Layla, you’ve got me on my knees.
Layla, I’m begging, darling please.
Layla, darling won’t you ease my worried mind.
What’ll you do when you get lonely
And nobody’s waiting by your side?
Eric Clapton was a member of several groups before he joined with others to form Derek and the Dominos in 1970. No, no one was actually named Derek. Clapton, along with band mate Jim Gordon, penned the famous song and recorded it in 1970 with their new band. It was released in 1971 without great success. It’s length was a problem for radio play. Thus, an edited version at 2:43 was released and hit the Top Ten in 1972.
Derek and the Dominos
The long version was released again in 1972 and appeared on albums by Clapton and Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers fame. Allman had played guitar on the original studio version of the song. The long version then found success as a single.
In 1982 the long version was re-released and charted again. This time it was critically acclaimed as one of the great rock songs of all time.
In January 1992 Clapton recorded an acoustic album which included a new arrangement of the song. The slower version with a different opening was seen that year on MTV Unplugged. Clapton was reluctant to release the acoustic recordings, but finally relented and the song was released in September of that year. The B-side of the vinyl recording was “Tears in Heaven” which also became a hit.
The top video is from a 1986 concert and yes, that is Phil Collins on the drums. The lower one is from that 1992 MTV Unplugged performance.
Do do do
Down dooby doo down down
Comma, comma, down dooby doo down down
Comma, comma, down dooby doo down down
Breaking up is hard to do
You tell me that you’re leavin’
I can’t believe it’s true
Girl there’s just no livin’ without you
Neil Sedaka scored twice with a song about breaking up, using different opening lyrics each time out. The first song was released in June of 1962 while the “Doo Wop” era of music was still alive. The background vocals are by a little known female group, The Cookies. The song was co-written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield.
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do is Sedaka’s biggest hit among his many hit songs. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was, in fact, a hit all over the world. The text was translated to many languages and Sedaka recorded an Italian version.
Neil Sedaka
Lenny Welch, known best for his 1963 hit “Since I Fell For You,” originally released the slower version which reach number 34 on the charts in 1970. Sedaka scored big with his 1975 slow version which hit the top 10 in February 1976. It was reported to be only the second time an artist hit the Top Ten with two versions of the same song.
Something tragic happened to America’s news media in the early 1980’s. Before then, the news divisions of the major television networks were not expected to make money. They were considered to be a public service designed to give people the information they needed to be well-informed voters and intelligent citizens. At some point in the 1980’s, the news was suddenly expected to make a profit, like the other divisions.
News budgets got cut, investigative journalism, which takes time and personnel, went out the window. The emphasis shifted to what “sells” the news and gets good ratings.
The most trusted man in America during his career
The phrase “infotainment” got coined and the percentage of accurately informed citizens plummeted. The internet became a big source of news for many people, but the standard remained – give people what they think they want, not what they should know to make well-reasoned civic decisions.
Our news reporting tends to be ethnocentric. All forms of American news media report every word the president utters and every tweet he writes. Yet there is very little coverage, if any, of things going on in other countries which can often affect world politics and economics. This is what sells and doesn’t sell in U.S news.
Our news media also tend to focus on violence and sensationalism here at home, again, because this is what sells. Violent crimes in the U.S. are covered ad infinite – murders, assaults, rapes, police shootings, mass shootings, etc. Many of these are valid news stories, but so are the massacres, crimes against women and government sanctioned murders that happen daily elsewhere in the world and get little coverage.
Sports, celebrity and local government scandals are also wildly popular and omnipresent news stories. But I wish they were covered less and more was reported about the massive corruption in our system that allows Big Pharma or Big Food, insurance or oil lobbies, for example, to determine what drugs, food, insurance, oil, etc. we get and at what prices. These stories get some play but not with the frequency, enthusiasm and decibel level of the latest psychopathic murderer or morally questionable politician or media star.
No one has the time today to read or watch everything out there purporting to be news and decide for ourselves what we need to know to understand what is going on in our country and in the world. I wish we could go back to the days when we trusted an impartial media to sift through the world news and honestly decide for us what was important to know.
I’m getting ready to leave on a weekend trip. I am not a relaxed traveler. I have never been able to throw a few things into a bag at the last minute and head for the door. I’m more of a planner. And a worrier. Starting a week before I leave.
In my defense, I have to make sure that all the clothes my husband and I want to take are clean. I also travel with a mini medicine chest and I have to make sure nothing in there has expired. I haven’t traveled in a long time, so this time, almost everything had expired which required a trip to the pharmacy.
See why I have to plan ahead? Way ahead?
