Saturday, February 28, 2009

MORE NPR

So I've been listening to more of the NPR's list of 100 most important works of the twentieth century and I've realized a few things. They use different styles of story telling. One of their variations is the one person narrating the whole thing. It is usually a writer or musician that tells their take on a song. For instance, Don Dixon tells the story of Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis. He is a record producer that has produced acts like The Smithereens and REM. His take on the song, and Jerry in particular, is that he was the first dangerous guy in Rock N Roll. Elvis was too pretty, and nice, while Little Richard was having too much fun. But Jerry had the Devil in him. They even have a clip of Jerry Lee arguing with someone in the studio about the Devil. Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Lee's cousin and the famed televangelist knew the score about Jerry, as portrayed in the movie "Great Balls of Fire." And it turned out later in Jimmy's career that he had a little of the Devil in himself as well.

Another type of storytelling is the one where the host narrates the story and mixes in an occasional blurb by a guest. It's a pretty good style of storytelling which gets to the point quickly since there are no questions asked. An example of this is Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line." On this one, Roddy Crowell, is the one with the blurbs.

One more style of storytelling, and my favorite, is the regular interview where the host asks questions and the guest, well, answers them. A typical Q and A. With some narration on the side. Kind of like 60 minutes. Ray Charles was interviewed in this fashion for What'd I Say and the interaction between guest and host, Robert Siegel, was pretty good.

There are just so many stories that I haven't gotten to yet. There are 100 in all, hence the name of the series. Hopefully I will get around to the rest of the stories and if I hear anything else I like I will certainly write about it.

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