Friday, September 2, 2022

Thank You, Tea Leoni

 

Because of producing the music-centric podcast, Dewey's Jukebox, I have become acquainted with a little website called Songfacts. It's got thousands of factoids about thousands of songs and artists.

Its page on "Beast of Burden", the 435th greatest song of all time, has educated me on the mostly-improvisational origin of the words. It informed me, as if I didn't already know, that "some of the lyrics are less than meaningful and a little repetitious." It educated me about how Mick Jagger was burdened with leading the Rolling Stones while Keith Richards was wasting his life away with heroin, and this song was Keith's way of saying, "I'm back. I'm ready to share the load." It quotes Ron Wood talking about how he and Richards spontaneously wove their guitar licks around each other.

What it doesn't say is that the real lasting impact of the song is how it immediately pulls up the joyous memory of Tea Leoni dancing and singing in the shower in the fine cinematic experience known as The Family Man.

If you've seen it, you know.




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