hearsay

I checked out The Killer of Sheep yesterday at the opening night of a week-long screening. The film is the 1977 thesis project of director Charles Burnett, set in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was a beautiful and engrossing film, set in black & white, and featured a number of neighborhood children in an everyday look at working-class life. The soundtrack was amazing, setting the mood and pace to a movie that has a message but no plot to speak of. Burnett never envisioned the film being distributed to wider audiences, and had peppered the soundtrack with incredible songs off of records he owned. As a result, securing the rights to the soundtrack in order to release the film was exorbitantly expensive. But the uncensored collection of tracks is a wonderful re-introduction to mid-century music, and I’m obsessing over southern blues and vocal jazz as a result.

Dinah Washington‘s “This Bitter Earth,” managed to make its way twice into the film, each time as a substitute. Apparently the movie was inspired by Luis Russell‘s “Sad Lover Blues,” which was to be played during a scene in which the main character, Stan, dances with his wife. During filming the record broke, and the Dinah Washington track was used in its absence. The final scene originally ended with another Washington track, “Unforgettable,” which ended up being too difficult to obtain rights to include. “This Bitter Earth” was substituted instead. What an incredible combination of sorrow and hope the song speaks to. “Unforgettable” might have been an ironic end to the film, but “This bitter earth / What fruit it bears” seems such a deeper and more meaningful touch.

: Dinah Washington – This Bitter Earth :