Next up is :- And then there were movies

NB: I keep saying, this stuff isn't mine and may very well be pulled for breach of copyright. You can, of course, go looking on YouTube, or its foreign variants, for copies. I'm sure you know how.

Here is your next 30 minutes worth of class as it relates to my favourite movies, movies I have watched more than once, movies where I could quote chunks of. You know the kind.

So, let's get into them, in no particular order:

Das Boot. An anti-war movie, believe it or not. I am a fan, a big fan. I have this on 6 part VHS tape, DVD, Director's Cut DVD, LP, CD, Audio-book, novel, novel (abridged)...no Blu-Ray yet but maybe. I also have various references to it via a band called U-96, another movie called Beerfest. Your link:

Note the guitars - two of them. Go looking on youtube and you can watch it being played. SUBlime (hee hee hee).

Next up is a movie starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. An unusual pairing that works well. The movie is a boys own type thing. A spy movie set in deepest Germany. BTW, I have visited Hohen Werfen, the castle where some of the movie is set. Unfortunately, the cable ride up to the castle isn't quite up to movie standard.

Here is your main theme:

And next up is a Michael Caine movie based on a Len Deighton story (sort of). You clip has Harry (not his real name) meeting Samantha. To me, this is the best of the "Harry Palmer" stories.

The geek in me has walked the length of  Lietzenseeufer looking for one of the buildings used in the movie. The Wall was but a side-show.

My favourite bond is the one and only outing of George Lazenby. Also has that wonderful Louis Armstrong song in it.

There are loads of SciFi movies that are class but top of the list must be 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is a movie that has to be seen several times to take in everything that is there and all the potential meanings. This movie does not belong on the best of hollywood stuff. This is not a movie just to entertain. It is a movie in the best BBC tradition - to inform, to educate, to entertain. Here is the trailer:

After all that really deep stuff, a couple of cartoons to entertain you. The first one is Snow White. A movie full of nostalgia fo me. The first movie I saw at the cinema. It had me in tears. I thought she was dead. Oh, yes, it also had a yodel in it, and here it is:

The second cartoon is my favourite of them all. Baloo makes the move and the Sherman brothers had all the songs spot on. Of course - The Jungle Book.

Well, there you have it. A fine selection of must see, 5* movies if I do say so myself. There is a stack of others that didn't quite make the list but on another day may have. I know some people look on TV and the movies as trash but there are many that are brilliant. The writers, directors, producers, special effects, all the backroom stuff. My hat is off to them all.

As usual, any comments are more than welcome on this topic as well as the others. Feel free to add them. Please.

My Musical Alphabet : J

As I keep saying, this stuff isn't mine and may very well be pulled for breach of copyright. You can, of course, go looking on YouTube, or its foreign variants, for copies. I'm sure you know how.

Here is your next 30 minutes worth of class.

I will begin this trawl through J with Mr. Elmore James, the master of the slide guitar. I have no idea where my liking for slide comes from. I've had a good old hard think about it and cannot find any rhyme or reason. I don't know when it started or why. All I know is that slide sometimes just hits the spot. I nearly said hits the right note! It does not link into Eurovision, it does not link into Quo (although Rossi has dabbled). Sorry but there is no juicy story to go with it.

Anyway, as Elmore James is from the very old days, here is a much younger George Thorogood playing Dust My Broom. Eventually - after 4 minutes of waffle.

  

Another J, is Jeff Wayne. There is no link here because I'd have to give you the whole album and I know your time is too precious. The work, is of course, The War of the Worlds. A brilliant album based on a brilliant story. Yes, I know it is a musical but, hey-ho.

I do not know about you but when I go on holiday abroad, I like to watch the TV. Even if you cannot understand it all, sometimes you come across a gem.  The one I found is from Jeyro and it is this:

  

This next one I can lay at the feet of my old dad. He bought me the soundtrack to 2001 (it was space related and I am a geek, remember?) On it was An der schönen blauen Donau or to give it the English name, The Blue Danube.  This fueled my love of the waltz and the ländler. Of course the J is for Johann Strauss. Did I mention that the movie must be one of the best ever?

  

Before the next J, a word about some of these choices. You might have noticed a common theme. I like strings - guitar, ruan, bazouki, balalaika, zither....so next up is Julian Bream. Hard to imagine that this is just one guitar. Brilliance. The piece is Recuerdos de la Alhambra.

  

To finish off with a little weirdness, here is Aneka with Japanese Boy. Another one full of Eastern Promise. And a one-off wonder to boot.

  

And so we come to the end (to paraphrase Bob Stewart on RTL). Well, the end of the Js.

As usual, feel free to add you thoughts whether you agree with me or not. It would be helpful to know what you think and if you want this to take any particular direction.