One of my favorite movies is The Commitments (1991), a film shot and set in Dublin about a man who sees all the poverty around him and wants to give his people a little bit of joy in their lives by managing the world's greatest band, a soul band, an Irish soul band. The film's chock full of wonderful soul music classics performed by struggling musicians in their first (and for many, only) acting gig. It's funny, it's warm, it's bittersweet, and the poverty issue gives it depth without it being the sole focus of the film. I need to fish out my old VHS tape of it I copied from HBO years ago. Actually, now that I think about how poorly those tapes stand the test of time, I need to buy the DVD.
Anyway, of all the young musicians in the movie, one clearly stood out as a supreme talent: singer Andrew Strong. He was sixteen when the movie was shot, but he sounded (and looked) much older. Strong was (and, I assume, still is) a red-headed, pony-tailed hulk gone to pot, his manners as sloppy as his speech and dress. He looked like a ruffian, a lout, a bum, but when he sang, he transformed into a powerful life force, his voice and performance elevating a solid backing band into the world's greatest band. I'm not talking just about the characters from the movie, either; I mean the performers in the movie. For the few songs that they perform en toto with Strong singing, in 1991, The Commitments were the hottest band in the world. Too bad they were fictional.
Andrew Strong signed a record deal, and his career bombed. He made three records, none very good. He didn't have the songs to best showcase his talent.* There were two other amateur actor/musicians from that cast who've touched popular greatness.
Andrea Corr and her sisters auditioned for the movie, but only Andrea was given a part, and it was in a non-singing role (as the manager's sister). She and her sisters--The Corrs--have achieved multinational fame (though America isn't one of those nations where they achieved stardom, not quite), recorded with Bono and other famous musicians, and won an award or two.
Glen Hansard is the other Commitment (he's the guitarist in the movie) who's since achieved popular and critical acclaim. Hansard wasn't quite an amateur when The Commitments was shot. A year earlier, he formed the Irish folk/pop/rock band The Frames (with whom he still occasionally performs), and he also attended film school in New York. He began his entertainment career at thirteen, as a busker, singing for coinage in his native Dublin. Hansard achieved international fame by playing what (I gather) is more-or-less the same role that in real life started his journey to be a professional musician.
The 2007 movie Once is about...independent musicians...who fall in love. I've not seen it yet.** As I've a few friends who are professional musicians, some doing well, some making ends meet, some not, I've quite a fire to see this one. It stars a Commitment, too, and he's a musician in the movie, so it has to have a few redeeming factors. Sure, it looks a bit too treacly for my tastes, and a little too sad sack for my cynical critic's heart o' stone, but hey...it's got that song!
That song is "Falling Slowly," and I first heard it in full right after the 2008 Academy Award nominations were announced. I don't follow film anymore, so I'd never heard of the movie. The song was news to me. I listened to a thirty-second sample on iTunes, and I wondered what in the world Cat Stevens was doing changing his name again. Had he re-converted from Islam? A few minutes of research later, and I discovered that no, that wasn't Cat Stevens singing "Falling Slowly;" it was Outspan Foster! Wow! I had to have it, and so I bought it. I listened to it, and I was taken aback. Where was the soul? What was Outspan Foster doing singing a Damien Rice*** song?
I didn't listen to the song again till the night of the Oscars. Wow again! This time, though, I was impressed. Was this the same song that I kibbitzed two/three months earlier? After the telecast, I climbed down into my man-cave, and I listened to it. Sure enough, it was.
Usually, I don't like this type of singer-songwriter stuff because it usually comes across as too precious and too delicate and too pretentious without any sense of rhythm. Well, "Falling Slowly" fits those criterion, but the song's fragile intimacy isn't surrounded with the typical Adult Contemporary arrangement. No drums here, no synthisizers either, no useless background vocals, nothing that makes it sound like any other contemporary popular song.***** What it sounds like is chamber music, folk chamber music, folk chamber pop music. No matter its reasons, hearing austure folk chamber pop music on mainstream American radio is a monumental accomplisment, especially knowing how formulaic a record must be for ClearChannel to play it on one of their stations.
For all its apparent flaws (the song is easy to mock), heard at just the right moment, it works. The vocals are shakily sincere, and the music--and this is the best part--rises astutely, the violin and viola and cello displaying the protagonists' passion the same way and at the same time the singers portray their vulnerability. It's a little sad, too, given Hansard's whispered admonition at the end.
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova may not be the greatest band in the world, and they may not save Dublin with their own brand of soul music, but they are the greatest folk chamber pop music duet of the decade.NOTES
*Similar to what happens to many of the top talents from American Idol .
**I have seen very few films since my first child was born, and the few I've seen have all been either horror movies or children's movies. I used to watch independent movies quite often, traveling to our capital city to be able to watch them. I then began having kids, which means I've franchised myself, and when a franchise****** comes to town, the little independent productions are shown the door. Thus....
***"Falling Slowly" is not a Damien Rice**** song--it just sounds like one.
****And I like Damien Rice.
*****Not pop song, though, as pop songs with this similar sound are numerous. None of them were this popular, though.
******I may have franchised myself, but I've not been given the franchise tag. That honor belongs to you, Berd.
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