Several years back I caught a film on cable starring Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, and Dana Delaney. I didn't see all of it, but what I did see was nearly hypnotic in its effect on me. Over the years I hoped I might run into it again, but I didn't know the title and didn't think about looking for it.
Recently, though, I found the film late at night. The title is Light Sleeper. It's a 1992 movie directed by Paul Schrader. Dafoe is fabulous as a drug dealer who has kicked his own addiction and is now looking to escape the essentially destructive life he's led. Five stars.
What got me this time around -- more than the story -- was the music, particularly a number by Michael Been titled "To Feel This Way." I had to do some digging to figure out the title of the song and the artist, but I did and ended up ordering the entire CD, On the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough, of which it is a part. Wonderful, melancholy stuff. I just want to lay on the floor and listen to it, particularly the track that arrested me in the first place. Hits all the right mood notes, especially regret.
I also discovered (S.T. Karnick is somewhere going "No, DUH.") that Been was the main man behind the Christian band, The Call. I purchased some of their stuff which I don't like quite as well as the Been solo album. It's still good. One of the cuts was apparently used by the Al Gore 2000 campaign! Also found out Bono is a fan of the band.
We'll see if any other TRC types knew these interesting secrets before I did.
Hunter—I've long liked Been's work with The Call (esp. the anthemic songs such as "Let the Day Begin" and "The Walls Came Down"), and have been thinking about getting a hold of Verge at some point. I'm mot a big fan of melancholy things, so maybe I'll hold off a bit longer. Glad to hear that you like it, however. Been and the Call are underappreciated, I think.
ReplyDeleteGoogle is the enemy, at least Michael Been's.
ReplyDeleteBe a worthy artist but identified only by outreaching universialities/commonalities like "Michael," "been," "the," and "call," and you are pritnear invisible forevermore. Word up.
(Hey, I know all about it. In the pre-Google age, we named our band The Cookies. We're now at about #480,062 on Google since "cookies" seem to be something that live inside computers. Who knew?)
In a round of desperate midnight channel flipping, I happened upon Xtian music TV sometime in this past year and Michael Been was on.
I liked "The Walls Came Down," so I stuck around and enjoyed him thoroughly.
Here's a little more on him, no thanks to Google.
"I Still Believe (Great Design)" was a Hunter Baker-type tune, unless I miss my guess...
Google is the enemy, at least Michael Been's
ReplyDeleteI suppose the time has already come when this is a serious consideration in publicity and marketing. I don't think this affected the naming, but my favorite local medieval/Renaissance/chant vocal group (yes, that's how weird I am, I have a favorite Gregorian chant group) is called the Suspicious Cheese Lords. Now there's some rockin' Christian tunes.
In an AHA! moment, I did a google search on "the call" + "michael been" and was led to amazon.com.
ReplyDeleteThere I noticed under the "Customers who bought this title also bought" was the album: The Alarm - Standards.
I have been looking for the name of that group and that album for weeks, but I could not remember it for the life of me ... a college rommmate owned it and I could not remember the title.
Thanks TRC! :)
Interesting you say that, CLA. I thought about The Alarm when I was trying to come up with the name of The Call. The brain makes its associations, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, CLA, I have a guess at your identity. How about looking at my blogger profile and emailing me?
BONO & T-Bone Burnett sing on a CALL album called
ReplyDeleteRED MOON!