Sunday, September 09, 2007

Out of the Past


Otis Redding (1941-1967), yet another blockbusting Virgo who came to a tragic end. If you've seen footage of him performing, you've probably glimpsed some of the gusto he put into his singing. He and most of the Bar-Keys (his backing band) died when their small plane crashed into Lake Monona, Wisconsin, on the way to Madison in December, 1967. I swam in that lake at night about twenty years later -- it was an eerie experience.



Above: Jane Greer (1924-2001) playing femme fatale to the hilt in Out of the Past (1947), with Robert Mitchum. One of my film noir favorites, with a great -- and bleak -- ending. Some of Ms. Greer's last performances -- in the 1990s -- can be seen on Twin Peaks.

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.

Birthdays: Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu/Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu, William Bligh (Mutiny on the Bounty), Leo Tolstoy (Gregorian calendar), Adelaide Crapsey, Paul Goodman, “Jimmy the Greek” Snyder (b. Dimetrios Georgios Synodinos), Manolis Glezos, Jane Greer, Cliff Robertson, Elvin Jones (b. Pontiac, Michigan), Otis Redding, Michael Keaton (Douglas), Hugh Grant, Michelle Williams.

4 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I rather enjoy the Femme Fatales of the past.

Danny Tagalog said...

Me too. Re: femme fatale's of the past. Thanks for the comment Erik - yours and other comments have had a great effect. Cheers!

Cup said...

Ah, Otis. One of the greats out of Georgia. He sand, hands down, the most heart-ripping version of "Try a Little Tenderness."

Johnny Yen said...

I got my father the Criterion version of Monterey Pop for his birthday two years ago (we always watched it when it was on late-night television when I was a kid). He pointed out that Try A Little Tenderness was more typical of what he did-- that Dock of the Bay, while a number one hit for him, albeit post-humously, was not as uptempo as the rest of his songs.

I also love, at Monterey, where he mentioned, before performing RESPECT, that Aretha Franklin stole the song from him, and that he was stealing it back. When I first heard U2's cover of the Beatles' Helter Skelter, with Bono making the same comment, I wondered how many people got the homage.