Post by christine~ on Jun 30, 2009 14:45:44 GMT -5
Finally, we on the forum can hear one of the songs featured in The Fifth Beatle
~*~*~ "I'm Falling" ~*~*~
written and performed expressly for our movie by Robyn Hitchcock.
Two others he has written for the movie are entitled "Hurry for the Sky" and "TLC" ~ that acronym (according to Vivek and Robyn) being a snarky reference to Triptizol, Librium and Carbitral ~ although I personally would have guessed the "T" would stand for Tuinals instead. What do I know.
Anyway, those were three of the prescription meds that Brian was taking at the end of his life ~ as we know, his death was (according to the official coroner's report) due to a very slight yet cumulatively (over at least three days) lethal dose of Carbitral, which was considered in those days to be a very safe bromide sleep aid. _____________
Here's the text of the article, found at
this National Public Radio page
NPR.org, May 26, 2009 -
In "I'm Falling," venerable British songwriter Robyn Hitchcock sings a remarkably tender and characteristically un-straightforward love song. Ostensibly written about Beatles manager Brian Epstein's feelings for John Lennon, the song captures the dizziness and confusion of all great romances.
In the song's verses, Hitchcock explores thin lines — between being well and being ill, between what you are and what you aren't, between what you do and what you should do, between what is not and what is. A sweet sort of trepidation infuses his words with a blushing mixture of honesty and hesitation. In the choruses, that gives way to a kind of conflicted surrender as "I'm falling now / You're calling now" gives way to a soaring plea to "take it away."
Whether Hitchcock is asking for those feelings to be gone or for the protagonist's lover to take control is never obvious. But, in light of the quiet explosion of heavenly harmonies that closes out the track, it sounds like someone heard the prayer.
_____________
You can listen to "I'm Falling" in its entirety either on the NPR website (click { HERE } or on the NPR link above), or on YouTube (see below).
{ HERE } is the official Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 video for "I'm Falling"
(see producer Vivek Tiwary's latest Fifth Beatle Movie website News and Blog entries confirming this song was indeed written for The Fifth Beatle movie).
The song also appears on the new album GOODNIGHT OSLO available now on Yep Roc Records!
Other, different, YouTube vids of this same song:
{ HERE }
{ HERE }
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And now for the assessment from the Briancentric old broad...(me)...
eppylover says:
Okay, at first I was a bit taken aback and surprised at the "folk" feel of the movie's Robyn Hitchcock music.
...But, y'know, I really don't know WHAT I expected! LOL
As time passes, I am deciding this type of music is probably pretty much appropriate, since Brian was known to have been fond of folk music at times ~ example: I have on my external hard drive a New Years 1965 British Pathé news clip showing Brian stating that folk music will be one of the "new injections" into popular music. He also was about to sign folk singer Eric Anderson (see eppylover.livejournal.com/10695.html), but Brian died before Eric's management could get underway.
Go to this PATHÉ NEWS archives page
and view the entry titled "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" ~
~ the short Brian part begins at approximately 4:45:00.
So...? Executive Decision on the Robyn Hitchcock songs = Eppylover Approves.
_____________
If you are unfamiliar with him (as I am), here's another NPR article, giving some good background on who and what this Robyn Hitchcock guy is ~
from article by Christian Bordal Day to Day, February 19, 2009 -_____________
Robyn Hitchcock is perhaps best known for writing songs like "My Wife and My Dead Wife," or "The Man With the Lightbulb Head" — songs alternately bizarre and comic. Or, if you don't know his music, you might remember him as the white-haired troubadour in the recent film Rachel Getting Married.
Hitchcock has been at it since the 1970s, when he cut records with his first band, The Soft Boys. Now well into his 50s, Hitchcock lets his dark undercurrent bubble closer to the surface of his songs, while his broad silliness has morphed into a subtler, more low-key sense of humor.
"I think it's only a dark undercurrent if what's on the surface is bright," Hitchcock says. "If my stuff was very, very gloomy on the surface you'd probably find it hilarious underneath. ... It just sort of depends — doesn't it? — on what hits you first."
One of Robyn Hitchcock's more well-known songs is something called "Uncorrected Personality Traits"
Now, it may be my overactive imagination fooling me, but it almost seems like this song might be Robyn Hitchcock's own interpretation of Brian Epstein. Augghhh. I must start resigning myself to the impossibility of anyone else holding EXACTLY the same vision of Brian that I do. For example, from some other things I've read, I get the feeling that Robyn (and Vivek perhaps? I hope not, but I don't know much about the script) places more blame on upbringing/environment (i.e., Queenie and Harry) for Brian's personality quirks than on his inborn brain chemistry, as I do. I honestly believe that Brian's parents did the very best they could under their limited circumstances, and if Queenie had not brought him up as intuitively as she did ~ taking her cues from Brian's behavioral nuances might have seemed like "coddling" to many ~ but if she had attempted to control him or "mold" his behavior, he would have ended up even MORE sadly mixed-up.
In the eppylover's way of thinking, Brian's problems derived far more from a genetic, chemical brain imbalance than from any faults in upbringing. Harry and Queenie were frantic with worry over their son and did the best they could considering their repressive religious and cultural backgrounds.
Here are the lyrics to "Uncorrected Personality Traits" that I found on the internet some months ago, after Googling Robyn's name in response to the news that he was to write music for the movie.
These lyrics are to the song in a 1997 album by the same name ~ and I probably am mistaken, but, to me (unless my imagination is running wild), these lyrics almost seem to describe what MIGHT be Robyn's view (NOT mine) of why Brian was as he was:
_____________
"Uncorrected Personality Traits" - Robyn Hitchcock
Uncorrected personality traits that seem whimsical in a child may prove to
be ugly in a fully grown adult.
Lack of involvement with the father, or over-involvement with the mother,
can result in lack of ability to relate to sexual fears, and in homosexual
leanings, narcissism, transexuality (girls from the waist up/men from the
waist down), attempts to be your own love object. Reconcile your parents to
you by becoming both at once!
Even Marilyn Monroe was a man, but this tends to get overlooked by our
mother-fixated, overweight, sexist media.
So:
Uncorrected personality traits that seem whimsical in a child may prove to
be ugly in a fully grown adult.
If you give in to them
Every time they cry
They will become little tyrants
But they won't remember why
Then when they are thwarted
By people in later life
They will become psychotic
And they won't make an ideal husband or wife
The spoiled baby grows into
the escapist teenager who's
the adult alcoholic who's
the middle-aged suicide. (Oy.)
So:
Uncorrected personality traits that seem whimsical in a child may prove to
be ugly in a fully grown adult
Watch Robyn and band performing this in two different vids:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHlEroy7gkM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7hT5gZZlGQ
_____________
eppylover says (again):
I personally don't agree that the above analysis in "Uncorrected Personality Traits" applied to Brian.
I reiterate ~ no amount of attempted "correction of personality traits" would have helped in his case, because (IMHO) his particular one-of-a-kind personality stemmed from inborn brain chemistry. It was how he was born, it was who he was. If Queenie and Harry had tried any harder than they did to forcibly "correct" these traits ~ if Queenie hadn't taken the upper hand to "go with the flow" when she did ~ I fear Brian would have turned out much, much worse.
Eh. Your mileage may vary.
You can just go to Amazon and type in "Goodnight Oslo." Not sure whether or not you'll have to set up an account with the site. I already have one.