Here’s the famous William Shatner performance at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards, which was nicely parodied on Family Guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQwXOCKNLY
That’s what living in the ’70s was like, kids.
I’ve been picking fairly poetic songs for this series of posts, and have so far ignored some of the tightly written hit songs that drew the attention of both country and pop music fans. Among the most-successful of these was “Once A Day,” recorded by Connie Smith on her debut LP for RCA in 1965. The song spent eight weeks at #1 in the Country charts, longer than any other single.
Once A Day (recorded by Connie Smith)
Written by Bill Anderson
When you found somebody new
I thought I never would forget you
For I thought then I never could
But time has taken all the pain away
Until now, I’m down to hurtin’
Once a dayOnce a day
All day long
And once a night
From dusk till dawn
The only time
I wish you weren’t gone
Is once a day
Everyday
All day longI’m so glad that I’m not like
A girl I knew one time
She lost the one she loved
Then slowly lost her mind
She sat around and cried her life away
Lucky me
I’m only cryin’ once a dayOnce a day
All day long
And once a night
From dusk till dawn
The only time
I wish you weren’t gone
Is once a day
Everyday
All day long
I’m not sure what songwriters and music critics call a turn of phrase like “Once a day, everyday, all day long,” but this is an example of the kind of clever line heard so often in country music that defies the theory that it’s unsophisticated music. The line that Bill Anderson wrote here isn’t a simple pun; it’s a declaration of irony. And in Connie Smith’s hands, it’s proud and heartbreaking at the same time.
2007. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
This is a perplexing film: beautiful and crude, detailed characters and awkward violence, long scenes without dialogue and scenes scored with odd, overwhelming music. After a second viewing, I thought it was all of the above, and a fascinating film, after all.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a solitary prospector who abandons his search for silver when he strikes oil. Trying to stay a step ahead of competitors such as Standard Oil, he follows up on a tip to buy a remote goat ranch that has crude seeping out of the ground. He quickly crosses the son of the ranch owner, faith-healing boy minister Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), who becomes a lifelong nemesis.
Success has destroyed many a film character, and success will flow between the fingers of Daniel Plainview, no matter how fast he can pump black gold from the ground.
There are several themes pulling There Will Be Blood along: Plainview’s quest for wealth at the expense of all else; his mental and spiritual descent; the battle of commerce and religion, and the toxic sludge created when they are mixed.
Plainview admits that he sees little good in people, which makes it easier to dispose of them when they become problematic. But you can at least respect him for his honesty. The man of the cloth is opportunistic, vain and greedy, and is no match for the manic avarice of the oilman. But they manage to torment each other for a quarter of a century. Eli makes Plainview admit in front of the congregation that he has abandoned his son after an accident leaves him deaf; Plainview makes Eli repeatedly renounce God and declare himself a false prophet, all for a share of profits that don’t exist.
I don’t think enough has been made of Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance — Plainview is an unforgettable character, a charmer barely able to restrain his contempt, a misanthrope who knows how to read a stranger’s face. Everyone is a competitor and, as he says, he can’t stand for anyone else to succeed. That includes his son, adopted after an accident leaves him orphaned. Some of Day-Lewis’ best scenes are those of him alone with his young son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier), his trusted sidekick and partner until an accident makes H.W. a liability.
It might take more than one viewing, but There Will Be Blood rewards the viewer with an unsentimental look at greed and desperation, and the source of endless wealth and power that lies just feet beneath us.