Tuesday, September 29, 2009

NANCY SINATRA - "Sugar Town"--Walk A Mile in Her Go-Go Boots!




Designed as part of a network television special from 1968, "Movin' With Nancy",this is Ms. Sinatra's foray into the dark, untamed wilderness of southern California. It shows that well-off scions of famous musical clans can survive even a disastrous balloon crash. Here, Nancy Sinatra recreates her famous six-day/seven night "worst-case survival" trek through areas only previously penetrated by Green Beret unit preparing for deployment in Vietnam and some Girl Scout units preparing for weekend door-to-door cookie sales.

The song "Sugartown" was written by her long-time collaborator Lee Hazelwood. It was recently featured in a British television show called "Skins" and the film "500 Days of Summer" (2009) which I reviewed a few blogs back. It was her second big smash on a US music chart--making Number 1 on The Easy Listening Chart and Number 5 on Billboard's Overall Hit list Her first break-out success was in 1966 with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin' ".

I saw this special when it was rerun on "American Movie Classics" television as part of a retro weekend slate of programming and this bit is, for better or worse (depending on how you feel about miniskirts and go-go boots and I'm ok with both in case you wondered) the highlight of the show.

30 comments:

  1. I was born to a Nancy Sinatra song. ...

    They were singing "These Boots Were Made For Walking" when I came into the world.

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  2. "Boots' was out when I was five or so, Frank. It was the first adult song I remember that registered with me as a kid, sitting in the backseat of the my parents' Ford Mustang on a trip. Well, that's something we got in common.

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  3. That little mini skirt of hers. ..

    *Sits down*

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  4. I like a woman who dresses appropriately for all of life's little adventures.

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  5. A 2004 Performance by Nancy from the Johnathan Ross TV Show, performing Jarvis Cocker's song "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time".

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  6. She's not a patch on her Dad I'm afraid, never did 'get' her I'm afraid. As for the Jarvis Cocker number, she really shouldn't have!

    Sorry Doug, much prefer Sinatra Snr.

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  7. What a coincidence! You, me, and two billion other guys, Frank. ;-)

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  8. I think Nancy should be thought of as a sexy, fun singer in her heyday, Jim, but I agree she's not her dad...remotely. But Sinatra, Sr., was in a different league with all other singers of his era and the next anyway.

    I almost didn't post "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time", she seemed nervous at first, but I thought Nancy got better as the tune went along. I think its safe to say that Cocker's own rendering is still the definitive version.

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  9. She hit way too many bun notes which I always find cringeworthy. It's a little like watching Nina Simone in one of her last live performances, absolutely awful. The crowd applauded politely out of respect for what she was, her advisers really should not have let her any where near a stage. I was embarrassed for her.

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  10. A fair critique, Jim. Sad that she had so little confidence on display.

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  11. I don't recall having seen her before. I couldn't stop looking at the wig when watching the video.
    Did she do any other work?

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  12. Hahaha. Yes, Cassandra, it took me a couple plays of that video to notice that might not be her real hair. I guess the big-hair platinum look kind of dates the clip a bit. :-)

    Nancy Sinatra didn't do so well after the Sixties in terms of mainstream music and films. Her last movie role was an Elvis picture in 1968. Theee were a few hit sonngs that made the charts other than what I mentioned, a duet with her dad Frank called "Something Stupid" and ones with her colaborator-composer friend Lee Hazelwood, but it seems to me she dropped off in the 70's after a promising start.

    There was a comeback in the mid-90's. Her television specials were revived, and she went on tour with some good musicians who had worked with Duane Eddy and Elvis Costello. . But as I remember, her tour didn't go so well as far as fan response--at least over here. Baby-boomers like me certainly remember her, and she has been active in helping veterans groups--according to her official website--but except for "Boots Are Made for Walkin'"--which was kind of a pop music feminist anthem until Helen Reddy came along in the 70's with "I Am Woman"--I don't think she's got the credit she deserves in my humble opinion.

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  13. The trouble with being famous is one has so many reminders of recordings one wishes hadn't been made.
    Maybe she lived in the shadow of her larger than life father.

    I don't think I saw any Elvis films, but I suppose to work with him she must have had some standing. Strange the way so many actresses and singers organised groups, or stood on the platform of anti war.
    I don't think it always went down too well. It certainly attracted attention to Jane Fonda. Maybe it was a way of saying, I'm on the stage, but I've got opinions of my own.

    Yes, her boots were made for walking, but I'm not sure about that skirt, hahahaha. What age group would she be in now, sixty five...ish?

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  14. Jane Fonda was pretty much blacklisted in the mid-Seventies. Too controversial for mainstream America. It was a few years after the war, around 77-78, when many people realized the folly of the whole Vietnam enterprise, that she regained her status in American films.

    As for Nancy Sinatra, I think you hit it on the head, Cassandra, when you said she lived in the shadow of her dad. That no doubt opened some doors for her in show business early, but there was always the fact that she was Frank's daughter ... it may have been a factor in her brief stardom.

    Nancy Sinatra is 69 years old.

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  15. I remember Vanessa Redgrave being hauled over the coals about her views. The fact that her family are well respected in show business got her through that time. But it's the same with all of us, especially as students. We had to have our say and belong to a group of like minded people. I'm 35 now and still putting my oar in where Tibet is concerned, so I can't judge others.

    Jane Fonda was quite a strong person and had staying power I watched a few videos of her in action recently, there was no messing with that lady. Didn't Julie Christy, get involved in campaigning at one point?

