TO THE BATPOLES special: "MOVIN' WITH NANCY"

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bat-rss
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TO THE BATPOLES special: "MOVIN' WITH NANCY"

Post by bat-rss »

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These BATPOLES were made for slidin'! TO THE BATPOLES takes time off for the holidays and presents a special two-hour discussion of the 1967 Nancy Sinatra TV special "Movin' With Nancy!"

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High C
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES special: "MOVIN' WITH NANCY"

Post by High C »

Thanks for the early Christmas present, sirs. I really enjoyed this! It was quite fun to listen to your take on it. Certainly it is a time capsule of the 1967 zeitgeist, much like Batman. I could even picture Nancy S. as a moll. 8-)
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My hobbies include gazing at the Siren and doing her bidding, evil or otherwise.

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BATWINGED HORNET
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES special: "MOVIN' WITH NANCY"

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

A few things...

Tim, you thought Nancy Nepotism's version of the 5th Dimension's "Up--up and Away" had more character than the 5th Dimension's? I had to scroll back to make sure I did not mishear what you said, and it turned out to be quite the jaw-dropping statement, as any one of the 5th Dimension members could sing circles around the flat, almost "spoken-word" hackery of Nancy "I-Didn't-Do-It-My-Way" Sinatra. The 5th Dimension's version had their rich, soulful delivery that perfectly painted the picture of ascension, while Nancy's was like that horrible middle school talent show performance you were forced to watch by the vice principal but mocked for the remainder of the semester.

In a word...yikes.

Regarding music of 1967, many genres produced major hits beyond what some might classify as "rock" (or UK-spawned rock), such as Booker T & the MG's Hip-Hug-Her LP (and a number of other Stax Records artists), Lulu's theme song for To Sir with Love, Dusty Springfield's "The Look of Love" (from the Bond spoof, Casino Royale), endless Motown hits, several Dionne Warwick classics ("The Windows of the World", "I Say a Little Prayer", etc.), and other hitmakers. Of the rock acts, The Monkees had four #1 LPs, while Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow made its debut, and The Who broke more ground with the concept album The Who Sell Out--all of this is to say that there was a wide range of music dominating the charts, with "Up--Up and Away" being a strong representative of those diverse sounds.

...and you know a special about Nancy Nepotism was never going to be the "I am here, world!" media production it was meant to be with so much Frank worship. It felt like he was piggybacking off of his own daughter to promote himself. Rather classless, if that was his intent.

Oh, and I could not help thinking that her "I gotta get out of this town" was more of a cry from the viewers, hoping they would all flee to a town with such so poor TV reception that they would never, ever have to see or hear the Nancy special again...
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Re: TO THE BATPOLES special: "MOVIN' WITH NANCY"

Post by epaddon »

To me, the special succeeds for the most part. It captures the Zeitgeist of the era and Nancy demonstrated why she was a meteor who found her niche within that Zeitgeist thanks to the image makeover she got from Lee Hazlewood and the arrangements he did for her. The image of Nancy as a kind of rebel goddess for the hippie-mod era was her peak, though it was one doomed to flame out fast once the Zeitgeist of society had changed.

The opening part of the special that taps into the Zeigeist is the best part of it. The "I Got To Get Out Of This Town" has that undercurrent of chucking the Rat Race that was part of the rebel thinking in that era, and the subsequent numbers show her off to a promise of escape from all that. To me, where the special goes off the tracks is when she calls attention to Daddy and brings him and fellow Rat Packers into the special. That's when the rebel image that Nancy could run with so effectively gets lost and she just comes off as "Daddy's girl" which doesn't fit the Zeitgeist.

Nancy said she purposefully avoided doing "These Boots Are Made For Walking" in the special but later regretted that. Her regrets were justified since it would have fit perfectly into the special and given us a more interesting filmed take on the number compared to what exists in the variety specials she did.

Nancy S.'s window of stardom may have been limited to one brief era made possible by the times, but she made the most of it and IMO became iconic for it. Flawed as the special is in its latter part, I'm glad she did it and left that record for posterity.
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