There’s always that girl — the one in the songs, the one in the photographs, the one in the memoirs. The one who walks into a room and sets it aglow. She’ll tear up a rock ‘n’ roller’s heart, put it back together, and inspire the hell out of him, leaving her lasting mark on both his discography and biography. Yes, we’re talking muses, but not just any ol’ muses; we’re noting those who graduated from their tumultuous lives as expert inspirers to become successful in their own right. Check out some professors, artists, and cake shop proprietors after the jump.
Martin Scorsese’s excellent new documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World premieres tonight at the New York Film Festival; it will then run on HBO, in two parts, on Wednesday and Thursday night. Here are a few not-so-brief thoughts on how and why Scorsese has used rock music throughout his career.
Music moved me. It literally makes us move a certain way. It makes certain things happen. It’s equivalent to dancing, I guess. You know, you behaved a certain way. Some of the boys were able to swagger. Others pulled back. But the music scored our lives. I was taking it all in, pulling it together.
- Martin Scorsese, Conversations with Scorsese (2011)
Here at Flavorpill, we do generally like it when our readers get involved via our comments section. Occasionally, for whatever reason, one of our posts strikes a particular chord with readers — and so it was with our recent retrospective on bands who only made one album (not including live albums, best-ofs, etc). We got a slew of comments proposing further additions to our list — there were so many great suggestions, in fact, that we decided to compile a follow-up post collating the best of them. The results are after the jump. Thanks, readers!
We don’t really expect much out of the Hard Rock Cafe chain. Bad, overpriced food? Check. Second-tier music memorabilia? Yup. And who could forget the hippie-turned-yuppie-friendly playlist straight out of the Rolling Stone canon? But, in a story that’s been making the music-critic Twitter rounds today, Hard Rock has managed to impress us with the schlocky depths of their rock nostalgia.
As OC Weekly reports, Hard Rock’s Argentina branch has launched a theoretically cool ad campaign, in which the artists Damian Garofalo and Hugo Orita draw the comic-style stories behind classic songs like The Beatles’ “Let It Be” and Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” It seems super-weird, however, that the company signed off on the ad below, which tells the tragic story of Eric Clapton’s alcoholism and his young son’s tragic death. Not only is it generally in poor taste to capitalize on the tale of a little kid who died by falling out a window, but we have a hard time believing it will put anyone in the mood to eat an overcooked burger while Pink Floyd blares in the background, either. See the poster here.
When one of our favorite book blogs, the Millions, tipped us off to this great photo gallery of writers with their dogs, we thought about all the famous furry companions in other disciplines and realized how many of our favorite musicians have secret odes to their dogs. Okay, okay, so the whole story about “Mandy” being Barry Manilow’s dog is an urban legend, but we’re of the opinion that every hardworking musician needs a furry bellwarmer for the cold nights. Plus, we all know that the internet is mostly for looking at cute pictures of animals, so how could we resist? Click through to see ten musicians with their best furry friends.
Yoko Ono is turning 77 tomorrow. Keep that in mind as you imagine the performance artist shimmying, writhing, caterwauling, and charming the pants off the audience at Brooklyn Academy of Music on Tuesday night. The show began with a montage of Ono recordings, films, interview clips, and photos from her days with husband John Lennon, and ended with a cavalcade of special guests that frankly kind of blew us away. Rundown of the entire performance by We Are Plastic Ono Band, plus an image gallery featuring Eric Clapton and the Scissor Sisters, after the jump.
Did you know that Bill Cosby was working on a hip-hop album? While The Cosnarati: State of Emergency is not due out in stores until November 24, you can currently stream the entire thing — which features cameos by Eric Clapton, Alicia Keys, and LL Cool J — on his website now.
Like we mentioned yesterday, last night we got to check out the Allman Brothers at the Beacon. It’s the band’s 40th anniversary this month, and for pretty much all the shows in their annual residency, they’re pulling various friends from the wings to play along. Last night, we watched in awe (and then screamed our heads off) when Slowhand himself, Eric F*cking Clapton, came out to jam. We were probably the only people there sans smart phone, so it’s not like we could tweet “OHMYGOD” and send y’all pictures. So, just a few “yes, we were there” shots after the jump. For our parents, mostly, who are extremely jealous.
