The Great Umm Kulthum

I first heard a recording of this legendary Egyptian singer in the mid-Seventies when a housemate, an escapee from Yemen, played it with friends. The live performance was as thrilling because of the audience reaction as for the impassioned delivery of her song.

Apparently her performances could last up to five hours, but here is a sample from her Enta Omri (You Are My Life) given at Paris' Olympia Théâtre in 1967:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umm_Kulthum
• https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/Umm_Kulthum

If ever you're tempted to write...

 A moment I can't forget is Peter Richardson as Al Pacino in The Comic Strip Presents' episode 'The Strike.' The writer has scripted a lengthy impassioned speech and the Hollywood superstar dismisses it with:

'I can say all that by the way I stand.'

At what point did movies run away from words? Maybe when Hollywood's Golden Age European émigré / refugee writers left the scene.

Anyhow, a classic, and thank goodness it's on Youtube:

FRIDAY MUSIC: Ray Ellington, by JD

Henry Pitts Brown (17 March 1916 – 27 February 1985), known professionally as Ray Ellington, was an English singer, drummer and bandleader. He is best known for his appearances on The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960. The Ray Ellington Quartet had a regular musical segment on the show, and Ellington also had a small speaking role in many episodes, often as a parodic African, Native American or Arab chieftain (but also often, with no attempt to change his normal accent, in counter-intuitive roles such as a female secretary or a Scotsman).

• https://www.theseagoonmemoirs.com/post/ray-ellington
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Ellington

Ray Ellington - The Irish Were Egyptians Long Ago

Ray Ellington - The Three Bears

Ray Ellington:Goonshow 1955

78 RPM – The Ray Ellington Quartet – The Teddy Bears’

The Ray Ellington Quartet Plays Mr. Sandman

MOVIE NIGHT: 'The General'

 Buster Keaton's masterpiece - first regarded as a failure:

Proxy War Poll

 Which proxy warfighter do you support?

1) Kiev regime

2) Hamas

3) Both

4) Neither

FRIDAY MUSIC: Dr John; Voodoo NiteTripper! by JD

Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music combined New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B.

As a young man, Rebennack was interested in New Orleans voodoo, and in Los Angeles he developed the idea of the Dr. John persona based on the life of Dr. John, a Senegalese prince, conjure man, herb doctor, and spiritual healer who came to New Orleans from Haiti. This free man of color lived on Bayou Road and claimed to have 15 wives and oven 50 children. He kept an assortment of snakes and lizards, along with embalmed scorpions and animal and human skulls, and sold gris-gris, voodoo amulets which supposedly protect the wearer from harm. Gris-Gris became the name of Dr. John's debut album, released in January 1968, representing his own form of "voodoo medicine".

Not sure how seriously he took voodoo but it became part of his stage persona along with some spectacularly colourful clothes and show.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._John
• https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/dr-john-musical-legacy-and-influence/

Dr. John & Eric Clapton - Right Place, Wrong Time 1996

Dr. John - Such a Night

Dr. John - Swanee River Boogie (new upload)

Dr. John - Didn't He Ramble ; Closer Walk With Thee

Dr. John - Goin' Back To New Orleans (Video)

Dr John "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" Live in Brooklyn

FRIDAY MUSIC: Edith Piaf, by JD

The Rugby World Cup is currently in progress in France and is being televised. And in the TV's introductory montage I caught the familiar strains of Edith Piaf singing 'Je Ne Regrette Rien' which reminded me.......

One of my friends at school had a copy of Piaf singing 'Milord.' Don't know where he found it or why. I think it was on the 'B' side of her most famous song, the one being used for the TV coverage. A great barrel house honky tonk style with added gallic flair! We would sing along with it rather raucously. Well, here is the great lady herself and she is/was much better than we were!

• https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/Mag/Culture/From-poverty-to-glory-Life-of-legendary-French-singer-Edith-Piaf
• https://www.classical-music.com/features/artists/who-was-edith-piaf/

Edith Piaf Non Je Ne Regrette Rien [Live]

La Foule

Edith Piaf - Hymne à l'amour ( "Paris chante toujours")

EDITH PIAF - Milord (Live) 1959 Best Quality Found!

Edith Piaf - La vie en rose (Officiel) [Live Version]