Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Music Monday – Vocalese – Moody's Mood for Love

Dance Couple with LyricsI dug back into the archives of my music collection for my first post of the New Year.  I’ve always loved this song, not only because of the fine vocal stylings of King Pleasure and Blossom Dearie, but also for the history behind the song itself.  Moody’s Mood for Love is a swoon-worthy slow dance song, full of references to magic, stars, enduring love and all the stuff that romance is made of.  If you want to get starry-eyed, this is one of the best songs to listen to.

That being said, here’s the story of the song.

The “original” song was “I’m in the Mood for Love” written by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields.  It may be famliar to many because of the line “I’m in the mood for love/Simply because you’re near me…”.  Here is Sarah Vaughn’s cover of the song.

 

While playing in Sweden, saxophonist James Moody improvised a solo while in concert in Sweden.

 

Eddie Jefferson penned words to Moody’s saxophone solo as well as , which then was made famous by King Pleasure and Blossom Dearie.  And we have…

 

Amy WInehouse did a version of the song, and while I do love Amy, I don’t feel she captured the true contours of Moody’s sax solo.  She simply put the words and melody over a reggae beat.  Which is okay, I suppose, but she just made it another song, rather than a call back to the vocalese tradition.

Queen Latifah also does a version.  It’s…okay, but again, is simply another interpretation of the words and melody.

 

EDDIE JEFFERSON MOODY´S MOOD FOR LOVE LYRICS

As sung by King Pleasure and Blossom Dearie

There I go, there I go, there I go, there I go
Pretty baby you are the soul, who snaps my control
Such a funny thing but every time you’re near me
I never can behave
You give me a smile and  then I’m wrapped up in your magic
There’s music all around me
Crazy music, music that keeps calling me so
Very close to you, turns me your slave
Come on and do with me any little thing that you want to
Anything, baby just let me get next to you

Am I insane or do I really see heaven in your eyes?
Bright as stars that shine up above you
In the clear blue skies, how I worry ’bout you
Just can’t live my life without you
Baby come here, and don’t have no fear
Oh, is there wonder why
I’m really feeling in the mood for love

So tell me why, stop to think about this weather, my dear
This little dream might fade away
There I go talking out of my head again

Oh baby won’t you
come and put our two hearts together
That would make me strong and brave
Oooo, when we are one, I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid
If there’s a cloud up above us
Go on and let it rain
I’m sure our love together will endure a hurricane
Oh my baby won’t you please let me love you
and give me relief from this awful misery.What is all this talk about loving me, my sweet
I am not afraid, not anymore, not like before
Don’t you understand me, now baby please
Pull yourself together, do it soon
My soul’s on fire, come on and take me
I’ll be what you make me, my darling, my dearOh baby, you make me feel so good
Let me take you by the hand
Come let us visit out there
In that new promised landMaybe there we can find
A good place to use a lovin’ state of mind
I’m so tired of being without
And never knew what love’s about
James Moody you can come over man
you can blow now if you want to, we’re through

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moody%27s_Mood_for_Love

Movie Review – Flashback – Stir of Echoes

Title: Stir of Echoes
Genre: Thriller/Supernatural Horror
Director: Davis Koepp
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164181

Hey there lovelies!

I’m taking a little vacation for the month of the December, which means I’m cleaning house (literally and figuratively) and sussing out my goals for 2016. Which in turns means movies and music galore! It’s a relief sometimes to take a step away from the pen and paper….but that doesn’t stop the ideas from bubbling over.

0509008_BRWrapv4Back to the movies. I took a little step back in time to screen Stir of Echoes. I remember watching this back in the day when it first came out on DVD. It’s based on a novel by Richard Matheson, who, as you must well know, wrote Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, I Am Legend and a few other horror/thriller stories. (I use the word “few” as being funny. Matheson was pretty prolific.)

I must say, for a film from the 90s, it holds up pretty well. I enjoyed Kevin Bacon’s younger incarnation – he’s got the loveliest clear blue eyes. I could have done without the “magical negro” trope and the only non-white people in the film were located in a crappy part of town, but other than that, the narrative surrounding Kevin Bacon’s hypnosis by his sister in law (played by a cool Ileana Douglas) and the resulting plot madness is pretty good.

