“Name’s Bond. James Bond,” is one of many famous quotations from Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel character James Bond or agent 007, a British secret intelligence agent. Ian Fleming was born on May 28, 1908 in London, England. Fleming’s book character has taken the entertainment world by storm over the last 64 years. Fleming’s exciting adventures of James Bond have inspired many other writers to develop exciting narratives about Mr. Bond that would also enthrall its audiences. EON Productions, a film production company, is known for producing films associated with James Bond and his many endeavors. Most of the world is familiar with these films, but not so much with the origins of Mr. James Bond found in the original novels by Ian Fleming. This essay seeks to inform readers of the origin and development of its beloved hero, Mr. 007.
To know where the character came from, we must uncover what inspired the author. Believe it or not, Ian Fleming himself and some of his friends were his inspiration for James Bond. Fleming served in the British Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, where he met many agents from his division and elsewhere that were involved in similar adventures as his character 007 would be. He chose this subtle name, Mr. James Bond, to contrast the exciting adventures he would have on his many missions. Fleming once said, “When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument … when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, (James Bond) is the dullest name I ever heard.” Ian Fleming gave 007 many similar attributes and likes he himself had. For example, Mr. Bond’s love for gold and gambling were inherited from his author Mr. Fleming. Fleming used names of friends, acquaintances, and old lovers as names for supporting characters in his books. Fleming’s real life and friends played a big role in the making of the most famous secret agent story of all time. Fleming is quoted proclaiming the future success of Mr. Bond to one of his friends saying, “I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories.” Whether they believed him then or not, it is obvious to us he spoke nothing but the truth.
Fleming wrote the first book, Casino Royale, while in Jamaica in 1952 with his pregnant fiancée. After two months of writing, Fleming asked his friend William Plomer to proof his story. Plomer enjoyed the manuscript. Fleming took his novel to Jonathan Cope who did not like the book very much. On the word of Fleming’s brother Peter, an accredited author, Fleming’s first novel was published in 1953 by Gildrose Publications under Mr. Cope. Jonathan Cope would then publish all of Fleming’s works as the years went on. Because of the success of his book, Fleming bought the publication company. Gildrose desired to have many authors pen stories of James Bond under a common name “Robert Markham,” but unfortunately the idea fell through. Fleming wrote ten James Bond novels and two short story compilations over 12 years.
Ian Fleming died of a heart attack in 1964 as a result of a drinking and smoking problem. Despite his death, Ian Fleming’s legacy lived on among other writers such as Christopher Wood and Kingsley Amis. In his honor, the publishing company was renamed Ian Fleming Publications in 1999. Gildrose honored Fleming’s wishes to not let the James Bond legacy die by handpicking authors to continue the serious up to the present time.
The next James Bond author was John Gardner. Gildrose Publication signed a contract with Mr. Gardner in 1981. He then wrote 16 James Bond novels, two of which became films made by EON Productions. His last Bond novel was published in 1996. Gildrose asked Raymond Benson, an American, to write the next series of Bond novels. Like Gardner, Benson was asked to bring James Bond into the modern era. He did this; however, he was criticized for Americanizing Mr. Bond. Despite criticism, he was praised for returning to Fleming’s original James Bond roots. He wrote his first novel, Zero Minus Ten, in 1997. Benson left Ian Fleming Publications in 2002 after three of his novels were made into films. The next three novelists chosen by Ian Fleming Publications contributed one novel each to the James Bond series. The most recent novelist, Anthony Horowitz, was tasked with creating the thirty-ninth James Bond novel. He used compilations of Fleming’s short stories for inspirations to create the most recent Bond book, Trigger Mortis,released in September 2015. As Ian Fleming Publications has maintained the written Bond series over the last 64 years, EON Productions took on the task of turning James Bond’s adventures on paper into a visual fantasy land for all to emjoy for decades.
Based on Fleming’s novels, James Bond was visually developed in his first film Dr. No in 1962 by EON Productions. Bond’s appearance according to the book and even more so in the movies are a fitted suit, gun, fancy car, and cool gadgets. Iconic images of James Bond include him in a suit with either a cigarette, gun, alcoholic beverage in hand, or a combination of the three. There have been eight actors who have played the character of James Bond on screen in a total of 25 movies and 1 spoof over the last 54 years. The first being Sean Connery, then David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and, most recently, Daniel Craig. Four other men have been noted for portraying James Bond on the radio and in the first television episodes: Barry Nelson, Bob Holness, Christopher Cazenove, Michael Jayston, and Toby Stephens. Often the changing of an actor to the same character can anger and cause distaste for the series with the public. However, the love for James Bond has only grown over the years to the point his actors will be remembered and honored for all time.
Sean Connery, the first face of James Bond, is arguably the most famous 007 actor. In his first film, Dr. No in 1962, the classic James Bond theme music was played. This music was written by Monty Norman and performed by the John Barry Orchestra. Another essential of the Bond movies is a song played by a well-known artist during the title sequence of the production. The most recent song was Sam Smith’s “Writings on the Wall” in the 2015 bond film Spectre. These songs have become not only hits by the artists who sing them but also will forever be symbols of James Bond productions.
Classic James Bond items like his gun, car, and gadgets have changed over the course of Fleming’s writings in the ’50s and ’60s and the movie adaptations from the ’60s to the present. For example, a fan of the Bond novels in the ’50s, Geoffrey Boothroyd, suggested a change to Fleming of Bond’s weapon, the Beretta 418, because it was a “lady’s gun.”
In thanks, Fleming gave the MI6 Armorer in his novels the name Major Boothroyd and, in Dr. No, M introduces him to Bond as “the greatest small-arms expert in the world.” Bond also used a variety of rifles, including the Savage Model 99 in “For Your Eyes Only” and a Winchester .308 target rifle in “The Living Daylights.” Other handguns used by Bond in the Fleming books included the Colt Detective Special and a long-barreled Colt .45 Army Special (Daily News Dig).
Also Bond’s cars have ranged from Bentley to bus and BMW to Aston Martin.
Bond’s most famous car is the silver gray Aston Martin DB5, first seen in Goldfinger; it later featured in Thunderball, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Casino Royale and Skyfall. The films have used a number of different Aston Martins for filming and publicity, one of which was sold in January 2006 at an auction in the US for $2,090,000 to an unnamed European collector (Daily News Dig).
Interestingly, Fleming’s novels and first screenplays consisted of very few gadgets. The films developed by EON Productions are what we thank for the extensive and exciting briefings with Q Branch, Bond’s tech support from whom agent 007 receives his many trinkets that aid him in fighting crime and completing his missions. Thanks to the creativity of Ian Fleming, his fans, Ian Fleming Publications, and EON Productions, we have a series that has lived on for over 60 years and hopefully will continue for generations to come.
Novel after novel and movie after movie, James Bond has landed a place in the hearts of men, women, and children from 1953 to 2017. Over the course of these 64 years, James Bond has been developed by 7 authors, 12 actors, one publishing company, and one entertainment group. There are 42 James Bond books and 26 films. A new James Bond actor is being chosen as of this writing, along with the making of another action-packed film. Unlike many other series, James Bond is an entertaining work known for being adapted by many. Ian Fleming meant it when he said, “I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories,” and we can all agree that this is exactly what he did.
Bibliography
Daily News Dig. “James Bond History — Discover The Secret Agent’s Origins And More.” Daily News Dig. Daily News Dig, 29 Nov. 2013. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.
Fandom. “James Bond Books.” James Bond Wiki. Wikia, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.
“James Bond — Ian Fleming.” Ian Fleming. Ian Fleming Publications, 2016. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.
“Who Played James Bond: A Complete History.” Who Played James Bond: A Complete History. 007 James, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.
Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy being a teacher. But we all enjoy a break from the rigors of academic life once in a while, and since the end-of-the-calendar year holidays are especially enjoyable, spending them at home away is always the way to go, if it can happen. Certainly we at Redeeming Pandora are grateful for and to the men and women in the armed services who spend the holidays (and months of the year and more) away from home, oftentimes in dangerous situations. Being a teacher has never yielded challenges such as those, no matter how much we may rail against certain excursions into the backwaters (or floodwaters) of rural Chesapeake. So I hope I have a proper perspective on the extremely blessed life I have lived, especially having usually been able to enjoy several weeks off each year during the holidays. Sure, some years have been better than others, but we all experience that.
We’ve covered just about every subject by now in these holiday tradition articles, so it may be about time next year to revisit some old topics and see how life and things have changed over the years (when we began this enterprise, my wife and I had a four-month-old daughter — now we have a seven-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son, so some things have changed indeed). For now, I’d like to wrap up 2016, a challenging year for a lot of people for a variety of reasons (some of them even real), with a few thoughts on one of my favorite holiday traditions: playing video games for hours and hours and hours and hours.
I believe I have mentioned once upon a time there was a decently-sized stretch of holiday vacations in which I played Illusion of Gaia to its completion on Christmas Eve. The tradition started even before that with annual year-end plays of StarTropics. Some of the best Christmas breaks, though, featured lengthy plays of my favorite video game of all time, Final Fantasy VI. Some day soon I’d like to get back into that game, but first I have an obligation to my children to finish ChronoTrigger. We started that a year ago, but things and time and such got away from us this summer, so I still have to finish that up. In recent Christmas breaks, I’ve been playing more PS3 games, such as the Uncharted and God of War series (nothing says Christmas in this day and age like slaughtering Greek gods). Some of the Batman Arkham series have also started to associate themselves with Christmastime. Two main reasons explain this phenomenon: Christmastime is one of the few times of the year in which I have the freedom (and life energy) to play videogames; also, popular videogames get very inexpensive if you wait a year or two after their release, and thus make excellent stocking stuffers, and what would Christmas be without playing with your new toys/games?
Moments ago I mentioned I didn’t complete ChronoTrigger this past summer with my kids (I do most of the playing, they sit back and enjoy the story; it works out well for everyone, really). This was because I got distracted by another trip down memory lane, which happens to be the main subject of this oddly-themed Christmas article: Final Fantasy XII.
FFXII is at worst my third-favorite game, behind FFVI and ChronoTrigger, and it has been making some ground on ChronoTrigger. I admit I have not completed the entire game, though I have spent a fair amount of time playing it (over 130 hours, if the internal chronometer is to be believed), but I have played enough to get a good understanding of it. I played it shortly after it first came out, a decade ago, but somehow life’s circumstances took me away before I could make it all the way to the end (I suspect our move from Virginia Beach had something to do with it). For some time, I had a desire to get back into it, and this past summer I just decided to go for it. And that’s mostly how I spent my summer vacation, and, hopefully, a fair amount of my Christmas vacation.
The Story
You know I wouldn’t spoil anything without warning you in advance, but one of the benefits of not knowing the ending myself is I can’t tell you about it, so I will focus on the basics. FFXII takes place on the world of Ivalice, possibly the most fully-realized world in Final Fantasy history, in that it has a rich, noticeable history and a palpable present, with all nations and races full and developed and interactive. Even the great FFVI suffers in this respect at times: you’ll show up in a new part of the world because the game wants to introduce a new character, not because this location has a meaningful connection to the places you’ve already been. This is not so in FFXII: all races, all nations, all cities are aware of the others — they don’t always get along, of course, but the world is connected very cohesively.
Ivalice, like all worlds, has various nations, some of which prefer to have more international political power than others. The Archadian Empire has fallen into unscrupulous hands, and it is starting to gobble up surrounding nations. The Rozarrian Empire on the other side of the world is not terribly happy with that. Caught in the middle of these two war-impending empires is the Resistance. This is basically where our heroes come in. Various survivors of previous wars and insurrections (and other economic considerations) have banded together to reclaim what was once theirs, to fight for the freedom of the people, and to make the world a safe place of justice and freedom once again. The usual stuff of great stories.
What makes FFXII different, though, from the typical rebels vs. empire stories is both how unobtrusive this main storyline is to the playing of the game as well as the very engaging past of the world, as our heroes spend a good deal of their time learning about the past and its relics to understand present-day conflicts and solutions (it’s a great lesson for us today, as well).
I say the main storyline is unobtrusive, but I don’t mean it’s dull or short—only that you can enjoy playing this game for hours on end on enjoyable side-quests and level raising and whatnot and the game will not punish you for taking so long between plot points. Yes, there are important plot points and cut scenes and “once you do this you can never go back to how it was” events that change the game, but the game gives you plenty of warning and opportunity to commit to them or come back later if you need to raise levels, upgrade weapons and armor, restock your provisions, or whatever. You do need to advance the story some times to get access to the better equipment and spells and things, but by that point in the game, you’re ready and eager for it, anyway.
Magic is a key part of all Final Fantasy games, but one of the reasons I like FFVI so much is the significant magic vs. technology subplot. It’s not just conjuring up dark spirits to tamper in God’s domain. Similarly, FFXII takes the idea of magic and connects it to technology and supernatural forces, but one is never given the impression your spells are aligning you with the forces of darkness. The more you learn about your world’s past, and the forces that have shaped it for good and ill, the more your understanding of the supernatural and magic grows (always a good thing). The game doesn’t give you the impression the divine is just aliens you can control or conquer — in fact, the many characters of religious faith are presented in the best light as anyone in the game.
On the journey to gather allies, learn about the world, and attempt to stop a war before it destroys the world, our heroes find out some forces within the Archadian Empire are also working toward peace — but other forces are working to make the magic even more dangerous (thanks to technology), and we must take a more active role in the conflict for the slam-bang finish. That’s where I am in the game: a few events away from the finish. I’ll let you know how it goes (I hope).
The Characters
Once you get past a brief introductory scene that familiarizes you to the game mechanics and a bit of the backstory to the main conflicts involved, the game begins with our main character, Vaan, a refugee street urchin working odd jobs for a local merchant with big dreams of becoming a sky pirate (like a regular pirate, but on a flying airship). He has a lot of anger inside because of the losses he has suffered at the hands of the Archadian Empire, but on the whole he is an optimistic, energetic young guy who wants to see the world, treat people well, and learn (though he’s not yet so mature he knows it’s impolite to ask a woman her age). Even though Vaan has some significant connections to the major conflicts of the overarching story, he acts mostly as our advocate in the world, observing and learning, with little direct involvement in the present storyline itself (sort of like Nick Carroway in The Great Gatsby).
Vaan’s street urchin friend Penelo is the first other main character we meet once the present storyline begins, though she is the last to join the group. She, too, has suffered because of the Archadian Empire, but she, too, tries to keep her spirits up even in these troubled times. Part of the reason even the homeless are chipper at the start of the game is because the Empire hasn’t shown its true colors yet and material prosperity seems to be back again (odd how people are quick to ignore political morasses when personal economy seems healthy). Regardless, Penelo vows to keep her eye on her good friend Vaan for his own good. You’d think there’d be a bigger love interest story with these two, but there isn’t (and that’s not so bad).
The main story of our heroic rebels actually centers on Ashe (short for Ashelia), the young princess of our country Dalmasca who is leading the Resistance in disguise. It is her role to travel through the world, learn about her heritage and connection to the magical forces at work in the world (in her effort to destroy all magic once and for all), and restore Dalmasca’s freedom from the Empire (with or without destroying the Empire in the process). Her dominance in the ongoing storyline lends one to think of her as the main character instead of Vaan, but don’t let that bother you. Instead, think of it as a clever element of the game to give all the main group members a significant amount of screen time.
The brawn of the group is another loyal son of Dalmasca, Basch. We actually meet him in the prologue scenario, in which it seems his loyalty is a sham, but that is cleared up within about twenty minutes of playing the game, so I’m not spoiling anything, really. Plus, since he’s on the cover with all the other heroes, you know he’s got to be a good guy. He, too, has strong connections to the Empire and the overarching stories. Suffice it to say, despite his potential loyalty conflicts (I don’t want to spoil things for you, but let’s just say he has a brother who’s a high-ranking official for the Empire), he is a key member of the team, especially as his knowledge and experience guide the group during many side quests and even main plot events. Plus, as I said, he’s really strong against non-magical monsters, so giving him a war hammer or heavy axe and letting him have at it is pretty fun to watch.
Rounding out our main group (a comparatively miniscule group of six heroes, contrasted to the cast of fourteen in FFVI), we have a pair of real-life sky pirates: Balthier and Fran. Fran is a Viera (basically, a race of human-looking aliens … with bunny ears — but it looks far less silly than it sounds, believe me), and as such she has a strong connection to the magical elements of the world (called Mist), which makes her a strong magic user, though she’s also good with a bow. Balthier and Fran are basically the Han and Chewie of the team, if that helps, and, like Han, Balthier thinks he is the leading man of the story, adding a rather humorous element to a number of cut scenes and character interactions (and a lot of people seem to believe him, since Vaan oftentimes takes a narrative backseat to the other characters on the team). Balthier, too, has a strong connection to the Empire that causes him a good deal of pain, which he usually glosses over with charm and skillfully deflecting our attention to other things. He wants us to think he’s only helping the Resistance for the potential reward Ashe will give him when she regains her throne, but there’s more to it than that (yes, it’s that old story, but it comes off with enough differences that it’s not just a banal Star Wars rip-off). Fran, likewise, has outsider issues, being far from home and her race and having spent possibly too much time with the humans (“humes” in this game). I know that, too, sounds awfully familiar, but the game presents her character conflicts in fresh ways, even with the archetypal aspects to it all.
Along the way, our heroes gain temporary allies, travel the world, gain levels, make friends, restore order, learn lessons, raise levels, buy items, locate runaway cockatrices, save the world (I assume) and so much more. With a small cast of main characters this time, combined with the still-impressive cut screen (in-game movies) technology and voice acting, we really get to spend a good deal of time getting to know them, see them interact (which is usually the highlight of games and stories and such as this), and connect with them in multiple ways like any good characters from “literature.” Just because these characters and their story are in a video game does not make them any less meaningful or engaging as Hamlet or Walter Lee Younger or Nora Helmer or Anna Karenina or any of the highbrow gang. They are just as real, too. You can scoff, sure; I can take it. But if we live in a world that tells us people who transport a ball of air around a hardwood court or grass yard are heroes to be followed and emulated and lauded (and financially supported), I think it’s fair to say characters in a game with meaningful conflicts and needs and hopes and heartaches and dreams that resonate within us, characters with which we have a direct involvement through our decisions as game players, are just as real as literary heroes, historical heroes, and athletic heroes. And I know I’m not the only one who thinks that way. Plus, I’m a published author. You can trust me.
The Distinctives
So what’s so special about FFXII? How can you play for hours and hours without advancing the story (and have fun doing it, more than just the RPG-requisite level raising)? Here are just a few of the many enjoyable aspects of FFXII that make for a great holiday (or summertime) vacation pastime.
