Question that has interested me for a long time: when did pop/rock & roll musicians cross over into the world of celebrity and power (you can add money, too, but some had already made that leap before they made the other). Specific oddity that got me interested: none of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or Bob Dylan were at Truman Capote's famous party in 1966. It's like there's a line there, and by the late '70s that line had been obliterated.
I'd never thought about it, but Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President makes it clear that his presidency was key to that transformation. (Saw it in a theatre tonight; it should play on CNN soon.) Dylan, for one, talks about his first invite to the White House, and how--as Carter quoted his songs back to him--he realized this was the first time his work had crossed that barrier.
I wouldn't say it's a great film, and--understandably--it deifies Carter, but lots of amazing footage (Dizzy Gillespie inviting Carter up to sing "Salt Peanuts") and a good time capsule of those years. Carter's inauguration--the ceremony, then the party later--is especially striking in view of present circumstances.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 10 November 2020 01:05 (three years ago) link
Nothing to do with Carter, but I think of the shift of rock stars into celebrities being marked or heralded by some of the giant tours a little earlier: Rolling Stones in '72, Dylan/Band and also CSNY in '74. Maybe Alice Cooper fits in there somewhere too. Descriptions you read of these shows often mention movie stars and other personalities hanging around backstage or after the show, which as you say probably wasn't quite the case five or ten years earlier.
There was that strange time in rock between '74 and '77 where a lot of musicians embraced a putative sophistication that looks and feels now like an old issue of Cosmopolitan.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 10 November 2020 01:37 (three years ago) link
Definitely the '72 Stones tour--was going to mention that. There are shots in Cocksucker Blues of Capote (and maybe Warhol) milling about backstage. In the Carter film, Jerry Brown's campaign--enlisting the Eagles and, of course, Linda Ronstadt--also had a hand in this.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 10 November 2020 02:21 (three years ago) link
One annoying thing about the Carter film: along with Dicky Betts and Willie Nelson and Niles Rodgers and Trisha Yearwood and lots of people that make sense, there's five minutes of Bono. (Who might make sense too, but it's Bono.)
― clemenza, Tuesday, 10 November 2020 02:30 (three years ago) link
I'd say the Beatles receiving MBEs in '65 was a step in this process, and then the Stones hanging out with and being shot by royal photographer Cecil Beaton in '67 was another, plus Jagger being good friends (at least) with Princess Margaret from '67 or so.
― Josefa, Tuesday, 10 November 2020 05:01 (three years ago) link
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/howard-kaylan-storms-the-white-house-in-shell-shocked-my-life-with-the-turtles-exclusive-book-excerpt-179284/
― Boring blighters bloaters (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 09:35 (three years ago) link
Kennedys/Rat Pack is the beginning of this.
― scampopo (suzy), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 09:48 (three years ago) link
Beats Thatcher/Tarby/Cilla Black any day.
― Boring blighters bloaters (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 09:50 (three years ago) link
I was thinking more specifically of the rock and roll end of it, but for sure, Kennedy/Rat Pack clears the way for that. I'd say the bookends are Warhol and Dylan's orbits intersecting in '66 and Studio 54 a decade-plus later. Rod Stewart's great line from "You Were It Well" in 1972--"Madame Onassis got nothin' on you"--he's still like a kid there with his nose pressed against the window, pining for an invite into that world; five or six years later, he is that world.
(I always want to issue a personal apology when I hijack someone's thread. Sorry, Jimmy Carter--congratulations on your Nobel Peace Prize.)
― clemenza, Tuesday, 10 November 2020 16:59 (three years ago) link
Entering hospice care apparently.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Saturday, 18 February 2023 20:59 (one year ago) link
https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2023/statement-on-president-carters-health.html
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Saturday, 18 February 2023 21:01 (one year ago) link
Sad news. The source here is a spook (is that ok to say?) but it was an interesting context on Carter’s continuing historic role after leaving the White House.
Thread on Jimmy Carter and 1994 North Korea nuclear crisis.In August, 1994, I was one of a small team of intelligence officers asked to brief the former President prior to his mission to Pyongyang. Carter had essentially volunteered for the task…much to Clinton’s consternation.— Frank Jannuzi ☮️ (@FrankJannuzi) February 19, 2023
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Sunday, 19 February 2023 03:50 (one year ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html
― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Sunday, 19 March 2023 01:36 (one year ago) link
happy 99th
― mookieproof, Sunday, 1 October 2023 13:32 (eight months ago) link
Rosalynn Carter dead.
― stuffing your suit pockets with cold, stale chicken tende (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 19 November 2023 20:38 (six months ago) link
RIP
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Sunday, 19 November 2023 20:44 (six months ago) link