I’ve read the original Matheson story, and because of the dated plot, the screenwriter took some liberty in changing the plot that I don’t really think affected the overall tension and theme.

Also, a slightly tattooed (on his back)  Kevin Bacon, sweaty and shirtless. He’s kind of thin in this movie, but it’s still kinda hot in a trailer park kind of way.

stir-of-echoes-kevin-bacon-digging-yard-shirtless

Watch or not to watch?:

If you like supernatural thrillers and messages from the other side visited upon a common group of folks, I’d recommend this movie. Screen it for the story and remember it takes place in the 90s when cell phones were NOT commonplace. If you put yourself back in time and watch the movie for what it is, you’ll enjoy it. I know I did.

Grade: A minus

Blogtoberfest – Urban Legends to Keep You Up at Night – Part 2

thousand stepsUrban Legendsto keep you upat nightPart 2The Thousand Steps

Behind a rusty, broken gate at the top of the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi in Eagle Point Park (Clinton, Iowa) is an ancient set of steps plagued with tragedy and wrought with mysteries and fables. Locals call them the “Thousand Steps”, and they were built in the 1930’s along with the rest of the neighboring park to allow access from the top of the bluffs to the beach below. Although originally used frequently by families and other people looking for a scenic hike, the stairs soon fell into disuse and began to decay- becoming filled with holes, structural cracks, and covered in slippery moss, making them very dangerous to use.

But of course, nothing compels children to do something more than being told not to do it.

In the 1960’s, it soon became a right of passage to descend the stairs and live- which many children and adults did successfully, but many others did not. Dozens of children died attempting to master the stairs every year all the way the 70’s, when attempts finally slowed and with it, the death toll until it was down to one per year, where it remains at today.

However, an obviously dangerous set of steps does not a legend make – it’s what began to happen after the many deaths that make the steps so intriguing. Frequent reports of ghost sightings, the confirmed discovery of human remains and even rumors that the sight used to be a Native American “Indian” burial ground began to circulate and gain credibility over the years.

The steps still stand today, as dangerous and mystifying as they were 50 years ago. If none of the legends are true – the burial ground, the human remains, or the ghosts – the death toll still stands. More than 20 people lost their lives on those steps, and the question remains… Who is the next victim?

From: http://urbanlegendsonline.com/thousand-steps/

Berrys-Chapel-BannerChapel Still Appears at Night in Flames

There is a site located in Quinton on the outskirts of Salem that was home to an African-American Church when slavery was still intact. The church was built in the woods by a pastor named Berry. It was burned down twice. The first time no harm was done to anyone, the second time the entire congregation died, including Berry. There are many stories surrounding the burned down church and remaining graveyard, which also became a teenage drinking spot along with a supposed cult meeting ground.

They say on many nights if you go out there, you can see the church fully intact and burning and you can see and hear the parishioners dancing and praising. [bctt tweet=”They also say you can hear metal scraping and people screaming. ” via=”no”]Berry himself was also buried here and his grave is marked by a stone with his name, but for some reason he was buried farther into the woods and no one can ever seem to find his gravesite. –Shannon  (From http://weirdnj.com/weird-news/berrys-chapel/ )

 

Enjoy!

Dahlia

 

 

Blogtoberfest – Urban Legends to Keep You Up at Night – Part 1

Urban Legendsto keepYou Up at Night

We all know ’em, don’t we?  The friend of a friend of my cousin who….they all start out that way and always end badly for that sort-of person we kinda know. They even made a movie (or three) about it, then there was that television series that acted them out (badly) for you.

Let’s talk about a few of these, shall we?  And remember to leave the light on….

The Clown Statue Murderer: An Urban Legend

The story of the clown statue murderer is an urban legend. It is not a true story but can spark fear in anyone who reads it. It has been passed around as a chain letter online since 2004.

