"Sometimes the only things a western savage understandsare whiskey and rifles and an unarmed man like you." - from "Call of the West" by Wall of Voodoo.
Today's "Postcard Friendship Friday" (PFF) entry takes us back to the old West. To the right is a postcard that is probably from the 1960s of a "Cowboy on a Texas ranch at nightfall". It was printed by the Baxter Lane company in Amarillo, Texas.
I'm one of those "Baby Boomers" who pretty much missed out on the whole Western thing. I remember remants of it: "Gunsmoke" was still on TV in primetime for a while, and there were oddities still on such as "Go Go Gophers", and every TV show from "Star Trek" to "Land of the Lost" seemed to take pains to include a Western episode.
I hardly saw any Western movies. In fact, I can only recall seeing a few ever, and can name them: "Shane" (which I saw as a kid, an d loved), "Back to the Future III", and "Pale Rider' (a more grim Clint Eastwood take on Shane). There might be a couple of others, but I do not remember right now.
Around Christmas time, Youtube offered the three Clint Eastwood "Man With No Name" spaghetti westerns for free download. I downloaded them, and have watched two so far. One of them, "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, is the 4th best movie of all time (under its Italian name) on IMDB's top 250 list. It is really quite good. It's not worthless at all for those who disdain Westerns but like for those who like post-apocalypse movies: the old West in the movie is quite unreal. The characters wander in an out of huge endless Civil War battles that are apparently supposed to be in Texas. The landscape is nothing like the real old West at all, let alone Texas, and it was filmed in Europe, which makes it all the more unreal. And I didn't mention that the Union and Confederate soldiers talk just alike, with no distinguishing accents. The movie is nearly 3 hours, but when it ended, I wished there was more. These Clint Eastwood movies were a direct inspiration for Stephen King's "Gunslinger" series, and it is easy to see how, when you watch them.
Below is a Youtube video of Stan Ridgway and Wall of Voodoo playing live at the Atlanta 688 Club in 1982. It's anachronistic in time and place, maybe about some sort of journey to California in the 1980s passing through some version of the old Wild West. Some of the lyrics:
...and then the old-timer pulled him close and said,
`you've come a long way, i know, you got a longer drive ahead
through the bones of a buffalo, through the claims of the western dead
and just like the spokes of a wheel you`ll spin round with the rest,
you`ll hear the drums and the brush of steel,
you`ll hear the call of the west.` / call of the west
you`ll hear the call of the west / call of the west"...
And it begins with the herald call of the ulullating whistle echoing the Morricone soundtrack for "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"
Here is Joe Jackson's similar take. The video is from a concert in Tokyo in 1986. This one also begins with the Morricone-like whistle effect. Both of these songs are Western, but not "Country and Western":
....You keep pushin' on when your friends keep turning back
And you keep building towns and laying railroad track
And things get crazy and you have to use that gun
And you wonder if this is the way the west is won....
Does like Westerns, or have any favorites?
19 comments:
Great silhouette. And High Noon has to be on your list of Westerns to watch.
Fun post! I agree -- add High Noon! Happy PFF!
Growing up, I wasn't a big fan of Westerns myself, but some of them are really well done. Personal favorite: The Magnificent Seven, with a plot based on Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai.
Shhhh! Don't tell: Luckily I am of the age where I (get this!) - listened to Gunsmoke and the Lone Ranger on the radio. I also watched all the westerns through to the 60's. My all time favorite cowboy films: Oxbow Incident and Seven Men From Now.
I have a modern card that isn't so very different from this one. I keep hoping to be sent a card that shows the *real* Texas. Maybe I should take up watching Westerns!
The Historiography and Research class I am taking right now actually focuses on Westerns. After I finish one project on reception of Native Americans in Broken Arrow I'll be writing a structural analysis of Shane and Johnny Guitar for next week. I hadn't ever really seen Westerns and even though the class is a requirement for my program I though about waiting to take it when Westerns weren't the lens.
Some excellent ones to add to your list would be The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (so good) and Winshester '73. I'm watching the Searchers tonight for next week's class. I'll let you know how it is.
Wow - blast from the past for me. I went to high school with Stanard Ridgeway of Wall of Voodoo. That wasn't his name then. They had one big hit - "Mexican Radio" - it's a great song. If you haven't heard it - check it out.
Shane is on TMC this weekend so I'm going to record it on our DVR. When I was growing up we only had one TV and when my dad was home he was monopolizing it with westerns. I mostly watched with him, and we watched anything with John Wayne (Sons of Katie Elder is a particular favorite) and I love any western with James Stewart (Naked Spur) and Errol Flynn (Viginia City & Sante Fe Trail). Sometimes though westerns the got a little tiresome. Especially upsetting - Gunsmoke as it was on at the same time as Flip Wilson - bummer.
Oh I also love the movie Paint Your Wagon - it's the one where Clint Eastwood sings.
Great postcard!! I'm from Texas so I'm surrounded by the western stuff...I love it though. Quite often when nothing else is on TV we can find an old western playing...we just have to sit and watch.
Roy Rogers was one of the first TV shows I watched. I haven't watched much other western stuff.
Linda and Snap: Thanks! I will watch for it.
Chris: I've heard that one is good, too. At least I know the Yul Brynner character from it, sort of echoed/repeated in "Westworld".
Muse: Hi ho Silver!
Sheila: "Real Texas" for me is East Texas. Which looks pretty much like the "Green Country" of eastern Oklahoma, which looks pretty much like the rest of the country to me.
Natalie: I have heard that "Broken Arrow" is good. Which reminded me of one of those westerns I had seen which I had forgotten to mention earlier: "Hondo" with John Wayne.
The Lady: Thanks also for your comment. I've heard of "Paint Your Wagon", but haven't heard much good about it before.
Aimee: I'm surprised there isn't a Western channel on TV.
Postcardy: All I know at this time is that Roy had horse named Trigger. One or the other or both of them (Roy and Trigger) are stuffed and mounted on display somewhere.
Love your card. My kids missed out on the Cowboys and Indians thingy as well, they tell me I'm not politically correct, but that's just how it was, no insults were really intended. I was singing "don't fence me in" as I read your post. Happy PFF
I've never gotten to heavily into Western books or movies, but I sort of admire the cowboy image :-) Whenever I hear of someplace or soemthing that seems sort of lawless and adrenalized I tend to think Just like the wild, wild West. Um, but I'm not sure why...
One more movie I forgot: "Wild Wild West". A steampunk movie with Will Smith, based on the unique James Bond-type Western TV show of the 1960s. Not nearly as good as any of this might promise.
A mention can also be made of the "post-Western" frontier-town Western TV shows I did watch: "Little House on the Prairie", "Paradise", and "Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman".
I strongly, strongly recommend Robert B. Parker's western novels. Appaloosa is one, Brimstone is another. I think there are four in all.
I love Billy Joel's "Ballad of Billy The Kid", too.
I loved westerns when I was growing up. You knew exactly what was going to happen in everyone of them but that didn't matter.
BTW, Trigger was a Tennessee Walking Horse which is why you didn't see Roy Rogers bouncing up and down.
I can't believe I forgot one of my favorite movies, "Dances with Wolves".
So, Searchers was...okay. Certainly didn't have the same positive image of the Native people as did Broken Arrow, but it was an interesting story. John Wayne was quite toe conflicted and mysterious man. Encore has a Westerns channel in their movie package but, obviously, you have to subscribe to Encore to get it.
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