Since today is Robert Zemeckis’s birthday, today’s song of the day is an obvious one. Here is The Power of Love, by Huey Lewis and the News!
The power of love is a curious thing Make a one man weep, make another man sing Change a hawk to a little white dove More than a feeling, that’s the power of love
Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream Stronger and harder than a bad girl’s dream Make a bad one good, mm, make a wrong one right Power of love that keep you home at night
You don’t need money, don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden, and it’s cruel sometimes But it might just save your life That’s the power of love That’s the power of love
First time you feel it, it might make you sad Next time you feel it, it might make you mad But you’ll be glad, baby, when you’ve found That’s the power makes the world go ’round
And it don’t take money, don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden, it can be cruel sometimes But it might just save your life
They say that all in love is fair Yeah, but you don’t care (ooh) But you know what to do (what to do) When it gets hold of you And with a little help from above You feel the power of love You feel the power of love Can you feel it? Hm-hm
It don’t take money, and it don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel But you won’t feel nothin’ ’til you feel
You feel the power, just feel the power of love That’s the power, mm, that’s the power of love You feel the power of love You feel the power of love Feel the power of love
Songwriters: Huey Lewis / John Victor Colla / Christopher John Hayes
Opening with a swarm of helicopters spaying for medflies and ending with an earthquake, 1993’s Short Cuts is a film about life in Los Angeles.
An ensemble piece, it follows several different characters as they go through their own personal dramas. Some of them are married and some of them are destined to be forever single but they’re all living in varying states of desperation. Occasionally, the actions of one character will effect the actions of another character in a different story but, for the most part, Short Cuts is a portrait of people who are connected only by the fact that they all live in the same city. There are 22 principal characters in Short Cuts and each one thinks that they are the star of the story.
Jerry Kaiser (Chris Penn) cleans the pools of rich people while, at home, his wife, Lois (Jennifer Jason Leigh), takes care of their baby and works as a phone sex operator. Jerry’s best friend is a makeup artist named Bill (Robert Downey, Jr.) who enjoys making his wife, Honey (Lili Taylor), looks like a corpse so that he can take her picture. One of her photographs is seen by a fisherman (Buck Henry) who has already discovered one actual corpse that weekend. He and his buddies, Vern (Huey Lewis) and Stuart (Fred Ward), discovered a dead girl floating in a river and didn’t report it until after they were finished fishing. (The sight of Vern unknowingly pissing on the dead body is one of the strongest in director Robert Altman’s filmography.)
Stuart’s wife, Claire (Anne Archer), is haunted by Stuart’s delay in reporting the dead body. A chance meeting Dr. Ralph Wyman (Matthew Modine) and his wife, artist Marian (Julianne Moore), leads to an awkward dinner between the two couples. Claire works as a professional clown and Ralph ends up wearing her clown makeup while his marriage falls apart.
Earlier, Claire was stopped and hit on by a smarmy policeman named Gene Shepard (Tim Robbins), who just happens to be married to Marian’s sister, Sherri (Madeleine Stowe). Gene is already having an affair with Betty Weathers (Frances McDormand), the wife of a helicopter pilot named Stormy (Peter Gallagher). When Stormy discovers that Betty has been cheating, he takes a creative revenge on her house.
Doreen Pigott (Lily Tomlin) lives in a trailer park with her alcoholic husband, Earl (Tom Waits). Driving home from her waitressing job, Doreen hits a young boy. The boy says he’s okay but when he gets home, he passes out. His parents, news anchorman Howard Finnegan (Bruce Davison) and his wife, Anne (Andie MacDowell), rush him to the hospital, where his doctor is Ralph Wyman. As Howard waits for his son to wake up, he has a revealing conversation with his long-estranged father (Jack Lemmon, showing up for one scene and delivering an amazing monologue). Meanwhile, a baker named Andy (Lyle Lovett) repeatedly calls the Finnegan household, wanting to know when they’re going to pick up their son’s birthday cake.
Based on the short stories of Raymond Carver and directed by Robert Altman, Short Cuts can sometimes feel like a spiritual descendent of Altman’s Nashville. The difference between this film and Nashville is that Short Cuts doesn’t have the previous film’s satiric bite. As good as Nashville is, it’s a film that can be rather snarky towards it character and the town in which it is set. Nashville is used as a metaphor for America coming apart at the seams. Short Cuts, on the other hand, is a far more humanistic film, featuring characters who are flawed but, with a few very notable exceptions, well-intentioned. If Nashville seem to be a portrait of a society on the verge of collapse, Short Cuts is a film about how that society ended up surviving.
