A course in the Visual Studies program at U.C. Berkeley--the old songs, and the feel of the places they come from--taken in all possible senses...
Thursday, February 1, 2007
how it was back then-Leadbelly
Speaking of song trails, I found some of these. It made me think about our week's topic of discussion, 'Overcome' while I was viewing them (this sounds a bit pedantic, I apologize):
The Lead Belly (with Mr. John!) is great--invaluable, to be able to see this, no matter how "staged". The fact is, faces are revealing, no matter the acting--and Lead Belly's here says a lot about what we were discussing last night--just who was he...? Clearly many many things--even as acknowledged inadvbertantly in the production itself...
We all live in our own times, don't we...!
As for the Weavers--I have that one, was saving it for you, but just as happy that you found it to post. Lead Belly died just a few months before the Weavers released their version of Irene--which went on to sell a million records... Hmmmmmm.
I don't think it woujld have bothered him at all. Like Howlin' Wolf playing witht he Rolling Stones on Ed Sullivan Show (the Stones made it happen). Rather than outrage, my brother Peter used to say, Howlin' Wolf was delighted to be on national TV--no matter who or how he got there...
There's a cut on one of Howlin' Wolf's cds (I'll play it for you) where he's trying to instruct Eric Clapton and company on the fine points of Little Red Rooster. The direction of the debt is quite clear...
Cindy, Thank you for the Lead Belly post from the 1935 Time Marches newsreel. The UCB Media Resource Center has this on VHS and I've been eyeing it for a while, but I never got around to viewing it, so thank you. This is the newsreel I referred to in the "Song Trailer: John Lomax" post. Below, I'll repost the notes, copied and pasted.
Tony, I think the issue of "staginess" is relelvant and even relates to your question to the class about YouTube and voyeurism (the word skit versus reenactment came up too). I made it a point regarding that particular photo of penitentiary striped Lead Belly so as to differentiate from the other in situ photos of the prison farm workers with J. Lomax. But perhaps "staged" is the wrong word. Anyway, it's also interesting to imagine a time when all newsreels and photos were reenacted, as Birta reminded us last night (consider the amount of opportunities for blatant government propaganda. Or is the problem even greater now with the idea or accepted truth of "real time" news footage, "fair and balanced news," etc.?)
Maybe the question should be how much is a particular artist (of any medium, painting, music, writing) just doing what he or she does and not "performing." I'm not necessarily suggesting that this quality contributes to more artistically successful or beautiful work (but hey, part of me wants to believe that, if there is such a thing as an absolute in knowing thyself). It's my understanding that many artists don't consider what they do and being on stage as really performing, but instead just simply what they do whether or not anybody is looking (e.g. playing guitar, singing, and painting aren't really special activities for me, more and more, they feel like a normal part of my experience). Also, I've heard some artists complain when what they do begins to feel too much like a performance, and what a drag that can be. Is that why Thelonious Monk stopped playing? On the other end, maybe performing is a thrill, the vulnerability, the embarassment...
One of my favorite quotes relating to this in general comes from the 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's." "...she's a phony, but she's a real phony. She believes in it."
... What is the source of the prison stripes story? On January 8, 1935, John Lomax and Lead Belly appeared on Time magazine’s March of Time radio show featuring reenacted news (news was not yet recorded in real time.) The radio dramatization told how Lead Belly was released from prison and featured some of his songs. It was broadcast nationwide and heard in millions of homes. Soon after, Time initiated production of filmed newsreels, also consisting of reenacted stories, to be shown in movie theaters. The story of Lomax’s discovery of Lead Belly was the second one of these, and was made over a two-day period in February 1935. John A. Lomax is credited with assisting in writing the screenplay — though Alan Lomax actually wrote a first version which was overridden — and both John A. and Lead Belly appeared in it. In the first scene, Lead Belly wore stripes to dramatize the occasion of their meeting in Angola. This scene was to be balanced with depiction of Lead Belly’s marriage to Martha Promise (in which the singer is shown wearing a suit) and his singing of “Goodnight, Irene.” The final scene featured an orchestra playing “Goodnight, Irene” in the background as Lead Belly’s songs are deposited in the Library of Congress along with the Declaration of Independence, a copy of which was shown...