The Gambit System — in most videogame role-playing games, you have to manually tell all your characters what to do during every encounter: you fight that monster, you cast that spell, you use that item, round after round after round. FFXII does away with all that button pushing with the clever gambit system: dozens and dozens of context-sensitive commands you can “pre-program” for your characters to handle virtually all encounters without you having to tell them what to do every single time. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes a real time and thumb saver. You’ll be tinkering with and adjusting it throughout the game, plus you’ll be telling your characters what to do plenty, so there’s no loss of interactivity or feeling of control/guidance of these characters. All that’s lost is the repetitive nonsense.
The Battle System — unlike most RPGs that feature random encounters with monsters to give you experience (to raise levels and attributes and whatnot) and money (to buy new armor, weapons, items, etc.), FFXII gives us the “open world” feeling of seeing where all the enemies are, just like you are there in the plains, on the mountain path, in the castle, or wherever you are — you can actually see where the enemies/monsters are in the world. This makes so much more sense, and combined with the gambit system, you can have fun raising levels by running around the world, watching your heroes act and react naturally, all the while enjoying the fantastic musical score by Hitoshi Sakimoto (seriously, many of the themes of the soundtrack are gorgeous aural experiences). Additionally, unlike the usual “you get 287 gold pieces for defeating those blue slimes” (as if monsters would carry human currency), FFXII eliminates that thematic discrepancy by having you pick up “loot” from the foes you defeat:, loot that makes sense: wolves drop pelts, for example; bats drop fangs; skeletons drop bones and iron swords they were carrying. You, then, take the loot you pick up from your fallen foe (just like epic heroes) and sell it all back in towns for money, which you can use to buy what you need from other shops. Plus, the game has bonuses for fighting similar kinds of monsters, developing “battle chains” that can result in better and better loot as you take the time to stay and fight and raise levels — the game rewards you in many ways for doing what the game effectively requires you to do, making the gameplay experience that much more enjoyable. Plus plus, it makes a lot more thematic sense.
Crystals, Travel, and Non-linearity — as convenient as it used to be in older Final Fantasy games to be able to save your game practically anywhere in the world (other than in dungeons or in the middle of certain levels or areas except for special save spots), the hassle of having to buy cabins or tents or staying at inns sometimes meant a good deal of precious gold pieces going to that. The save crystals in FFXII eliminate that problem (I know earlier entries in the series use similar objects, like FFX, but they make better sense in FFXII). True, you don’t get some of the great nighttime dream sequences or cut scenes like in FFVI, but that’s a small price to pay for not having a price to pay.
Another convenience of certain save spot crystals in FFXII indeed are the orange transport crystals that allow you to instantaneously travel to various parts of the world you’ve been to before in the game, at the small cost of one teleport crystal. These don’t cost very much gp, and soon enough in the game you’ll have acquired so many of them anyway through picking up loot from fallen monsters, rewards for special tasks you accomplish, and other events in the game you may likely go through the whole game without paying for a single transportation crystal. As much as I love FFVI (and IV), so much of the first part of the game is a niggling feeling of “boy, when I get my airship, I’ll be able to go anywhere, do anything…” and suddenly you realize you are exactly like Vaan in FFXII, waiting for the freedom of travel. The teleport crystals in FFXII eliminate that feeling of impatience and limitation almost immediately in the game (which is like, thirty minutes of game time, small potatoes considering how long you will be playing it). You’d think you’d have Balthier and Fran’s airship early in the game when they join the party permanently, but events in the game damage the ship so you are on foot for most of the game. This does require you to walk through large sections of the world until you get to the various teleport crystals, but this is more beneficial for you, since it gives you the opportunity to fight monsters, gain experience, gain loot, raise levels (all the nitty gritty of classic RPGs, though made more fun be all the developments enumerated above).
These teleport crystals are possibly the key enabler of freedom from the main story. I mentioned earlier the story is fairly unobtrusive for most of the game, and this is true depending on how you play Final Fantasy XII. With the teleport crystals, you can easily leave the main palace or dungeon or next key plot point before you enter it, transport yourself somewhere else in the world, and spend hours doing sidequests or level raising or whatever, then teleport back to where the game “wants” you to be without any of the AI characters any wiser or frustrated at your “dilatory” behavior. That is true freedom you want in a game like this.
Growth — raising levels is considered by some jackanapes a “necessary evil” of RPGs: as the game progresses, the enemies get harder, you have to get stronger, faster, you need more hit points, more magic points, et cetera et cetera et cetera. These same Tom Fool wastrels use unkind words to describe the process of raising levels, fighting monsters somewhat mindlessly for hours on end solely to gain experience and dosh to get your characters stronger and buy them better stuff. I admit, for most RPGs, the process of gaining levels can be somewhat tedious, but as we have already indicated, that does not apply to FFXII. The background music, the gambit system, the onscreen encounters all add up to the most enjoyable level-raising experiences in RPGs (surpassing even FFVI in this respect, yes). But that’s not the point here. The point here is in addition to all that, level raising in FFXII is more than just getting your characters to their programmed maximum attributes: similar to (but improved from) FFX’s “sphere grid” system, FFXII uses the “license board” to allow you to customize each character. You decide what spells they learn, what weapons they can use, what armor they can use, and other customizable elements. As indicated above, some characters are naturally better at some skills than others (Ashe and Fran, for example, are naturally better at spellcasting than Balthier and Basch, say, and it’s wise to give them some spell gambits, especially as their healing spells are more effective than, say, Vaan’s). This licensing board system gives you great freedom (that word again) to customize the characters differently each time you play the game. As I said, I like to give Basch a war hammer or battle axe and let him smash opponents. Penelo is “supposed” to stay back and hurl spells or long-range weapons, but she’s a tough, fast kid, so I like to give her strong spears or poles to jump into the fray. Balthier’s guns are strong, but I prefer to give him a katana or other ninja blades and give him accessories that allow him to strike multiple times per turn. The game gives you far more options than these.
Side quests — the meat and potatoes of the game’s freedom and fun come from the side quests. I told you there’s a point in the game in which you travel the world looking for runaway cockatrices. That’s just one of literally dozens of optional side quests available throughout the game. You can get a fishing rod and learn how to fish for as long as you want. In addition, the more you engage with the characters (regular townspeople and the like), the more the game rewards you. Even these people are realized characters who change and are aware of the main events of the story, and when you encounter them in seemingly throwaway moments, you will meet them again in another part of the world, and frankly, that’s awesome. I don’t want to spoil too much of the rest of the game for you, but suffice it to say this game gives you plenty of reasons to play it for a long, long time.
Hold on, let me tell you perhaps the most clever side quest: the Hunts. You have to join it early in the game as a required plot point, but after that early incident the rest is optional. The Hunts are this terribly clever side quest that lasts the whole game in which various citizens of the world are having various problems (a huge snake is preventing a spice trader from importing his goods here, a young child’s pet turtle has somehow transmogrified into a giant snapping turtle of destruction there — you get the idea), and only you and your friends are up to the task of setting this fiasco right again. It’s a great way to earn unique items (for some things, the only way to earn rare items), travel familiar territory for new purposes, and just have fun, as each hunt has different requirements and aspects to it (they aren’t just “go here and beat up this thing and come back for your reward”).
But it gets better. Once you start making a name for yourself as a great hunter, you get to join the clan of fellow hunters, which enables you to get other nice treats, info on elite marks, and gives more cohesion to the world. Later in the game, you get the chance to join a second, more elite Hunt Club, in which ultra-rare monsters appear only during these hunts throughout the world, enabling you to get more elite items. Yes, sometimes these hunts can be devastating if you aren’t prepared or playing wisely (which may have happened to me a couple times this past summer), but that can be true of the main game as well. This massive, complex but not complicated series of side quests is just one of the many clever ways this game presents a unified, believable world from beginning to (I assume) end.
The important thing about the many and varied side quests throughout FFXII is not that they are basically “necessary” to get the good stuff to win the game. You can play through the main storyline just fine without any of these optional elements, and that will be a rich, rewarding experience all its own. Yet, the greatness that is the side quests of FFXII lies also in how much they reward you playing them. They give you great stuff, sure, but that alone would be meaningless if they weren’t as fun as they are. I said before they make the supporting characters you meet somewhat incidentally come alive more meaningfully, and that point should not be ignored. Without descending into sounding maudlin, the characters (main and supporting) and the side quests really make you want to spend time in this world. Yes, the world has a lot of problems (impending war, gigantic monsters that want to destroy you, crumbling ruins of forgotten technology and civilizations, alien beings trying to pull the strings on the development of all races, the usual), but like the opening song to Deep Space Nine or Star Wars, you just get overwhelmed with the feeling of “yeah, I want to be here for a while.” And the side quests especially allow you to do that in meaningful, enriching ways.
The Goods
No, it’s not “just a videogame.” Like the great works of art and literature, Final Fantasy XII causes us to look within and around and make ourselves and our world better. That’s what Christmas is partly about as well, isn’t it?
And, man, that musical score….
I’m very glad Christmas break is almost upon us again. I really want to get back to Ivalice and play more Final Fantasy XII. If you don’t have a PS2 (did I mention it is a PS2 game?), do not fear. Just in time for its 11th anniversary, I hear a remastered version is coming in 2017 to the PS4 (you have one of those, right?), complete with an even better licensing/customizing experience. If they keep the music and characters and story and other side quests in place yet improved with modern technology and whatnot, you will find this a fantastic experience.
Have a Merry Christmas 2016, everyone! Even if you don’t get around to playing Final Fantasy XII, we at Redeeming Pandora hope it will be a refreshing, leisure-filled time of quality family experiences, meaningful spiritual reflection and growth, musical memories old and new, tasty treats and savory snacks, nostalgic films, games and fun and shopping and games, and many, many days of lounging around at home for the holidays (preferably in your jimjams all day long — that’s my plan).
In 2011, Dave Thompson released a (to be generous) book featuring a litany of 1,000 songs that, according to the title of the work “rock your world.” To be fair to Mr. Thompson, the book seems intended to be a visual treasure trove of rare photographs, tour memorabilia, miscellaneous album paraphernalia and more, with a few diversely-organized lists, and thus the book is in nowise intended as a scholarly treatment of the history of pop music and/or what makes a song great. Fair enough. As our purpose here is not to treat on the book itself directly (I’m sure I’ll do that in a future book review collection), we shall simply introduce Mr. Thompson’s list of the best 1,000 rock songs (or whatever) of all time (as of 2011). This is not my list, but it has been an interesting experience trying to work through this list, especially as I have not heard of many of the artists and certainly fewer of the songs enumerated here. Feel free to join in my personal challenge to listen to these 1,000 songs and, perhaps, reflect on their merit and come up with your own such list.
Bus Stop Hollies
Season of the Witch Donovan
Jungleland Bruce Springsteen
Won’t Get Fooled Again Who
Rock and Roll Gary Glitter
Desolation Row Bob Dylan
While My Guitar Gently Weeps Beatles
Year of the Cat Al Stewart
Famous Blue Raincoat Leonard Cohen
Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
Rhiannon Fleetwood Mac
Stairway to Heaven Led Zeppelin
Hey Jude Beatles
Like a Hurricane Neil Young
Like a Rolling Stone Bob Dylan
A Day in the Life Beatles
Elemental Child T-Rex
Born to Run Bruce Springsteen
I Walk on Gilded Splinters Dr. John
Shake Some Action Flaming Groovies
Smoke on the Water Deep Purple
Be Bop a Lula Gene Vincent & His Blue Cops
Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd
Life on Mars David Bowie
Trampled Underfoot Led Zeppelin
Musical Box Genesis
Number One Crush Garbage
I’m Not in Love 10CC
Lily, Rosemary, & The Jack of Hearts Bob Dylan
Bridge Over Troubled Water Simon & Garfunkel
She’s Not There Zombies
School’s Out Alice Cooper
Sympathy for the Devil Rolling Stones
Past, Present, Future Shangri-Las
Waterloo Sunset Kinks
Everyday is Like Sunday Morrissey
America Simon & Garfunkel
Layla Derek & The Dominos
Heroes and Villains Beach Boys
Bad Moon Rising Creedence Clearwater Revival
I’m Eighteen Alice Cooper
All Along the Watchtower Jimi Hendrix Experience
American Pie Don McLean
Celluloid Heroes Kinks
Bored Teenagers Adverts
See Emily Play Pink Floyd
All the Young Dudes Mott the Hoople
Baba O’Riley Who
Low Spark of High Heeled Boys Traffic
My Generation Who
The Boys are Back in Town Thin Lizzy
The Next Time Cliff Richard
Bohemian Rhapsody Queen
In a Broken Dream Python Lee Jackson
Changing of the Guard Bob Dylan
Instant Karma Plastic Ono Band
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes Crosby, Still, & Nash
Hocus Pocus Focus
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) Bruce Springsteen
Midnight Rambler Rolling Stones
A Man Needs a Maid Neil Young
A Groovy Kind of Love Mindbenders
Dream On Aerosmith
New York Mining Disaster 1941 Bee Gees
Can’t Find My Way Home Blind Faith
Superstar Carpenters
Caroline Says II Lou Reed
God Only Knows Beach Boys
I Feel Fine Beatles
Alright Now Free
D’yer Maker Led Zeppelin
Let it Be Beatles
Don’t Fear the Reaper Blue Oyster Cult
Satisfaction Rolling Stones
4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) Bruce Springsteen
Statesboro Blues Allman Brothers
Silver Springs Fleetwood Mac
Octopus Syd Barrett
She’s Gone Hall & Oates
Refugees Van Der Graaf Generator
Tupelo Honey Van Morrison
Roadrunner Modern Lovers
Reason to Believe Rod Stewart
Diamonds and Rust Joan Baez
You Really Got Me Kinks
I’m Waiting for the Man Velvet Underground
Cowgirl in the Sand Neil Young
Imagine John Lennon
Kashmir Led Zeppelin
Bad to the Bone George Thorogood & The Destroyers
Sultans of Swing Dire Straits
New Rose Damned
Loser Beck
Ballad of a Thin Man Bob Dylan
London Calling Clash
Who Do You Love Juicy Lucy
Across the Universe Beatles
Autumn Almanac Kinks
Roadhouse Blues Doors
Hotel California Eagles
House of the Rising Sun Animals
Ball and Chain Big Brother & The Holding Company
Do Ya Think I’m Sexy Rod Stewart
Dust in the Wind Kansas
Sunshine of Your Love Cream
Come Out and Play Offspring
The Boxer Simon & Garfunkel
Highway to Hell AC/DC
Solsbury Hill Peter Gabriel
Violet Hole
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding Elton John
Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana
Take Me Out Franz Ferdinand
Sweet Jane Velvet Underground
God John Lennon
Dead Babies Alice Cooper
What Have They Done to My Song, Ma Melanie
Stagger Lee Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Another Day Paul McCartney
Privilege Patti Smith Group
Mother’s Little Helper Rolling Stones
More Than a Feeling Boston
Brown Eyed Girl Van Morrison
Daydream Believer Monkees
Beautiful Day U2
Heroes David Bowie
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood Animals
Helter Skelter Beatles
Wild Horses Rolling Stones
Ballad of Dwight Frye Alice Cooper
All Day and All of the Night Kinks
White Rabbit Jefferson Airplane
Eloise Barry Ryan
Sara Fleetwood Mac
Up on Cripple Creek Band
Let It Bleed Rolling Stones
Supper’s Ready Genesis
Abandoned Love Bob Dylan
I Love Rock ’n’ Roll Arrows
White Man in Hammersmith Palais Clash
25 or 6 to 4 Chicago
Summertime Blues Eddie Cochran
Someone Saved My Life Tonight Elton John
Sweet Baby James James Taylor
Maybelline Chuck Berry
These Days Jackson Browne
Freight Train Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group
A Night Like This Cure
Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright Bob Dylan
You Keep Me Hanging On Vanilla Fudge
That’ll Be the Day Buddy Holly
Hurdy Gurdy Man Donovan
American Woman Guess Who
On the Road Again Canned Heat
Walk This Way Aerosmith
You Can’t Always Get What You Want Rolling Stones
Daniel Bat for Lashes
Strawberry Fields Forever Beatles
Mage Bus Who
Good Vibrations Beach Boys
Help Beatles
Dancing in the Dark Bruce Springsteen
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For U2
Somebody to Shove Soul Asylum
No Matter What Badfinger
#9 Dream John Lennon
Rock and Roll Music Chuck Berry
Eight Miles High Byrds
Drive In Saturday David Bowie
Back Street Luv Curved Air
The Letter Boxtops
Atlantis Donovan
At the Hop Danny & The Juniors
Heartbreak Hotel Elvis Presley
Supernaut Black Sabbath
Napoleon Bonapart One and Two Budgie
American Girl Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Echoes Pink Floyd
The Knife Genesis
Shape of Things Yardbirds
Rebel Rebel David Bowie
Gimme Some Truth John Lennon
Desperado Eagles
Soldier Blue Buffy Sainte Marie
Watching the Detectives Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Go Your Own Way Fleetwood Mac
Josephine John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett
Paris 1919 John Cale
Someone to Lay Down Beside Me Karla Bonoff
Get Back Beatles
Rising Sun Medicine Head
Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands Bob Dylan
Breathing Kate Bush
Bela Lugosi’s Dead Bauhaus
Psychotic Reaction Count Five
Autobahn Kraftwerk
Lust for Life Iggy Pop
Longview Green Day
Almost Cut My Hair Crosby Stills Nash & Young
Truckin’ Grateful Dead
Everlong Foo Fighters
Little Wing Jimi Hendrix Experience
