Just reading reynolds fob-off of the 'last waltz' movie, and kinda understanding in their po-mo body-w/o-organ discourcia that the film will never stand a chance, coz in basically represents everything MOJO stands for.
I never gave two shits about this moofie, nor most of the bands/artists on it, until a friend took me to see it when it had a short re-run a few year back based on it's DVD remaster. I was fortunate to see it in a grand-old Art-Deco cinema, on a massive screen with a decent Dolby Digital audio set-up, and despite being bored for the first 20-odd minutes, the film and music seemed to kick a gear when Neil Young did 'helpless'. For me personally everything seemed to kick into gear around then, as did performances by Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris and of course Dylan and the Band.
If anything the film represents a graceful 'death' : for the 60s, the LA sound, Americana - the whole whitebread mythological kit and caboodle, but transcends that via the quality of performances and the quality of Scorsese's direction, or more notably Vilmos Szigmond's sublime (visual) tonal pallate.
I mean kudos to the Band for realising that in 1976 or whenever this sort of shit (MOJO myth/legend rock) was well and truly dead in its then present format. But...it never died. The film is 'seminal', even the sounds on it are, especially when you look at the endless stream of 'quality' or 'important' whitebread songwriters from Nick Cave, Michael Gira, Mark Lanergan, Mercury Rev, Rufus Wainright, Steve Malkamus, antony and the Johnsons, Wilco etc...etc..etc..the thing never fugeen dies, in fact it gets STRONGER!!!
I call it 'brown' music - it's colour, tone, style whatever, is just 'brown'..
I'm not saying it's bad, in fact this sorta 'transcendent rock' or whatever, is prolly some of my favourite music. But my point is that if it's everything Reynold's DOESN'T want from music, it seems to have a longer and stronger shelf/gulchural life than , you know ARKane, or A Certain Ratio or Tricky...
The problem that arises here is the (over) intellectualisation of music, especially in written form, and the fact that music is easier to 'get' or 'decode' intellectually than say cinema or literature because it's a more physcial or primal artform. Sure the Last Waltz is pretentious becuase of it's pontification of the bands.mythology/rocknroll concept/lifestyle/fashion etc.. but it works on another (intellectual)level as because it's a pretty good piece of cinema in it's own right..
Which gets to my next discourse topic: the film 'Stop making sense' as ANOTHER seminal film/music meme esp. for the Dissensus set!...
I never gave two shits about this moofie, nor most of the bands/artists on it, until a friend took me to see it when it had a short re-run a few year back based on it's DVD remaster. I was fortunate to see it in a grand-old Art-Deco cinema, on a massive screen with a decent Dolby Digital audio set-up, and despite being bored for the first 20-odd minutes, the film and music seemed to kick a gear when Neil Young did 'helpless'. For me personally everything seemed to kick into gear around then, as did performances by Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris and of course Dylan and the Band.
If anything the film represents a graceful 'death' : for the 60s, the LA sound, Americana - the whole whitebread mythological kit and caboodle, but transcends that via the quality of performances and the quality of Scorsese's direction, or more notably Vilmos Szigmond's sublime (visual) tonal pallate.
I mean kudos to the Band for realising that in 1976 or whenever this sort of shit (MOJO myth/legend rock) was well and truly dead in its then present format. But...it never died. The film is 'seminal', even the sounds on it are, especially when you look at the endless stream of 'quality' or 'important' whitebread songwriters from Nick Cave, Michael Gira, Mark Lanergan, Mercury Rev, Rufus Wainright, Steve Malkamus, antony and the Johnsons, Wilco etc...etc..etc..the thing never fugeen dies, in fact it gets STRONGER!!!
I call it 'brown' music - it's colour, tone, style whatever, is just 'brown'..
I'm not saying it's bad, in fact this sorta 'transcendent rock' or whatever, is prolly some of my favourite music. But my point is that if it's everything Reynold's DOESN'T want from music, it seems to have a longer and stronger shelf/gulchural life than , you know ARKane, or A Certain Ratio or Tricky...
The problem that arises here is the (over) intellectualisation of music, especially in written form, and the fact that music is easier to 'get' or 'decode' intellectually than say cinema or literature because it's a more physcial or primal artform. Sure the Last Waltz is pretentious becuase of it's pontification of the bands.mythology/rocknroll concept/lifestyle/fashion etc.. but it works on another (intellectual)level as because it's a pretty good piece of cinema in it's own right..
Which gets to my next discourse topic: the film 'Stop making sense' as ANOTHER seminal film/music meme esp. for the Dissensus set!...