Members of our group performing
This trip is not just an ordinary pleasure trip. This trip requires another level of planning and obsessing. We are traveling with our audio theater group (Voicescapesaudiotheater.com) to perform a 90-minute show on Sunday at Youngstown University in Youngstown, Ohio.
Eight of us are traveling together so the trip will also be a fun social experience for all of us. It’s the first time we’re traveling a long distance to the venue. It will also be the largest audience we’ve ever had. It’s a big deal for us!
Because we are going to perform, my usually laid back, easy going husband is joining me in my packing panic. He has to bring all kinds of equipment for our performance. So he’s packing a whole suitcase full of wires and chargers and connectors, two computers, two telephone handsets for sound effects as well as his own scripts and headphones.
Some of Tom’s equipment
In addition, I had to fit six carpet samples squares and two square pieces of foam into my suitcase. Why? The actors need these to buffer the sound on their music stands when they turn the pages on their scripts. Amazingly, I had just enough room.
Carpet samples in my suitcase
Now we’ve got everything packed except for a few last minute items. We go online to check in and get our boarding passes. Tom gets his boarding pass but for some reason, I can’t get one. The computer says I have to get my boarding pass in person at the airport. That’s annoying. We call Delta and the representative on the phone can’t figure it out either. He gets a message that says that I have to check in tomorrow due to government regulations! No idea what that means. Very strange. I hope this won’t be a hassle at check-in. Another thing to worry about!
Traffic is terrible going from our house in Connecticut to La Guardia airport in Long Island, New York. Especially on a Friday. So we’re leaving extra early so we don’t have to bite our nails if we hit traffic en route. At least that’s the plan. Another way to try to minimize anxiety.
Once we get to the airport on time, I get my boarding pass without incident and we check in our bag, then I can relax and have fun. I can start to enjoy my friends. And look for a Cinnabon or an Aunt Annie’s Pretzels, my guilty treats when I fly!
So, here’s hoping for a routine flight, an eventful, exciting trip, and a successful performance!
My husband, Tom and I are part of an audio theater group called “Voicescapes Audio Theater.” This is our main hobby and our passion.
Tom and I write original short scripts (eight to twenty-five minutes) for our group, both comedies, and dramas. Tom also directs, edits, and handles all the technical aspects of our audio productions, such as sound effects, microphones, sound equipment, recording, etc. Tom is also now doing online marketing for us on Facebook and Instagram. He has created and manages our website,https://www.voicescapesaudiotheater.com.
You can go to our website and listen to all of our pieces in the podcast section. You can also watch a video of an eight-minute piece, “Kidnapping 101” to get a sense of what it’s like to watch us perform live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EckvRFlDOFs
Tom acting in “Kidnapping 101”
As I mentioned above, we also do live performances. This is not a simple operation. We need to pack tons of audio equipment into our SUV. We have to use a ramp to get the heaviest, bulkiest piece into the car. Then we have to unload everything and hook it up at the venue. The set-up takes from two to three hours. After our one to one and a half hour performance, we have to break everything down and reload the car. Then we get to unload again when we get home. It’s quite an undertaking. A true labor of love.
Tom loading our largest piece of equipment into the car
Our shows are a compilation of our short pieces, usually with a mix of comedies and dramas. We get a great response whenever we perform. People love our shows and praise our writing, acting, and overall productions. Our shows are nothing like the overdone, dated radio dramas from the old days of radio. They are more like sophisticated, clever, modern short plays.
We haven’t been able to reach large audiences yet. One problem is that people don’t really understand what audio theater is. It’s really just a form of theater – with actors on a stage performing a dramatic piece. The actors are just standing behind music stands, reading from their scripts as they act. They are accompanied by sound effects and music, which make it a full, dramatic performance.
Three actors performing. The guy in the back is doing sound effects
Our other problem is that we don’t have the money to do adequate marketing, in general, or for individual performances. So, among other venues, we have been performing at libraries in Westchester, NY for two reasons. First, they do their own marketing and get their own audiences (usually 20-40 people). Secondly, they pay us! Not much but it more than covers our costs.
Sande in character
So we performed at a beautiful library in Mt. Kisco, NY a few weeks ago. One of our group members, Sande, invited eight friends to our performance. They arrived and we chatted with them while we waited for the rest of the audience from the library. Five minutes before the show. No one. Five minutes after we were scheduled to perform. No one. There are still only Sande’s eight friends in the audience.
Part of our Mt. Kisco performance
The library person who booked us apologized and admitted that they have trouble getting people to show up to any of their events. Now she tells us! At least their check cleared!
We went ahead with the performance anyway. The show must go on! It was demoralizing to have literally no one from the library or the town show up. But we gave it our all. It turns out that those eight people were an awesome, enthusiastic audience! In one piece, three women were laughing so hard they were crying. That is very gratifying to a performer! So it turned out to be a positive experience for everyone.