Ride Captain Rid Blues Image
They Don’t Know Kirsty MacColl
Takin’ Care of Business Bachman Turner Overdrive
Jailbreak Thin Lizzy
Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll Ian Dury & The Blackheads
Lay Down Melanie
Riot in Cell Block #9 Johnny Winter
Wild Thing Troggs
Free Bird Lynyrd Skynyrd
How Soon is Now Smiths
Edie Cult
I Fought the Law Bobby Fuller Four
Somebody to Love Jefferson Airplane
Tarkus Emerson, Lake and Palmer
And You And I Yes
Badlands Bruce Springsteen
Welcome to the Jungle Guns ’n’ Roses
In the Ghetto Elvis Presley
Cryin’ Aerosmith
Pablo Picasso Modern Lovers
Ramblin’ Man Allman Brothers
Bittersweet Symphony Verve
Great Balls of Fire Jerry Lee Lewis
Next (Aux Suivantes) Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Fire and Rain James Taylor
It’s So Easy Buddy Holly
Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory Traffic
Then He Kissed Me Crystals
Karma Police Radiohead
Back in the USA Chuck Berry
Rock Around the Clock Bill Haley & the Comets
Answering Machine Replacements
Black Metallic Catherine Wheel
After the Goldrush Neil Young
The Pretender Jackson Browne
Tangled Up in Blue Bob Dylan
Submission Sex Pistols
Johnny Hit and Run Paulene X
Touch Me I’m Sick Mudhoney
Fly Like an Eagle Steve Miller Band
Ooh La La Faces
You Look Good on the Dancefloor Arctic Monkeys
Sebastian Cockney Rebel
Black Sabbath Black Sabbath
What is Life George Harrison
In Shreds Chameleons
Epitaph King Crimson
Jackson Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood
Everything’s Alright Mojos
Tom Traubert’s Blues Tom Waits
It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding Bob Dylan
Alternate Title Monkees
Marie and Joe Doctors of Madness
Baby Jump Mungo Jerry
Heart of Gold Neil Young
Protection Graham Parker
That’s Entertainment Jam
Rocking in the Free World Neil Young
It Might as Well Rain Until September Carole King
Come Together Beatles
Love Reign O’er Me Who
Losing My Religion REM
Pink Moon Nick Drake
Cortez the Killer Neil Young
Everything I Own Bread
Waiting for the Sun Doors
Creep Radiohead
Wonderful Tonight Eric Clapton
Time Pink Floyd
Night Moves Bob Seger
You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything Faces
You’re So Vain Carly Simon
Starting Over John Lennon
Let’s Hang On Four Seasons
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) Green Day
My Sweet Lord George Harrison
Isis Bob Dylan
A Hard Day’s Night Beatles
Big Eyes Cheap Trick
I Get Around Beach Boys
Little Queenie Chuck Berry
Powderfinger Neil Young
Hello It’s Me Todd Rundgren
Not Fade Away Buddy Holly
Possession Sara McLachlan
Everybody Hurst REM
Barbara Ann Beach Boys
Debris Faces
Hallelujah Leonard Cohen
Life During Wartime Talking Heads
Why Do Fools Fall in Love Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers
Jessica Allman Brothers
Lady Rachel Kevin Ayers
The Only Living Boy in New York Simon & Garfunkel
Three Stars Eddie Cochran
Devoted to You Everly Brothers
Oh Boy Buddy Holly
So Long Marianne Leonard Cohen
Suspicious Minds Elvis Presley
Space Truckin’ Deep Purple
Paranoid Black Sabbath
The Carny Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Roadrunner Bo Diddley
Jeremy Pearl Jam
Out Demons Out Edgar Broughton Band
Killer Queen Queen
Hey Mr. Draftboard David Peel
Bedsitter Images Al Stewart
Shaking All Over Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
The Perfect Drug Nine Inch Nails
My Death David Bowie
Heroin Velvet Underground
Doll Parts Hole
Pleasant Valley Sunday Monkees
Born to be Wild Steppenwolf
Venus in Furs Velvet Underground
24 Jem
Lady Eleanor Lindisfarne
Who Knows Where the Time Goes Fairport Convention
Honky Tonk Woman Rolling Stones
Court of the Crimson King King Crimson
Tutti Frutti Little Richard
The Show Must Go On Queen
Soho Square Kirsty MacColl
Total Eclipse of the Heart Bonnie Tyler
Don’t Bring Me Down Pretty Things
Nite Klub Specials
96 Tears Question Mark & The Mysterians
Basket Case Green Day
Lady Jane Rolling Stones
Song for Europe Roxy Music
Clocks Coldplay
A Salty Dog Procol Harum
Baker Street Gerry Rafferty
Badge Cream
Coney Island Baby Lou Reed
For No One Beatles
Blitzkrieg Bop Ramones
Revolution Blues Neil Young
Ghost of Tom Joad Bruce Springsteen
There Goes a Tenner Kate Bush
Barracuda Heart
Fairytale of New York Pogues
Johnny Mekon Radio Stars
Maggie May Rod Stewart
Proud Mary Creedence Clearwater Revival
Soft Wolf Grant Lee Buffalo
Get Off of My Cloud Rolling Stones
Till the End of the Day Kinks
Up the Junction Squeeze
Hold Your Head Up Argent
Winona Matthew Sweet
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again Bob Dylan
Days of Pearly Spencer David McWilliams
Positively 4th Street Bob Dylan
Funeral Party Cure
Running Up That Hill Kate Bush
Happy Xmas War is Over John Lennon
Tales of Brave Ulysses Cream
Purple Haze Jimi Hendrix Experience
Locomotive Breath Jethro Tull
Firth of Fifth Genesis
Nights in White Satin Moody Blues
Those Were the Days Mary Hopkin
Wake Up Little Susie Everly Brothers
Something Else Eddie Cochran
Chestnut Mare Byrds
Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) Steve Harley
Amoruese Kiki Dee
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door Bob Dylan
John I’m Only Dancing David Bowie
Alice’s Restaurant Arlo Guthrie
Jumping Jack Flash Rolling Stones
Paradise by the Dashboard Light Meatloaf
Me and Bobby McGee Janis Joplin
Somewhere in Hollywood 10CC
Dreaming Blondie
Here There and Everywhere Beatles
Madame George Van Morrison
Life in Dark Water Al Stewart
Carol Chuck Berry
Jailhouse Rock Elvis Presley
Peggy Sue Buddy Holly
Midnight Rider Greg Allman
Wedding Bell Blues Laura Nyro
Memphis, Tennessee Chuck Berry
Tomorrow Never Knows Beatles
Paint It Black Rolling Stones
Crazy On You Heart
Big Bad Moon Joe Satriani
Come Dancing Kinks
White Winter Hymn Fleet Foxes
Mona Quicksilver Messenger Service
Invisible Sun Police
Marquee Moon Television
Angie Rolling Stone
I’m in Love with a German Filmstar Passions
Rain on the Scarecrow John Mellencamp
Ruby Kaiser Chiefs
Hello I Love You Doors
Born Too Late Poni-Tails
War Pigs Black Sabbath
This Wheel’s on Fire Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity
Boxers Morrisey
You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet BTO
Go Now Moody Blues
10:15 Saturday Night Cure
Down in the Boondocks Gregory Philips
Universal Soldier Donovan
Bad Things Jace Everett
Psycho Killer Talking Heads
C’est La Vie ELP
You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory Johnny Thunders
Light My Fire Doors
California Girls Beach Boys
Fireball Deep Purple
Road to Cairo Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity
Hey Hey My My Neil Young
Anyone Who Had a Heart Cilla Black
My Life Dido
Black Water Doobie Brothers
Massachusetts (The Lights Went Out In) Bee Gees
Ashes to Ashes David Bowie
Nobody’s Fault But Mine Led Zeppelin
Showroom Dummies Kraftwerk
News From Spain Al Stewart
Lullaby Cure
Come As You Are Nirvana
Black Juju Alice Cooper
We Are the Dead David Bowie
In the Air Tonight Phil Collins
Plaistow Patricia Ian Dury & The Blackhearts
Astronomy Dominie Pink Floyd
Rock Lobster B-52’s
This Flight Tonight Joni Mitchell
Kool Thing Sonic Youth
I Don’t Want to Talk About It Rod Stewart
Chapel of Love Dixie Cups
Self Esteem Offspring
Sweet Little Rock ’n’ Roller Chuck Berry
Black Magic Woman Fleetwood Mac
Girl Don’t Come Sandy Shaw
Meet on the Ledge Fairport Convention
Who Does Lisa Like Rachel Sweet
Rock ’n’ Roll High School Ramones
Space Oddity David Bowie
Summer Breeze Seals and Croft
It’s the End of the World As We Know It REM
How Long Ace
Where Do You Go to My Lovely Peter Sarstedt
Too Much to Dream Last Night Electric Prunes
Jeepster T-Rex
We’re an American Band Grand Funk
It’s My Life Animals
Under Pressure Queen & David Bowie
A Whiter Shade of Pale Procol Harum
Faith Healer Sensational Alex Harvey Band
White Punks on Dope Tubes
Tusk Fleetwood Mac
Sunny Afternoon Kinks
It’s All Over Now Baby Blue Bob Dylan
Hey Lord Don’t Ask Me Questions Graham Parker & The Rumour
Fifteen Minutes Kirsty MacColl
Bachelor Boy Cliff Richard
It’s My Party Lesley Gore
Alive Pearl Jam
Subterranean Homesick Blues Bob Dylan
Hasten Down the Wind Linda Ronstadt
Another Girl Another Planet Only Ones
Sara Smile Hall & Oates
When We Were Fab George Harrison
Dead Man’s Curve Jan and Dean
Jack the Ripper Morrissey
Have You Ever Seen the Rain Creedence Clearwater Revival
Gold John Stewart
Dead End Street Kinks
Passion Rod Stewart
It Doesn’t Matter Anymore Buddy Holly
Suzanne Leonard Cohen
Eve of Destruction Barry McGuire
Down in the Tube Station Jam
Berlin Udo Lindenberg
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down Band
Death Disco Public Image Ltd
(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea Elvis Costello & The Attractions
I Don’t Like Mondays Boomtown Rats
Ghost Town Specials
Anarchy in the UK Sex Pistols
No Rain Blind Melon
Promised Land Johnny Allen
Change Sparks
Johnny Remember Me John Leyton
Blind Willie McTell Bob Dylan
White Light White Heat Velvet Underground
Song for Guy Elton John
Gimme Some Loving Spencer Davis Group
Little Deuce Coup Beach Boys
Rosalyn Pretty Things
Spirit of Christmas Steve Ashley
Blockbuster Sweet
Can’t Get Enough Bad Company
Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in my Hand Primitive Radio Gods
Journey from Eden Steve Miller Band
California Dreamin’ The Mamas & The Papas
Three Steps to Heaven Eddie Cochran
Emma Hot Chocolate
Criminal World Metro
It’s Only Love Beatles
Wishing Well Free
Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On Jerry Lee Lewis
Wild World Cat Stevens
Burning of the Midnight Lamp Jimi Hendrix Experience
Love Me Tender Elvis Presley
City of New Orleans Arlo Guthrie
Zombie Cranberries
Zoom Club Budgie
Parisienne Walkways Gary Moore
Rita Mae Bob Dylan
Ace of Spades Motorhead
One of These Nights Eagles
Tomahawk Cruise TV Smith
Willin’ Little Feat
Brothers in Arms Dire Straits
Jennifer Juniper Donovan
Berlin Lou Reed
This is Hardcore Pulp
Pretty in Pink Psychedelic Furs
All I Have to Do is Dream Everly Brothers
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number Steely Dan
Werewolves of London Warren Zevon
Porpoise Song Monkees
Metal Guru T-Rex
Since I’ve Been Loving You Led Zeppelin
Hey Joe Jimi Hendrix Experience
Friday on My Mind Easybeats
Fox on the Run Sweet
Lucille Little Richard
Virginia Plain Roxy Music
The Weight Band
Jack and Diane John Mellencamp
Leader of the Gang Gary Glitter
Ever Fallen in Love Buzzcocks
Leader of the Pack Shangri-Las
Radio Activity Kraftwerk
First of May Bee Gees
Halloween Parade Lou Reed
Rock On David Essex
I’ve Seen All Good People Yes
The Witch Cult
Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth Sparks
Bat out of Hell Meatloaf
I Don’t Want to Know Nils Lofgren
Pride (In the Name of Love) U2
I Want to Kill You David Peel
The Air That I Breathe Hollies
Young Americans David Bowie
Muswell Hillbillies Kinks
Dance Me to the End of Love Leonard Cohen
Andmoreagain Love
Woodstock Joni Mitchell
Folk Song Jack Bruce
Maybe Baby Buddy Holly
Glory Box Portishead
16 Again Buzzcocks
Money Pink Floyd
Immigrant Song Led Zeppelin
The Wind Cries Mary Jimi Hendrix Experience
Iron Man Black Sabbath
Blackberry Way Move
Oliver’s Army Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Californication Red Hot Chili Peppers
Walk Away Renee Left Banke
For Your Love Yardbirds
We Gotta Get Out of This Place Animals
Apache Shadows
Village Green Kinks
Roundabout Yes
Brass in Pocket Pretenders
All Shook Up Elvis Presley
The Sounds of Silence Simon & Garfunkel
Hippy Hippy Shake Swinging Blue Jeans
Matchstalk Men and Matchstick Cats and Dogs Brian & Michael
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You Elvis Presley
Hello Spaceboy David Bowie
Sharp Dressed Man ZZ Top
I Hate Banks Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper
Cathy’s Clown Everly Brothers
Rubber Bullets 10CC
Expecting to Fly Buffalo Springfield
God Save the Queen Sex Pistols
To Know Him is to Love Him Teddy Bears
Big Yellow Taxi Joni Mitchell
Blue Jean Bop Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps
Girls and Boys Blur
Elenore Turtles
Red Right Hand Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Johnny B. Goode Chuck Berry
High and Dry Radiohead
Sunday Bloody Sunday U2
My White Bicycle Nazareth
Excerpt from a Teenaged Opera Keith West
Bo Diddley Bo Diddley
Ebony Eyes Everly Brothers
Glad All Over Dave Clark 5
Speedway Morrissey
Harvest Moon Neil Young
Dancing Barefoot Patti Smith Group
Police Car Larry Wallis
America Nice
Mr. Soul Buffalo Springfield
Hurt Nine Inch Nails
Stay with Me Faces
Pipeline Chantays
For You Judy Tzuke
Young Turks Rod Stewart
Sheep Pink Floyd
I Walked with a Zombie Roky Erickson
Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown Rolling Stones
Silhouettes Herman’s Hermits
Starman David Bowie
A Touch of Grey Grateful Dead
Happy Together Turtles
Search and Destroy Stooges
New Ways Are Best TV Smith
The Jack AC/DC
Trouble Coming Every Day Mothers of Invention
Sweet Child of Mine Guns ’n’ Roses
Moonage Daydream David Bowie
Kiss Me on a Bus Replacements
Achilles Last Stand Led Zeppelin
Peaches Stranglers
Here Comes the Night Them
Love Will Tear us Apart Joy Division
I Can’t Explain Who
Je T’aime Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birken
Starless King Crimson
Veronika Tricky
Reward Teardrop Explodes
AC/DC Sweet
Sonic Reducer Dead Boys
Hypnotized Fleetwood Mac
Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground White Stripes
In a Gadda Da Vida Iron Butterfly
Roxette Dr. Feelgood
Eight Days a Week Beatles
Memory Motel Rolling Stones
Cincinnati Fatback Roogalator
Volunteers Jefferson Airplane
Blinded by the Light Bruce Springsteen
I Wanna Be Sedated Ramones
The State that I Am In Belle and Sebastian
Tupelo Nice Cave & The Bad Seeds
Vincent Don McLean
California Uber Alles Dead Kennedys
Eastbourne Ladies Kevin Coyne
1984 Spirit
The End Doors
Saturday Gigs Mott the Hoople
Haitian Divorce Steely Dan
Centerfield John Fogerty
Sweet Home Alabama Lynyrd Skynyrd
Daydream Lovin’ Spoonful
First We Take Manhattan Leonard Cohen
Song to Comus Comus
Rooster Alice in Chains
Perfect Day Lou Reed
It Don’t Come Easy Ringo Starr
Flash Queen
SWLABR Cream
2000 Light Years From Home Rolling Stones
Capital Radio Clash
Ballroom Blitz Sweet
Run Run Run Jo Jo Gunne
Melissa Allman Brothers
I Am a Rock Simon & Garfunkel
Let’s Make the Water Turn Black Mothers of Invention
China Girl Iggy Pop
Death Is Not the End Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Shots Neil Young
Overnight Sensation Raspberries
Cygnet Committee David Bowie
New Age Velvet Underground
No Fun Stooges
The Last Resort Eagles
Itchycoo Park Small Forces
Rat Trap Boomtown Rats
Moondance Van Morrison
White Riot Clash
Band on the Run Paul McCartney & Wings
Ballad of John and Yoko Beatles
24 Hours from Tulsa Gene Pitney
Andy Warhol David Bowie
I Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag Country Joe & The Fish
Are Friends Electric Tubeway Army
Say Hello Wave Goodbye Soft Cell
Saturday Night Bay City Rollers
Rebellion Arcade Fire
Needles and Pins Searches
August Day Hall and Oates
Hold the Line Toto
Abacab Genesis
Where Have all the Good Times Gone Kinks
Da Doo Ron Ron Crystals
Telstar Ronadoes
Fell in Love with a Girl White Stripes
A Lover’s Concerto Toys
The Only Living Boy in New Cross Carter USM
Sheena Is a Punk Rocker Ramones
Mad Eyed Screamer Creatures
Devil Woman Cliff Richard
Strange Brew Cream
Play with Fire Rolling Stones
When Will I Be Loved Everly Brothers
Broken English Marianne Faithfull
Move It Cliff Richard
Alone Again Or Love
Alley Oop Hollywood Argyles
Deuce Kiss
To Bring You My Love PJ Harvey
Cherry Bomb Runaways
Two Princes Spin Doctors
Maybe Chantels
Living Next Door to Alice Smokey
Brown Sugar Rolling Stones
Jane Says Jane’s Addiction
Surf’s Up Beach Boys
I’m Going Home Ten Years After
The Joker Steve Miller Band
Atomic Blondie
Plush Stone Temple Pilots
Arizona Alejandro Escoveda
Master of the Universe Hawkwind
I Wanna Be Your Dog Stooges
Going Up the Country Canned Heat
All Apologies Nirvana
C Moon Wings
Hole in My shoe Traffic
Deal Grateful Dead
The River Bruce Springsteen
Carry On My Wayward Son Kansas
Love Will Come Through Travis
Presence of the Lord Blind Faith
Piece of My Heart Big Brother & The Holding Company
Hell is Round the Corner Tricky
Aqualung Jethro Tull
Indian Reservation Paul Revere & The Raiders
Spinning Wheel Blood, Sweat and Tears
Radio Free Europe REM
Lovecats Cure
Queen B*tch David Bowie
This Corrosion Sisters of Mercy
Ciao Lush
Terry Twinkle
Lake of Fire Meat Puppets
Jump Van Halen
Pictures of Lilo Who
Route 66 Depeche Mode
Metal Postcard Siouxsie & The Banshees
Coz I Luv You Slade
I Got You Babe Sonny and Cher
Sweeter Memories Todd Rundgren
20 Flight Rock Eddie Cochran
I’m Ready Fats Domino
Ruby Tuesday Rolling Stones
Lola Kinks
Lithium Nirvana
When the Sun Goes Down Arctic Monkeys
Everyday Buddy Holly
What’d I Say? Ray Charles
Killing Moon Echo & The Bunnymen
Something in the Air Thunderclap Newman
For What It’s Worth Buffalo Springfield
Mrs. Robinson Simon & Garfunkel
San Francisco Nights Eric Burdon & The Animals
She Sells Sanctuary Cult
Shattered Rolling Stones
Gloria Patti Smith Group
Radio Radio Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Mississippi Queen Mountain
Boys and Girls Bryan Ferry
Green Manalishi Fleetwood Mac
Monkberry Moon Delight Paul McCartney
Stoned Soul Picnic Laura Nyro
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall Bob Dylan
Jesus of Suburbia Green Day
Love is Like Oxygen Sweet
Homeward Bound Simon & Garfunkel
Pinball Wizard Who
Close Watch John Cole
Reconnez Cherie Wreckless Eric
Jet Paul McCartney & Wings
The Rocker AC/DC
Trans-Europe Express Kraftwerk
It’s Different for Girls Joe Jackson
Song to the Siren Tim Buckley
Crystallised XX
Nature’s Way Spirit
A Certain Girl Yardbirds
Lost Cause Beck
Termination Iron Butterfly
Wear Your Love Like Heaven Donovan
Kiss on the Lips Joan Jett
Walk Don’t Run Ventures
Soul Sacrifice Santana
Whole Lotta Love Led Zeppelin
Dark End of the Street Linda Ronstadt
Under the Bridge Red Hot Chili Peppers
Because the Night Patti Smith Group
Delilah Tom Jones
Don’t Forget to Dance Kinks
Morning Glory Tim Buckley
I’m a Man Bo Diddley
Madman Across the Water Elton John
Breakdown Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Seether Veruca Salt
Louie Louie Kingsmen
Caring Is Creepy Shins
Holiday on the Moon Love and Rockets
Angeline Faithless
Alcohol Kinks
Tobacco Road Nashville Teens
Monkey Gone to Heaven Pixies
Back Street Girl Rolling Stones
Do the Strand Roxy Music
The Girl Can’t Help It Little Richard
Pack Up Your Sorrows Richard and Mimi Farina
I Just Wanna Make Love to You Rolling Stones
Sunburn Muse
Star Stealers Wheel
Everyone Says Hi David Bowie
Pandora’s Box Procul Harum
The Carnival Is Over Seekers
No Regrets Walker Brothers
Stand by Me John Lennon
Without You Nilsson
Time of the Season Zombies
Willie & The Hand Jive Eric Clapton
Eminence Front Who
Remember Walking in the Sand Shangri-Las
Love Is the Drug Roxy Music
Amos Moses Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Suffocate Green Day
Nantucket Sleighride Mountain
Life’s a Gas T-Rex
Surf City Jan and Dean
Black Heart Marc & The Mambas
Strange Kind of Woman Deep Purple
La Grange ZZ Top
Reno, Nevada Richard and Mimi Farina
Bullet with Butterfly Wings Smashing Pumpkins
Big Black Smoke Kinks
Do Wah Diddy Diddy Manfred Mann
Hurricane Bob Dylan
St. Petersburg Robyn Hitchcock
Wrecking Ball Emmylou Harris
Sister Morphine Rolling Stones
London Boys David Bowie
You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover Bo Diddley
Walking on Thin Ice Yoko Ono
When We Meet Again Nicole Reynolds
The High Road Broken Bells
A Night In Tindersticks
SOS ABBA
Lalena Donovan
Second Skin Gits
No Milk Today Herman’s Hermits
Opal Syd Barrett
Ohio Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young
House of Fun Madness
Do You Realize Flaming Lips
Straight to Hell Clash
All the Things She Said Tatu
Rave On Buddy Holly
Come Back Mighty Wah!