It’s not a perfect film. There’s an entire storyline featuring Annie Ross and Lori Singer that I didn’t talk about because I just found it to be annoying to waste much time with. (The Ross/Singer storyline was the only one not to be based on a Carver short story.) The conclusion of Chris Penn’s storyline wasn’t quite as shocking as it was obviously meant to be. But, flaws and all, Altman and Carver’s portrait of humanity does hold our attention and it leaves us thinking about connections made and sometimes lost. Seen today, Short Cuts is a portrait of life before social media and iPhones and before humanity started living online. It’s a time capsule of a world that once was.
Since we’re in a Back to the Future sort of mood at the site today, today’s song of the day is an obvious one. Here is The Power of Love, by Huey Lewis and the News!
The power of love is a curious thing Make a one man weep, make another man sing Change a hawk to a little white dove More than a feeling, that’s the power of love
Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream Stronger and harder than a bad girl’s dream Make a bad one good, mm, make a wrong one right Power of love that keep you home at night
You don’t need money, don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden, and it’s cruel sometimes But it might just save your life That’s the power of love That’s the power of love
First time you feel it, it might make you sad Next time you feel it, it might make you mad But you’ll be glad, baby, when you’ve found That’s the power makes the world go ’round
And it don’t take money, don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden, it can be cruel sometimes But it might just save your life
They say that all in love is fair Yeah, but you don’t care (ooh) But you know what to do (what to do) When it gets hold of you And with a little help from above You feel the power of love You feel the power of love Can you feel it? Hm-hm
It don’t take money, and it don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel But you won’t feel nothin’ ’til you feel
You feel the power, just feel the power of love That’s the power, mm, that’s the power of love You feel the power of love You feel the power of love Feel the power of love
Songwriters: Huey Lewis / John Victor Colla / Christopher John Hayes
It came out in 2000 and it was a film about the cutthroat world of karaoke competitions. If you don’t remember it, that’s okay. It’s not like it’s some sort of lost classic or something. I saw it a few years ago and my main impression was that whoever made it was so fascinated by the world of karaoke that he never considered that not everyone else would be.
Anyway, when the movie came out, the main thing that everyone knew about it was that it featured a scene where Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis sang a song together. That song was a cover of Smokey Robinson’s Cruisin‘ and even though the movie was never a big hit, the song was on the radio all through 2000 and 2001. Some people thought it was weird that they were singing a somewhat romantic song when they were playing father and daughter. Well, maybe so. But let me tell you something about karaoke — you go with whatever song you can sing. My sisters and I used to sing karaoke all the time. We would embarrass the Hell out of my mom and we once had a DJ yell at us because one of us very dramatically dropped the microphone on the stage after we finished our song. (Yes, it was me.) Now, my sisters all have good singing voice. Me, I can barely carry a tune. I can dance but I can’t sing. However, I did discover that I could sing backup on Love Shack so every time my sisters and I hit karaoke night at Grandpa Tony’s, the first thing that we would do would be find some guy drunk enough to sing Love Shack while Erin and I provided backup. As long as I got to yell “Rusted!” after Erin said, “Tin roof!,” I was happy. Grandpa Tony’s, by the way, was a nice little restaurant that was near the airport. It was owned by an ex-boxer who always came out to flirt with mom. They had the best chips and queso and, every Friday night, there would be a lot of drunk pilots and flight attendants singing Love Shack along with us. Unfortunately, the place has since closed down.
Where as I? Oh yeah, today’s music video of the day is Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis covering Crusin. Enjoy!
