I wouldn’t read a blog by a pretentious hipster if I was you...
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So I’m standing at the bus stop in the rain and Malcolm McDowell muscles in on Gene Kelly – you can see how it would happen – Alex being a hooligan and Don a happy-go-lucky, all-singing, all-dancing guy who thinks nothing of displaying his joy by soaking himself in a downpour. Naturally, it was his version of the song that I started singing as I twirled my brolly, but after a couple of renditions of the chorus Alex took over, and I saw him going about his very nasty business with the poor woman whose home he and his droogs had invaded. Within a few seconds the devil-may-care exuberance of a Hollywood musical had been booted to one side by Kubrick’s bleak vision of Britain’s future. It didn’t sour my mood, but made me marvel at how a song can be subverted...
*****
The Song Of The Day has been Mel Torme’s rendition of Joe South’s superb ‘Games People Play’. Mel recorded it in ’69, a year after it was originally released, for his album, ‘A Time For Us’. Yes, there’s Mel on the cover sporting the suave middle-aged-hipster look (cravat). It strikes me as a little ironic, that title, since 1969 was hardly a time for veteran crooners, but what the hell, the spin he puts on this tune is just great, as is the arrangement, which effortlessly blends jazzy brass with that funky sound the kids were all digging.
(Note: if I’m any kind of ‘hipster’ I'm more of a middle-aged one of the old school...and yes, I do wear cravats)
Ah, come on, be fair. It does say you are a hipster with a pretentious blog - which is slightly more favourable than being a pretentious hipster with a blog.
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