Friday, January 8, 2010

Honky-Tonking with Aznavour


I've always gotten a chuckle out of Albert Remy bursting into the barroom and loudly mocking as "honky-tonk" Charles Aznavour's music in Truffaut's slice of cinematic perfection Shoot the Piano Player. If Aznavour dropped in behind the keys of a piano in a Southwestern honky-tonk in 1960 and started in on the tune he plays here (during the credit sequence and again at the 7:16 mark), it'd probably take more than the standard issue chicken-wire screen to save his ass from bodily damage.



But here the Wiki steps in to educate. Even though Aznavour might not be creating anything Lefty would call honky-tonk, he's still playing in a (sortakinda) working-class barroom environment "where the pianos were often poorly cared for, tending to be out of tune and having some nonfunctioning keys." And, as such, the honky-tonk designation works rather well as a contrast to Aznavour's character's Mozart/Chopin/Bach grand-piano-playing days.
But the Wiki has even more knowledge to drop. I had no earthly idea that Aznavour was such a profoundly important and beloved artist. Popular, certainly, but bigger than Elvis(!) or Bob. Seems so.

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