Baby, let’s cruise away from here Don’t be confused, the way is clear And if you want it, you got it forever This is not a one-night stand, baby, yeah So, let the music take your mind Ooh, just release and you will find
You gonna fly away, glad you’re goin’ my way I love it when we’re cruisin’ together The music is played for love, cruisin’ is made for love I love it when we’re cruisin’ together
Baby, tonight belongs to us Everything’s right, do what you must And inch by inch we get closer and closer To every little part of each other Let the music take your mind Just release and you will find, baby
You gonna fly away, glad you’re goin’ my way I love it when we’re cruising together The music is played for love, cruisin’ is made for love I love it when we’re cruisin’ together
Cruise with me, baby Cruise with me, baby
Cruise Ooh, ooh, baby, yeah Oh, baby Oh, oh, ah, baby So good to cruise with you, baby So good to cruise with you, baby Ooh, yeah, you and me, baby
Oh, baby, let’s cruise Let’s flow, let’s glide Ooh, let’s open up, and go inside And if you want, it you got it forever I can just stay there inside you And love you, baby, oh… Let the music take your mind Just release and you will find, baby
You gonna fly away, glad you’re goin’ my way I love it when we’re cruising together The music is played for love, cruisin’ is made for love I love it when we’re cruisin’ together
You gonna fly away, glad you’re goin’ my way I love it when we’re cruising together The music is played for love, cruisin’ is made for love I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it…
“Everyone thinks I’m the boy next door because I look like the boy next door. But look at my parents, and look where I come from. I’m a beatnik kid.”
— Huey Lewis
For the record, Huey Lewis has always insisted that the lyrics of Hip To Be Square are meant to be ironic. They were originally written in the third person and were meant to satirize the band’s clean-cut image. Because Huey Lewis and the News were older than the average rock band when they hit it big, they were often considered to be safe or conservative. In real life, Huey Lewis was the stepson of beat poet Lew Welch, whom Lewis has described as being a major influence on his life and music. (Huey, who was born Hugh Cregg III, even paid tribute to Lew Welch with his stage name.) After high school, Lewis hitchhiked through Europe and he spent several years as a part of San Francisco’s decidedly unsquare music scene.
Despite what Patrick Bateman might try to tell you, Hip To Be Square was never meant to be an anthem for square people. In concert, Lewis usually makes this point square by signing the song as Too Hip to Be Square.
The video was directed by the team of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who directed several memorable music videos in the 80s. Godley and Creme directed this video using the type of medical cameras that are typically inserted into a human body to allow doctor to get a closer look at what might be ailing you. The video was nominated for Best Experimental Video at the 1987 MTV Music Video Awards.
For most people their experience with Huey Lewis and the News’ hit track “Hip to be Square” was due to it being used in American Psycho. It was already a great song before that film came out and continues to remain so, but now it’s taken on an even dark comedic tone.
I used to listen to this song non-stop when it first came out. Now, whenever I listen to it I start seeing Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman dancing to the song while dressed in a plastic raincoat. But before that it was always a catchy song and, dare I say it, a very hip one.
I actually prefer the band’s “Power of Love” track, but this song has to be next in line when it came to my favorite track from the band.
I’ve wondered what my younger self would think about this song now being associated with American Psycho. The answer I always get is that my younger self would think it was cool and hip (ok, ok stopping it there).
I had no choice in the matter. The moment Lisa Marie posted her review of Back to the Future as part of her “Back to School” review series I had no choice but to post the latest “Song of the Day” in honor of her latest review.
The latest featured song is none other than the best-selling single from the Back to the Future soundtrack (one I owned and treasured growing up to the point I wore out that vinyl) by the S.F.-based rock band Huey Lewis and the News. The song is “The Power of Love” and I must admit that I pretty much know this song by heart and can belt it out pretty well. Give me enough alcohol and I’m more than likely request it as the next karaoke song and I’ll grab that mic stand and channel my inner Huey Lewis.
This song may not be metal, but it definitely was a sound of the 80’s and I’d be hard pressed to find anyone who lived during the 1980’s and not have heard this song.
The Power of Love
The power of love is a curious thing make a one man weep, make another man sing Change a hawk to a little white dove more than a feeling, that’s the power of love
Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream Stronger and harder than a bad girl’s dream make a bad one good make a wrong one right power of love that keeps you home at night
Chorus 1 : You don’t need money, don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden and it’s cruel sometimes but it might just save your life That’s the power of love That’s the power of love
First time you feel it, it might make you sad Next time you feel it it might make you mad But you’ll be glad baby when you’ve found that’s the power makes the world go’round
Chorus 2 : And it don’t take money, don’t take fame don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden it can be cruel sometimes but it might just save your life
They say that all in love is fair yeah, but you don’t care But you know what to do when it gets hold of you and with a little help from above you feel the power of love you feel the power of love Can you feel it ? Hmmm
Chorus 3 : It don’t take money and it don’t take fame don’t need no credit card to ride this train Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel you won’t feel nothin’ till you feel you feel the power, just FEEL the power of love That’s the power, that’s the power of love You feel the power of love you feel the power of love feel the power of love
Through the Shattered Lens 