In Memoriam: Mickey Rooney & Robin Williams

[purchase the first Night at the Museum movie]

After two quick posts on this theme, we have gone silent here, and that’s a shame, because there are many people in the music world who deserve commemoration. Just a few of the famous and less famous who passed in 2014, and who might make a good subject include, in chronological order of death: Phil Everly, Amiri Baraka, Ronny Jordan, Pete Seeger, Shirley Temple, Sid Caesar, Bob Casale, Paco de Lucia, Scott Asheton, Joe Lala, Nash the Slash, Jerry Vale, Casey Kasem, Horace Silver, Gerry Goffin, Bobby Womack, Tommy Ramone, Charlie Haden, Johnny Winter, Dick Wagner, Joe Sample, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Revere, Raphael Ravenscroft, Jack Bruce, Marcia Strassman, Rick Rosas, Jimmy Ruffin, and Buddy DeFranco. If you don’t know who these people are, you should check them out, what with the Internet having all of the information and all.

But I like to see connections, as can be seen by my last piece on Bobby Keys and Ian McLagan, and last year saw the release of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, which turned out the be the first posthumously released film for both Mickey Rooney, who died on April 6, 2014 at the age of 93, and Robin Williams, who died on August 11, 2014, at the age of 63. Although neither of these show business masters are remembered best as musicians, they both dabbled in the field. And, anyway, I can write about whoever I want.

I’m not going to try to really discuss the careers of these two men—that has been done better and in more detail elsewhere. But their lives and careers, which intersected in these silly movies, have a number of parallels, and a few key differences.

Rooney, who was born in 1920 as Joseph Yule, Jr. to parents who were in vaudeville, made his stage debut as an infant and his film debut at age 6. His career spanned the age of silent films to Netflix, he was a decorated soldier in World War II, and he rebounded from a period where he was nearly forgotten to become a respected character actor on TV, in movies and on Broadway. Also, he was married eight times.

Williams was born in 1951 and was trained in the acting program at Julliard, although he left before graduation, actually encouraged by John Houseman to leave because there was nothing more for him to learn. He worked his way from brilliant, improvisational standup comedy, to Mork and Mindy, to roles in both comedies and serious films and on the stage.

Both men were known for their abundance of energy, their immense talent, their remarkable versatility and their general likeability. Unfortunately, both men also suffered from substance abuse issues—Rooney with alcohol and pills, and Williams with cocaine and alcohol. In Rooney’s case, though, he lived until a ripe old age, and, despite some health issues, was able to contribute a cameo to the Night at the Museum sequel in his nineties. Williams, on the other hand, committed suicide at only 63, with four movies, including Night at the Museum (for which he received much better reviews than the film), already in the can.

But, let’s talk about music, because this is, at its heart, a music blog. To be fair, Rooney’s musical career is a bit more substantial—he could play a number of musical instruments and sang in many films, often with Judy Garland, as in the clip above. He won a Tony Award in 1980 for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Sugar Babies. Williams’ musical career was much more limited, and was more of a novelty. He did sing as the Genie in Aladdin, and contributed some vocals to charity projects, but the video above is his cover of the Beatles’ "Come Together," with Bobby McFerrin, on an album of Beatles covers by various artists produced by George Martin as, essentially a tribute to himself.

Magic -> Nonsense: Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo

Bobby McFerrin: Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo

[purchase]

Joyce: Bobbidy-Bobbidy-Boo

[purchase]

Two vastly different takes on a bit of Cinderella magic ease us from one theme into the next this week: Bobby McFerrin's totally deconstructed high-concept vocaljazz, which starts with almost a full minute of the original before kicking in all fragmented and scatlike, and Brazilian mononomic vocalist Joyce's jazzy, bouncy bossa nova, which - given the nonsensical lyric at the song's core - works out just fine for those of us who can't understand a lick of Portuguese. Both tracks originally came to me over at Covering The Mouse, a well-constructed, well-curated coverblog which features Disney covers exclusively. Viva la inscrutable!

Cool Kidsongs: For Our Children Edition

Bruce Springsteen: Chicken Lips and Lizard Hips (from For Our Children)

[purchase]

Natalie Merchant: Come Take a Trip in My Airship (from For Our Children Too!)

[purchase]

Bobby McFerrin: The Wizard of Oz (from For Our Children - The Concert)

[purchase]

Confession Time: I taught preschool for eight years, which segued to being a director for four - I have listened to my share of children's music (most of it corny, schlocky and sappy - sounds kinda like a law firm, doesn't it?) ... and it was always a challenge to find Cool Kidsongs (as is our theme) to make everyone, including the parents, happy, especially for our Pre-K graduation extravaganza shows...

Imagine my delight in 1990 upon the release of For Our Children, a 20-song compilation featuring original and traditional children's music by a variety of exceptional performers, including Jackson Browne, Ziggy Marley, Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, Sting, and Ann and Nancy Wilson. All proceeds benefit the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, with profits going to AIDS research, education and assistance to hospitals. The foundation was formed in 1988 by Elizabeth Glaser, Susan DeLaurentis, and Susan Zeegen. Glaser, the wife of actor Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky and Hutch), contracted the AIDS virus in 1981 from a blood transfusion she received during the birth of their daughter Ariel, who died of AIDS at the age of 7. This was re-released in 1999 as a 10th Anniversary Edition - "although tilted toward baby-boomer parents, the tracks have a timeless, ageless appeal. You'll be hard-pressed to find another five-star children's recording this satisfying..."

1996 brought the sequel, For Our Children Too! which, although possessing a few stand-out tracks, was mostly of the yawn/snore variety (as one review stated, Too! "is really a lullaby album and its predecessor is a party record." - all sales still aided the foundation, though...

For Our Children - The Concert came out in 1993, and was an audio release of a benefit concert which took place in 1992, for the patients and families of pediatric AIDS - it also aired as a TV special...

I have included a song from each: Bruce a fun romp through a gross-out menu, Natalie an adorable story of a magical adventure... and McFerrin an 8-minute wild-and-crazy encapsulation of the entire plot of the Wizard of Oz, complete with him (as Dorothy) throwing a glass of water in his own face (as the Wicked Witch) to make himself melt (YouTube video here of him performing the same skit at another event) - enjoy!

My illustration above is the cover of Every Child Deserves a Lifetime, a "Best of" the first two For Our Children discs...

Footwear: Turtle Shoes

Bobby McFerrin: Turtle Shoes

[purchase]

Long before he crashed the Pop party with Don't Worry, Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin was a true-blue jazzman, pushing the envelope with innovative bodysound and a voice that could imitate pretty much any instrument. His second album, "The Voice", is notable for being the first jazz vocal album recorded without accompaniment or overdubbing; on Spontaneous Inventions, the primarily live and improvised third album on which today's track emerged, he pairs his four-octave range with the likes of Manhattan Transfer, soprano saxophonist Wayne Shorter, comedian Robin Williams, and Herbie Hancock (that's Herbie on piano in the track you hear here).

You may remember Bobby for his Grammy-winning earworm, but it's worth noting that he won five of his eight Grammys before that song was even recorded: four of them in the Vocal Jazz category, two of them alone for his work with Manhattan Transfer and scatman Jon Hendricks on Night in Tunisia from this 1985 release. Turtle Shoes may be short, but it's a masterpiece of slow jazz improvisation, a playful, slippery ditty on the back of a turtle's plodding, shod baseline. So stop saying "ick", and listen to the damn track already.

Bonus trivia points: McFerrin came from a seriously musical family; his father, operatic baritone Robert McFerrin Sr., provided the vocals for Sidney Poitier in the cinematic version of Porgy and Bess.