> Bill C wrote:
>
> "Since this is a literary group, I think I can
remain barely on topic
> when I say that Kenny Rogers was also in "The First
Edition." Their
hit
> "I Just Dropped in to See what Condition my
Condition was In" might
> qualify as a descendant of the beat generation's
life and times."
>
> And the song was used in The Big Lebowski, the Coen
Brothers' Chandler
> pastiche.
>
> Mark
>
And being a dyed-in-the-wool cornball (as Mark can attest), I
like this one too.(And "Ruben James" was a great favourite of
my pre-teen childhood, so obviously being a cornball has been
with me since the beginning). On the subject of cornball
songs and movies, isn't it amazing how a film can invest a
corny old song with meaning that it never originally had. I'm
thinking particularly of Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" in BLUE
VELVET & Stealer's Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle With You"
in the infamous straight razor to the ear scene in RESERVOIR
DOGS. Reminds me of an interview I read with Tom Waits where
he mentioned the importance of context. He said he'd always
hated the song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" until one
night he saw an old homeless woman, dead drunk &
sheltering in a doorway, singing "raindrops keep falling on
my fucking head..." & it made him see the song in a whole
new light. It seems to be a popular game in the neo-noir
(film) set, using innocuous old pop tunes
& imbuing them with a sense of mystery or menace that was
previously non-existent or only hinted at.
(Oh, and for the record, I don't consider the Big "O"
innocuous. I was speaking generally. The Big "O" was a god,
IMO). Rene
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