Another group of actors performing at Mt/ Kisco
Skip ahead a week. One of the women who was laughing uproariously was so impressed with us she told her friend about us. Her friend works at a New York Community Arts Council. That group has two theaters and has regular shows that draw large audiences.
They were excited to hear about us and immediately booked us for a show for next year in their 60 seat theater. They said they expected to fill the theater with no trouble. In addition, we’re getting paid more than twice what we get from the libraries pay us!
Sande and Tom acting up a storm!
So maybe we were meant to be in Mt. Kisco, despite the lack of audience. Our private show for Sande’s friends produced a wonderful and totally unforeseen result. A big positive for our group rose from the ashes of a less than successful show.
When Eon Productions, maker of all those James Bond movies, finally made a film based on the very first Ian Fleming novel, fans of the super spy may have wondered what took them so long. The novel, published in 1953, introduced us to the Cold War spy with a “License to Kill”, but why no movie? In the book as in the films (plural, follow along), Bond’s mission is to bankrupt the evil Le Chiffre of the Russian secret service by beating him at cards at the Casino Royale.
Le Chiffre is desperate for the money but confident he will win. His own life will be at risk if he loses.
Original hard copy with dust jacket
The book was a hit in the UK, but sales in the US were slow and this set into motion events that would keep a serious adaptation of the novel away the big screen for over 50 years. In an effort to popularize his hero in America, Fleming sold the television rights for the novel to CBS to adapt into a live drama for the series Climax!
The program aired October 21, 1954, and probably would have been lost forever, if not for the eventual popularity of the novels and movies.
Casino Royale 1954
The television production starred Barry Nelson as James Bond, an American agent. Sometimes he is referred to as “Jimmy” which ought to make long-time Bond fans cringe. The American agent in the novel is now a British agent named Clarence Leiter (rather than Felix).
For the live drama, parts are condensed or eliminated and the focus is on the card game. Since the game is baccarat, not poker as in the latest movie, a little time is spent explaining it for the American audience.
Le Chiffre is played by Peter Lorre, a veteran of the big screen, with just the right amount of evil. A film star of the 1940’s and 50’s, Linda Christian, gets the honor of being the first “Bond girl.” You are left to wonder, at least at the outset, whose side she is really on. I guess for an early black and white television drama, it is not too bad, if you can get past Jimmy Bond as an American spy.
In 1955 Fleming sold the movie rights to film director and producer Gregory Ratoff for a mere 6 thousand dollars. Perhaps it was big money then. Unfortunately, Ratoff died in 1960, never having developed the story for the movies. Next up was the producer, attorney, and talent agent Charles K. Feldman who represented Ratoff’s widow and ultimately obtained the rights.
By now, the Bond series was off to a good start, so how could Feldman possibly compete? Failing to negotiate an agreement with Eon, he decided to do something that may have been typical of the mid to late 1960’s. He produced a “madcap” comedy, a spoof of the spy series.
There just is not enough space here to explain what the producers and various directors did to this film. Although they assembled what was meant to be an “all-star” cast, you can not say they got a lot of great performances from this crew. Various writers created sections that were to be filmed by different directors and all would be edited together. This allowed them to work with many stars doing different scenes at different locations and studios at the same time.
A movie monstrosity ensued.
John Huston, who also appears in the movie as M, directed one segment and left. Five other directors worked on the project, one uncredited. David Niven is “Sir James Bond” who must be convinced by Huston, Charles Boyer, William Holden, and Kurt Kazner to come out of retirement to deal with Le Chiffre. Bond takes on the role of head of the spy agency upon M’s departure and they recruit Peter Seller’s (Evelyn Tremble), a baccarat expert, to impersonate Bond and play Le Chiffre at the Casino. Le Chiffre is played by Orson Welles.
Explanations are pointless. See it — or not. The temperamental Sellers left the project for a rest before his part was finished. He was asked not to return. Welles hated the unprofessional Sellers and they barely spoke to each other. A gaggle of stars perform cameos. When all was said and done, it was a confused mess.
Val Guest, one of the directors, along with the film editor, got permission to film additional scenes with Niven and Ursula Andress (Vesper Lynd) — a hopeless attempt to add some continuity to the script and deal with the missing David Sellers’ performance.
Watch for un-credited stars, especially at the end. There is no sensible explanation for the final scenes.
The critically-panned film did well at the box office, as many of the crazy comedies of the 1960’s did. At least it provided a great musical score by Burt Bacharach, including the hit song The Look of Love.
