Another openin’, another show. Another year and more merriment from the musical mixed business that is the Full Catastrophe!
The first show of the year was my version of “Sensation” and I was a picture in white….until a mishap with a tomato based sauce!
So scraping off the pulp and making a mental note to invest in some Napisan here is the first TFC playlist of the year.
Read, click and wonder.
Kicking and Screaming – The Presets
Parklife – Blur
Getting Away With It – Electronic
The Summer Knows – Jessye Norman
An opera singer slumming. Not quite – the composer – Michel Legrand – was with her every step of the way.
Love Potion #9 – The Searchers
Laughing All The Way To The Bank – Sweet Smell of Success – cast
A musical based on the late 1950s movie that starred Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster all about the sleazy world of gossip columns and show business.
Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis): “A press agent eats a columnist’s dirt and is expected to call it manna…. A columnist can’t do without us — except our good and great friend J.J. forgets to mention that. You see, we furnish him with items.”
J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster): “Yes, with your clients’ names attached. That’s the only reason the poor slobs pay you: to see their names in my column all over the world…. [Press agents also] dig up scandal about prominent people and shovel it thin among columnists who give them space.”
— dialogue from the film “Sweet Smell of Success,” 1957
I’m A Believer – The Monkees
### In Case You Were Wondering – Nina Simone
Go To Hell
I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl
Backlash Blues
THE BACKLASH BLUES
by Langston Hughes
Mister Backlash, Mister Backlash,
Just who do you think I am?
You raise my taxes, freeze my wages,
Send my son to Vietnam.
You give me second class houses,
Second class schools.
Do you think that colored folks
Are just second class fools?
When I try to find a job
To earn a little cash,
All you got to offer
Is a white backlash.
But the world is big,
Big and bright and round–
And it’s full of folks like me who are
Black, Yellow, Beige, and Brown.
Mister Backlash, Mister Backlash,
What do you think I got to lose?
I’m gonna leave you, Mister Backlash,
Singing your mean old backlash blues.
You’re the one
Will have the blues.
not me–
Wait and see!
Ain’t Got No – I Got Life
Nina Simone was a woman who used music to make a point and she wasn’t afraid of making that point without fear or favour. A profoundly talented woman who wouldn’t allow “bleeding hearts” such as I off the hook without a wriggle or two!
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I Wish I Was A Princess – Little Peggy March
Up Is Down – Billy Stritch
Hold On Tight – Fats Waller
A jazz performer with a naughty name ! He was an excellent and much copied jazz pianist. Waller is considered one of the very best to have played in the stride style. But it was his singing, songwriting, and lovable, roguish stage personality that sold his hundreds of recordings in an era when jazz wasn’t seen as “serious” music. Many of his songs had lyrics by Andy Razaf – a man well worth investigating….
No Tragedy – The Radiators
Me Ki Sa Oule – Kali
Music from Martinique
Get Ready – The Temptations
Do U Like What U See – Mika
I’m Calm – Cleo Lane
The Diary Of Horace Wimp – Electric Light Orchestra
Ole Mambo – Edmundo Ros & his Orchestra
Many, many years ago when I was but a bub I listened to a daily program of live music played by Edmundo Ros and his Orchestra. His programs evoked the atmosphere of an exotic ballroom where sensual latin american music was played as incredibly sophisticated men and women about town sipped cocktails.
I wanted to be there…and now I am – every Saturday night on Joy ! Radio is a great medium. ER is still alive – if the internet is to be believed – and has just celebrated his 98th birthday.
It’s Getting Better – Mamas & Papas
Jeans On – David Dundas
The Party’s Over – Blossom Dearie
You Want The Candy – The Ravonettes
The Full Catastrophe 