hey bobby, when did you decide to become a full time crooner?

...
...










bob dylan/return to me
il semble que cette interprétation suave et décalée à la fois d'un grand succès de dean martin ne soit pas un bootleg, mais un vrai enregistrement récent ... pour les soprano

bob dylan/sugar baby/glasgow, 2001
one of dylan's most perfect and delicate songs, sung ever so sweetly only a couple of months after he had recorded it for love and theft (notice how the dean martin influence mixes with emmett miller's old time minstrel style)

hey louis, don't tell me you like ella now ...

ella fitzgerald/but not for me (1950), ellis larkins on piano
i've changed my mind over the years: in two fabulous records, one with the the great ellis larkins on piano (pure ella, 1950/1954) and the intimate ella (with pianist paul smith, in 1960), she just sings classic ballads and she's as good as billie holiday or sarah vaughan .. or frank sinatra.

hey bob, was it you there, in vienna, on tuesday?

..








bob dylan/masters of war, vienna, june 10

hey louis, do you know why dylan loves david allyn that much?

...







david allyn/long ago and far away (1959)
words by ira gershwin, music by jerome kern
(rappeler que david allyn a commencé dans l'orchestre de boyd raeburn)

hey louis, who is the devil here: junior kimbrough or reverend louis overstreet?

...










reverend louis overstreet/working on the building (1960, arhoolie)

junior kimbrough/sad days, lonely nights (1993, fat possum)
l'un des derniers enregistrements de junior kimbrough, dans son juke joint du nord mississippi (il a brûlé quelques semaines après sa mort): god's voodoo or the devil's prayer?

hey louis, do you really think bob dylan prays better than pops staples and pierre pinchik?

..L........














bob dylan/tell me that it isn't true (rochester, 2000)
another of those great funny rocking numbers from year 2000 (year one, as far as dylan is concerned), fabulous version of a light country song from NASHVILLE SKYLINE


staples singers/uncloudy day (1956)
perfection of christian prayer, coupled with pops staples' charlie patton guitar with african echoes

pierre pinchik (ex cantor of leningrad, 1936)
perfection of greatest hazan's voice and angelic jewish prayer

hey louis, who's the best music writer, will friedwald or peter guralnick?

as far as music goes -be it jazz, blues, rock, pop-, i've never needed anybody's help in any way.
it's been more complicated with soul music, country music ... ... ...and with the infinite variety of jazz singers and crooners.two persons have helped me on the way.
the best writer on country music and soul music has always been peter guralnick (he's also the best on sam cooke, and he'll be soon the greatest authority ... on sam philips). he's taught me a lot.
all that peter guralnick loves, i have come to love and respect. there's not much i love that he doesn't love himself.
the best writer on jazz singing is will friedwald (the expression "jazz singing" is used because i haven't found any better one, but i could have called it light jazz, crooning, whatever ....)
all that i did not find out by myself on al bowlly, whispering jack smith, billie holiday, dean martin, dick haymes ... ... .... or frank sinatra, i have to admit i learnt from him, from his books and liner notes to be precise.
all that he loves, i have come to love and respect. without him, i may have ignored the great singing of jack teagarden, david allyn, mildred bailey, ukulele ike, connee boswell, ... .... ... or the only good ella fitzgerald record, let no man write my epitaph (now known as "the intimate ella")
but will friedwald has a problem: he only loves "strong" styles, and "big" voices, this is why he despises such great artists as sylvia syms, beverly kenney, jeri southern, irene kral, shirley horn, blossom dearie, or bobby troup.
he doesn't seem to know that less is more.
here's to bobby troup.

bobby troup/their hearts were full of spring (1958)

hey louis, from first black minstrel, emmett miller (1929) to last minstrel movie, rio bravo (1959), this here is transgenre territory....

