Friday Forgotten Movie: A Man Could Get Killed

This being April and all, some Spring-strangeness seems to be at work around me (or maybe it's just my allergies). One of my all-time favorite stars is James Garner, and I've been thinking of him as of late. I firmly believe he's been one of the most underrated (though well known) TV and film actors. Like many my age, my first introduction to the man came as a kid via his starring role in the Maverick TV series. IMO, Garner has been such a versatile performer over the decades that he's been taken for granted in many of his roles (and forgotten somewhat for his earlier work). His acting chops allowed him to appear in all sorts of westerns, war films, private detective TV/movies, comedies, and dramas. You name it, he's done it. Just about all of his work has been so consistently top notch (even if the some of the movies were not). He played the only character I know of who figured a way to dispose of Bruce Lee in a film. His performances in whatever TV show or movie always seems to be accomplished with such relaxed ease, too (though, it's well known that this Oklahoma born actor has been one of the hardest working people in Hollywood). If I catch one of his films on cable, I'll stop whatever I'm doing and watch. If a repeat of an old Rockford Files episode shows up on syndicated TV, I've got to see which one it is and squeeze some time with the vaunted character he crafted (and I'll go on record to say it is the height of arrogance by a studio to think Dermot Mulroney can fill Garner's shoes in a new Rockford Files series).

The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.

It's New For Everyone Else

Image via Wikipedia

You know you're getting old when a song comes on the radio (or when a music video shows up on cable) and you figure it's some new artist's cover of a famous song from your bygone youth. Then you realize, it's not. This has happened way too often for me now. An entirely new song and lyrics makes its way into your ears and head. And all you say to yourself is, "Wait a minute! They lifted that from so-and-so!" Yeah, I know artists and producers will sample from other older, great(er) tunes. I don't know if it's suppose to be an homage or not, but it happens too often for my thoughts. I suspect it's less than tribute-filled and more that they hope you don't notice while your kids think it great and spend your money to buy it. Will Smith's '97 Men in Black title song lifted freely from Forget Me Nots from 1987 by Patrice Rushen (who just happens to be another native Angeleno that's the same age as me, just way more talented). I remember I just about did what my friends Pop Culture Nerd and Christine refer to as a spit-take when I first heard Changes by Tupac Shakur (since 1986's The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and The Range is among my favorites). What did it to me tonight was catching the 2006 song Save Room by John Legend:

It is a good song and has interesting lyrics. But, those of us with long memories will instantly pick up on the chords and recognize them from the 1968 track Stormy by the Classics IV (and featuring the late Dennis Yost):

To be clear, I don't have problems with other artists covering these songs. In fact, Santana did a wonderful update of this song that I really admire from 1978. It's the so-called sampling that's been going on that I have issue with. In another ten years, I'm pretty damn sure label producers will be thrilled that folks my age will be hard-pressed to recall the old tunes that they'll continue to lift for their music sales while barely giving lip service toward the original -- but at least I'm putting a thought down on this today. Do you have any beloved songs that have been rip-offed?