Musical Weekend

We started this weekend of with Help!, everybody's favorite - especially if you are old enough to have seen it as a kid when it was first released. Ms. Bev saw it twice back to back. After it was over the first time, there didn't seem to be anything to do but go back in again.

It was a natural followup to Casino Royale, since it is largely a James Bond parody, including Swiss ski chases and Bahamanian bathing beauties. Leo McKern and his band of Kaili worshipers make great un-PC comic relief. I think this movie is also where George saw his first sitar. But the best parts are:

1. The songs: Still rooted in classic rock 'n' roll, but getting more sophisticated. The strange dragging beat of Ticket to Ride, the modal drone of I Need You, the bubblegum pop of You're Gonna Lose that Girl, and the beautiful vocal harmonies throughout. The orchestral references to Bond themes are also cute.
2. Richard Lester: A great director of movies and music videos. Does lovely work with colors and deep focus. His sequences of the Beatles in "performance" (lipsyncing) really capture their personalities.
   
3. The Beatles, and their personalities: Ringo is goofy, John is insulting, Paul is cute, and George is quiet. George has always been my favorite, and you can see why here: He is the always the one who jumps in to try to save Ringo. But in general, the boys were brutal to Ringo, plotting to chop off a finger while playing cards: "What's in your hand?". But you have to love them all.
   

Next up: The Music Man, Prof. Harold Hill's trials in setting up a boys' band in River City. I would guess that his idea is something like a younger, Iowan Beatles. That's not the way it comes out, of course.

This musical features the best patter songs outside Gilbert and Sullivan (possibly excepting Fugue for Tinhorns). The spoken songs blend sophisticated rhythms with clever yet colloquial words in an fascinating way. The twists and turns of Trouble in River City, with its pinch-back suits, Dan Patch, cubebs and Sen-Sen, always make your head spin.

My one complaint: Marion, the Madame Librarian, should be my ideal woman. Instead she is played by Shirley Jones. I prefer Hermione Gingold.

Finally, John Waters' Cry-Baby. The plot is the same as The Music Man, with the square girl falling for the bad boy. Actually, that's a pretty slim connection to hang this blog item on. Maybe I should go with the vocal harmonies of the doo-wop and rock-a-billy soundtrack in relation to the barbershop group in The Music Man. Or just not try to find a connection.

Cry-Baby is not as cute as some later John Waters, and not as gross as some early. Cry-Baby's (Johnny Dep) gang, the Drapes, is pretty heinous, including the Buddy-Hackett-faced girl Hatchetface, Ricky Lake's child-dropping Pepper, and black-toothed Gramma Rickettes. But they don't discriminate and they know how to rock out. And Gramma Rickettes' husband, Belvedere Rickettes is played by Iggy Pop - and very well, too. I don't think he ever breaks character.

My favorite part is the songs, both classic and original (several by Dave Alvin, one by Alvin and classic popster Doc Pomus). What good is a musical without music? I would have preferred a musical showdown at the end between the Drapes and the Squares, but Waters never asked me, so...

In conclusion:

• The Beatles: Greatest musical group ever.
• The Music Man: Greatest patter songs, except for some other ones, maybe
• John Waters: Sick, sick man. Great artist though.