...
...
...
...
...
...
...














emmett miller/dusky stevedore (1929)
emmett miller, a white man singing as a black minstrel as early as 1913, invented burlesque jazz, transvestite blues, second degree country music, ironic rock 'n roll ... as well as transgenre pop music of the 21st century: he was at the same time the beginning and the end of a great commercial art form ....

rio bravo/the ultimate minstrel show?
emmett miller was the beginning and the end of a great commercial expression (country, rock, pop, transvestite factory art, whatever ....) .... and the same goes for rio bravo: beginning and end of a great "art d'usine" called cinema ... in which john wayne is allegorically transforming himself into a fake woman, while angie dickinson goes for male position and male domination and impersonation ....
bert williams (the mississippi stoker, nov 1906), first black minstrel ever to record (beautifully remastered thanks to ARCHEOPHONE records), a black man disguised as a ... black man

emmett miller/sweet mamma (1929)
emmett miller est le début et la fin de la country, du rock, de la pop (comme rio bravo est le chef d'oeuvre ultime de l'art d'usine/cinéma et sa catastrophe annoncée)
tout ça, c'est juste une histoire des travestis ....

hey louis, did you produce these beverly kenney videos (and the two johnny hartman clips too)?

frank sinatra/beverly kenney/why try to change me now?
two splendid versions by sinatra (1952 and 1959 ) and before that, an even greater one by beverly kenney (1956)













johnny hartman/while we're young (1956)


... Je suis né en à Gurs à côté de Pau. Quand j’y suis né, en 1943, c’était un camp de concentration. Un camp de concentration en France, tu te fous de notre gueule, Skorecki ? Vous ne me croyez pas ? Cherchez sur Google, vous verrez si j’affabule. Cette histoire, la plus perso, la plus secrète, la plus intime, je ne vous en reparlerais plus jamais. Une fois, ça suffit.
Pourquoi Gurs, USA ? Pas à cause de Springsteen, que j’ai toujours trouvé lourdaud, mais à cause des USA. Tout mon paysage mental, depuis toujours, a toujours été américain. L’Amérique de Charlie Chaplin et de John Ford, l’Amérique de Jimmie Rodgers et de Bob Dylan. De ça aussi, du fait d’avoir été « born in the USA », je ne vous reparlerais plus jamais. Une fois, ça suffit.

beverly kenney/more than you know (one of the last songs, 1959)
On va parler de quoi alors? De crooners, de country, de Dylan. Beaucoup de Dylan. Cette chronique, j’avais d’abord pensé l’appeler LIKE A ROLLING STONE. C’est qu’une nuit de juillet 1965, figurez-vous, j’étais dans un studio d’enregistrement à New York, un studio où Dylan enregistrait le disque où allait figurer Like A Rolling Stone (qui venait de sortir en 45 tours, et faisait déjà figure d’hymne électrique et poétique pour une jeunesse déboussolée à la recherche d’un nouveau prophète). Ce disque sublime que j’ai vu se faire presque en entier en un jour et une nuit de défonce musicale, c’était Highway 61 Revisited. Vous ne me croyez pas ? Demandez à Dylan, il vous dira.

beverly kenney/dipsy doodle
very early pre-rock and roll song (1952)

beverly kenney/a woman's intuition (ellis larkins, piano, 1957)
En ce moment, je fais des efforts, j’écoute une chanteuse vivante. Elle s’appelle Shelby Lynne, son nouveau disque (Just A Little Lovin’/Lost Highway) est un hommage à Dusty Springfield, et surtout à son célébrissime lp enregistré à Memphis. Ce n’est pas une débutante...
..
shelby lynne/i only want to be with you (from new cd, just a little lovin'
. ... j’aime cent fois mieux la grande Melba Montgomery, connue pour ses beaux duos avec l’homme à la voix de miel, George Jones. Cherchez ses disques, ils sont difficiles à trouver mais vous ne le regretterez pas.

here's the great melba montgomrey that i compare in my article with "newcomer" shelby lynne (unfortunaly, melba's mosty dramatic video, NO CHARGE, has now been removed by youtube ....)
(à suivre dans ROLLING STONE)


beverly kenney/it only happens when i dance with you

hey skorecki, is it true you're writing again?
yes, every month i'll have my column in the new french edition of ROLLING STONE, i've found a title, BORN IN GURS, USA

frank sinatra/send in the clowns (carnegie hall, 1980)

sinatra, with strings (1958)/close to you





beverly kenney//i walk a little faster (1958)

hey louis, don't you think bob dylan never sang as well as in Melbourne, in 1966 (all these clips are produced by LES FILMS D'OCCASION)?

