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It’s Taylor Swift’s world we just live in it, Pt 203:
“The Eras Tour” movie is now up to $129.8 million. It’s the highest grossing independent movie since since since anyone can remember. Now it takes off three days again for the kids to do homework.
The movie has fueled record sales, although it seems impossible that Swift’s fans haven’t already listened to everything or bought it.
Nevertheless, Swift has 23 singles on the iTunes top 100, and 15 albums.
She’s also the homecoming queen, dating the captain of the football team.
One thing, though: the Rolling Stones have the number 1 album with “Hackney Diamonds.” Just sayin’…
If you’re in Washington DC tonight or Philadelphia this week, you’re in for a treat. The Fugees, with Wyclef Jean, Pras Michel, and Lauryn Hill are back. It’s their 25th anniversary tour.
On Thursday they played the second of two shows in the New York area, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Hill opens the show, then joins the Fugees for the main part of the show.
Hill plays the entirety of her one real studio album, the seminal “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” which remains a template for female hip hop. The more you listen to her, and view the production, it becomes clear that Hill missed a big opportunity either releasing more records of her own or reuniting with Wyclef and Pras. What could have been! Still, cuts a strong figure on stage even if she can’t seem to make a start time.
The Fugees’ original album, “The Score,” started it all back in 1996, and that part of the show is worth waiting for. The group revived the Roberta Flack record, “Killing Me Softly,” back in 1996. Wyclef Jean later became one of our top songwriters with songs like “Ready or Not” and “The Mask.” This show just highlights those two albums, although Wyclef would do well to perform some of his other hits from later on like “911” or “Gone till November.” He has a long list of them, in fact. But that’s for another night.
Meanwhile, it’s refreshing to hear hip hop from its truly innovative days by the real masters. Their musicianship is non-pareil, and original. They still sound fresh as the day they started.
If you grew up in the 70s and read album notes, you knew the names of Leland Sklar, Waddy Wachtel, Danny Kortchmar, and Russ Kunkel. They played on every James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt album, among others. They were to the 70s what Phil Spector’s Wrecking Crew had been to the 60s.
Denny Tedesco, who made the very complex and rewarding documentary about the Wrecking Crew, has done the same with these guys. They call themselves Immediate Family now, and previously were named The Section by James Taylor.
We do learn in this film that Peter Asher, who’s the center of all things in classic rock, was the first to list their names on albums, making them famous to those paying attention. Other musicians were indeed paying attention and many are interviewed here including Carole, James, Linda, Phil Collins, (now Rolling Stones) drummer Steve Jordan, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Don Henley, and so on.
There are also interviews with the main guys, as well as other players in their circle including Val Garay and Craig Doerge.
“Immediate Family” is a nice companion piece to Alison Ellwood’s two part “Laurel Canyon” doc that played on Netflix that focused more on Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills & Nash. This film is more about the mechanics of how hits like “Fire & Rain” and “I Feel the Earth Move” were made, and why this particular quartet became ubiquitous because of their exceptional talents.
One thing you don’t get much of it anything personal about the Immediate Family — like whether they have families. Only toward the end is their an anecdote from the very articulate Wachtel about his mother. There’s nothing gossipy here either. For example, drummer Kunkel was married to singer Nicolette Larson (“Lotta Love”), engaged once to Carly Simon (who is strangely omitted from the film), and his original sister-in-law was Cass Elliott.
The most startling personal note come from Leland Sklar, the legendary bassist with a ZZ Top beard, who’s revered by the music world. Despite his huge successes, Sklar admits to a terrible lack of confidence, and maybe a desire to hide behind the beard. (He hasn’t seen his face since 1965.) Sklar says he hates it when people praise him in person, which is too bad.
Magnolia is screening “Immediate Family” on December 12th in theaters, and then releasing to streaming on December 15th.
Donald Trump wants to be jailed for contempt. That’s the only explanation for him posting a video with NY Judge Arthur Engoron in it. Trump calls Engoron a “lunatic.” Only yesterday, Engoron fined Trump $5,000 for breaking his previous gag order. He threatened that Trump could go to jail next. What is the strategy here? Rouse the Base? Trump is close to having a suit that matches his face and hair color.