Ballad of Easy Rider Byrds
Tired of Waiting For You Kinks
Crazy Gnarls Barkley
Brand New Cadillac Vince Taylor
Radar Love Golden Earring
Refugee Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Freshmen Verve Pipe
Whole Wide World Wreckless Eric
50 Ways to Leave Paul Simon
Old Wild Men 10CC
Child in Time Deep Purple
Back On the Chaingang Pretenders
Desire U2
Panic Smiths
Kick Out the Jams MC5
Far Far Away Slade
Southern Pacific Neil Young
Silver Machine Hawkwind
Drag Low
Communication Breakdown Led Zeppelin
Helen Wheels Paul McCartney & Wings
No-One Knows Queens of the Stone Age
Golden Age of Rock ’n’ Roll Mott the Hoople
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine Killers
Maybe I’m Amazed Paul McCartney
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner Warren Zevon
Tush ZZ Top
I Can Never Go Home Anymore Shangri-Las
Whipping Post Allman Brothers
The Jean Genie David Bowie
I Want to See the Bright Lights Richard Thompson
Blank Generation Richard Hell
Ferry Cross the Mersey Gerry & The Pacemakers
Runaway Train Soul Asylum
King of the Rumbling Spires Tyrannosaurus Rex
Bye Bye Johnny Chuck Berry
One Headlight Wallflowers
Stoney End Laura Nyro
Buddy Holly Weezer
Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing Buffalo Springfield
Story of the Blues Wah!
Adam Raised a Cain Bruce Springsteen
God Gave Rock ’n’ Roll to You Argent
Magic Man Heart
Oxford Comma Vampire Weekend
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap AC/DC
On the Radio Cheap Trick
Alone Again Naturally Gilbert O’Sullivan
Another Brick in the Wall Pink Floyd
Fire Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Tell Laura I Love Her Ricky Valance
Here’s Where the Story Ends Sundays
Brand New Key Melanie
Duncan Paul Simon
I’m a Boy Who
Take the Money and Run Steve Miller Band
Ballrooms and Mars T-Rex
When Do I Get To Sing “My Way”? Sparks
Tunnel of Love Fun Boy Three
Your Woman White Town
Merry Xmas Everybody Slade
July Flame Laura Veirs
New Year’s Day U2
If You Go Away Marc & The Mambas
Political World Bob Dylan
As Tears Go By Marianne Faithfull
TV Eye Stooges
Seven Nation Army White Stripes
Hound Dog Elvis Presley
You Wear It Well Rod Stewart
Hey Nineteen Steely Dan
Talking Airplane Disaster Blues Phil Ochs
This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us Sparks
My Hero Foo Fighters
Race with the Devil Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps
Prince Charming Adam & The Ants
Sex and Candy Marcy Playground
Love U More Sunscreen
Sylvia Focus
Conquistador Procul Harum
Fun Fun Fun Beach Boys
Loaded Primal Scream
On the Beach Neil Young
Blowing in the Wind Bob Dylan
Kodachrome Paul Simon
Vienna Ultravox
Love and a Molotov Cocktail Flys
Garden Party Ricky Nelson
Crying in the Rain Everly Brothers
Boy in the Bubble Paul Simon
Everyday is Halloween Ministry
The French Song Joan Jett
Worcester City Eliza Carthy
Dance to the Bop Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps
Get It On T-Rex
Radio Radio Radio Rancid
Samba Pa Ti Santana
End of the World Skeeter Davis
Fade Into You Mazzy Star
July Morning Uriah Heep
In Bloom Nirvana
Rowche Rumble Fall
I Wish You Would Yardbirds
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl Yardbirds
ME-262 Blue Oyster Cult
Paraffin Ruby
I Guess That’s Why They Call it the Blues Elton John
Ex-Girlfriend No Doubt
March of the Black Queen Queen
Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide David Bowie
In the Summertime Mungo Jerry
Rock the Casbah Clash
Megalomania Black Sabbath
Carrie Cliff Richard
Dope Show Marilyn Manson
Shipbuilding Robert Wyatt
Semaphore Signals Wreckless Eric
Mandolin Wind Rod Stewart
Jackie Scott Walker
Shake Your Money Maker Fleetwood Mac
Granny Takes a Trip Purple Gang
Indian Summer Doors
Jive Talking Bee Gees
Telephone Line Electric Light Orchestra
As I said, I don’t have my identity wrapped up in this list, so if you disagree vehemently about anything, I’m sure I do, too. (No Men at Work? No Collective Soul? No “With or Without You”? Rubbish.) I don’t consider this list authoritative in any possible sense, but I have found it has told me of artists and songs I’ve never heard of, and even if I don’t treasure them like this fellow does, the experiences outside my rather diminutive personal preference bubble have been good for me. Thus I’m not saying I am recommending all these songs to you, certainly with far less certainty than Mr. Adler’s list of books, but we have never been ones to shy away from ideas in any medium (other than those obviously crazy ones, of course, like skydiving), so what do you say? Will you take the 1,000 song challenge? I apologize for the goofy WordPress spacing, which I couldn’t really adjust for all 1,000 entries. Feel free to download this and turn it into your own checklist.
As of this writing I’m a whopping 1% finished, not counting the songs I’ve already heard before discovering this list. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. I’m sure we shall revisit this list in the future as I travel further along it. As always, we’d love to hear from you about this list, your list, or practically anything at all. Cheers!
Work Cited
Thompson, Dave. 1000 Songs that Rock Your World. Iola, WI: Krause Publications. 2011. Print.
Of all the albums we’ve explored in the Forgotten Gems series (and its ill-defined offshoot Overlooked Gems), Business as Usual by Men at Work is likely the album I’ve least listened to. One of them had to be, statistically, so that’s not a big deal, but it is significant enough for me to mention it. I’ve had it for some time, though I certainly did not listen to it when it immediately came out (like some albums we’ve explored) though mainly because I was one year old at the time. When the series was first conceived, I knew immediately the entire lineup of albums I wanted to explore, which we did in our initial run before our hiatus. Now, though, as we have the time to luxuriate in whatever fancy comes our way, I have noticed my listening habits, while not necessarily “expanded,” have broadened enough to focus on the peripheral music of my youth, giving it more due attention now as I am slightly more mature than I was when such music first entered my awareness. Boy, that was a complicated sentence. The point of which is to say I have been listening to this album acutely lately, and I have been favorably impressed by it, especially as it is timely for us even thirty-five years on.
Side One
I am using the LP designation here not because I own it but simply for ease of reference. I own the remastered 2003 compact disc release with bonus tracks. Such is one convenient feature of coming late to an album such as this: nice bonus tracks (though we will leave the argument of digital sound quality versus vinyl quality sound alone for now).
“Who Can It Be Now?” is one of the two songs you likely remember from this album and the group, even if you don’t immediately recall the band name or album title (or even, like me, the names of the band members). One of the driving forces of this series has been “the entire album is good, not just the famous tracks,” and while that is certainly true here for this album, let’s not overlook how good the famous songs are just because they are famous — that is also too easy to do; as odd as it sounds, we don’t always appreciate the songs we like (and not just because radio deejays told us to like them). Certainly this song gives us the distinctive Men at Work sound: Greg Ham’s saxophone. Such is not to say they were the only band with a significant saxophone component, but Greg Ham’s saxophone riffs on “Who Can It Be Now?” announce this is not just the same-old pop-rock experience, even if the song has become commonplace. Certainly Colin Hay’s Australian timbre adds to the distinctive nature of the band and the album, and their nationality certainly informs a good deal of the social issues discussed on this album and others (as it always does for every artist). Lyrically, it seems like a simple “Go away, I’m tired” song buoyed by a catchy musical score, but the tail-end of verse two gives us a glimpse of the deeper lyrical skill of Colin Hay. There may be some connection to Pink Floyd’s The Wall, here: the “he” knocking all this time may be the narrator himself, not an external force, if the narrator is a hidden psychological facet of the main person. “I’ve done no harm, I keep to myself; / There’s nothing wrong with my state of mental health. / I like it here with my childhood friend; / Here they come, those feelings again!” If the “he” knocking is the conscious mind of the narrator trying to rescue the actual singing voice person, perhaps the knocking is a positive thing after all, and the whole song is a deep exploration of identity, health, sanity, and society. The Pink Floyd connection would be then if the knocker is a friend or someone trying to help the person come out of the shell/supposed security that may be doing more harm than good. The bridge, though, could disabuse this interpretation, sending it all into a Kafka Trial-like or Dostoyevsky Crime and Punishment-like situation. Or the person is just bonkers and paranoid. In any event, there’s more to it than just a catchy pop/new wave song.
“I Can See It in Your Eyes” has a dreamlike quality about it, caught up in a prescient awareness of the impending future, memories of the distant past, and a sharpening awareness of the present. The electronic sounds undergirding it aid the mystical, introspective aspects, which is rather impressive considering how early on in the electronic music age this came to us. As the narrator’s understanding strengthens throughout the song, I’m not sure if we are to grow in sorrow for him or appreciation, as his ability to appraise the situation and her needs/desires does not imply deeply felt regret: he may be ready to move on to something more as well, now that he is a more cognizant person himself. Losing her could be what they both need. (Personally, I found this song ironically refreshing as I recently threw away a number of old high school photographs days before hearing it again, and I, too, did not feel sad about it — it was very freeing. I have my memories and other photographs; I don’t need to keep all the stuff of the past.)
“Down Under” is an odd one. It’s the other famous one you remember, the jaunty groove with a chorus that makes you think it’s a patriotic song about how proud they are to be Australian. But that’s not really what it’s about. Australia, like all countries, has a complicated past, and this song tries to remind us about that, not encourages us to wave flags and slam a Foster’s into us as fast as possible in blind devotion and celebration. The narrator of the song is some travelling drug addict (“head full of zombie”; “Lying in a den in Bombay”) who benefits greatly from the kindness of strangers, many of whom give him food, and despite their generosity and international camaraderie, he still thinks he is superior to others because of his material prosperity and his country’s prosperity — a prosperity, like all 1st World countries’, derived at least in historical part from plunder, conflict, stereotyping, oppression, and the like. Not to forget the gender distinction of women in a positive light and men doing nothing but plundering and chundering (vomiting). But still. It’s a catchy tune, and the song does not want us to think so wholly lowly of Australia as I may have just made it out to sound. It’s a song that reminds us our patriotism must be tempered by a proper understanding of history, for good or ill.
The quintessential Men at Work/Greg Ham saxophone shines through in “Underground” as well, so much so you may think this “Who Can It Be Now?” if you aren’t paying enough attention immediately, though you’ll recognize it as Men At Work instantly. This is a very clever song, one of the more overtly political commentary tracks on the album. The opening lines tell us we have a responsibility not to give in to the Decision Makers and Thought Police (or whomever) who have taken over: keep fighting the good fight. The eponymous “underground” seems to be where the rich and powerful live now that life on the surface of the planet has become some post-apocalyptic 1984/V for Vendetta dystopia of bureaucratic food lines and gun control. The end of the song seems like we are on some sort of commando raid among the wealthy elite in the underground, adding to the dynamic atmosphere and energy of the number, always driven by the saxophone line.
I would normally pronounce the title of the next song “helpless aww-TOM-a-tahn,” but that’s not how the song says it: “helpless auto-MAY-ton.” We can forgive this pronunciation, as it occurs, I think, solely to fit the metrical pattern of the lyrical line, and since Homer did that all the time and Shakespeare and Milton did that all the time, surely Men at Work can do it here. I’m no expert on New Wave music, but I suspect this song may be the most New Wavy of the album; at least it’s the most sci-fi contemporary of the album, coming out around the same time as John Sladeck’s Roderick and a little after Asimov’s Bicentennial Man (though several other robot-themed movies and novels had been out for some time, certainly). It does have that mechanical sound to it, indeed, driven by the synthesized sounds of the keyboard. I don’t have proof the band read any of those, but it is odd how this song came out at a time when robotics was seeing not just a resurgence but the beginnings of palpability (Data on Next Generation is only about five years away). This song sounds a little different as well being sung not by Colin Hay but by saxophone/flute/keyboard man Greg Ham. In our present age of all-powerful and frightening cyborgs and Terminators and Information Superhighway-powered Drones and Probes, a song about a “helpless” automaton seems even more bizarre. Sure, some of the rhymes may seem a little forced, but don’t they usually, though?
Side Two
Side two opens with a song seemingly innocuous, especially in the relative shallowness of its verses, but the song has become frighteningly more relevant today than when it first came out: “People Just Love to Play with Words.” We live in an age in which it seems each year They decide to redefine some term or concept or idea: marriage, love, justice, family, words ending in –phobic, respect — all sorts of words, for good or ill, have been redefined lately, and while it has not been “playing,” and has very serious ramifications for all of us who have a more accurate grasp on reality, it has a similar sort of capriciousness to it (albeit a more anti-traditional vindictive capriciousness, if such a thing is possible). I certainly don’t want to delve too much into contemporary political commentary (longtime readers surely know by now I have very little involvement in the “now” anyway), but it has been a very bizarre thing to witness, a phenomenon more manifest by this song, even if the song did not intend to prophecy the deconstructive 21st century.
“Be Good Johnny” may seem naïvely simple, but it is another clever song from Men at Work making this album far richer than most think it is (which, of course, is the point of this article). This is a prequel to “Johnny B. Goode,” in which young Johnny is being confronted by all sorts of authority figures who assume living life their way is the way to go. Now, we have just lamented somewhat the current trend of rejecting tradition (a trend that has been around for so long it has effectively become a tradition itself, ironically), but the traditions of this song are not really good ones: they’re just the safe, convenient anti-individual sort of thing Society wants you to do (as good-intentioned as the grownups may be) — don’t rock the boat, do the things we all love doing (football, cricket), learn a trade not important beautiful life things — those sorts of “traditions.” Instead of all that palaver, young Johnny just wants to dream and yet he still manages to be a good boy and honor his parents, even if he isn’t on some sort of fast track to a lucrative career. The catchiest part of the song is the repetitive but fun chorus, even though the chorus consists solely of tendentious authoritative advice, none of which Johnny needs. Combined with the dialogue and various musical sections, this is a very good song.
The middle of the second side is another overtly socio-political commentary track, “Touching the Untouchables,” and I admit I suspect my interpretation of this song could be way off. Surely our initial thoughts when hearing or reading the title of the song is “it’s about India,” but I don’t think it’s directly about India. Since Men at Work are from Australia not England, I’m not sure there’s an immediate visceral/historical connection there — though, it could have some connections to the caste system, indeed; Colin Hay is a very intelligent songwriter. It seems to me this song is about the financially struggling, the homeless, the downtrodden of society, the ones we sort of think we want to help, but as the song says “in the end you know / You turn away.” It’s an important message, yet even in its criticism it does not descend into excoriation. “What can I say?” is the response to “You turn away,” not “What a filthy unchristian hypocrite you are, rich guy!” Musically, it’s very much a product of its time, with a Police-like reggae/New Wave rhythm, but it’s very distinct from the Police, especially in the saxophone triplet-like interjections during the chorus — they are very hard to describe and initially seem out of place, but the more one listens to the song the more these bizarre sounds fit completely with the complete musical/lyrical experience.
One gets the sense by this point the album is slowing down. “People Just Love to Play with Words” is jaunty, “Be Good Johnny” is only slightly slower if at all, “Touching the Untouchables” uses a much different reggae-like 6/8-feel, all leading into “Catch a Star,” another reggae/not-reggae song with a grove totally distinct from the rest of the album (I almost said “fresh,” there, sorry). It’s the most “traditional love song” on the album, and since it sounds nothing like a traditional love song nor musically what the title may imply rhythmically or tempo-wise, that’s saying something about Men at Work’s creativity (even if only for such a vibrant yet brief period). In a world of isolation and complication and destruction, it’s nice to have someone you love with you along life’s journey. I’m not sure if the “star” is the sweet boo the narrator has by him through this thing called life, but that interpretation works for me — maybe it’s something like having successfully wished for love on a falling star, he caught the star and got his wish fulfilled. I don’t know. But it’s a nice number and not worthy of being denigrated as an album filler.
