July 5 movie: Holiday Inn. I rented this from Netflix so I could rip the holiday songs, and then I never got around to it until this past weekend, when I needed the Fourth of July songs, "Say it with Firecrackers / Song of Freedom." By the way I forgot to mention that I did a special show of patriotic songs and songs about America on Sunday. I've done this show every Fourth of July for years: even though I've only been hosting Divaville Lounge for a year, Christa used to always travel over the Fourth and I never did, so I would always end up subbing for her. So this show is a tradition for me that I very much enjoy. Patriotic songs like Yankee Doodle Dandy, songs about places in America, songs about freedom, Mom, apple pie and hot dogs. It's a fun show. Here's the playlist if anyone is interested.
My favorite song of the show was "Freedom Train," which is in fact my all time favorite patriotic song, because its lyrics are so specific: "You can shout your anger from a steeple, you can shoot the system full of holes, you can always question "We the People," you can get your answer at the polls!" In an era when peaceful protestors are routinely ejected from public places and sometimes even cited for trumped up violations, we need more reminders that political dissent is a fundamental patriotic value.
Anyway, I needed the Fourth of July songs for the show, and then I ended up getting sucked into watching the movie while I was at it. I always think of this as a Christmas movie because it starts and ends with Christmas, but the movie actually covers all the holidays so it's a shame to relegate it to December and not watch it any other time of the year.
The DVD included a really interesting short on how they filmed the sound for dance numbers. Typically it would be filmed without sound, and all the singing and tap sounds would be dubbed in later. The narrator said that Astaire and Rogers were good at duplicating a dance to dub their own taps, but sometimes Rogers would be busy with another movie in which case Hermes Pan would dance her part. The really interesting part was that for some unspecified reason, they didn't want to do it the normal way for Holiday Inn, so they hid a mic on the set (for instance, under the bench in "I'll Capture Her Heart Singing") and recorded Astaire's taps live.
There's a record of George Gershwin playing the piano with tapdancing from Fred. The liner notes on the CD thought that was odd, but tap has an undeniable audio component. I'd like to get a video of the concerto for tapdancer and orchestra -- I have an impression I've seen it, but dang if I can be sure of that.
We have TCM now. I'd say more, but now that I have TCM, there's no time to say more.
I think I've heard that Gershwin / Astaire number. I know I've got one with Gershwin playing piano and Fred and Adele Astaire singing "I'd Rather Charleston." Unfortunately I don't think much of Adele Astaire's voice.
Congrats on getting TCM! Just in time for "Summer Under the Stars" next month. Now if you get a DVR or DVD-recorder, you will never leave the couch again.