Monthly Archives: March 2010

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The Taking of Pelham 123

The Taking of Pelham 123 is a B-movie with A-list talent. This same film could have gone direct to video had it starred actors of lesser caliber than Denzel Washington and John Travolta, and been helmed by a less slickly competent director than Tony Scott. But watching Washington and Travolta spar as, respectively, a Manhattan transit worker and a murderous hijacker, is a lot of fun even if the movie fades from memory mere minutes after it’s over.

Scott directed Washington in Crimson Tide, pairing him with Gene Hackman, and seems to be going for the same level of gravitas and tension here. But Pelham never approaches that film’s heights in part because the stars spend almost the entire running time separated from each other. They generate sparks, but from a distance.

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Song of the Day #612: ‘Hallelujah (Live)’ – Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris

The most unexpectedly great performance at the Hope For Haiti Now telethon came courtesy of Justin Timberlake. It’s not that I don’t expect a good performance by Timberlake — on the contrary, he’s very talented — but I’ve never seen him like this.

Here’s a guy whose biggest musical splash came on SNL with ‘Dick in a Box’ and ‘Motherlover.’ And when he’s not cracking jokes, his most enduring compositions are dance pop hits like ‘Cry Me a River’ and ‘SexyBack.’ All entertaining and well-crafted songs, but they ain’t ‘Hallelujah.’

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Song of the Day #611: ‘Hard Times (Live)’ – Mary J. Blige

My wife is a big Mary J. Blige fan but I’ve never really given her much thought (Blige, that is, not my wife). She strikes me as a run-of-the-mill R&B singer… and I readily admit that impression is based on my complete ignorance of her body of work.

But Blige really stood out for me at the Hope For Haiti Now telethon, performing the 19th century Stephen Foster classic ‘Hard Times’ (also known as ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’). This was no doubt the oldest song performed on a night when most artists reached into their own catalogs and Blige’s soulful rendition imbued it with the depth it has earned over a century and a half of sorrows.

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Song of the Day #610: ‘Driven to Tears (Live)’ – Sting

Back in January, George Clooney organized Hope For Haiti Now, a powerful telethon aimed at raising money for the impoverished country so devastated by the recent earthquake.

In order to do my small part in keeping this tragedy from being forgotten — and also to play some good music — this week I’ll highlight my five favorite performances from that night. And if you’d like to donate, the link above is still active.

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Song of the Day #609: ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’ – Bob Dylan

John Wesley Harding is probably best known for ‘All Along the Watchtower,’ although it would be more accurate to say that ‘All Along the Watchtower’ is well-known because of Jimi Hendrix and John Wesley Harding is best known as the album that contains the original version.

The only other song that made any sort of commercial splash was ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,’ the album’s closing track, and it wasn’t until a 1990 cover by Robert Palmer and UB40 that it reached the charts.

You can hear that version here but I don’t recommend it on a full stomach.

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