Music for The Color Purple
Jun. 11th, 2006 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charmaxI am never usually stuck for song choices when it comes to vidding but recently after re-watching “The Color Purple” I decided I really want to vid this film and the song? - nowhere to be seen. Finding the right music that does the movie some justice is proving to be difficult. I don’t know how many of you on my flist have seen the film? It’s set early 20th century. What would you do? Do you have any suggestions? What I am looking for is either gospel, jazz/blues or a mix. I have looked at various artists both black and white singers but nothing has clicked yet.
Anyway if you think you might be able to help please comment. Throw some artist names my way. :D
ETA: I am open to instrumentals as well.
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Color Purple vid music
Date: 2006-06-22 11:20 pm (UTC)I'd suggest a blues song rather than gospel for Color Purple, as I think that the blues would capture both the suffering, resilancy, and joy of Celie - and it's appropriate for Shug, too. So much would depend on the story that you are trying to tell: more of the early suffering, more emphasis on Celie's resilancy despite the odds, or on her eventual triumph? Of course, the book and movie's scope means that you could easily do a number of vids and still have ideas left to spare *g*.
One song that leapt to mind is I Don't Need No Man (Telling Me What to Do) by Big Time Sarah Streeter. It would work for all the men in Celie's life who tried to stomp her down, not just Mister. Sarah's contemporary, but her Chicago Blues sound wouldn't sound out of place at all. And the song is perfect for Celie's claiming of her own life with Shug.
Big Time Sarah - samples & more info
http://music.msn.com/artist/?artist=16077497
Etta James has a song called Born Under a Bad Sign that isn't as defiant as Don't Need No Man, but would work well for much of Celie's early life. Etta has a diverse body of work, from traditional blues to more contemporary styles. At Last would be an interesting choice for a Celie/Shug vid.
For a great overview of women blues singers - not comprehensive, but excellent nonetheless with many less well-known singers - you should absolutely buy the two disk collection called Men are Like Street Cars: Classic Women Blues Singers 1928-1969 (MCA 11788). Fantastic! I cannot recommend this too highly.
I don't recommend buying from Amazon, since they are killing off small independent bookstores and music shops, but you can listen to some samples from the collection here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000I0S9/002-4971881-6218429?v=glance&n=5174
Also, take a look at Down in Black Bottom: Barrelhouse Mamas. Raw, gritty, powerful. Again, you can sample the music here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000IIRW/ref=pd_sim_m_1/002-4971881-6218429?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=5174
These two collections are also good, with singers that aren't as well known today:
I Can't Be Satisfied: Early American Women Blues Singers, Vol. 1: Country and I Can't Be Satisfied: Early American Women Blues Singers, Vol. 2: Town.
Sample music can be heard linking off here:
http://www.amazon.com/I-Can%27t-Be-Satisfied%3A-Early-American-Women-Blues-%28Series%29/artist/B000AQ09AU/002-4971881-6218429
Among classic women blues singers, look at Big Mama Thornton, Ma Rainey, Sippie Wallace, Memphis Minnie, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Lucille Bogan aka Bessie Andersen, Alberta Hunter, Ruth Brown.
Some early Lucile Bogan finally got rereleased, though I think I'd use her music more for Sophia than Celie. Shave 'Em Dry: The Best of Lucille Bogan.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00021998Q/ref=pd_sim_m_3/002-4971881-6218429?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=5174
I adore Nina Simone, and her work is widely available in digital format now. Not early blues, but many of her songs might work.
For more contemporary women blues singers, Saffire-The Uppity Women Blues Band would be a great place to start (and it's fantastic music even if you weren't looking for a vid song). Also look at Marcia Ball, Deborah Coleman, Francine Reed.
Bonnie Raitt is one of the few white female blues singers who might work for the Color Puprple.
Hope I didn't overwhelm you with choices, but women blues singers deserve all the attention they can get - especially the early pioneers.
Re: Color Purple vid music
Date: 2006-06-24 07:01 am (UTC)Thank you so much for being so helpful. I haven't heard of a lot of these artists and I am slowly working my way through the list. I have about 300 songs on my playlist now! Even if I end up not using one of them or if I scrap the vid idea altogether thanks to you I have found some really cool music to listen to.
Oh and thanks for the compliment about my vids. I must admit I didn't think I had done that many femslash/lesbian vids. I do have plans to rectify that though.
Re: Color Purple vid music
Date: 2006-06-30 10:37 am (UTC)So glad to hear that you're finding some of the women blues singers to your taste - that's a huge playlist! Here's hoping that you find a song (or two or three *g*) that will work for the Color Purple.
It can be somewhat difficult to find the early women blues singers, but it's well worth the effort. Not sure about your local or uni libraries, but in the US, many libraries are willing to respond to requests for recordings (LPs/CDs/DVDs) through inter-library loan - especially some of the OOP, early titles.
And if you're can work with a local library, check out the Martin Scorsese multi-part blues documentary series that ran on PBS. It's worth watching for an overview of the impact that blues has had on music worldwide - though fatally flawed (it makes only a token nod to the women of blues). The soundtrack is quite good, albeit limited primarily to males.
I must admit I didn't think I had done that many femslash/lesbian vids. I do have plans to rectify that though.
That's fantastic news! It's not so much that femslash/lesbian vids make up the majority of your vids. Rather, it's that you've made femslash/lesbian vids in several fandoms (Buffy, Xena, The L-Word, Bound), and that you often focus on female characters in a way that many other vidders don't. And unless I'm conflating your site with another, didn't the Bronze Ambition site used to have an info/pics section on lesbian/bisexual characters on TV? I seem to remember a section on Bad Girls in particular...
Re: Color Purple vid music
Date: 2006-06-30 12:15 pm (UTC)I haven't used my local library for years I doubt my card is still valid I know they did do inter-library loans though.
I wish I could claim to have been the one with the info section but that wasn't me. Maybe it was on one of the incarnations of http://www.fascination-street.com/ which has a lot of femslash vids including bad girls and did at one time have screencaps etc.
Thanks again for the help and advice.
Re: Color Purple vid music
Date: 2006-07-01 01:25 am (UTC)Anyway, good luck on your song search. I look forward to your future vids, be they Color Purple or another fandom.
Re: Color Purple vid music
Date: 2006-07-18 02:01 pm (UTC)Re: Color Purple vid music
Date: 2006-07-18 03:57 pm (UTC)