See the video below. And below that, Engoron’s order from yesterday.
Jada Pinkett Smith has not shut up for days about her marriage, her life, and her sex life.
Before this past Tuesday’s publication of “Worthy,” her memoir, Pinkett Smith was everywhere squawking about her separation from Will Smith, the Oscars slap, and anything else she had on her mind.
When “Worthy” was finally published on Tuesday, it started at number 4 on Amazon’s best seller list. But the more Pinkett Smith kept sticking it to Will, the worse things got. Right now, the book has dropped to number 44. The Kindle version is around 2,700. At Barnes and Noble, it’s a similar story– number 173.
Have the potential fans turned against Jada? It seems so. Her campaign of negativity about Will, Chris Rock, and even Tupac Shakur, may have backfired. It’s instructive to see no reviews at all on the B&N site, and all one star reviews from Top Critics on Amazon.
I don’t think people want to read this book.
PS Will Britney Spears’s book face the same criticism when it arrives on Tuesday? We already know all the headlines from it. It’s number 1 on amazon in pre-sales but we’ll see how long before both of these tomes wind up featured in “Celebrity Autobiography,” the hit touring stage comedy.
Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” is the number 1 narrative film in the US. Thursday-Friday numbers give it a $9.8 million opening, with an expected $25 million weekend.
“Flower Moon” is a three hour-plus drama about a real life historical tragedy that involved the Osage Nation of Native Americans and the early days of the FBI. The craftsmanship of the film is akin to any TCM classic. It’s one of the most importsnt works by a great American filmmaker.
Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” is a filmed concert experience. It’s not actually a documentary but it’s a terrific souvenir for tweenage girls. It’s an experience. Last night “Eras” crossed the $100 million line to $109 million.
The two films have nothing to do with each other and can’t be compared in any way, shape, or form. It’s actually pretty insulting to Martin Scorsese to say his film is being beaten by the Swift project.
Keith Richards was Jimmy Fallon’s guest tonight. It was quite insane. Keef was charming as ever, and showed Jimmy how to play his most famous guitar song intros by missing one string.
Keith also tells Jimmy the origins of the Rolling Stones name, mentions the late Brian Jones, and makes a dirty aside that is quite funny. Jimmy is living his best life, singing Jagger style while Keith and the Roots strum away. I don’t know how he recovered for the next segment!
Can Mariah Carey be knocked off the Christmas chart? For years she’s dominated it with “All I Want for Christmas is You,” a Phil Spector-ish single that recalls the famous Wall of Sound.
But now Cher may have the weapon to knock off Mariah. Sixty years ago Phil Spector recorded Darlene Love singing “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home”). Cher sang back up on what has become the real Christmas anthem.
Today, Cher has released a new version, singing a duet with Darlene as if time has stopped cold.
Bad Bunny is the host and musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend. Ratings should be through the roof.
The singer’s new album sold 183,000 copies this week via streaming. It finished at number 1 on the hitsdailydouble charts.
Mr. Bunny will be singing only in Spanish Saturday night. The album, “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Manana,” from (real name) Benito Martínez Ocasio, is a Spanish Language release. or “Latin trap.” Ocasio is from Puerto Rico, where he’s turned into a bigger international star than Ricky Martin!
Remember when Adele cancelled all her shows in Las Vegas? She had a bit of stage fright and didn’t like her set.
How times have changed! That was two years ago. Last winter Adele finally dug in to Caesar’s Palace, sold the place out, and made so much money that she extended her residency.
Well, guess what? Now she won’t leave! She’s Rolling in the Dough. It’s an easy gig. She sings the same songs over and over, kibitzes with the audience, and rakes in the dough. So she’s extending again through next June. Why not? Could she learn some more songs? Why bother?
When we were kids, performers who settled down in Las Vegas were considered cheesy. No real rockers would go there. Now everyone is there! U2 is like the Rat Pack. Adele is Shirley MacLaine. Usher is Sammy Davis, Jr. Everything old is new again!
This residency, these shows have changed my life. I desperately needed to fall back in love with performing live again, and I have. I needed to reconnect with my songs and remember what they mean to me, and I have! Being on stage over the last year so up close and personal with… pic.twitter.com/Wkj39O8ozQ