Finally, “Down by the Sea” shows how patient the band can be. “Underground”’s longer-than-expected introduction previewed this for us as well. It may seem disproportionate to call Men at Work a “patient” band here, since most of the album offerings are about 3:30 long with “Down by the Sea” the only truly long number (almost seven minutes), and as a band they only released three albums in just over five years of corporate existence (with most of this crew not even on the third album), but since numerical statistics are poor support for authentic temperament, I eschew those in favor of focusing solely on this song as proof the band could sustain a musical and lyrical experience if they wanted to. It’s somewhat hard to tell how many verses this song has (four, maybe five), considering the interludes or pre-choruses or choruses or whatever the kids are calling them are so different from each other. Musically, the band blends exceptionally well on this final dream-like number. Jerry Speiser’s drums are exceptionally complementary here (their sound throughout the album has a distinct ’80s quality about them, especially in the timbre and duration of the cymbal crashes). Greg Ham’s wind instruments are almost lyrical themselves; John Rees’s bass and Ron Strykert’s guitar likewise support the entire tonal experience. It’s quite tempting to call this my favorite song on the album, in part because it is so unlike the rest of the album, and yet these ten distinct songs all sound wholly and quintessentially Men at Work songs. That the song is about languorously living on the beach with no cares is icing on the cake, as the kids say. And you know how much I love the ocean.
Man at Rest
There’s nothing “usual” about this album: the songs are all distinct yet united, the sounds are noticeably familiar yet refreshingly unexpected. The lifestyles and experiences sung of are both cautionary and introspective. Put aside the labels; ignore the overly-familiar “greatest hits” aspects that lend to too-easily-trite pseudo-appreciation. This is a top notch album from a time when experimentation and synthesization threatened to replace “great” with “different” for different’s sake. Get this album and enjoy it again and again. Perhaps it will take you back to a simpler time, clarify your thinking about life and love and government and society and individuality, or better yet encourage you to go live by the sea and cast away your worries and your cares. What more could you want from an album?
2022 P.S. – I now do own the album on vinyl, if that makes you feel better. If it doesn’t, it’s still true.
Nancy Drew! The Hardy Boys! But mostly Nancy Drew! It really is mostly Nancy’s story, with the occasional visit from Frank and Joe, who are concerned with their own side-mystery for most of the story. Nancy is trying to enjoy a little vacation with her buddy on a cruise ship, but suddenly your typical American CIA-kid snob clique shows up and spoils the whole thing, what with their espionage, treason, murder, and the usual CIA-kid snob clique shenanigans. I haven’t read a lot of either Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys adventures (I was mainly a 3 Investigators guy growing up), but this does bring an immediate since of much-welcome nostalgia. Sure, there is mayhem and murder and other unpleasant things (with a bizarre undercurrent of romantic flirtation between Nancy and Frank, despite her immediate commitment to put the kibosh on that … until the next chapter), but this takes us back to the good ol’ ’80s spy adventures of Remington Steele, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and the like. It was a good time, and this “super mystery” (not all that much of a mystery, really, since the author gives us enough obvious clues and red herrings throughout so we can figure it out fairly easily) sends us back there for a good romp. Though, we are left wondering why Nancy keeps allowing herself to get trapped, bamboozled, and tricked at the end of every chapter.
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (Agatha Raisin #1), M.C. Beaton ⭐⭐
The title of this book, combined with the early protagonist characterization of Agatha Raisin starting to read lots of Agatha Christie novels, lends one to think this is going to be a humorous spoof romp of a mystery, filled with Magnum-like winks to the audience, classic mystery callbacks, quirky sidekicks and townsfolk, and a whole lot of fun.
That’s not what this book is, however. Agatha Raisin is rather petulant, cranky, and self-centered, despite her purported attempts at self-improvement. Roy, the former employee-turned-periodic sidekick/plot catalyst, seems like he is going to become a fun and helpful foil, but he ends up being a self-serving potty-mouthed jerk. The idyllic townsfolk are somewhat helpful and kind — disappointingly, Ms. Beaton makes the village parson the meanest hypocritical jerk of the regular community, not including the “townies” element. Yet, one must be patient. The poor lady (our “hero”) has just ended a rather long span of her life and is trying to begin a new life, and it sort of looks like she accidentally killed a beloved neighbor guy her first week of her new life, so getting to know people and secure a fresh start is rather challenging. Plus, the first book of a new series is always a bit of a jumble. Fer-de-Lance is certainly not the most enjoyable Nero Wolfe adventure. Thus, if Ms. Beaton tones down the “see how I am suffusing this book with authentic directions and topography because I live there?” descriptions, tones down the unnecessary saltiness, and increases the light attitude the title and heroine’s name intimate, this series may become something interesting. (Since I know there are 20-some entries in the series by now, apparently some people think this character is worth treasuring.)
If Death Ever Slept, (Nero Wolfe #29) Rex Stout ⭐⭐⭐
Another “Archie has to move to a client’s home to do inside investigation story,” this has a bit more to it than some of the others in that Wolfe sub-genre, though at times it does suffer from that sub-genre’s middle-slowdown pacing. The “extra” this one has is mostly at the beginning, with the very humorous clash between Archie and Wolfe about Archie even taking the case or not, eventually leading into Wolfe getting dragged further and further into a case he never wanted in the first place. Another twist is the client is absolutely sure who the guilty party is and insists Archie finds the proof. Naturally, Archie is opposed to this sort of thing, and his personal quest becomes another strange layer of “proving the client wrong” — a client he, too, is not keen on but got mostly to get Wolfe’s goat. Archie investigates the only likely group of suspects in the case, stumbling accidentally onto the title, a line of poetry written years ago by one of the suspects (a mostly unrelated expression at the time of its arrival, considering the crime Archie is investigating is insider trading having nothing to do with death). The case takes menacing and deadly turns, eventually, and Wolfe is dragged fully into it, leaving us guessing the identity of the guilty party (or parties?) more so than usual. Not too shabby, despite the slowdown in the middle.
So mostly fantasy, mystery, some kid books, and a teensy-weensy bit of grown-up history — basically, the book version of the other list I did in this issue. Ah, well. C’est moi. In any event, it’s very nice to be back with you again, friends! See you at Christmas!
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Fire and Ice #1), George R.R. Martin ⭐⭐⭐
I’ll go with 2.5 stars rounded up, how’s that. I’m not really sure I “liked it,” since there is very little content in here (including characters) we are really supposed to “like” in any traditional sense. As the high-school toddlers who recommended (and leant) it to me warned me at the outset, “all the characters take turns playing the bad guys.” And by jingo, they were right. Sure, you may say this is more “realistic and gritty” for a medieval-fantasy-type story, when life is hard and smelly and morals are subsumed under survival. That’s fine. This is a “grown-up” fantasy.
My two main issues, apart from the gratuitous stuff (which is likely the main reason why it is popular on television), are 1) there’s no overt point — the characters are just doing their thing, living their lives, reacting to what has been decided around them. That may add to the “realism” of the world, but I can’t help but contrasting it with The Wheel of Time. That series is much different, and I like it better for those differences: there is a goal, the story is heading somewhere intentionally (even if at a languorously snail’s-crawl pace) — there is a clear “bad side.” The “good side” of TWoT is not so straightforward, so I’m not necessarily faulting GoT for not having “pristine, angelic-like John Wayneish heroes.” TWoT has flawed, “shades of grey” heroes all over the place, possibly just as “Biblically unmoral” as GoT (though much less explicit about it).
Perhaps you’ll say “oh, there’s definitely a point to GoT: Dany is going to reconquer the Seven Kingdoms, marry Jon Snow, destroy the Lannisters, raise Tyrion as Ruler of Everything Else” and all sorts of other stuff only you know about having seen/read beyond book 1. Well, maybe. But I don’t get any of that sense from the book itself. Things just happen. Which leads us to my 2nd issue.
2) most of the book is reaction, not action. Yes, a few key things happen “on screen” (still talking about narrative focus in the novel), but so much of the book is just “apparently some time has passed, and here’s what they are thinking about now.” The passage of time is horribly haphazard, it seems to me (perhaps Mr. Martin has everything calendared out, which would be swell). We get hundreds of pages setting up to Ned Stark’s climax … and it barely is mentioned indirectly when Arya is sort of not looking. Out of seemingly nowhere, armies have started terrorizing the countryside … why, because Catelyn snatched up Tyrion? Is that why? A bit unclear, really. (Maybe I’m just a bad reader.) I understand this can be a fine way to move the story along without going over every single detail (in stark, so to speak, contrast with TWoT), but so much of the “action” in this novel was “reaction,” reaction to things we haven’t really experienced. Maybe you real fans like that; I found it a bit niggling. That’s me. I’m probably wrong. I’ll keep reading the series, though, mainly to see how it ends, I guess (I hear some unspeakably grotesque things will happen soon, so we’ll talk about that when I get there).
A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2), George R.R. Martin ⭐⭐⭐
Continuing shortly from A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings broadens both the character base and geographic areas of Westeros. New characters such as Stannis Baratheon, Davos Seaworth, and Brienne of Tarth give us more people to actually root for (well, maybe not Stannis) in an otherwise grim and unfriendly land. The Starks continue to encounter nothing but problems: Arya is trapped between King’s Landing and Winterfell, Sansa is trapped in King’s Landing, Robb is doing his thing (he spends almost no time in the forefront of the action in this book), Bran is still crippled though gaining special dream powers, Rickon is still a whiny baby, Jon is still unsure of himself in the wintry regions beyond the Wall, and Catelyn is still choosing to be with her father instead of returning to be with her own helpless children. Meanwhile, things aren’t going much better for Tyrion, even though he has a great deal of power and influence now. Since no one trusts him or credits him, everything he does to save the situation for his family and the city is largely ignored. Daenerys is still over in the sands, trying to find passage to Westeros. The only significant aspect of her storyline this book is the expansion of our understanding of the diverse cultures of Esteros. Other than that, her story is rather uninteresting this time around.
This second book still has the ubiquitous graphic content, no doubt for some sense of “authenticity” of this fantasy world in a sort of Late Middle Ages setting, but it’s not any more than the first book. It’s best to just skim/skip over that stuff and try to focus on what’s going on … which isn’t all that much. This is mostly a reorganizing of players and plots sort of book (until the slam-bang finish).
Like the first installment, a great deal happens between chapters, since we are given the limited perspective of a handful of characters who are usually away from the major events themselves. The “Clash of Kings” is a bit of a misnomer as well, unless by “clash” Mr. Martin means some sort of group, such as a “murder of crows” or “pride of lions.” There is certainly a brief “conference between kings” toward the middle, and a definite clash happens in the slam-bang finish, but it’s not really between kings. Even so, the general story does get a bit more interesting thanks mainly to the new characters. The aftereffects of the poor decisions in the first book continue to resound. Some mysteries are sort of explained, new possibilities for old characters are finally enabled, and desperate situations force our “heroes” into life-altering (again) situations, setting us up for a very exciting third installment.
A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3), George R.R. Martin, ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Well, that was a bit of a roller coaster. I give it 4 stars not necessarily because I think it is a great book, but it is certainly superior to the first two in the series, acknowledging of course it does not have to do the same things the first two do and benefits from their scaffolding tremendously. Yet, Mr. Martin did not disappoint with that underpinning, which is why it deserves its merit on its own. Some people seem to revel in the “woah, I didn’t see that coming!” aspect of the series — though, taken literally, were that completely true, that would be a sign of poor writing on Mr. Martin’s part, so while most of the surprises are unexpected and we didn’t see them coming, the well-craftedness of them upon further reflection demonstrates them as wholly believable and consistent (even the last page, yes).
This book reminds us more than the first two Robb Stark is not a main character. At best, he is a supporting character. He never has any POV chapters, he spends almost no time “on stage” during Clash of Kings, he is always seen in relation to his mother (not a bad thing, but not a sign of his individuality or importance), and clearly he is young and makes mistakes — but when you are styling yourself as a king, making mistakes along the lines of betraying your most populous supporters is a really bad mistake to make.
Catelyn Stark, likewise, doesn’t seem terribly capable of making proper decisions either. She laments she is far from her two children who need her, acknowledges she doesn’t need to be with Robb, yet she doesn’t go back to protect Rickon and Bran and stays with Robb, effectively selfishly staying with her own father (for whom she does no good either) and away from her family who needs her. In other words, she’s not really any different from her sister. And she may be worse, since she makes almost all of it worse from what she did in book one to Tyrion.
Speaking of Tyrion, this guy really has a rough time in this book. We know he is the hero of the Battle of Blackwater and is effectively single-handedly responsible for saving King’s Landing, but no one else seems to. And things get worse for him throughout the book: everyone abandons him, people who know better allow their minds to be changed about him, and he is literally in the pits as the book closes, with him having lost just about everything.
Meanwhile, Dany has gained quit a bit … but her storyline is again wholly uninteresting and possibly less interesting than Bran’s storyline. She feels betrayed by practically everyone, becomes a misguided social justice warrior (not that I think freeing slaves is a bad idea, of course, just that she is easily distracted from her purpose without thinking through what the next step after freeing the people is — how will they live?), switches heroes, and effectively abandons her main goal by the end. The only good thing about her story is the reintroduction of a noble man we haven’t seen for a while.
Jon Snow does some things in this book as well. They are somewhat interesting and sad, as usual. Sansa is also in this book, mostly passive, as usual.
The new characters in this book are engaging (the new characters usually bring a vivacity to the new book), especially as we get a clearer pictures of the southern kingdoms around Highgarden and Dorne. Truly the highlight of this novel is the Adventures of Jaime and Brienne storyline. It is such an odd pairing but somehow Mr. Martin makes it work very well. The only bad part about it is it ends. Not only is it a very welcome addition to finally get inside the head of Jaime Lannister, but hearing from him what happened before the first novel began sheds some interesting light on these people and their recent history (which is still a bit confusing). Jaime, though, is also part of the saddest moment of the whole book, his final parting from Tyrion — this is such a disappointing moment for many reasons (which is probably why Mr. Martin wrote it the way he did). “Weren’t there other, sadder, more shocking moments in this book!?” you exclaim. Sure, sure, I suppose — but, frankly, none of them (by “them” we mean “deaths of seemingly major characters”) were all that surprising, and more frankly, some of them were rather welcome.
The other odd pairing is certainly Arya and Sandor Clegane, an odd couple that doesn’t have the same vivacity as the Jaime and Brienne Story, but it is much more interesting than, say, everything with Robb, Catelyn, and Sansa, that we are a bit sad when it ends, though glad Arya is finally going somewhere with the possibility of some meaning.
This book is replete with “so close”s — many of the characters who have been trying to reconnect with others are a gnat’s wing away in space and time from achieving some sort of positive reunion … but that’s not how Westeros operates. The spatial proximity is likely supposed to add to the bitterness within us when the planned salvation/reunion occurs, but by this time we have become so inured to it, most of them just end up being obvious foreshadowings of inevitable failures and (perhaps unintentionally) actually cushion the blows.
Let’s see, what else … oh, yes. Davos is in this one as well, being a great bulwark for morality and honor, having lost his “luck” in the Battle of Blackwater (and most of his children) but gaining perhaps a clearer vision of what is right and somehow presses that upon Stannis. Good for him.
We finally get a better look at Wildling life, which isn’t so bad, but discipline, it turns out, is indeed superior to sheer numbers after all (one of the few things Ned Stark seemed to get right). What we don’t get any good look at this time is the Iron Islands. In fact, Balon Greyjoy turns out to be truly the most disappointing facet of this book. Dany is likely the most dull, Jaime and Tyrion’s parting is the saddest, but the Balon Greyjoy facet is certainly the most disappointing.
On the positive side, this book clears up a few mysteries that have been hanging around from the beginning of book one, and we even get an eyebrow raising confession about the incident that started the whole thing even before book one, another of the “we didn’t see it coming … but we should have!” delicious twists. By the end of this book, we have the feeling it’s time for a whole new story. Major shifts have occurred for every major character/location, significant political events will drastically alter the direction of most nations and rulers, magic is increasing in potency, the Others are starting to make their move (though why that is we still have no idea), some wars are over but others are just beginning … the potential at the end of book two has certainly paid off rich dividends in book three, and now we are in for something very different indeed.
Oh, and then the epilogue happened … say what?!
The Fires of Heaven (The Wheel of Time #5), Robert Jordan ⭐⭐⭐
Continuing the sensation of “the end is nigh but we have enough time to sail on ships for a few weeks,” The Fires of Heaven has very little to do with its title, but it does give us the impression things are burning, slowly in some parts of the world and quickly in others. For the first time, one of the major characters, Perrin, is not present in a novel (though Rand was out for most of The Dragon Reborn) — perhaps because some of his events in Shadow Rising occurred during the events of this novel (hard to tell at times) — though he is referenced a couple of times by Mat and Rand. This gives Nynaeve and Elayne more “screen time,” though fans of the series who don’t like Nynaeve will likely find this tedious, especially as most of her storyline in this book feels like a bizarre side-mission (more so than usual with her). Strangely, Nynaeve somehow becomes subordinate to Egwene, who herself becomes a bit of a jerk toward the end, and there is a fair amount of “men are imbeciles” before this book is over (again, more so than usual from the Aiel women).
Pacing is certainly the burgeoning trademark of this series: many would say it doesn’t have any, but they’d be impatient and wrong. As indicated in other book reviews of the series, Robert Jordan patiently spends time with characters, giving us great details on their experiences, far more than most fantasy tales, focusing on that character until, usually, he or she departs the present town for another. This continues for most of this book as well, whether you like it or not: by now, you should be used to it. If you don’t like such focused attention, you probably haven’t gotten this far in the series. This book is about 500 pages of slow-burning set-up, followed by a fairly intense double-climactic pair of showdowns. Some may not like it, but again, that’s what this series is. Oddly, the first of the climactic showdowns happens mostly off-screen, and while that may seem anticlimactic to some, it actually relieves us from a lengthy and tedious battle description, none of which would help advance the characters or stories — perhaps we’ll see it in the movie/series adaptation.
Things get a little saucy in this book, beyond the recent descriptions of female anatomy in the last couple of books, but Jordan is likewise abstemious in his details (while at the same time continuing the fairly ribald attitudes among the Aiel). Some may not like that, but there it is.
