’ Spoonful (1968), Alec Kerr writes, “This number-one hit remains one of the quintessential songs of the 1960s and with its use of car horns and jackhammers does indeed capture the vibe of summer in the city.” I’m with him, and agree with my pal who thought a good form of therapy, if you were feeling blue, would be to be locked in a room with The Lovin’ Spoonful blasting out in surround sound. I’m not sure you even need to listen to them—just looking at John Sebastian’s muttonchops makes me feel downright giddy with happiness.

…with Nat King Cole singing “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer” in 1963. Alec says, “The title track of an album full of cheery, lighthearted songs about summer. The song’s somewhat silly lyrics harken back to a more innocent time. As for The Beach Boys’ 1964 “All Summer Long”: “What is the summer without The Beach Boys? Enough said.”

]]> http://artstamworth.org/2010/06/summer-we-enter-the-1960s/feed/ 0 http://artstamworth.org/2010/06/summer-two-from-1958/ http://artstamworth.org/2010/06/summer-two-from-1958/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:30:39 +0000 juno http://artstamworth.org/?p=4733

Alec Kerr’s Conway Sun list continues with “Summertime Blues” by Eddie Cochrane. Alec says, “A classic example of 1950s rock and roll teen angst. Years later The Who would crank the volume up on the song on the “Live at Leeds” album.” Of “Summertime, Summertime,” by the Jamies, he says, “A one-hit wonder about putting your books away for, you guessed it, summertime. If you missed it the first time though it is repeated several times.”

Alec Kerr, entertainment critic for The Conway Daily Sun, who keeps us apprised of l0cal theater productions, which movies we should see, and more, all in crisp, entertaining prose, listed a “Soundtrack of the season: 20 songs for the summer” in the May 29, 2010 edition of The Sun. Over the next few weeks I’ll post videos of some of his picks. The first one—hard to beat—is, of course, Billie Holiday singing “Summertime.” Alex says, “This oft-covered jazz standard was composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess.” Holiday’s version is one of the earliest and most iconic.”

The inimitable Peggy Lee…

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.