The film rights next passed to Colombia Pictures, the studio that had put out this disaster. They held onto them until 1989 when Colombia was acquired by Sony. A legal battle followed, and the rights were used as a bargaining chip with MGM/UA for … wait for it … MGM’s portion of the rights to Spiderman.
Spiderman was traded for the original James Bond in 1999.
Casino Royale was not next as there was one more Pierce Brosnan movie to be made. When Brosnan declined a fifth film, the opportunity to “reboot” the spy series was at hand.
Back to the beginning. Our hero became “007,” and the silver screen welcomed Daniel Craig as “Bond, James Bond.”
James Bond first appeared in film in 1962 with Sean Connery bringing charm and adventure to the world’s greatest spy with a license to kill. After 6 films by Connery and one by George Lazenby, Roger Moore took the role for seven films.
After these 14 Eon Productions, a rival production that was a remake of Thunderball (Never Say Never Again) and a spoof (Casino Royale starring David Niven), it might seem that James Bond had reached the end. Moore’s last film, 1985’s A View To A Kill, did well at the box office, but was not particularly well received with the critics. It seems Moore was a bit too old for the secret agent.
Eon decided to move forward. Bond was back in the person of Timothy Dalton in the 1987 film, The Living Daylights. It was based on the Ian Fleming short story of the same name. This time the film may have retained more of the essence of the Fleming piece than many of the other Bond films had done.
With the first Dalton film you will find more of an intense James Bond than previously revealed. There is less of the charm and more uncertainty than we are used to in the Bond character. Dalton is not Connery or Moore in his portrayals of 007. He is a serious agent at work. Why the shift? Whether it was in the script or not, Dalton was attempting to move more toward the Bond as described in the novels rather than the Bond people had already seen.
Reports are that Dalton could be seen on set reading the Fleming novels to see what the original author had meant the character to be. The books were not describing the Bond seen in previous films. Some of those movies only used the title and little else from the original author’s story.
In The Living Daylights, as in the short story, Bond is set up as a sniper to shoot anyone who might harm a top Soviet defector. Bond does not kill the other shooter but only wounds her. Some think it is because the other sniper was a woman. We later learn she is the girlfriend of the defector Bond was supposed to protect, and she was just there to create the illusion of harm. From there Bond is left to figure out the real roles of the girlfriend and the defector, as well as diamond dealers and drug dealers. There is a little humor, a little charm, and a lot of intensity.
Next up for James Bond was the film Licence To Kill. No, you will not find an Ian Fleming story with that title. It was the first story to use an original title, although the term “licence to kill” was used often in the Bond stories. In truth many of the films retained almost nothing of the story from which the title was taken. There are references to other stories and characters in this movie, but the series has clearly gone in a new direction.
The sixteenth Eon production was written with the darker portrayal of Bond in mind. The charm is left behind as Bond is on more of a personal vendetta against a drug lord who has murdered friends of his. When one wonders why Bond has taken up the pursuit, someone refers back to something we see at the end of the sixth Bond film and is referred to in one of the Moore films. I won’t give that away just in case you have not seen it.
With James Bond now seen as a rogue agent, his “double 00” status is revoked. “Q” takes a vacation so he can help Bond in secret. This gives character actor Desmond Llewelyn, who played the keeper of all those Bond gadgets, an extended part in a film. Llewelyn had played the character throughout the series at this point. Here he is caught up in the action, as unlikely as that may seem.
The Dalton films were directed by John Glen, who also directed the last three Moore films. Just as before, Bond performs incredible action stunts throughout the features. Perhaps filming techniques have improved to the point that they can make the sequences appear more dangerous with minimal risk. Bond’s fight with the villain in Licence To Kill may be the most incredible yet.
Dalton had a six-year, three film deal with Eon Productions to play the super spy. After Licence To Kill, however, producer Albert Broccoli and his company Danjaq, holders of the Bond copyright, found themselves in a protracted legal battle over the Bond series. This effectively delayed the series for years as the lawsuit between Danjaq and MGM/UA dragged on. The movie studio had leased the back catalogue of Bond films to another party at below market value. MGM, which had previously merged with the UA who had funded the Bond series at the beginning, was owned by Qintex, which wanted to merge with Pathe Communications so they made the lease deal and… OK, that’s enough of that.
While all of this went on, the six-year deal with Dalton expired. Dalton reportedly said at the time “My feeling is this will be the last one. I don’t mean my last one, I mean the end of the whole lot.” We have already seen, however, that James Bond does indeed live more than twice. Bond will be back.
To participate in the Ragtag Daily Prompt, create a Pingback to your post, or copy and paste the link to your post into the comments. And while you’re there, why not check out some of the other posts too!