While it’s easy to call this another Aiel-heavy book (which it is), we do get the occasional relief by spending time with Suian and her female posse, including Logain, as they have to deal with being stilled, how to survive, what to do next, how to retake the White Tower, and more. This sidestory is both enjoyable (as it brings Gareth Bryne back into our field of vision) and irritating (as the Sisters in Exile treat our heroes poorly, which is always irritating when characters you are rooting for are mistreated especially by “good” people who should know better) … but that irritation gives us a keener look into the world in which these characters live. It matters almost nothing that Suian used to be Amyrlin Seat: she is now stilled — she herself virtually does not matter. She has fallen as far as possible, but she will not let that stop her from protecting The Dragon Reborn … in her own way, of course.
Similarly, there is a bit of a cessation of Moraine’s seemingly-endless secret keeping from Rand, as she finally starts to tell him things, though most of those lessons occur offscreen. At least she is finally explaining things to the Dragon Reborn instead of always trying to run him like a puppet master. By the end of the book we find out why she has changed so drastically, which takes us in a significantly different direction at the end (quite literally for Lan, especially), but at least it is refreshing while it lasts.
The villains don’t get a lot of time here, and in fact the first Trolloc attack doesn’t happen until several hundred pages into the book. This is more of a “there are different kinds of villains” entry in the series, I suppose, as former friends seem to shift their allegiances (or reveal their true colors, shall we say). We get to spend a lot of time with the good guys (except Perrin), and even Mat gets to be heroic again (without ever wanting to). Pretty good book, even if it feels like “nothing happens until the end.” But, whew, when stuff does happen, it’s big stuff.
And we aren’t even halfway through the whole series, yet.
Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time #6), Robert Jordan ⭐⭐⭐
It’s possible the Lord of Chaos wrote this book himself. I’m not saying it’s bad — it was pretty good. A few things we’ve been wanting to happen for a number of books finally happen in this one, if in unexpected (possibly less than satisfactory) ways, such as Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve reuniting and becoming Aes Sedai and Rand and Perrin meeting again. We have been waiting for these things for a long time, but we still have to wait for Nynaeve to overcome her block (this is really taking too long), Rand is still having trouble communicating with Mat and Perrin (you’d think they’d be used to being ta’veren by now), plus a few other things here and there. Mostly we are irritated (as we always are in series such as this) by the non-heroes getting in the way of what our core group of heroes are trying to do, especially the Tower Aes Sedai, the Rebel Aes Sedai, the Children (obviously) … basically, we are almost cheering for some of the bad guys to start wiping out some of these second- and third-tier characters (is that wrong of me?).
I said the Lord of Chaos may have written this book because structurally a lot of what we have become used to in the previous installments are out the window here: most chapters have multiple points of view (sometimes switching back-and-forth between characters in a single chapter), the prologue also covers several character groups, the Forsaken get a whole lot of screen time (after being mostly mysterious and obscure characters up until basically the previous book) — including POV chapters!, we leave POV characters before characters leave their locations (though, admittedly, not a whole lot of movement happens in this book, not including Rand’s teleporting between cities frequently), and even the Dark One gets a few lines. He is the one who brings up the Lord of Chaos, so I don’t think he (the Dark One) is the eponymous character — who is it? I don’t know. The characters seem to, so that’s fine.
Some fans seem to dislike this one because not a whole lot happens (which isn’t all that true, but it does sort of feel like it more than the last couple) and it seems more like it stops suddenly rather than wraps up a complete tale-within-the-tale like the last few did so well. It’s almost like it’s a part one with Crown of Swords being part two. I liked it, but I, too, sort of felt like something was a bit missing with this story, but I did enjoy a good deal of the moments in it.
It has a lot more humor than the last couple, perhaps the most since The Dragon Reborn, and a lot of it comes from, as usual, Mat, who is increasingly becoming a great character, despite his flaws (and despite the fact most of the other heroes wholly misunderstand and undervalue him; very frustrating, that). Another of the great humorous scenes involves Loial (finally he returns!) and an unexpected arrival of his fellow Ogiers. Though, the humor of it is somewhat dampened by a seemingly dropped plot point: Rand delivers the Ogiers to where he thinks Loial is, finds out later that isn’t so, and instead of trying to rectify it they seem to be just forgotten … I trust Mr. Jordan enough to believe this is not the end of this storyline.
Even though, as I said, it doesn’t “feel” like a lot of movement or progress happens, enough does to feel like we have turned a serious corner (or are a gnat’s wing away from completing the turn) and a new phase of the Wheel of Time saga is about to happen: finally, Rand is getting the attention (and fear) of Aes Sedai (thanks to the appearance and involvement of Mazrim Taim!), progress is moving on Rand’s three wives situation, dissension may be popping in the Children, Elayne and Avienda have reunited (and revealed some needed facts), Egwene has told the truth to the Wise Ones, and a few other conversations we’ve been wanting to happen have occurred (not all of them, of course). Some good things have happened to our characters, though, as always, they have come at a price. And Rand is sort of coming to terms (not the best way of putting it) with the Dragon Reborn … since it may be more accurate to say the Dragon has been reborn inside him and not just as himself!
And, oh yes, the Forsaken are really starting to make some big power play moves. And the Lord of Chaos is out there doing something (maybe). And the Dark One is intentionally allowing Rand to live and fight. That is perhaps the scariest part of this series. Boy, I am enjoying this a good deal.
The Crystal Shard (Icewind Dale Trilogy #1), R.A. Salvatore ⭐⭐⭐
If you are looking for a generally good-natured romp through DnD fantasy, you could probably do a lot worse than the mildly-beloved The Crystal Shard. Sure, in the last almost thirty years, this has become noted for being “the first Drizzt story!” even though he is supposedly a supporting character here before his famed skyrocketed him to greatness. I don’t agree with the idea he is a supporting character here, though: he is in it just as much as everyone else, possibly even more than any other individual. He is single-handedly responsible for the most important “big plot” occurrences, which is not to diminish the important deeds his buddies (Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Regis) do throughout the adventure. He is very much a main character in a novel about these four ragtag outsider buddies.
This is the kind of DnD fantasy I would write, or at least the kinds of characters I usually create: outsiders, yes, but all are generally kindhearted and atypical members of their races/classes; only Regis is really flawed (I don’t use Halfling thieves anyway), and Drizzt, Bruenor, and Wulfgar all show their strong-yet-sensitive sides frequently in their adventures. Because of this absence of nonsensical character conflict (there is some, with some supporting characters, but that’s expected), the book is all the more enjoyable: the good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, people learn their lessons (except Regis), and it’s all very clean, very straightforward, very enjoyable (for what it is, a goofy DnD fantasy romp).
Streams of Silver (Icewind Dale Trilogy #2), R.A. Salvatore ⭐⭐⭐
The second of this trilogy is rather darker than the first: not only are our heroes in much more peril, the peril is far more personal than the hordes of the first book. Poor Cattie-Brie is terrorized for much of the book in very dark and intimate ways, making her sections of the book more disturbing than the general slaughter throughout. Our main quartet of heroes likewise go through personal losses throughout, resulting in a very different ending from the first installment.
Even with the darkness (perhaps because of it), this book feels more like Dungeons and Dragons, likely because the scale is much smaller than the grand battling armies and squabbling nations of the first book. This is a small group of adventurers fighting some battles (not too many), sneaking around gathering supplies and information, facing mysterious forces everywhere they go, and then suddenly a huge dragon shows up and things fall apart quickly.
Bruenor is a bit of a jerk for most of the book, learning too late his friends and comrades today are more important than trying to revive the past, but at least others can benefit from what the friends have learned and suffered throughout this installment. Our heroes are at a very low point at the conclusion of this book, but despite their warranted glumness, we have the sneaking suspicion things will get all straightened out by the end of the final part.
The Road to Oz (Oz #5), L. Frank Baum ⭐⭐
We seem to find ourselves on a bit of a formulaic track by this time. Once again Dorothy and some new people (who don’t really matter) find themselves on a magical trip to who-knows-where that eventually becomes the road to Oz (as the title makes a bit clearer this time). At least there is a bit of a better payoff this time: instead of just getting to Oz then leaving right away (as in the previous book), this time Dorothy and friends get to celebrate Ozma’s birthday (how they know it’s her birthday considering her/his life story is anyone’s guess — perhaps they just declared it is her birthday, which is fine). Toto is back this time, and so are some of the other ol’ friends we haven’t seen for a bit (most notably Jack Pumpinkhead), and most of the A-list friends are back, though just briefly at the end (though “the end” is a rather drawn-out affair). Along the way we meet new sorts of wild and wacky characters, most of them annoying, but all the trials and obstacles are overcome with a snap, a shake, and a sure-why-not and all is well. If you are interested in seeing the ol’ gang again, this is nice, but it’s again mostly a showoff of Baum’s diverse character creative abilities (including some stars of other novels of his, such as Queen Zixi). Not the worst, I suppose, but you are likely going to find the first half far more tedious than the second half.
Welcome to part 1 of a non-committally “multi-part” series exploring a few television-related topics. As we all know, in today’s break-neck-speed world of ratings, advertisements, and politically-correct-only viewpoints, sometimes shows get axed before they get a chance to shine. Sometimes, this is a good thing. I don’t watch a lot of contemporary programming, but I’ve seen a few halftime advertisements for programs that have made me (and surely us all) reflect “that won’t last,” and rightfully it doesn’t. The other times, though, the decisions of powerful, nameless, soulless executives are just plain wrong: shows with great premises and engaging potential are ripped from our bosoms too soon and dashed upon the rocks of Impatience and Pecuniary Gluttony before our tear-sodden eyes. I would like to reflect now upon a few of these shows that left us far too prematurely, either during their first season or only after one season (in mostly no particular order).
Honorable Mention: Firefly
I know, I know. “Only honorable mention?!” you say. “That’s the worst and/or best example of this problem!” you say. Such have the people been saying for 15 years, including the other 75% of my birth family. To be honest with you, loyal readers, I never watched Firefly until a few months ago, fifteen years “late.” My family had even purchased the digital video discs of the series when it came out, which I have been carrying around for over a decade across three changes of address. Finally, though, I popped them in and watched the series. You know, it’s not too shabby after all. It is a very rich universe with a great deal of potential, interesting conflicts and backstory, and a ragtag crew of disparate desperados, all led by the least-likable character on the show, Malcolm Reynolds, played by the least likable actor on the show, Nathan Fillion. That his character is openly antagonistic toward religion is only icing on the cake. I could never watch Castle, either. I’m just not a Fillion-atic. It breaks my heart he is portraying one of my favorite Marvel characters, Simon Williams (a.k.a. Wonder Man) in the upcoming Guardian of the Galaxy sequel (though, since they aren’t the real Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Ultimates Universe is mostly shash, it doesn’t matter). Anyway, the series and the universe, despite Malcolm Reynolds, are intriguing. The “everyone speaks Chinese” thing seemed farfetched for the not-too-distant future, but I suppose if some catastrophic event results in the West and China uniting, I could see it happening, sure. The thing that bothered me the most about the show is the best character, Kaylee, is treated horribly by practically everyone, including the writers/producers. No one appreciated or talked to her appropriately, and the backstory and occasional dialogue by and from her from the lesser-skilled writers was really a low point. On the other hand, as I said, the interesting universe and its many layers of conflicts, especially the absence of aliens, the sci-fi/Western milieu, the odd mix of moral codes in the crew and universe as a whole, plus the “who are they really?” about most of the crew all indeed make for a good time and an experience that should have lasted much longer than it did. I agree. It’s not the bee’s knees, but it is a good idea. It certainly could be easily expanded by books and cartoons and comics and a whole slew of things, but if mastermind Joss Whedon wants to keep it all locked up in his secret vault where only he can take it out and pet it and hug and kiss it, so be it.
12. Ellery Queen
This may be the least-painful entry on the list, not because it is first but because the safety net is indeed the largest: even though the fantastic 1975-1976 television show Ellery Queen lasted for only one season, the only entry on this list I wasn’t alive to see the first time around, the entire Ellery Queen Universe consists of, what, a couple of radio series, a couple of television series, some films, comics, a magazine that’s been going on since World War 2, and a whole lot of novels and short stories. This may be of small comfort (as it is with the heart-breakingly-too-soon-cancelled Nero Wolfe series), if your main attraction to the Ellery Queen series is the performance of Timothy Hutton’s dad Jim Hutton and David Wayne as Ellery Queen’s father Richard Queen. Much like the interplay of Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin in Nero Wolfe, the highlight of the show is the two leads acting with each other. The mysteries are usually interesting, sure, and the semi-regular guest appearance of John Hillerman as Simon Brimmer (created just for this incarnation of Ellery Queen) is marvelous (especially as it adds to this series’ more comical-but-not-slapstick interpretation of Ellery Queen), and the “hey, it’s that one used-to-be-famous guy and gal!” seven times over per episode guest cast (like Murder, She Wrote used a decade later) is delightful for fans of television-radio-movie history. But the real treat, as I said, was the chemistry between Jim Hutton and David Wayne, and we, frankly, deserved several more seasons of it than just one. The stories already existed. The Used-To-Be Actors and Actresses were aplenty. It could have lasted.
11. 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo
Surely, several one-season-only fine cartoon shows could qualify for consideration here, especially if made by Hanna-Barbera: Herculoids, Hong Kong Phooey, Hair Bear Bunch (and others that doesn’t start with “h”). Pirates of Dark Water, for example, was the impetus for this article, but since it technically is more than one season, it ironically does not qualify (and deserves its own article for its sheer greatness anyway — stay tuned). 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo only qualifies for this list because, while it may have been complete as a one-season show, it did not get its chance to finish the story, which is horrible. As you know, I’m not a huge fan of scary things, but this show, a few notches above the usual dark mystery of Scooby-Doo shows that almost always say “supernatural dangers have naturalistic explanations,” is distinctly in the vein of “supernatural dangers are supernatural indeed” and works very well, even though it should be a prime example of everything we harangued against a few issues ago (sixteen ago, to be precise). With Vincent Price along, Scooby and Shaggy and Velma and some kid named Flim Flam put right what once went wrong (you can probably guess who’s to blame) in the harried nether realms of the Himalayas. All we needed was a few more episodes and it would have been all finished — why cancel a show three or four (or possibly even only 2 very full) episodes before it could finish telling its story?
10. Push, Nevada
This rather bizarre gimmick of a show mixed iceberg-like mystery (there’s much more under the surface) with play-at-home game show. This one’s definitely not for kids: it’s possible the inhabitants of Twin Peaks, Washington would feel uneased in this goofy ol’ town. A mysterious fax (I think that’s Old Tongue for “printed out e-mail”?) shows up in mild-mannered IRS Agent Jim Prufrock’s office and right away you’re thinking “hey, that’s a name from that poem” and suddenly things get weird. But not only is it a show about a mystery and bizarre things going on in Push, Nevada (things of Modernist Poetry and Classical Greek Drama subject matter, which can never be good for anyone involved), it is also a play-along-at-home follow-the-clues adventure. This gimmick (and I don’t use that pejoratively here) was pretty clever — not original, not unique, but clever. The show had a self-determined end point: it had a whole mystery to uncover and reveal, an end and purpose, but that was apparently not good enough for the impetuous Decision Makers and Plug Pullers of 2002. Oh, sure, they revealed the rest of the clues for the play-at-home game show, and some eagle-eyed viewer won a thousand bajillion dollars, but for me that was not the point of the show. I wanted to know where the show was going, and I didn’t care too much about the prize money. Apparently, I was alone. Not even co-creator Ben Affleck seems to have anything to say about the show part, such as where the mystery was going. Pity, that. I still want to know what was supposed to happen.
9. Police Squad!
I admit this is the one show on the list for which I was alive but not old enough to watch when it first came out, which is partly why the list is limited in its way, but having seen the episodes multiple times, I still cannot fathom why this series is only six episodes long. Sure, it has running gags, but those running gags do not prevent anyone from understanding 99.9% of that particular episode. Surely its appeal to me is its alignment with the kind of verbal, intelligent humor I prefer, but its admixture of nonsensical visual gags is somehow over-the-top without being too much or too obvious. It is a sort of intelligent slapstick that does not resort to the painful Three’s Company-type “humor” (no offense to Three’s Company fans). It must be the only series to be longer (total minutes-wise) in its motion picture incarnation than in its episodic television incarnation. As Barney Miller proved, a humorous cop show has great potential and longevity — and Barney Miller almost never left the squad room in eight seasons! This series had so many positive things going for it. It was just too smart for its time, apparently. For those who have trouble associating “smart” with Naked Gun, go back to the original Police Squad! and see what comedy gold was there from the beginning.
8. Space Rangers
Another but six-episode series, this science-fiction romp likewise had great potential. It has not aged nearly as well as Police Squad!, that is true, even though it is a decade younger, and it has clearly been surpassed by others of its ilk (obviously Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5), but Space Rangers had a certain I-don’t-know-what. Perhaps it tried too hard: the production demands with a technology that wasn’t quite there yet, the terminology of the universe, the outfits … but still. Its main cast is a veritable “hey, it’s that one guy/gal!” collection. It’s about the space station and dangers of the frontier and enemies close to home, but it’s also a world that isn’t nearly so refined as either the Star Trek or even Babylon 5 universes, and that ruggedness had a wide-open field for storytelling and character development. This show should either never have been made or allowed to go for many seasons.
7. Covington Cross
The 1992-’93 television season was an interesting time. Some excellent shows began then: Batman: The Animated Series, X-Men, Highlander: The Series, Goof Troop, among others. Some not great shows began then (let’s not mention any). And there was #8 on our list as well as #7, Covington Cross. Speaking of “hey, it’s that one guy/gal!” shows, this is Britain’s version, with famous British people, starring the great Nigel Terry. With the freedom of Generic Medieval Setting, Covington Cross had no historical boundaries or chronological limitations requiring it do this or not do that other than Be Medieval. With Nigel Terry. Unlike all the Serious Time Dramas with Some Comedy, Covington Cross did not have a set story it had to tell: it could just be something fun and different and clever, and boy was it clever. Go read the plot description of the pilot episode and most of you will think “oh, that’s like that other popular medieval drama that’s all the rage these days,” but then you’ll see the date and realize, “oh, that’s four years before the first book came out!” Like Police Squad!, Covington Cross was just ahead of its time — too good, too clever, too expensive. Ironically, the thing that seemed to irk Thomas Paine so much, about England ruining America (or whatever he called it) because England was running America from afar seems to be the inverse of this show: America ruining England’s Covington Cross because American ran England’s Covington Cross from afar. This was a good show, and if I could understand that before my teens, surely other people could have understood that as well. Did I mention it had Nigel Terry?