Here is the story:

“A girl in her teens is babysitting for a family in Newport Beach, Ca. The family is wealthy and has a very large house – you know the sort, with a ridiculous amount of rooms. Anyways, the parents are going out for a late dinner/movie. The father tells the babysitter that once the children are in bed she should go into this specific room (he doesn’t really want her wandering around the house) and watch TV there.

The parents take off and soon she gets the kids into bed and goes to the room to watch TV. She tries watching TV, but she is disturbed by a clown statue in the corner of the room. She tries to ignore it for as long as possible, but it starts freaking her out so much that she can’t handle it.

She resorts to calling the father and asks, “Hey, the kids are in bed, but is it okay if I switch rooms? This clown statue is really creeping me out.”

The father says seriously, “Get the kids, go next door and call 911.”

She asks, “What’s going on?”

He responds, “Just go next door and once you call the police, call me back.”

She gets the kids, goes next door, and calls the police. When the police are on the way, she calls the father back and asks, “So, really, what’s going on?”

He responds, “We don’t HAVE a clown statue.” He then further explains that the children have been complaining about a clown watching them as they sleep. He and his wife had just blown it off, assuming that they were having nightmares.

The police arrive and apprehend the “clown,” who turns out to be a midget. A midget clown! I guess he was some homeless person dressed as a clown, who somehow got into the house and had been living there for several weeks. He would come into the kids’ rooms at nights and watch them while they slept. As the house was so large, he was able to avoid detection, surviving off their food, etc. He had been in the TV room right before the babysitter right came in there. When she entered he didn’t have enough time to hide, so he just froze in place and pretended to be a statue.

Yeah.  As I said earlier on a discussion group, between IT and John Wayne Gacy, I don’t have any time for clowns.

And another to make your hair stand on end.  This is an oldie but a still a goodie:

The Killer in the Backseat….

One night a woman went out for drinks with her girlfriends. She left the bar fairly late at night, got in her car and onto the deserted highway. After a few minutes she noticed a lone pair of headlights in her rear-view mirror, approaching at a pace just slightly quicker than hers. As the car pulled up behind her she glanced and saw the turn signal on — the car was going to pass — when suddenly it swerved back behind her, pulled up dangerously close to her tailgate and the brights flashed.

Now she was getting nervous. The lights dimmed for a moment and then the brights came back on and the car behind her surged forward. The frightened woman struggled to keep her eyes on the road and fought the urge to look at the car behind her. Finally, her exit approached but the car continued to follow, flashing the brights periodically.

Through every stoplight and turn, it followed her until she pulled into her driveway. She figured her only hope was to make a mad dash into the house and call the police. As she flew from the car, so did the driver of the car behind her — and he screamed, “Lock the door and call the police! Call 911!”

When the police arrived the horrible truth was finally revealed to the woman. The man in the car had been trying to save her. As he pulled up behind her and his headlights illuminated her car, he saw the silhouette of a man with a butcher knife rising up from the back seat to stab her, so he flashed his brights and the figure crouched back down.

The moral of the story: Always check the back seat!

Yes, they’re (mostly) not true, but don’t they give you a shiver?

Pleasant Dreams!

 

Dahlia

 

 

 

 

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Blogtoberfest – American Gothic Roots Music – Rachel Brooke

RachelBrookeWelcome to today’s Blogtoberfest post!  It’s another dark country/roots song by artist Rachel Brooke.

 

“Take everything you think you know about country music and throw it out the window. That pop rock crap y’all call country is nothing compared to what Rachel Brooke is laying down. She’s an old soul in the way Hank Williams and Memphis Minnie were, culling together both country and country blues into an album that is easily digestible for anyone who gets scared off by real country music. Etta James once said that the blues and country music were kissing cousins. Rachel Brooke is their love child.” -Chip McCabe

 

and

 

“Producing and playing most of the instruments herself, Rachel demonstrates her immense talent and diversity on this album. (Down in the Barnyard 2011) The song writing is top notch, her voice is eerily old-time-authentic, and the whole album has the ability to whisk you away on the country technicolor lullaby head trip that she has painted during it’s near-hour long set. Rachel is just hitting her stride, but with this release is proving that we should all be keeping our eyes on her.” –Shooter Jennings, ”- Moonrunners”