bob dylan/just like tom thumb's blues/melbourne, 19/20 april 1966



bob dylan/just like a woman/melbourne, 19/20 april 1966

melbourne 1966, one of the very best concerts of dylan's "career": drunk, stoned, or both ...whatever ...but greater and more poetic versions than the originals, most of them recorded just a few weeks earlier for the BLONDE ON BLONDE ALBUM (some tracks are from 1965's HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED, an album almost done as a live improvised concert -i know, i was there in summer 1965, as a young french journalist, for more than half of the recording .. ampaings souvenirs of an incredibly creative artist, although high on rhum and coke/and cocaïne or heroin, or so it seemed... only charlie parker could do that)

POUR VOIR LA TOTALITé DU CONCERT MELBOURNE 66 DE DYLAN aller sur
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=106DE5C71D3F1FD5




bob dylan/on a rainy afternoon (1966)

bob dylan/i can't leave her behind (1966)
two beautiful unfinished songs from eat the document (1966),first film that dylan directed, or sort of directed (il a renié le film plus tard)
....
....
if you go to youtube and ask for eat the document, you'll be able to see a great part of the film.
span class="Apple-style-span" style="">if you want to see renaldo and clara (1975/76), go to
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=20FAA92D7E0D7344
it's divided in 54 parts, you'll see the whole of it

renaldo and clara (part 53, just like a waman/knockin' on heaven's door)

renaldo and clara is a masterpiece of images and music, with an idea of schizo-cinematography and split characters that dylan invented more than 30 years before todd haynes had his idea on a film on him.
here's what dylan had to say in 1976 about different actors playing bob dylan:
-in the movie, ronnie hawkins, a 300-pound canadian rock singer, goes by the name of bob dylan. so is there a real bob Dylan?
-dylan: in the movie, no. he doesn't even appear in the movie. his voice is there, his songs are used, but bob's not in the movie. it would be silly. did you ever see a picasso painting with picasso in the picture? you only see his work. now, i'm not interested in putting a picture of myself on the screen, because that's not going to do anybody any good, including me.
...the persona of bob dylan is in the movie so we could get rid of it. there should no longer be any mystery as to who or what he is-he's there, speaking in all kinds of tongues, and there's even someone else claiming to be him, so he's covered. this movie is obvious, you know. nobody's hiding anything. it's all right there. the rabbits are falling out of the hat before the movie begins.
-...but bob dylan and mrs. bob dylan are played by different people....
-oh, yeah.
-and you don't know for sure which one he is?
-sure. we could make a movie and you could be bob dylan, it wouldn't matter...
-but if there are two bob dylans in the film and renaldo is always changing....
-well, it could be worse, it could be three or four ...

...
...
...
look dow, look down, and seek your maker: CHECK CARDIFF 2000, best concert since MELBOURNE 1966
(see at april 8) or
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=96AA3B2855A55E6C

hey louis, why is johnny smith so underrated?

...
OF THESE THREE FABULOUS SINGERS OF THE MID FIFTIES, WITH THE GREAT JOHNNY SMITH playing his delicate guitar, who do you love best: the ever so shy jeri southern, the eternally young beverly kenney ... or the mysterious ruth price?

jeri southern/johnny smith/without a word of warning (1956)
un chef d'oeuvre d'équilibre entre la voix timidement sexy de jeri southern et le minimalisme cristallin de johnny smith, guitariste aux doigts d'eau, qui se glisse, timide lui aussi, derrière le piano de bob pancoast


ruth price/johnny smith/until the real thing comes along (1956)
une sublime ballade sentimentale signée cahn/chaplin, susurrée par la très méconnue ruth price, sur un lit de notes cristallines du grand johnny smith

hey louis, it's blossom dearie, ever so charming, and strangely close to beverly kenney's lolita phrasing, but without her vocal range ...

blossom dearie/l'étang (in french, great paul misraki song)/hello love
two great songs from her best album, my gentleman friend (1959)

hey louis, don't you think this very rare peggy lee's last recording is her best ever?

