As it hasn’t been mentioned yet: David Bowie was a very serviceable saxophonist. I know it was an instrument that he learned at a young age, but it wasn’t something he showcased that often. Here’s Drive In Saturday:
And while we’re on the subject - it’s not exactly news, but Mick Ronson was a hell of a piano player:
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I’m sure this is unncessary but just in case you haven’t heard his performances with Les Paul in the Jazz At The Philharmonic (Los Angeles, July 1944) recordings… you should.
Is that the 4 CD set? If so, yes i have that.
Thanks–I’ve seen a couple of those, but not others, Creep was awesome–I can’t stand Radiohead (the singer, specifically), but it was great. Too bad there’s so little video of him on anything other than guitar and piano. I hadn’t noticed the roadie pushing him back up at the end on WMGGWs–the start of the end.
Insert “Thumbs Up” emoticon here.
@CairoCarol, you’re likely thinking of this post:
Add Juice Newton to the list. She had a ton of hits and award nominations in the 70’s and 80’s with a country/pop crossover. I think because of that it was easy to overlook the fact she had a magnificent voice and chose songs that worked for her. Also, a sense of humor helps…
I don’t mind country music and certainly wouldn’t call myself a fan but Zac Brown can flat pick pretty darn well. Starts at about 4:00. Keith Urban is no slouch either. I’d much rather hear instrumentals than pop lyrics but that doesn’t pay as well.
Adrian Edmondson, the British comedic actor best known for his many collaborations with Rik Mayall (The Young Ones, Bottom, etc.), is an accomplished jazz and folk musician. One of his bands has put out three albums, played music festivals, and even won an award or two.
On top of this, he’s directed numerous music videos, one of which won Best Video at the MTV Awards.
Not only that, but he’s written several plays, screenplays, and books for children and adults.
“Being a writer,” is kind of the thing he’s primarily famous for, though. That, and being an actor, but his acting career was built around the idea that he was writing his own scripts - a “Steve Martin” movie wasn’t just a movie that had Steve Martin in it, but was one that was created to his particular comedic and dramatic sensibilities.
Maybe, but it never ceases to amaze me how many people don’t read movie credits—not even the ones at the beginning of the film. I’m sure there’s a huge segment of the population who know who Steve Martin is, or may even be fans, but aren’t aware that he wrote a lot of the movies he starred in. (For a long time, I was one such person, but only because I saw his films as a child or teenager, before I started paying attention to the credits.)
Carrie Fisher was a top Hollywood script doctor who worked on scripts like “Hook”, “Sister Act”, “The Wedding Singer”,“The River Wild” and others. She also did script doctoring on all three Star Wars trilogies, making her the only credited screenwriter to have worked all three. Some of her and Harrison Ford’s dialog was rewritten by her in the first Star Wars film, becuae Lucas was a hack who wrote terrible dialog.
She was also a good novelist (“Postcard# From the Edge”.)
Up until recently, to the best of my knowledge the only reason I knew of Tim Minchin was…well, I thought he was a contestant on Big Fat Quiz, but I can’t find that. Regardless, I knew very little of him and, while I don’t think it was the hair, I grouped him in with Russell Brand.
In any case, it took me by surprise when I saw this.
Another one. For those that haven’t watched Taskmaster, Mark Watson and Nish Kumar were not exactly excelling at their tasks. No one expected them to write and play a song, but they still managed to come up with this out of nowhere.
I’ll post the entire task so you get the premise (but it’s fun to watch anyway).
Jimmy Buffett wasn’t just an average musician. He was also one of the few authors to ever have been #1 on both New York Times Fiction and Non-Fiction lists. He was a master story-teller no matter the medium.
Tim Curry was a songwriter and rock singer, writing all the songs on his album Fearless, including “I Do the Rock.”
As much as I adore Tim Curry, I would nominate “I Do the Rock” for worst piece of noise pretending to be pop music ever. The videos of him performing it are just painful. As immensely talented as he was / is, he looked very out of place fronting a band. I think he was much more in his element in musical theater.
Incidentally, if you can find it, Curry did really well hosting SNL in the early 80s. At one point he did a really great music hall number called “The Zucchini Song”. It was quirky stuff like that where Curry was at his best, IMHO. Very sad that he’s been unwell since having a stroke some years ago. I hope he’s comfortable and still able to enjoy life.
We’ve had plenty of threads in the past about artists and entertainers with doctorates and other advanced degrees. (You can’t get these without excellent research skills!) Rather than repeat the long lists of celebrities mentioned in those threads, I’ll just link to some of them here:
Oh, Tim Minchin is far more than just a comic. He sang Judas in a 2010 production of Jesus Christ Superstar , and absolutely crushed it. He also gave a commencement speech at his alma mater, the University of Western Australia, that has gone viral for its humor and its wisdom.
Agreed. The Diverse Stripes only had that one hit, but it was a banger.