HousekeepingInterviewsMusic

O Brother, where art thou?

By January 22, 2011No Comments

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Once more diver­si­fy­ing my journ­al­ist­ic efforts—because, as we see more and more clearly day by day, film cri­ti­cism is a mug’s game—I recently inter­viewed Gregg Allman for the MSN Music web­site. The fruits of my labors may be found here. Among oth­er things, Mr. Allman makes a liv­er trans­plant sound like a rather ardu­ous pro­ced­ure to endure, and I take his words to heart. His new solo album, Low Country Blues, is what they call a good ‘un—soulful, heart­felt, a real groover record of the old school well worth your time. The above image depicts Allman with Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason Leigh in 1991’s Rush, a rare for­ay into film act­ing for Allman. He played an extremely cold-blooded drug deal­er and was, as far as I was con­cerned, the best thing about the pic­ture. He and I did not get around to dis­cuss­ing this epis­ode in his life, but hell, this Is ostens­ibly a film blog so I figured I needed to make some­thing of an effort to stick to that. In any event, enjoy.

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No Comments

  • Kent Jones says:
    January 22, 2011 at 11:18 am

    Sounds pretty good based on a couple of audio samples. When he’s good, he’s really good. And when he’s not…
    Actually, I just came across a hil­ari­ous pas­sage in APATHY FOR THE DEVIL in which Nick Kent winds up at a party at Cher’s house, where future hus­band Gregg Allman “was so utterly cabbaged…that he’d have been hard-pressed to punch his way through a sheet of Kleenex…At one point, Allman staggered over to a white piano to per­form a slow blues for his girl­friend’s guests. Whatever drugs he was embalm­ing him­self in, they cer­tainly wer­en’t doing his music­al chops any favors. Only Ronnie Wood was impressed by the impromptu recit­al. He was seated next to me and mumbled words to the effect that we were both priv­ileged to be in the pres­ence of such a gif­ted entity. That’s when I came to the real­iz­a­tion that Ronnie Wood was­n’t exactly the bright­est light bulb in the great fuse box of life.”
    Glenn, I will have to respect­fully dis­agree with you about RUSH – it’s a ter­rible movie and he’s ter­rible in it. But he looks great. Of course, his finest moment as an act­or was on tele­vi­sion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBrbW60kiV4

  • I.V. says:
    January 22, 2011 at 2:01 pm

    Kent,
    That Superboy clip reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IawxMVsL0Xc

  • James Keepnews says:
    January 22, 2011 at 5:13 pm

    Right on, GK – he’s one of the great singer/keyboardists in the his­tory of American music, though per­haps not, for that, an angel (cf. an earli­er solo album) much less a role mod­el. Also, a damn fine com­poser who can make 11/8 sound less proggy and more like a Muscle Shoals workout than any­one else, ever – of course “Whipping Post,” what else?
    And you and Kent are both right – ter­rible film, Gregg’s the best thing in it (I know the answer includes a pro­duc­tion of his pops’ THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON upcom­ing, but, on the real, WEHT Mr. Patric?). I would­n’t put Gregg up against any RSC cats, or any­thing, but he holds his own in the film with a cer­tain dam­aged grav­ity and no small amount of men­ace, the whole part of the part, I should have thought. Shame they did­n’t get Gregg to do the soundtrack, favor­ing the weak tea Sir Eric serves up like a clock being punched on the regs.
    Tell the MSN Music folks your fans want to see more music writ­ing from you. Thank them in advance, as I do you – and, for this inter­view, subsequently.

  • Sean says:
    January 22, 2011 at 11:52 pm

    You reminded me that I want to check out that album. I agree that Allman was the stand out in “Rush”, but I think Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jason Patric were excel­lent also. Definitely worth see­ing once. There is a killer Buddy Guy song on the soundtrack too.

  • Kent Jones says:
    January 23, 2011 at 1:06 am

    And back to you, I.V. – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ_0nPkcb6I

  • I.V. says:
    January 23, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    I’ll take your Eno-on-Father-Ted and raise you a Smiths-on-a-kids-show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quFlsFkKarE

  • Ian W. Hill says:
    January 23, 2011 at 11:55 pm

    How about Zappa as a deal­er in “weasel dust?”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPVjXgw4sUU

  • The Confidence Man says:
    January 25, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    Now, I’m one to talk about run-on sen­tences and unclear ante­cedents in lengthy par­en­thet­ics, but, Glenn, just how many times did Duane Allman die?
    “(includ­ing the death of his beloved broth­er, the great gui­tar­ist Duane Allman, in a motor­cycle acci­dent in 1971, not to men­tion a half a dozen marriages)”