6. Dark Skies
Similar to and unlike what we just said, Dark Skies took on the challenge of telling the story of modern America from a different perspective: the right one, in which so many of the major events of modern America happened because of … aliens. I’m not a huge fan of alternative history, but Dark Skies was a good mix of history and revision and scary alien menace. Perhaps you think I’m describing some X-Files knock-off. No, you’re thinking of X-Files seasons 9 and 10. But seriously folks, Dark Skies should not be remembered as an X-Files knock-off. It had some similar ideas, sure, but unlike X-Files, which was all some secret malarkey that changed every couple of seasons and our heroes were never to know about it, in Dark Skies our heroes get on the inside track from the very first episode and spend the whole time trying to learn more about it and get better prepared to actually fight it. It’s like a sensible fan’s response to what we wanted to see in X-Files: the good guys actually being allowed to fight the future. If this got cancelled because it was “too much like X-Files,” whoever made that decision clearly did not understand either X-Files or Dark Skies. Recently, I saw a soupçon of the five-year plan for this show: twenty years after the show came and went too soon, I was re-angered by the idiocy of the Decision Makers who cancelled this show, knowing as they did what was in store for this show and what incredibly intelligent places it was going (significantly different from how it began in season one). It was going to grow and change and re-invent itself and do all the things J.J. Abrams’s shows get credit for inventing a half a decade before Felicity.Dark Skies took one of the clever-but-not-even-original ideas X-Files presented in a horribly frustrating way and did it in a more engaging and rewarding way, took what Falling Skies was going to do 15 years later and did it 15 years before, and a whole lot more. It was going to be five seasons; it knew where it was going; it knew the story it had to tell. What went wrong? Where was the faith? Where was the love?
5. Crusade
Speaking of 5-year plans, we should know by now if a show has a solid five-year plan and is allowed to work it to its fruition, we end up with something magical and exquisite. Clearly, as always, I’m speaking of Babylon 5. Farscape may or may not have had a five-year plan, but it needed its fifth season to finish telling its story fully, but, sadly, it didn’t get it. NewsRadio as well. Battlestar Galactica may or may not have had a plan, but it got to finish telling the story it wanted to tell, and those of us who are intelligent appreciated and enjoyed the conclusion to the story. And then: sequel. And/or: prequel.
I haven’t seen Caprica. I probably won’t. Ah, but Crusade! Why was this cancelled? If you are a sequel to the greatest show of all time, which, as we all know, Babylon 5 is, why would Decision Makers not give the Creative Team the benefit of the should-not-even-have-existed doubts and say “you just made us forever rich and famous and happy by giving us the best show ever, and since you want to continue the story/universe in a new and fresh way and actually know what you want to do and where you want to go, full speed ahead!” and instead say “you just et cetera et cetera et cetera too slow, I change my mind, it’s over before we can get to know everyone”? Why would you (the third of the three different unnamed antecedents of “you” in the previous sentence) do such a ludicrous thing? Have you (I’m talking to you, now, faithful reader) seen the cast list for this show? This show discovered everyone! (You’re probably thinking that argument will be used again soon in this list.) I don’t understand. No, Crusade is not Farscape — but even the first couple of post-pilot episodes of Farscape are “not Farscape” just yet anyway. Even that show had to find its identity. And after Babylon 5, come on. Crusade knew where it was going, and the Creative Team already proved it knew what it was doing. This is possibly the most irksome entry on the list for me, since I know deeply it could have become something great given the opportunity, even with the monumental task of being a sequel of sorts to the greatest show of all time.
4. Mr. and Mrs. Murder
This is the most recently enjoyed series by me on the list, one my parents introduced to my wife and me earlier this year. Coming to us from Australia, reminding you we at Redeeming Pandora are truly international, Mr. and Mrs. Murder was and is and always will be a very clever character-driven mystery show about a loving husband and wife couple (rather rare on television these days) who clean up crime scenes for a living. Not like the CSI clean up teams, mind you, the actual cleaning up cleaning up people: the ones with mops, vacuums, wet wipes, and lots and lots of gloves. Like most good mystery shows, the characters are very smart (another rare thing on television these days), well-read, well-rounded, somewhat flawed, quirky, very much in love, and very fun to watch. Because the show comes to us from Australia, none of the American Television Company mantras and flaws are there (whether traditional or contemporary), and so even though it seems from afar to be overly-familiar-television-mystery fare, it uses those traditional mystery show tropes in fresh and clever ways. It’s quite good. Making the pain of its premature non-renewal even more painful, aside from how clever and enjoyable the show was right from its first episode, by the end of the season it had potentially given us a nemesis for our hero, Charlie (the “Mr.” of the title — the loving couple of cleaners-turned-amateur-sleuths). And while shows like Bones and NCIS have proven the “nemesis of the season” idea can get tedious rather quickly, at least they had the opportunity to work it through. This is a quintessential example of the “not enough viewers gets even very clever shows cancelled” heartbreaking disease so prominent today. This show could have and should have gone on for quite some time. Come on, Australia — what happened here?
3. Earth 2
For some inexplicable reason, Television Executives, those unimaginative soulless fiends to which we’ve been referring throughout this journey, continue to “green light” (as they say in the “biz”) science-fiction programs, even though these same Decision Makers apparently hate them passionately. Travel back with me to the Golden Age of TV Sci-Fi, the late ’80s to the early ’00s, a time that gave us really great shows like TNG, DS9, Babylon 5, Farscape, Lexx, Quantum Leap, Stargate SG-1, and others. We also had this overlooked gem. Before Voyager, Lost, Terra Nova, and all the other more recent series that copied some of this potential great show (that, admittedly, borrowed from Battlestar Galactica, which is just the Aeneid in space anyway), Earth 2 gave us a diverse, intelligent show that fell prey to the Low Ratings Disease. Shame on you, audiences: we had something potentially great in our hands and you (not me, since I watched it all) let it slip away. This show had a little bit of just about everything you need for a good science fiction show: a ragtag crew far from home, religious conflicts, misunderstood aliens, cyborgs, disasters, internal strife, children as the last hope for humanity, and so much more. Sure, when I put it like that it may sound like a hodgepodge of every science fiction show, but somehow it came across (to me, and not just because I was young) as something different, something that could have lasted much longer than one season. There was great potential for so much, not just on the new planet but also back home — this could have given us many seasons of intrigue, mystery, action, adventure, romance, science, ecology, anti-colonialism, and so much more. I guarantee if this show got rebooted intelligently today (by which I mean not in a heavy-handed “social issues are more important than people of faith” sort of way), it could work very well and perhaps tell its whole story, which surely would be an enjoyable story indeed.
2. The Good Guys
Clearly we live in a day in Television Land in which “fresh, clever, morally upright ideas” are anathema, and “shoddily-rehashed superhero ideas” and “viscerally-appealing basest aspects of humanity are ‘good’” shows are praised and “green-lighted.” Again. And again. And again. It’s an odd mix, perhaps trying to tell us “normal people are bad but hey, that’s okay,” so “only supernatural beings are good, and since the supernatural is a hollow lie, no good exists for real.” Inexplicably to intelligent people, the other people in this world tell us shows like Breaking Bad, Damages, Guilt, Scandal, Revenge, Dirt, Dexter, The Sopranos, Desperate Housewives,and a whole slew of other shows focusing on protagonists doing horribly evil things are “great” and “groundbreaking” and other sorts of positive superlatives, and these same people then ask in all sincerity, “why are human beings so bad and hateful and angry and selfish all the time?” These are the same people, mind you, who tell us “people are cosmic accidents from dust and monkeys with no purpose or hope” and then, still in all sincerity wonder “why do people kill and hate and lie and steal and destroy?” Then they usually mention the calendar year, as if that has some bearing on the argument.
Enter (six years ago at the time of this writing), a very fresh and entertaining (if somewhat saucy at times) relief from such a world: a show in which the heroes care about doing good, making the world a better place, and keeping us safe from people who want us to be unsafe. The show was a frenetic mix of a lot of different things: you’ve got the beloved ’80s mismatched cop duo idea (one cop is stuck in the ’70s days of shoot first, massage the evidence, drive fast, smoke and drink and be foxy, and, if time, ask questions if it’s not too late but since your intuition is usually right you don’t need to ask questions anyway sort of cop, combined with the young, up-and-coming technology savvy, politically astute, by-the-book cop), an ethnic lady of ethnicity in charge of the police force that should have appeased the group that needs appeasing by that sort of thing, heroes with lots of flaws and moral ambiguity, a quirky cast of characters beyond the quirky heroes, and the villains! My heavens, the villains are possibly the second most enjoyable part of the show, in that week after week the villains are, well, sort of the opposite of stereotypical villains: they are intelligent, funny, and come very close to being the stars of the episode (sort of reminiscent of Barney Miller), yet we don’t end up rooting for them in any way (except for villain-turned-ally Julius). Bradley Whitford as Dan Stark, the out-of-time cop who, like me, distrusts technology and proper procedure (after all, didn’t we learn from thousands of episodes of Law and Order and CSI and Psych warrants usually are just for sissies after all?) is so unlike every other role we’ve ever seen him in, the sheer zest and enjoyment of watching him be funny and free and wild and reckless should have been enough of a reason to keep this show around for several seasons. Plus it’s got wit (akin to Police Squad!, in a way), Colin Hanks, romance, special effects, and I honestly don’t know why this show stopped … oh, wait, yes I do. It was good.
1. The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
Here we are, full circle. You know who made Lost the good show it was? Nope, not J.J. Abrams — Carlton Cuse, that’s who. Where did he get his training? Brisco County, Jr., that’s where. I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said, and I quote, “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. may not be a perfect show, but it’s as close to a perfect show as imperfect people can make,” unquote. Before Firefly came along with its Western Sci-Fi Comedy Adventure (that at times takes itself a bit too seriously), there was the great Brisco County, Jr.: a Western Sci-Fi Comedy Adventure that never took itself too seriously. Before Nathan Fillion came along being pseudo-manly and pseudo-complicated heroic, there was … Bruce Campbell. Manly. Heroic. And manly. I don’t want to get all libelous and whatnot, but Bruce Campbell, for me, is the antithesis of Nathan Fillion, mainly in the “I want to watch a show with him as the star” category.
Let’s talk briefly about how many fantastic things this show had going for it: I believe we have already mentioned Bruce Campbell as the eponymous Brisco County, Jr., Harvard educated son of the West’s most famous and successful lawman (Brisco County, Sr.) bounty hunter (who, MacGyver-like, almost never uses violence) extraordinaire. Do you want more? We have already mentioned Western Sci-Fi Comedy Adventure. How about the late great Julius Carry as Brisco’s rival-bounty-hunter-turned-best-friend Lord Bowler? Christian Clemenson as Socrates Poole, lawyer and confidante. Kelly Rutherford as Dixie Cousins, gangster moll/sort of love interest for Brisco. Comet the Wonder Horse as himself. Every episode lovingly recalls us to those halcyon days of serials, much like the Indiana Jones movies, in which plots moved quickly from crisis to crisis, but BCJ allowed for plenty of character, humor, intrigue, romance, heart, intelligence, and more good things. Let’s not forget John Astin as Professor Wickwire, the knowingly anachronistic scientist always encouraging Brisco (and us, the science-loving audience) to be on the lookout for The Next Big Thing. (Before you think it’s just some Wild Wild West rip-off, trust me when I say “it isn’t.”) And the villains! Billy Drago as main antagonist John Bly (no one does villain like Billy Drago). M.C. Gainey as Big Smith (a diabolical Little John). Oh, and you know that rousing theme you hear all the time during the Olympics, not the fanfare but the other rousing get-up-and-go-with-gusto music? Yeah, that’s actually the theme music to Brisco County, Jr.
Having established this show has practically everything you need for success (i.e., Bruce Campbell with bonus elements), let’s talk a little about its premise, especially if you think John Astin’s inventor-scientist character is the sum total of the Sci-Fi in Western Sci-Fi. U.S. Marshall Brisco County, Sr. has just successfully rounded up all 12 of the notorious John Bly gang, but for some reason the Robber Barons and Government Decision Makers have put them all on the same train together, and somehow the bad guys escape, kill Brisco County, Sr., and flee in all directions. The Robber Barons hire his bounty hunter son Brisco County, Jr. (and a few others, such as Lord Bowler), to track them down and restore order to the West. And that’s just the opening credits of the pilot. Then comes … The Orb. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but The Orb is one of the most intelligent pieces of television history I’ve ever seen. Brisco County, Jr. showed me television series can be intelligent — I had already known that from Star Trek and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and a few other things, of course, but BCJ showed me television shows, if handled by intelligent people such as Carlton Cuse, can plan ahead, come up with engaging story arcs and intentional character development, and quality episodes that not only entertain but also demand an intellectual response as well. Brisco County, Jr. did not just come up with neat ideas and change directions to make the story bigger and better, oh no: BCJ worked out ideas and directions in advance and started heading on that cohesive path from the beginning — just like all writers are supposed to do anyway. As you know by now, that’s one of the key factors in why Babylon 5 is the best show of all time (and my favorite), and it’s one of the key factors in why The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. is the most heartbreakingly early-cancelled show of all time. It could have gone in several engaging directions, and from what I’ve learned about the plans Mr. Cuse and Co. had for where the show could have gone, beyond just “nabbing the Bly Gang” and understanding The Orb, it had as much possibility as The Ol’ West itself — and that’s a vista of great and wondrous and plentiful possibilities indeed. So I’m going to file my claim for The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. as the most regrettably-prematurely cancelled show of all time (real fans saw what I did there).
But Let’s Not Wallow in Regrets
In one sense, this has become a self-perpetuating problem. As mentioned throughout, we, the mindful viewers, having caught on to the wiles and dastardly habits of this abominable practice are reticent to even watch new programs until after a season or two is safely on some streaming service so we don’t get our hopes and hearts attached to some new cast of characters only to have them teleported into the Nether Realms of Cancellation all too soon. And because of this reticence, shows get low viewership, unsatisfactory ratings, and cancelled. It’s a terrible cycle.
Another facet of the problem is the mind-blowingly nonsensical decision by the Creative Teams and their Advertising Buddies not to let us know “hey, there’s actually a cohesive story here you’ll want to dig into from the beginning.” That’s one of the reasons I didn’t start watching Lost until a few seasons into it: the show looked interesting, but all the initial commercials made it seem like Gilligan’s Island: The Drama. Now, had I known there was going to be a very interesting story arc to the whole thing, I may have started watching it from the beginning. Thankfully, this is one of the few shows that had a faithful following enough to allow it to tell its complete story (and yes, most of you are still wrong about its ending and the point of the whole show). But some shows are not so fortunate: take Pan Am, for example. All the advertisement for it was just “here’s a period piece drama about aeroplanes!” Now, if they had said, even briefly and quietly, “but wait, there’s more: there’s an ongoing story of espionage and conflict,” I might have given it a look — and so, likely, would have thousands of others. I’m not saying you have to spoil all the surprises, but don’t expect me to watch a show just hoping to be pleasantly surprised there’s more to it than what all the millions of advertising budget monies have made it out to be. I did that with Brisco County, Jr., and Fox Executives broke my heart.
“But wait!” you shout. “What about Freaks and Geeks and The Prisoner and My So-Called Life, and all the other great cancelled-too-soon shows you haven’t seen yet?” Whoops. Let the cat out of the bag at the end there. No, I have never seen Freaks and Geeks, and since I’m not in any way impressed with the output of these stars today, the thought of watching a show with them before they were stars does not grip me. I remain ungripped (also because I staunchly refute the eponymous appellations, a subject for another time). I do want to see The Prisoner, definitely, and I surely should, but since they sort of knew it was going to be cancelled, it had the chance to wrap up its story albeit hastily, I’m told (this is somewhat similar to BCJ, at least, in that it does come to a nice conclusion, but it could have gone on for so much longer). And godspeed trying to get me to watch My So-Called Life.
Maybe this was just a subconscious yearning to return to the halcyon days of the early ’90s, when life seemed simple, and quality science-fiction shows were coming at us left and right, video games were done in glorious 8- and 16-bit majick, Comic World was on 16th and Central, Mystery Science Theater 3000 was still being made, the sky was blue, birds were singing, and people seemed to laugh more, then. Well, maybe. But that’s a topic for another time. Let’s not wallow in regrets or the past. Life is mighty good today, in its own way.
Today we live in a fantastic-in-its-own-right age of excellent board games and Vanilla Coke and honey wheat braided pretzels and hula hoops and fax machines, an age in which we can revisit these prematurely ended shows of yesteryear and so many more, thanks to the advent of digital video discs, streaming services, and The Next Big Thing. The joys and potential joys of these series live on in our hearts and minds and collections and clouds.
So there’s that. And that’s my list. What’s yours?
I have been spending a good deal of time lately listening to the Beach Boys and post-Beatles solo albums, partly in preparation for a forthcoming elective, but mainly for the pleasure of listening to quality music. My wife even got tickets for us to see Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Blondie Chaplin and Co. last August for the 50th Anniversary Tour of Pet Sounds. I admit I hadn’t listened to that album too much in comparison to the other Beach Boys’ albums, but we did prepare for the concert by listening to it a few times (I was able to snag a copy for myself at a family reunion in July). Additionally, my father leant me a number of his albums he wasn’t planning on listening to soon, and he even got me my own copy of George Harrison’s debut lyrical album All Things Must Pass. I have been listening to this one quite a bit, because it is very good. I don’t think it is fair to compare it to Pet Sounds, but I would be willing to say it is better than any Beatles album. That’s a very bold statement, I admit, but if you listen to All Things Must Pass, with or without the 30th anniversary bonus tracks, you may at least have to reexamine your view of the Beatles: if John Lennon and Paul McCartney knew they had George Harrison in their band, why was he allowed only a few songs on their albums, especially by the end? especially when so much of All Things Must Pass is far superior to so much of the entire Beatles canon? But don’t take my word for it (I’m sure you won’t). Let the work convince you. For simplicity’s sake, I will touch upon only a few of my favorite highlights, in the hopes you will experience the work in its entirety soon and frequently.
Disc 1
The album begins very relaxed and tranquil, with “I’d Have You Anytime,” a lovely patient song co-composed with Lucky Wilbury (better known as Bob Dylan). It may seem like an atypical choice for an opener to a rather liberating mega-album, especially considering how many other peppy/rocky songs are included in this opus, but further reflection draws us to the complete propriety of this track as the opening. “Herein is something wholly unlike what you are used to from the Beatles,” says this opening number. “I am free. Time for something new.” I’m certainly not accusing the Beatles of being insincere, mind you (I’m sure they were, and at the moment of this writing I haven’t seen Ron Howard’s Eight Days a Week, which will likely shed light on their depths), but this opening number, in its almost laconic beauty, subtly yet forcefully presents a fresh sincerity sorely needed not only in those likely painful mid- to post-break-up times (plus all the other crazy things going on in the late ’60s) but certainly as much today.
