Red Hot + Blue (DVD/CD Set)
Picture: C
Sound: C+/B Extras: C Performances: B+
Out of the many well-intended charity projects from the
music world that began in the 1980s, few are remembered and their great number
did not have the long-term impact they should have. There have, fortunately been a few exceptions, like Live Aid,
The Sun City Project, Band Aid and (yes) We Are The World. Years after, with the unrelenting AIDS
crisis in progress (and the media ignoring it and mishandling it as if some
people deserve to contract it) as it still is, several projects under
the Red Hot banner have been produced and the Cole Porter tribute cover
project Red Hot + Blue (1990) is the first. It is also one of the most remarkable compilation charity projects
ever conceived.
Pulling together some of the most bold, creative, talented
and clever artists in the business, it seems like lessons of charity music’s
past were learned and every cover here is either on target and/or innovative of
the handling of the work of Porter, who remains one of the most enduring
writers in all of music history. The
songs and their Music Videos are as follows, with introductions about the
deadly disease before some clip, sometimes by the artist, though that gets
mixed around a bit (title/artist/Video director):
1) Don’t
Fence Me In – David Byrne (David Byrne) features Byrne’s take on
Godley & Creme’s classic Music Video Cry, replacing the morphing of
one face to another with quick cuts, intercutting cowboy footage, all in black
and white.
2) I’ve Got
U Under My Skin – Neneh Cherry (Jean Baptiste Mondino) is another
beautiful work by Mondino, this time in a blue-monochrome, with orange-chrome
inserts. It also has focus bumps to the
beat and the signature techno-minimalism that makes his work so rewatchable.
3) From
This Moment On – Jimmy Somerville (Steve McLean) is the appropriate and
welcome entry from the lead singer of Bronski Beat whose ultra bold hit single Smalltown
Boy confronted gay bashing like no song before or since. This is a fine vocal performance, with
mature homoerotic visuals that have a point.
4) After
You, Who? – Jody Watley (Matthew Rolston) is from the amazing
director with the underrated singer of hits like Looking For A New Love
and Most Of All, set as a retro 1930s stage performance. Very nice with an interesting use of color.
5) Begin
The Beguine – Salif Keita (Zak Ove) is more like Videos of the 1980s
that tried to bring past styles and art into a modern text, African Dance in
this case. An interesting cover of the
much-covered classic.
6) Too Darn
Hot – Erasure (Adelle Lutz & Sandy McLeod) is the song
Ann Miller made a classic at MGM, covered here by the famous Electro-Pop duo
with a dark irony and title referencing the disease among other things.
7) You Do
Something To Me – Sinead O’Connor (John Maybury) has O’Connor with
a Film Noir blonde wig almost unrecognizable (borrowed form Kim Basinger,
perhaps?) in black and white.
8) I Get A
Kick Out Of You – The Jungle Brothers (Mark Pellington) has the
director in good form just before his artistic decline as the symbolism is
pretty obvious and the cover translates well into a solid Hip Hop/Rap cover.
9) In The
Still Of The Night – The Neville Brothers (Jonathan Demme) gives the
song a modern Jazz/Blues twist and one of Aaron’s better vocal
performances. Demme’s surreal approach
of the videotaped band against obvious “still” backgrounds works.
10) So In Love – k. d. lang (Percy
Adlon) offers the singer in misery doing ordinary housework, with the hint she
is taking care of someone dying.
11) I Love Paris – Les
Negresses Vertes (Roger Pomphrey) is shot in Paris and even has subtitles at
the beginning as a couple agree to go from a café in a motor scooter to see the
band.
12)
Do I Love
You? – Aztec Camera (John Scarlett-Davies) has the lead singer
in an almost empty room with a checkerboard floor and floating window we have
seen before. Beautiful rendering.
13)
Well, Did
You Evah! – Debbie Harry & Iggy Pop (Alex Cox) comes with the
Punk spirit in full swing as the lead singer of the great band Blondie and one
of the only men who cold ever match her show up in this entertainingly wacky
clip of the two clowning around in footage that is stylized to look like late
1970s monochrome footage shot in New York for the most part.
14)
Down In The
Depths – Lisa Stansfield (Philippe Gautier) is a real gem and
the one follow-up to classic All Around The World that actually worked
for Miss Stansfield. Besides another
fine vocal from Stansfield, her physical performance references some great
1960s divas and icons.
15)
Miss Otis
Regrets/Just One Of Those Things – Kirsty MacColl & The
Pogues (Neil Jordan) is a solid entry by the more-popular-in-Europe performers
by the risk-taking director, done in an old dance hall style.
16)
It’s All
Right With Me – Tom Waits (Jim Jarmusch) reunites the star and director
in another monochrome collaboration that is amusing, if expected.
17)
Night &
Day – U2 (Wim Wenders) has the very overrated director
delivering an impressive clip with one of Bono’s more empathetic
performances. Instruments are seen, but
this is minimal.
18)
Ev’ry Time
We Say Goodbye – Annie Lennox (Ed Lachman) is my personal favorite of
them all, which says something.
Lennox’s performance of the song is so powerful; it hits the mark
anytime you hear it. In front of a film
projector projecting only white light where images of life were once seen, then
intercut with her on camera performance.
It concludes this set well.
The 1.33 X 1 image varies throughout, but is overall
softer than it should be, especially considering how some of these Videos were
filmed. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is
better, if lacking any real surrounds, which is why the PCM 16bit/44.1kHz 2.0
Stereo CD is such a welcome addition.
It should be noted that the old 12” Criterion LaserDisc of Derek
Jarman’s Edward II (1992) included the video with the CD’s type of sound
and those who remember that disc might notice a picture and sound quality drop
playing the song back. This version has
some slight image noise. These
recordings are exceptional and the efforts of the producers and engineers were
as heart-felt as the performers. The
only other extra outside of the CD, which we are not counting, is an
informative booklet and extra live performance by Lennox of Ev’ry Time We
Say Goodbye with Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter from a 1995 VH-1 network
special. By the way, the end credits
cut off on my copy after explaining the 8th Video, so don’t be
surprised if your copy has this defect.
This will hopefully be absent from later copies.
- Nicholas Sheffo