3 comments:
The Lead Belly (with Mr. John!) is great--invaluable, to be able to see this, no matter how "staged". The fact is, faces are revealing, no matter the acting--and Lead Belly's here says a lot about what we were discussing last night--just who was he...? Clearly many many things--even as acknowledged inadvbertantly in the production itself...
We all live in our own times, don't we...!
As for the Weavers--I have that one, was saving it for you, but just as happy that you found it to post. Lead Belly died just a few months before the Weavers released their version of Irene--which went on to sell a million records... Hmmmmmm.
I don't think it woujld have bothered him at all. Like Howlin' Wolf playing witht he Rolling Stones on Ed Sullivan Show (the Stones made it happen). Rather than outrage, my brother Peter used to say, Howlin' Wolf was delighted to be on national TV--no matter who or how he got there...
There's a cut on one of Howlin' Wolf's cds (I'll play it for you) where he's trying to instruct Eric Clapton and company on the fine points of Little Red Rooster. The direction of the debt is quite clear...
Cindy, Thank you for the Lead Belly post from the 1935 Time Marches newsreel. The UCB Media Resource Center has this on VHS and I've been eyeing it for a while, but I never got around to viewing it, so thank you. This is the newsreel I referred to in the "Song Trailer: John Lomax" post. Below, I'll repost the notes, copied and pasted.
Tony, I think the issue of "staginess" is relelvant and even relates to your question to the class about YouTube and voyeurism (the word skit versus reenactment came up too). I made it a point regarding that particular photo of penitentiary striped Lead Belly so as to differentiate from the other in situ photos of the prison farm workers with J. Lomax. But perhaps "staged" is the wrong word. Anyway, it's also interesting to imagine a time when all newsreels and photos were reenacted, as Birta reminded us last night (consider the amount of opportunities for blatant government propaganda. Or is the problem even greater now with the idea or accepted truth of "real time" news footage, "fair and balanced news," etc.?)
Maybe the question should be how much is a particular artist (of any medium, painting, music, writing) just doing what he or she does and not "performing." I'm not necessarily suggesting that this quality contributes to more artistically successful or beautiful work (but hey, part of me wants to believe that, if there is such a thing as an absolute in knowing thyself). It's my understanding that many artists don't consider what they do and being on stage as really performing, but instead just simply what they do whether or not anybody is looking (e.g. playing guitar, singing, and painting aren't really special activities for me, more and more, they feel like a normal part of my experience). Also, I've heard some artists complain when what they do begins to feel too much like a performance, and what a drag that can be. Is that why Thelonious Monk stopped playing? On the other end, maybe performing is a thrill, the vulnerability, the embarassment...
One of my favorite quotes relating to this in general comes from the 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's." "...she's a phony, but she's a real phony. She believes in it."
http://www.culturalequity.org/ace/leadbelly_faqs.html
...
What is the source of the prison stripes story?
On January 8, 1935, John Lomax and Lead Belly appeared on Time magazine’s March of Time radio show featuring reenacted news (news was not yet recorded in real time.) The radio dramatization told how Lead Belly was released from prison and featured some of his songs. It was broadcast nationwide and heard in millions of homes. Soon after, Time initiated production of filmed newsreels, also consisting of reenacted stories, to be shown in movie theaters. The story of Lomax’s discovery of Lead Belly was the second one of these, and was made over a two-day period in February 1935. John A. Lomax is credited with assisting in writing the screenplay — though Alan Lomax actually wrote a first version which was overridden — and both John A. and Lead Belly appeared in it. In the first scene, Lead Belly wore stripes to dramatize the occasion of their meeting in Angola. This scene was to be balanced with depiction of Lead Belly’s marriage to Martha Promise (in which the singer is shown wearing a suit) and his singing of “Goodnight, Irene.” The final scene featured an orchestra playing “Goodnight, Irene” in the background as Lead Belly’s songs are deposited in the Library of Congress along with the Declaration of Independence, a copy of which was shown...
Post a Comment