peggy lee, i see you/1995 (benny carter, composer and alto sax)
(in BENNY CARTER/songbook, vol 1)
...
...
et sept ans plus tôt, en 1988, pour son dernier et sublime album "jazz", LOVE HELD LIGHTLY, consacré aux chansons rares ou inédites de harold arlen ...

peggy lee/my shining hour (johnny mercer/harold arlen)
...
et quarante ans avant I SEE YOU (BENNY CARTER, SONGBOOK 1) ...
....

peggy lee/i only have eyes for you/sugar (from pete kelly's blues, 1955)

hey louis, do you really hate rock and roll?

peggy lee/till there was you (1961)

the beatles/till there was you (1962)


ONE OR TWO THINGS I KNOW ABOUT BEVERLY KENNEY
deux ou trois choses que je sais sur la sublime beverly kenney ....

before her untimely death in 1960, beverly kenney wrote a song: i hate rock and roll ....
she sang it on may 1958, on the steve allen show ...

i'm growing weary of teenage hoods/motorbikes, blue jeans and natalie woods
i'm tired of rebels without a cause/say, whatever happened to santa claus/rules of the road and baby ruth?
i for one must tell the truth/i don't care who knows it
i hate rock and roll/i don't care who knows it
i hate rock and roll

i want to say I love you/in the natural way
don't want to say/i luh-uh-love you
no, not that way/i don't care who knows it
i hate rock and roll

young luh-ove, true luh-ove is over-rated
and blue suede shoes/they should be confiscated
what is the answer to a teenage prayer?
frankly speaking i don't care, i don't care

i don't care who knows it/i hate rock and roll
i don't care who knows it/i swear that i hate rock and roll

i don't want to swing a hip/or swing a guitar
or anything to do with that ver-nac-u-lar
i don't care who knows
so I'm last on the hit record polls/cause i hate rock and roll
...





.....
POST SCRIPTUM 1

sylvia syms/there's somehing about an old love, barbara carroll, piano (1952)
sinatra's favourite crooning lady ("the world's greatest saloon singer", he used to say)
...
POST SCRIPTUM 2

jimmy durante/september song (kurt weil/maxwell anderson, 1955.
if you want to see other skorecki produced videos of SEPTEMBER SONG (among them a longer version of the song by jimmy durante, recorded eight years later with lots of violins, in 1963, as well as three different sinatra versions -one of them with gordon jenkins from sinatra's best album, no one cares, a nat king cole reading, the willie nelson version ....) as well as two new clips i produced of jimmy durantes' fabulous collaborations with gordon jenkins (les violons ont TOUJOURS RAISON), go to youtube and you'll find them easily .. ... ou demandez-moi, je les mettrais dans le blog .....

BOB DYLAN/FRANK SINATRA

bob dylan/she's your lover now, outtake from blonde on blonde
almost as beautiful as dylan's greatest concert -and greatest bootleg- melbourne, april 1966

...
...
another 1966 live concert

bob dylan/desolation row (1966)
same voice/less destroy than in the blonde on blonde outtake, or in melbourne/moins éclaté, moins émouvant qu'à melbourne, quelques jours plus tôt ...













bob dylan/knockin' on heavens's door/it's a hard rain's gonna fall
crying for the pope
pleurant pour jean paul II, à bologne (jewish tears, cantor's voice)

...
...

TWO VERSIONS OF A HARD RAIN'S GONNA FALL


bob dylan/a hard rain's a gonna fall, 1964

BOB DYLAN/2008

bob dylan/a hard rain's a gonna fall, version inédite pour la foire de saragosse, en 2008

..
..
TWO VERSIONS OF SERIES OF DREAMS

bob dylan/series of dream, le clip (1987)

bob dylan/series of dream, version live (1993)


frank sinatra/nancy with the smiling face (1965)
une chanson sublime dédiée à sa femme, nancy

younger than springtime (1967), en présence de l'autre nancy, la jolie nancy sinatra, fille de madame sinatra ...
production/arrangements: lee hazelwood (on le voit au début du clip)
...

frank and his daughter nancy sinatra/you make me feel so young, 1957
...
DEEP NIGHT/three fabulous versions

frank sinatra, 1951, official version

frank sinatra, 1941 (with tommy dorsey) introduced (in spanish) by the composer of the song, the great rudy vallée

rudy vallée's version, 1929 (the best one ...)
...
...
COUNTRY SINATRA

three COUNTRY songs by frank sinatra

BONUS COUNTRY

....

