If you haven't seen the film based on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion, alli can say is that if you're a fan of the program, or a fan or Robert Altman films, you opught to see the PHC movie.
Meryl Streep plays the mother of Lindsay Lohan, one of the two surviving members of a Carter/Stoneman Family type family act (Lily Tomlin is the other surviver). Lohan's character rejects the whole cornball country/populist image of her mother's family and of the PHC program.
But, when the show runs short, she gets shoved onstage to fill time... and the only song she knows nearly well enough to sing is Frankie and Johnny. Notice i said "nearly"? She has to vamp and improvise, just as she has to improvise a last-minute stage outfit out of a pink cowboy hat and a shawl to more-or-less cover up her goth t-shirt.
However, you may ask, does the title of this post come from?
Well, i just listened to that track for the first time since i saw the film the day it opened back in December, and i caught a line that i hadn't caught before.
Some people have complained that Keillor and Altman went with slightly "blue" humour more than one might expect - singing cowboys Dusty and Leftie's song Bad Jokes has been singled out.
But i think someone slipped a quick one into Lohan's lyrics about a cheating boyfriend and a vengeful girl, who shoots him when she catches him in a hotel room with another girl.
What do you think?
My Trusted MOGs
It's hard to know who wasn't in on it. It looks like you may be the first critic or blogger to write about noticing it. Kudos.
Was there an earlier twelve-bar blues than "Frankie and Johnny"?
My Trusted MOGs
Saw the review of this movie on Ebert & Robert...Looks intresting...
My Trusted MOGs
To be honest, Spike, i'm not even sure just what a twelve-bar blues is, technically. I recognise that this song and other blues (mostly St Louis blues, i think) are different from other blues songs, so if you want to tell me that they're twelve-bar blues, i'll believe you.
I suppose i ought to research it a bit...
However, as to your question, at least some form of this song apparently dates back to 1865 - 70, so maybe...
(Got another post since this that reprints some history on the song, as well as other stuff.)
My Trusted MOGs
(101...) 1234/1234/1234/1234/1234/12341234/1234/1234/1234/1234/1234 (repeat)
Chord Progression root, 3rd, 4th...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_bar_blues
My Trusted MOGs
I hate to admit this, but I'm missing it, whatever it is.
My Trusted MOGs
chucky says:
I hate to admit this, but I’m missing it, whatever it is.
"Squirrel", like "beaver" (and other small furry creatures) is smetimes usde as a slang term for female anatomy.
Not so often as cute little kitties, though.
My Trusted MOGs
Ah. Heh. Ok, I don't feel bad now, I'm from NC. I know people who have eaten squirrels (not the slang kind) so that didn't seem out of place to me. Haha, oh my.