    Gosh Nancy Sinatra, 69, how time passes. I guess those boots take it a bit easier now?

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  16. Jane Fonda, I gathered from her autobio, was very influenced by Vanessa Redgrave and her commitment to causes in the sixties. The former even named her daughter after Ms. Redgrave. I remember in the 80's being startled watching a television chat show over here and seeing Lynn Redgrave put down her sister for her political views on national television!! Something about it smacked of a betrayal--the way she said her sister was a goof basically

    Perhaps some type of sibling rivalry was going on there. I hope they made up. Life is too short for that.

    I was rather smitten by Jane Fonda as a teenager (her looks and her bravery) even if I didn't always agree with her on a few political matters. I agree she is a strong person, though--how easy it might have been to just be an actress and live in Paris or Hollywood and not bother with politics. She and Venessa Redgrave were both magnificent in Fred Zimemann's "Julia"(1977) , which I think is her finest acting work. Her Bree Daniels in "Klute" (1972) was also an amazing role, probably the first serious prostitute in a lead role in an American film.
    (And I also liked her and the great Lee Marvin in the featherweight western "Cat Ballou" (1965) truth be told. And "The China Syndrome" was a first-class thriller.

    Julie Christie I believe was involved with anti-war and pro-environmental causes in the 60's and 70's as well. Being involved with Warren Beatty--a very political actor--may have spurred some of that, but I'm sure what her background was before she took a fancy to him. He was a major supporter of
    George McGovern, the man who lost 49 of 50 states to Richard Nixon in the 1972 Presidential elections.

    The temptation to use one status to promote causes must be a great one. As you say, its wise not to be judgemental. As you might have noticed I get some political venting going on in some of my blogs. i'm tapering off the health care business, or try to. I try to keep an open-mind and welcome every-body's opinion though, as long as they are not insulting and insolent to my regular friends. Luckily, I've had few nasty commentators.

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  17. Vannessa and Lynn Redgrave were very close. Lynn's problem was with her father who shut her out. She felt she was always saying look at me, me, I'm here. It wasn't until "Georgie Girl" that she felt he even noticed she was around. The fact Vanessa's views caused Lynn problems in America, may have been the reason she didn't show her support to her sister.

    Oh Jane Fonder had a lot of her father in her, maybe that's why they fell out, they were too much alike.
    I missed out on many of her films.

    Ah, yes, I had forgotten Julie Christy was married to Warren Beatty. that explains a lot..

    I will look at your Health care blog over the weekend. I'll admit it all seems so complicated, when somehow it shouldn't be. I have noticed most debates on the subject seem the get people's tempers running wild!

    Thank you Doug.

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  18. I was never much of a Nancy Sinatra fan. The only song I ever really remember is These Boots Were Made for Walking. Thank you for sharing a new song with me. I do enjoy listening to "new" music even if it not my cup of tea

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  19. That aspect about Michael Redgrave and the sisters I didn't know about, Cassandra. Thanks for filling that part in.

    And, yes, I remember Lynn Redgrave was on a television sitcom show and she might have been pressured by her producers or CBS to make an empathic statement. She did a fine job as a maid in a little movie about a Hollywood director called "Gods and Monsters". It was good to see her in a movie again.

    Henry Fonda was indeed very left-political in the Roosevelt Era--but he was a former shipboard Naval officer in WWII and he found it hard to deal with what her daughter was saying about American forces directly involved in civilian casualties in the Vietnam War and her two visits to Hanoi during the war. There was a reconciliation between father and daughter, of course, but she mentions that at one point in her book that her dad told her he would report her to the FBI if he found out she was some kind of communist agent! (Since she was already being harassed by the FBI, this was perhaps a moot point, but that must have hurt her.) I think it was a case of the old "generation gap" that affected so many American families in that era.

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  20. Always glad for you to come in and give your opinion, Fred. Even if you're not a big fan of the song, you have to admire how Nancy didn't panic when her balloon went down. It was a profile in endurance for all Americans to take courage from.

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  21. I can't say I ever heard this song before Doug. While I hate to break ranks I prefer Nancy to her old man for reasons perhaps not entirely disassociated from the mini skirts and go-go boots.

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  22. Interesting juxtaposition between Brit Pop and country roots of Ms Sinatra, she looks like Marianne Faithfull here....sounds a bit like the Velvet Underground I think.

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  23. One should always respect the minority opinion, AA. Come to think of it Nancy does have a certain .... charm.

    Besides, her old man Frankie, for all his gold records, never could have pulled off a platinum blond wig or that fetching ensemble.

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  24. I agree, AA. Nancy certainly has more then a passing resemblance to Marianne Faithfull. Here's her cover of a Marianne favorite, "As Tears Go By", from a television show called "The Hollywood Palace".

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  25. A very creditable performance of Ms Faithfull's hit and Jagger/Richards composition 'As Tears Go By' I think Doug.

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  26. So that story about J Edgar Hoover isn't true then Doug. Bloody conspiracy theorists have led me up the garden path again. I heard Ol' Blue Eyes pulled his platinum blond wig off at Lucky Luciano's old school pals reunion. Just goes to show you can't believe everything you read!

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  27. Perhaps there are pictures out there of Frank at his pal Lucky's event ... then again, maybe this should be left shrouded in charitable mystery.

    As for J.Edgar Hoover in drag, I believe that was put forth in a book by British journalist Anthony Summers. If true, "The Director" in a dress would have to be the most disturbing image in American History since the JFK/Zapruder Film.

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