A look at two non-political items in the news this week, after the jump ….
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Last month, I noted (in a follow-up to an essay in this space) about an upcoming book release by the disgraced London police detective Norman Pilcher — who was accused of planting drugs, and was convicted of perjury as a fugitive-from-justice — immortalized by John Lennon’s I Am the Walrus as …. Semolina Pilchard.
My comprehensive original essay is at this link, the shorter follow-up here.
Now …... a further update.
Set for release this coming Tuesday, Norman Pilcher (at age eighty-five and battling bone cancer) gave The Mirror his first interview, in which he says:
1) Kind words about John Lennon and Brian Jones (believes Brian was murdered)
2) Denies it was his squad had busted Jagger/Richards (nor the singer Donovan)
3) But says that he also busted …. Dusty Springfield
4) And despite his conviction, he is to insist he was an honest cop
5) (Good luck with #4, bub)
And finally, a look at the passing of a noted French singer and film star (which I knew) and her difficult times during the Nazi occupation (of which I did not).
Juliette Gréco was described in the NY Times obituary as the Grande Dame of Chanson Française…. described as a storytelling genre: “We’re a people who express our love in songs, our anger in songs, even our revolution in songs.” She also sang to the words of noted poets, had a Hollywood career …. quite a life.
Born in the south of France in 1927, both her mother and her sister worked in the Resistance during Nazi occupation and were sent to concentration camps (while Juliette spent time in a women’s prison) which made her a determined woman.
After the war, she took to singing — always in a black dress for drama — in Left Bank cafés and became friends with Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus and the poet Jacques Prévert. Sartre once said of her, “Gréco has a million poems in her voice” which she often sang after announcing the name of the poet.
She also sang more conventional songs, often written by the likes of Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour (who died just two years ago). Among her hits were “Sous le Ciel de Paris” (“Under Paris Skies”), “Les Feuilles Mortes” (which English speakers know as “Autumn Leaves”), “Déshabillez-Moi” (“Undress Me”), “Jolie Môme” (“Pretty Kid”) and “Je Suis Comme Je Suis” (“I Am What I Am”).
She was married three times (with her pianist third husband pre-deceasing her by two years) but was known for her many loves. In the jazz world she had a noted relationship with the trumpeter Miles Davis— deciding against marriage because their careers were in different countries and his fear of damaging her career by being in an interracial relationship: “I love her too much to make her unhappy.”
She had a short (but noted) Hollywood career, appearing in such films as The Sun Also Rises (1957). She also had an affair with the film producer Darryl Zanuck and while their affair did not last long: after Zanuck’s death in 1979, Gréco wrote that he had left a void in her life that was never to be filled.
In her later years she resumed her singing career (with her voice turning husky yet still quite personal) with many recordings. Juliette Gréco died yesterday at the age of ninety-three.
Let’s close with a song from an album that she travelled to New York to record in 2007 (at age 79) with producer Jean-Phillipe Allard, “which reminded me of the time after the (Allied) liberation when Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, the Modern Jazz Quartet and Ella Fitzgerald …. all turned-up without warning at the Tabou“ — the Left Bank jazz club she worked at and was the center of Parisian bohemian life.
The album featured soloists such as Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano and trumpeter Wallace Roney (a Miles Davis protegé) — and while most songs are from French composers such as Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg … there’s also a classic.
Now, on to Top Comments:
From Youffraita:
In today’s Pundit Round-up by my esteemed T/C colleague Chitown Kev…. the (aptly-named) commenter learn pops-up with a diary-worthy comment.
From Chartreuxe:
In the front-page story about the Trumpster being booed as he left the Supreme Court today — please consider this from tcdup as a top comment.
Highlighted by peregrine kate:
In the diary by wildstyle2 about trying to learn from a Trump fanatic— a top comment and an excellent, excellent approach from athenap.
Highlighted by ozsea1:
In the diary by RETIII about whether a Trump nominee will or will not choose recusal if/when he challenges an adverse election result— this comment made by Villanova Rhodes.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story about a Minnesota family supporting the Trumpster claiming their house was graffitied with BLM and Biden before being burned down — rudewarrior cites a Tweet in the essay that makes the claim odd.
TOP PHOTOSSeptember 23rd, 2020 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo.
(NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.) And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
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