Stuart Murdoch, the lead singer and songwriter for the excellent Scottish band Belle and Sebastian, wrote and directed a movie some years back. The movie is called God Help the Girl. And this clip is a song called God Help the Girl performed by the band in the movie called God Help the Girl.
God Help the Girl!
If you want to watch the movie on Kanopy, here’s the link: https://bklynlibrary.kanopy.com/video/god-help-girl.
I’m sure it’s available elsewhere, too.
Here’s a video that should give you all the information you need to decide if this movie is for you. I’m charmed by it all, this is the Scotland of Bill Forsythe and the Vaselines, but more mature now. And more innocent, too. Your mileage may vary, but I highly recommend it.
Carole King and Gerry Goffin were one of
the most successful songwriting teams of the early 60s. As part of the Brill Building songwriting
stable, they worked alongside the teams of Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil and Ellie Greenwich-Jeff
Barry, and solo songwriters like Neil Diamond and Shadow Morton.
You already know most of the hits
written by Goffin-King, but I’ll list a few anyway:
Chains – Cookies (covered by The
Beatles)
Go Away Little Girl – Steve Lawrence
I’m Into Something Good –
Herman’s Hermits
Locomotion – Little Eva
One Fine Day — Chiffons
Up On the Roof – Drifters
Take Good Care of My Baby – Bobby
Vee
Will
You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Shirelles
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural
Woman – Aretha Franklin
But by the mid-‘60s the times had changed and pop/rock music had moved on from
teen pop written by specialist songwriters to
self-contained bands that wrote their own
music with more adult themed lyrics.
By 1967, the duo reacted to these trends and embraced some of the trappings of the
hippie culture. They rejected suburban
life and wrote “Pleasant Valley Sunday” to express their new values.
Around this time they also wrote two of my favorite recordings by The Byrds – “Goin’ Back” and “Wasn’t Born to Follow.”
Both songs were on the outstanding
album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers
(1968). The drama during the recording
of The Notorious Byrd Brothers may
match the well-documented soap opera that
surrounded the production of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
David Crosby and Michael Clarke quit the
band during the album sessions, leaving only Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman in
the band. (The recently deceased session
drummer Hal Blaine replaced Clarke on
some of the tracks.) When Crosby left,
McGuinn rehired one of the original, founding Byrds – Gene Clark – to come back
on board, but that lasted for only a matter of weeks.
Still, the album stands up today and so
do “Goin’ Back” and “Wasn’t Born to Follow.”
“Goin Back” reflects on the theme of exchanging adult responsibilities for the
innocence of childhood.
Let everyone debate the true
reality,
I’d rather see the world the way it used to be
A little bit of freedom’s all we’re lack
So catch me if you can
I’m goin’ back
In his review of “Wasn’t Born to Follow”
on AllMusic, Thomas Ward writes:
Sung by Roger McGuinn, the song is
a lovely moment in The Notorious Byrd
Brothers, and it reflects the group’s more rural influence which has dated
far less than their more psychedelic leanings. The lyrics are tremendous,
commenting on the need for escape and independence.
By 1969 Goffin and King were divorced,
but the legacy of their songwriting partnership will never be broken.
There are so many angles to Devo. I think the one that fits best is that this is a terrific rock ‘n’ roll band that plays terrific rock ‘n’ roll music always, even when the gimmick level is high. I never saw them live. My loss.
I found this album today on a list of bad album covers. It’s weird art for sure.
But what’s surprising is that the music on this elpee is pretty solid retro hip hop and soul, a throwback to 1980 in one way or another. But with lyrics that have some future knowledge.
In any case, well worth checking out.
April 22, 1970, was the date of the first Earth Day. It has been celebrated every April 22nd
ever since. Long before we understood
the impact of greenhouse gasses or coined the terms “climate change” or “global
warming,” the environment was being polluted by gas-guzzling
cars using leaded petrol and factories were spewing toxic gasses and smoke into
the air.
Musicians took up the cause and wrote
songs about it. The earliest one I
recall was “Out in the Country” (written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols) from
Three Dog Night’s album It Ain’t Easy
(1970).
About the same time, Quicksilver Messenger Service released “Fresh Air.”
“Fresh Air” was written by Dino Valenti
(aka Dino Valente, Chet Powers, and Jesse Farrow). He also wrote the hippie anthem “Get
Together” which was a major hit for Jesse Colin Young and The Youngbloods.
Throughout the years many other songs that touch the issue of the environment have
been recorded by major stars. A few
examples (and there are many more) include:
Mercy, Mercy Me (the Ecology) – Marvin
Gaye
Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell
Fall on Me – REM
My City Was Gone – The Pretenders
Beds Are Burning – Midnight Oil
Still, very recently, this issue was addressed by Parquet Courts in their song “Before the Water Gets Too High” on 2018’s Wide Awaaaaake!
State TV helps the public explain
Broadcast beamed into the dry terrain
Images of drenched survival
Without hope but soaked with pain
Consequences of reality felt
All conditions of humanity built
On the bridges
Tent villages waiting for the state to help
Before the water gets too high
This brings back the memories of the
trauma left behind in post-Katrina New
Orleans and 2017’s Maria in Puerto Rico.
Almost 50 years after the first Earth
Day there is still more work to be done!
I loved the Association. Such great harmonies. And Windy!
But this clip does a good job showing the musicianship of the band and presages Devo. Of all things.
I lost track of the Rascals with Freedom Suite. Which was big and political and didn’t end up on my shelf. But I listened to it last night while cooking and jeez. There is this:
Aretha Franklin died last year. A movie shot in 1972 with some tech problems and edited to everyone’s satisfaction but her’s in 2015, was shelved in 2015 for reasons never explained. The movie wasn’t released until she passed.
Now it’s out. I guess there could be questions about that, about Aretha’s preferences, she’s the star, but the fact is that the movie made from these oddly stranded film clips from 47 years ago, film shot on 16mm supposedly for network TV, is awesome.
Mainly because of Aretha’s performance, which is mind-boggling, but also because of the view our filmmakers got of life inside a Black church in LA in that moment when one of pop’s biggest stars went back to her origins. Sort of, but plenty enough.
The vibe is powerful. It counts for a lot. This supposed network special is anything but what you might expect. It is raw, real, awkward, and totally winning, thanks to the collective spirit of the choir, the church and especially Aretha, who seems unhappy every moment she isn’t singing, which then seems unimportant every moment she sings.
My friend
Sean H. has been bugging me for months to feature Bloodstone’s “Natural High”
as the SotW. I’ve been trying to
persuade him to write it up himself as a guest contributor, but he hasn’t.
Well a few weeks ago the song came up on one of my playlists and it occurred to me that I really like it! So here you go Sean – this one’s for you.
“Natural High” is the perfect mid-‘70s soul ballad. What does that mean? It has sweet, falsetto vocals and harmonies,
and a sexy, slow jam backing. It also
has a short, simple, but jazzy guitar solo about 2:30 in. It reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973.
Demonstrating his impeccably good taste, Quentin Tarantino selected it for a scene in his blaxploitation influenced film Jackie Brown.
Bloodstone entered the blaxploitation
field themselves in 1975 through a self-financed film that they cast themselves
in — Train Ride to Hollywood. Check out the zany trailer.
