Do You Tube?

This blog started out as a tribute to my Netflix queue. I wanted to feature movies I enjoyed from a particular source, available to everyone with a red-envelope subscription. That time is over. Now a lot of what I write about it the videos I get from the library, with some streaming thrown in. The sources of entertainment are now many and splintered. One thing I've been watching are YouTube concerts. 

For example, we watched Shadows and Light (1980), a video release of a Joni Mitchell concert from 1979. I saw her on this tour, at Tanglewood in Western MA. She had an incredible band, with Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Michael Brecker, Don Alias on drums, and the Persuasions singing backup. This is a super jazzy and funky band, and so is her show. Her songs here have a lot of soul, and sleaze too, with Edith and the Kingpin and Raised on Robbery. The video includes some odd inserts, like some Rebel Without a Cause, ice dancing, and some stock footage of a coyote on Coyote. I think it's the same footage Scorsese uses in The Last Waltz. Note: Jaco gets a solo where he loops himself into a frenzy. We saw him do this in a small club in the 80s.

We also watched some Little Feat, like a RockPalast show. Then we checked out this Midnight Special TV show - the whole hour hosted by Little Feat. No link because it isn't on Letterboxd and it probably won't last on YouTube. But go look for it - it includes Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt (what backup singers, as well as solo acts!), Jesse Winchester (just pardoned by Carter for draft dodging), and Weather Report. It went really well with Shadows and Light. We had some soulful, funky women singing, we had some a cappella (Jesse, Emmylou and Bonnie, singing You Can't Stand Up), and some hot Jaco action.

I suppose everyone knows that there are a ton of these concerts that come and go on YouTube. We never got around to watching them, but I think we're going to be watching more now.