Thursday, 31 March 2011

1902

"No tears. No fears. No ruined years. No clocks. She's a twentieth century fox."



Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) is a fantastic piece of fiction, showing Méliès was improving with each movie. Based on Jules Verne's De la Terre à la Lune and the recently published The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells, it could well be the first true 'classic' of this blog. Most people will recognize the scene where the rocket lands in the eye on the face of the moon. It's also the first movie to feature in Films101 top 2000 at #1257. Infact, it's the only film of the centuries first 20 years to appear in any of imdb's "Top 50 by genre", by hitting #19 in IMDB's "top rated shorts".

I also watched Charleston Chain Gang, Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show and another Méliès film "Man With The Rubber Head". All fine, but don't really add much to what's already been discussed.

1902 seems to have been a quiet year for births in the movie/music industry, with no actors I'm familiar with having been born. However, filmmakers William Wyler, David O. Selznick, Darryl F. Zanuck all entered the world during this time. The only music name that rang a bell was Skip James, the influential Delta Bluesman, born in Mississippi in June '02. Both Cream and Deep Purple would cover his "I'm So Glad" on each of their debut albums. He would later provide the inspiration to (in my opinion) the best song from the
soundtrack, a re-recording of a James original titled "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (have a listen here).


Me with a cold, trying "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues"
(complete with mistakes, breakdown and a chuckle)

Scott Joplin published his most popular work in 1902, the instantly recognisable "The Entertainer" (enjoying a revival in the 70's due to its use in
), and by the age of 14, one young fella named Lead Belly had started to perform.

Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 premiered in 1901, but was amended in 1902 into the piece we now all know. And it is a great piece. Without wanting to venture too far into patriotism, I think this would make a far greater national anthem for the British, than the boring, lackluster, God Save The Queen.

Books by Joel Whitburn ('A Century Of Pop Music 1900-1999' and 'Pop Memories 1890-1954') suggested the most popular American artists of 1902 were J.W. Myers, Arthur Collins and Harry MacDonough. However, I feel that throughout most modern history, it has been proven that "popular" does not generally mean "great". It is actually often the opposite, so the 1900's may not be so different from the 2000's. These ratings are based on 'Billboard' rankings, and we know the Americans can be just as bad as anyone else in the world for dishing out unjustified praise to the talentless.

That said, 1902 proves to be RYM's most prolific year of the decade, and the #1 for 1902 is a tune sung by Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan (Feat. Vess Ossman on Banjo) and it's quite good. Because of the tempo, it felt like the first proper song thats managed to flow, without getting too busy. From what I've heard up until now, many records were there to simply amuse or showcase a specific talent. I found alot of them during this time to lack the 'soul' that illuminates records in the decades that follow. #2 is Fred Van Eps' "The International Cakewalk", which again isn't bad, due to having an enjoyable melody. Overall, an improvement on 1901, but how long till these recordings start speaking to me? Only time will tell...


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