love's been good to me
....
FRANK SINATRA SHOW, 1955

If I could be with you


FRANK SINATRA SHOW, 1955/everything happens to m













bob dylan/she's your lover now, outtake from blonde on blonde
almost as beautiful as dylan's greatest concert -and greatest bootleg- melbourne, april 1966

...
...
another 1966 live concert

bob dylan/desolation row (1966)
same voice/less destroy than in the blonde on blonde outtake, or in melbourne/moins éclaté, moins émouvant qu'à melbourne, quelques jours plus tôt ...













bob dylan/knockin' on heavens's door/it's a hard rain's gonna fall
crying for the pope
pleurant pour jean paul II, à bologne (jewish tears, cantor's voice)

...
...

TWO VERSIONS OF A HARD RAIN'S GONNA FALL


bob dylan/a hard rain's a gonna fall, 1964

BOB DYLAN/2008

bob dylan/a hard rain's a gonna fall, version inédite pour la foire de saragosse, en 2008

..
..
TWO VERSIONS OF SERIES OF DREAMS

bob dylan/series of dream, le clip (1987)

bob dylan/series of dream, version live (1993)


frank sinatra/nancy with the smiling face (1965)
une chanson sublime dédiée à sa femme, nancy

younger than springtime (1967), en présence de l'autre nancy, la jolie nancy sinatra, fille de madame sinatra ...
production/arrangements: lee hazelwood (on le voit au début du clip)
...

frank and his daughter nancy sinatra/you make me feel so young, 1957
...
DEEP NIGHT/three fabulous versions

frank sinatra, 1951, official version

frank sinatra, 1941 (with tommy dorsey) introduced (in spanish) by the composer of the song, the great rudy vallée

rudy vallée's version, 1929 (the best one ...)
...
...
COUNTRY SINATRA

three COUNTRY songs by frank sinatra
BONUS COUNTRY

....

love's been good to me
....
FRANK SINATRA SHOW, 1955

hey louis, here's the great and obscure irene kral

irene kral/alan broadbent (piano)/never let me go (1975)
...
...
... le retour de LOUIS et des
CINEPHILES


louis rostain/le retour des cinéphiles (2008)
..
..

harold manning/cinéphiles 2 (eric a disparu) (1988)

hey louis, c'est quoi pour toi le cinéma, aujourd'hui?

le cinéma?

rien, j'ai peur que ce ne soit plus rien, juste quelques bribes de souvenirs, ou plutôt des souvenirs d'un temps où j'avais encore des souvenirs de cinéma.
les films d'aujourd'hui?
je n'en vois plus, ni en salles, ni à la télé, ni en dvd, et le pire c'est qu'à regarder quelques secondes d'extraits télé, je sais si ça va être mauvais ou très mauvais...
le dernier film que tu as vu?
les témoins de téchiné, je l'ai vu il y a dix minutes, je savais que je n'aimerais pas, les extraits télé et les interviews étaient atroces, mais c'est pire: un téléfilm larmoyant, artificiel, mal joué, mal construit, même pas compassionel, l'un des pires de téchiné, cinéaste médiocre qui n'a réussi qu'un seul film, hôtel des amériques, un beau mélo criard en scope couleurs comme on en faisait encore de temps en temps au siècle dernier ...

...
...
...
le cinéma, aujourd'hui, c'est ça:

bobby troup/their hearts were full of spring (1958)
minimal crooning, greater dreams: ... cinema ....

hey louis, here's a sampler of the great dylan 1966

bob dylan/just like tom thumb's blues (1966)
..
...
ten videos of 1966 dylan concerts can be seen at
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=41DC5B3251C63269

hey louis, it's a great late dick curless demo ... and a fantastic jimmy durante song with gordon jenkins

jimmy durante/gordon jenkins, a way of life (1964)



dick curless/when dad was around (1988)
just before he died, dick curless recorded several rare, classic, touching, demos for his daughter, now they've come out on BEAR FAMILY'S hard hard travelling man ....
...
more dick curless at the bottom of this page ....