My favorite songs on disc 1 are “Wah-Wah,” “Isn’t it a Pity,” and “Let it Down.” Let’s toss “Run of the Mill” in there as well. That’s not to say “What is Life,” “My Sweet Lord,” “If Not for You,” or “Behind that Locked Door” are bad songs. Truly, this mega-album does not have any bad songs. I’m just telling you the ones I like the most. “If Not for You” and “Behind that Locked Door” are very enjoyable slower, quieter numbers. So is “I Live for You,” a bonus track from the anniversary edition. The balance and diversity are quite enjoyable throughout, especially as it is not just the typical slow-fast-slow-fast or fast-fast-slow-fast-fast-slow sort of song lineup. It’s possible “slow” songs dominate the album, but some of them are tenuously “slow” at best – but none of that matters, since it’s such a great album. Why are these my favorite of the disc? “Wah-Wah” I like because of the “wall of sound,” thanks to Mr. Phil Spector. The musical interludes are especially enjoyable. Admittedly it’s not the most lyrically profound song, but its jubilant nature and instrumentation make it very fun.
“Isn’t it a Pity” is close to a perfect song in most respects: lyrically it is, if not profound, challenging and thought-provoking; musically, the build-up to the “Hey Jude”-like conclusion is very satisfying, coupled with its extreme patience rhythmically. “Let it Down” is perhaps more complex lyrically, and its patience is similarly an enjoyable part of this song. Initially, the “pacing” may seem like the typical “quiet verse”/“loud chorus” contrast, which is not a “pacing” issue at all, really, but the impressive pacing for me is seen better in the spread of syllables throughout the verses, the stark contrast between the slow rhythm of the music and the multiple syllables George is singing on top of the melodic line. It’s the near-talking relaxed nature of it all that is so distinct for the song, especially when combined with the dramatic, heavily-punctuated (musically) terseness of the chorus (lyrically).
The title of “Run of the Mill” initially gives us the impression it will be about something basic, almost banal, and it almost is: it is your choice how you will live your life, what you will find important, what you will find offensive, how you will lose friendships. I suspect it may have some additional layers about being in charge, as if we all own our own mills (or the mill is metonymic for life itself) and we have the “run” of it – and while that sort of sounds clever I haven’t fully followed it through (but again I suspect Mr. Harrison had that and more in mind when coming up with this faceted ironic title). Another reason I like it, in addition to the generally peaceful musical accompaniment, is its similarity to Babylon 5, my favorite show (and also the best of all time, coincidentally enough). Both the show and this song boil life down to very important, basic truths: it’s your life, stop blaming other people, take responsibility for your choices, remember your choices have significant consequences, and live correctly.
Disc 2
As with disc 1 (or record 1, if you prefer), if I mention a few selections as my favorites that’s only a sign I have accomplished something very difficult, like identifying which bites I enjoyed most from a favorite pizza pie. All these songs are very good. It’s possible disc 2 is superior to disc 1, but that’s not something worth investigating seriously. “Beware of Darkness,” “All Things Must Pass,” “I Dig Love,” and “Hear Me Lord” are among my favorites (assuming I don’t need to reiterate my enthusiasm for “Isn’t It a Pity” version two) of this disc. “Beware of Darkness” is another nearly-perfect musical experience. Setting aside for now (as we covertly have done thus far) the Eastern mystical connections of the song, the philosophical truths of this song should not be ignored: watch out for dangerous aspects of life, especially the mental dangers that so easily entangle, disrupt, and damage us. Illusions (“Maya”), false views of reality, should be avoided whenever possible. I can’t find anything Biblically wrong with these premises. Yes, the Bible says it is better to go to a house of mourning than a house of joy, but the Bible also says sorrow lasts for a night yet joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5b), also the Man of Sorrows came to give life, and in His presence are joys forevermore and an absence of tears (“but in Thy presence Joy entire” says Milton in Paradise Lost, book 3, line 265). So, just as Shakespeare says in Twelfth Night, sorrow has its proper time and season but should not move in forever, when George Harrison says “[t]hat is not what you are here for,” it’s hard to disagree with him when he aligns with Milton, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Additionally, the use of internal rhyme as well as end-line rhyme propels the song along quite rhythmically conjoined with the fine, soothing musical elements of the song.
Remember what I just said about “Beware of Darkness” being near-perfect and its lyrics aligning pretty much with the Bible and all that and the music being very soothing? I think it was about fifteen seconds ago. Pretend I just said it all again for “All Things Must Pass” without the “near-” and “pretty much” parts, and you’ve got how I feel about the eponymous track on this mega-album. It’s likely my favorite of the bunch (perhaps tied with “Isn’t it a Pity”). It’s a perfect song for when you are feeling down; it’s a perfect song for when you are feeling good (memento mori, everyone, memento mori).
“I Dig Love” is a fun, lighthearted, the-clever-side-of-George-Harrison, unserious groove that adds to the diversity of the mega-album’s musical offerings. Mr. Harrison has proved irrefragably he can pen moving, intellectually profound songs. No one should be thinking he is doing that here. Even so, hidden among the humorous litany of love sources (some of which may be inappropriate but only if interpreted as such), Mr. Harrison slides in a wholly-Biblical “And try to live love, come on, that’s where you should be.” I don’t think we can argue against that.
“Hear Me Lord” … well, let’s get into it, then, shall we? We’ve been putting it off all album long. What should we, as thinking-listening Christians, do in response to George Harrison’s 30-some-year foray into Hindu mysticism and Hare Krishna spirituality? I’d say … nothing. Don’t do a thing about it. Now, I’m not saying YHWH and Krishna are the same Being. I’m not saying there are many paths to salvation. I agree with Milton when he has God say “As many as are restor’d, without Thee none” (Paradise Lost iii.289, emphasis added), that no one will return to Paradise apart from the salvific work of Christ. Surely you know I believe that by now. But did anyone get around to telling that to George Harrison? He surely sounds like one wholly receptive to the possibility for humankind’s restoration to Heavenly peace. Perhaps no one got around to telling him something other than Hinduism. Would it do any good to excoriate the album now? No. Should we tell everyone to stop watching The Muppet Movie? No. Should we listen attentively and respectfully, with the ability to, shall we say, cull the wheat from the chaff? Yes, I think so. Do I like “My Sweet Lord”? Sort of. I think it would be a perfectly true song if you change a few words here and there, but I still think it would be valid to sing most of it directed toward a different audience than what Mr. Harrison intended – and I don’t think that would be “disrespectful” in any way to Mr. Harrison or his art. Why would redirecting something made in all sincerity “according to one’s lights” as the kids say toward its proper destination be “disrespectful” or other recriminatory words some of you could likely conjure up? I don’t think it is. Similarly, I sing “Hear Me Lord” toward YHWH, and perhaps Mr. Harrison did in his way as well. (One could likely say the same for much of his final album, Brainwashed, which we may explore together soon as well.) As the final song on this album, not including the Apple Jam EP, we cannot just dismiss the intensity with which Mr. Harrison implores the divine: help me, Lord; forgive me, Lord; hear me, Lord. It sounds very sincere to me, and I don’t think he is calling upon Rama, or Vishnu, or Brahma, or Shiva, or even Krishna (though I could certainly be mistaken about that). It sounds very much like a song King David would sing, and so can you, and so can I. (Those mmmms at the beginning, especially, are fantastic.)
Not much needs be said about Apple Jam: it’s a pretty fun and impressive collection of mostly instrumental numbers, made all the more impressive when you find out who the musicians are playing these riffs. “Thanks for the Pepperoni” may be my favorite, but that’s not saying much of anything: they are all very enjoyable (though “It’s Johnny’s Birthday” understandably has the least replayability of the bunch, to no one’s discredit). Sure, there is some general similarity among the tracks, but closer attention can dissect their differences, if you feel up for it. If not, that’s okay, too: enjoy the riffs from an all-star collection of musicians.
So In Conclusion To Sum Up
All Things Must Pass is a very good mega-album. Some tracks are better than others, but there aren’t any genuinely “weak” tracks on it. The more you listen to it, the better it gets, which seems like an unnecessary thing to say about a very good mega-album (sort of obvious, that). My only complaint is it is on two discs so I have to keep switching them (not a problem for you kids with your digital versions and your hula hoops and your fax machines). As we have discussed, one does not need to feel bad about listening to George Harrison sing “Hare Krishna”; instead, be reminded of the genuine need so many people have for communion with the divine, then go out and share about the hope you have within you with gentleness and respect. Then delight in the great diversity of musical and lyrical brilliance of All Things Must Pass. You will be forever glad you did.
I don’t want to sound hyperbolic (who, me?), but listening to All Things Must Pass, especially attentively for the first time, feels akin to getting back the use of an organ or limb for the first time in a long while. It’s that good, that useful, and that beautiful.
The Hayao Miyazaki oeuvre covers so many beloved classics of anime such as My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke. Often overlooked is his very first film directorial effort, The Castle of Cagliostro. It’s not hard to see why: it doesn’t quite fit with the themes and elements that characterize much of the rest of his work. There isn’t a young girl protagonist, no moving to a new country home, no emphasis on the importance of preserving nature. Instead, we have a film that is part of a different large body of work, specifically the Lupin the Third series by Monkey Punch, an anime series Miyazaki himself worked on. But let me tell you right now, The Castle of Cagliostro is not merely my favorite animated film of all time, but also in my top three movies (live action or animated) ever.
You see, Castle of Cagliostro has what I like in movies on a base, visceral level: excitement, adventure, and really wild things. Castle of Cagliostro starts with a Monaco casino heist at the height of conflict, our “heroes” Lupin and Jigen running away from the police with arms stuffed so overly full of cash bills stream behind them as they impossibly hurdle over obstacles on their way to their getaway vehicle. The police bumble their way into their own vehicles, which proceed to fall apart in spectacular and equally impossible ways: splitting down the middle, wheels flying off, crunching to a halt after moving mere inches — all of these the product of sabotage by Lupin, as revealed by his taunting note left on the engine compartment of one of the now-useless cars.
This illustrates what is the true hallmark of this movie: portraying a thrilling adventure where the rules of physics shall bend beyond that of reality, but only in ways that enhance the thrills and humor without destroying important dramatic tension. The most obvious example of this is my favorite sequence of the film, a car chase around a winding cliff path with Lupin and Jigen trying to intercede on behalf of a woman being chased by some thugs. At one point in this tense chase, Lupin drives his Fiat 500 (a ridiculous car to even be in such a chase) sideways up the side of the cliff. It’s completely mad, but just wonderful to watch. Yet while physics have been defied, dramatic tension remains — we are still worried for the well being of the woman in the pursued car, as it creeps toward falling off a cliff. Even in later action sequences we still hold our breath, hoping our hero can make it through.
This says nothing of the lavish setting of the movie, where even on his limited budget Miyazaki fills the fictional Grand Duchy of Cagliostro with detail and intricacies. Miyazaki’s love of visual landscapes packed with wonders to explore can be seen even here in his earliest directorial work. There are more than a few long, lingering shots that may not move the plot forward but help immerse you in this little independent city-state where most of the movie takes place.
But of course, we need to address the 500-pound gorilla in the room: can you enjoy The Castle of Cagliostro without knowing a lick about Lupin the Third? Honestly, it’s actually ideal not to have preconceived notions of the Lupin characters. On its initial release in the late seventies, The Castle of Cagliostro was actually criticized for its portrayal of the beloved Lupin the Third characters. For instance, Miyazaki’s Lupin is far more heroic and less arrogant, and his treatment of female lead Fujiko Mine gives her depth and skill as opposed to being a sex object. Miyazaki makes these characters his own, and the movie is better for it. You get all the needed history in the film itself, from Lupin and Fujiko’s mutual admiration to the complex relationship of Lupin and his law enforcement foil Koichi Zenigata.
The Castle of Cagliostro has also stood the test of time for me, personally. As one of the three movies I will pop on the TV whenever I truly need a pick-me-up, it has never failed to put a smile on my face. I have watched it dozens of times, only rivalled in number by the other members of my movie holy trilogy (Jaws and Shaun of the Dead), and it is always the right choice to watch. It is my favorite anime of any sort, movie or series, and you absolutely should give it a try.
This paper was written for a course called “Racial Performance,” a course examining how media present race and performance by people of that race and by others. Caution: this has very strong language throughout.
The scene chosen for this paper is from the film Bamboozled, when Honeycutt interacts with the crowd in blackface while Manray prepares to go on stage (1:45:25-1:49:05). It is an influential scene because it is not only shocking and abrasive but also looks at the public reaction to the show and how it has changed. The scene occurs right after Delacroix has an odd encounter with his “jolly nigger bank” where, after Delacroix has fed it several coins, the figurine then moves without being touched and continually flings money into its mouth, seemingly on its own. This is important because it lays the groundwork for the following scene, as it shows a transition from Delacroix controlling the blackface figurine to it taking power on its own, representing Delacroix’s own blackface project becoming an entity out of Delacroix’s control. The figurine can also represent Delacroix himself, indicating he has lost control of himself and is instead controlled by greed and a hunger for power and success. In her article “From New Deal to No Deal,” Alice Maurice comments on the significance of this previous scene in relation to the next, saying “the film ties the loss of black identity to a stereotyped blackness performed for public consumption” (200).
The scene opens with Honeycutt dressed in a blackface Abraham Lincoln costume, dancing and yelling into a microphone. He identifies as “Honest Abe Honeycutt,” which is an interesting mix between his blackface character and a man associated with abolition and black equality. The statement being made there is the crowd should not feel bad about the show, but rather associate it with racial progressivism — a “New Millennium.” He throws his hands forward and his head back and yells, “I just have one thing to say: Whooooooweee!” The crowd, a mix of black, white, and Latino people all dressed in the same clothing and painted up in blackface, responds with an emphatic “Whooowah!” and mimics his behavior. In doing so, the crowd immediately feels connected to each other, all wearing the same clothes and makeup and drawing on each other’s enthusiasm. They also identify with Honeycutt and his “nigger-ness,” and as Honeycutt speaks, they respond with “Uh huh” and “Preach boy.” There is a sense of the audience as a church congregation, with a camera shot looking from behind Honeycutt onto the crowd with his hands out like a proselytizing preacher. As Maurice phrases it, “the scene suggests television as a mass-mediated church, but here, blackface is its communion” (199). The crowd takes up a posture of borderline worship, which can be seen in their fervency and attitude throughout the rest of the scene. Honeycutt then begins with the Gettysburg Address and changes the second line to, “They was kickin’ our black asses,” repeating himself and evoking laughter in the crowd. Although he is actually black, saying “our” while in blackface allows the crowd to consider themselves a part of the people to which Honeycutt is referring, since they are in blackface as well.
Honeycutt runs into the crowd and asks an older white woman with coiffed hair and pearl earrings, “Grandma, ma’am, is you a nigga?” With her blackface makeup only covering her face, she is so clearly white, in both skin color and stereotype, with her hairstyle, jewelry, and white undershirt. Her whiteness is even reflected in the question, with Honeycutt calling her “Ma’am,” a word associated with the relationship between a black slave and a white mistress. She responds with, “Yessiree Bob, darn tootin’ I’m a nigger,” to which the crowd roars in approval. The camera is close to her face and she says her words with a defiant shaking of the head, knowing she is crossing lines, but doing so with pride. The clear departure from proper grammar and the outrageousness with which she says her words points back to what Lott wrote in his “Blackness and Blackface” article, talking about minstrelsy as a “carnivalizing of race” (20). The next person interviewed is what Donald Bogle would call a “coon” character in his article “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks.” He is a white man who rings his hands and hangs his mouth open, breathing heavy and talking with a thick dialect in broken English. This is interesting and important because it is obviously derogatory, but in the background of the shot, a black woman smiles and nods as the man hams up his performance. It indicates a complicity and an approval of this “mimicry of blackness via blackface” as Maurice phrases it.
Other people are interviewed during this scene, but an extremely provocative encounter occurs when a “Sicilian” man is asked by Honeycutt, “Is you a nigga?” The man responds with, “I’m a Sicilian nigga, which means I’m more of a nigga than any nigga in here! You know what they say about Sicilians — we’re darker than most niggers, we’re bigger (looking down) than most niggers, and we rap better than most niggers.” This is an obvious connection between “blackness” and masculinity. Spike Lee is characterizing and personifying the association between being black and somehow being manlier. Lott’s words are appropriate for this performance, writing, “Bold swagger, irrepressible desire, sheer bodily display: in a real sense the minstrel man was the penis…” (25). His “bold swagger” fuels the rap that follows: “I’m white, not black, but not all the time. I’m in blackface and I’m feelin’ fine. No matter what color, no matter what race, you know you’re cool chillin’ when you’re in blackface.” His invitation to find certain privilege in blackface harkens back to Delacroix’s father’s words: “Everybody wanna be black, but nobody wanna be black” (58:30). Blackface is a way to steal the privilege of “blackness” without actually having to be black. This man’s role in the movie is to be an embodiment of this black-masculinity association and the blackface privilege, and to make viewers recognize it for what it is: racist and ridiculous.
Manray plays an important part of this scene as well. While the crowd interviews are occurring, emotional music is playing consistently in the background and the film cuts to bits of Manray going through his routine of putting on blackface before coming on stage. In the first image of Manray getting ready, there is a sign (probably an advertising poster) in the background of the shot that says “SHOCK,” which is exactly what the viewer is experiencing after watching the exaggerated interviews with Honeycutt. The film doesn’t allow the viewer to stay in a state of shock, and rather deepens the emotion with the next shot of Manray, where he is looking into his dressing mirror. In this shot, there are actually two reflections of his face, perhaps indicating the identity schism between his blackface character, Mantan and his actual black self, Manray. The turmoil can be heard in the background noise, with the shouts and cries of the audiences representing Mantan, and the music playing at the same time representing the real Manray.
After the interview with the Sicilian man, the film cuts to a pivotal moment as Manray levels his head and looks into the mirror. Just one face is shown in the reflection, indicating Manray has made up his mind, and the lighting is dark and grim, recognizing the gravity of the decision made. He has thrown down his makeup applicator and leaves the room without putting on his costume, resolute in his choice of identity. Although the scene does not completely end at this point, Manray’s decision has been made, and the viewer feels a sense of doomed understanding. After watching Honeycutt foment the crowd into a blackface-crazed mass, it is clear Manray will not be accepted or appreciated on the stage without blackface, because it shatters the reality they’ve created regarding “blackness.” The scene that follows is the aggressive removal of Manray from the stage, eventually followed by Manray’s murder.
The chosen scene serves to exaggerate and expose the stereotypes knowingly and unknowingly prevalent in the mass media audience. The Bamboozled viewer is reviled by the audience members, but also most likely identifies with them if they are honest with themselves. Spike Lee purposefully puts the shots of the audience interviews in the same scene as the decision for Manray to go out in his real face because it makes the viewer recognize the duality black racial performance contains. It forces the viewer to decide which one is the reality: Mantan and the fervent audience or Manray and the music.
Redeeming Pandora 