Song of the Day 8/4: Cam Cole, “Mama”
I was watching the first season of “Ted Lasso,” the Jason Sudeikis comedy about an American football coach who’s hired to manage a British football squad. In one episode the owner of the team is hosting a benefit gala when the featured musical act, Robbie Williams (a big star in Britain), cancels at the last minute. In desperation, Ted brings in a busker he passed in the street, a shaggy-looking hippie playing what sounds like electrified Delta blues and accompanying himself on foot drums — a one-man band. Once he’s at the party, the hippie busts into this song.
I wondered who they got to play the street musician, and sure enough he’s an actual busker named Cam Cole who’s been performing in London, especially in Camden Town, for over a decade. He bills himself as a “singer, songwriter and New Age traveler,” and says his main influences are White Stripes, Michael Jackson, T-Rex, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. He’s released two albums, has busy accounts on every social media platform and even made videos for some of his songs, including “Mama,” the one he played on TV.
The appearance on “Ted Lasso,” one of TV’s breakout hits, has boosted Cole’s public profile, so I don’t know how much longer he’ll keep playing for donations on street corners. Enjoy it while it lasts.
I like the songs a lot, but just reading about this tv show makes me miss classic Ricky Gervais. Sounds like it’s well done, but grumble grumble.
Yeah, it’s not for cynics. David Brent is out; Ted Lasso is in. It’s been in all the papers.
Yes, I’ve noticed. Very sensitive.
It’s actually a natural progression. We aren’t meant to think that David Brent, Larry David et al are admirable human beings — we laughed because their behavior violated so many norms, and created lots of embarrassment (whether the protagonists felt shame or not, viewers did) but little real harm.
I don’t mean to suggest that those shows caused the generalized asshole behavior we’ve seen the last several years, but the constant drumbeat of bad behavior by RWAs (Right Wing Assholes) has become the norm, at least in the media, and we realize that it causes a lot more than embarrassment for its perpetrators — it causes real harm. So the asshole-behavior comedy doesn’t seem so funny anymore — cf. “Kevin Can F*** Himself.”
In a world where asshole behavior is the norm, Ted Lasso’s compassion and empathy are the most transgressive position.
So we don’t want to laugh at human flaws (or assholery) because Trump people are vile self-destructive jerks? There are and always have been assholes on both sides of the political spectrum and off the spectrum entirely. Not every jerk is a Trump-type jerk. Acknowledging and laughing at their/our/everybody’s bad behavior seems like a healthy response. (And of course there are smart ways to do this and stupid ways to do it. I’ve never seen “Kevin Can Go F*** Himself,” but I suspect it’s the latter.)
I wonder if this is not just a new, self-protective, naïveté. I think this cheerleading for sensitivity is in fact the new media paradigm (culture division). Irony didn’t end after 9/11 as predicted, but it’s taking a big hit these days. Maybe it’s too complicated. Something in the middle might be nice.
I wouldn’t go on like this, but I’m a little bored this afternoon. So grumble grumble. Maybe I got a little bit away from the point!
Yeah, you might try actually watching the show first and passing judgment after.
And apparently, no, people don’t want to laugh at bad behavior any more. We see way too much of it on simple trips to the grocery store to want to see more, even when it’s entertainingly presented.
It’s kind of like when I tried to watch “Mad Men” when my wife binged it recently, everybody just struck me as an unsympathetic asshole I wasn’t interested in watching. There are enough real assholes in the world that I don’t want to devote time to a bunch of fictional ones.
The whole history of literature and theater is filled with flawed people. You’d find Don Draper more interesting if he ran a soup kitchen? I realize people are more likely to see things through a social/political lens these days. I’m reminded of those who discovered “Seinfeld” through reruns and found it too disturbing.
No, I found Don Draper more interesting when he was written by John Updike, Richard Yates and John Cheever.
And I find José Andrés plenty interesting.
You’re allowed to like the things you like, but popular taste has moved on. Nobody has laughed at Amos and Andy for a while now, either.
“Popular taste has moved on.” And it will move on again. Best to like what you like and forget “popular taste,” except as an index to what people might be thinking in this particular present.
Yes, Updike and Cheever are better at this than Matthew Weiner. But their medium allows for more complexity.
They didn’t have his art directors, though. The best way to watch “Mad Men” is with the sound off.