They Ooh and Ahh

George Benson is certainly a handsome gent.  But something about his presentation seemed register a bit too slick and smarmy.  I never met him.  Could be dead wrong.  Perhaps he’s humble and debonair.  But there was one clip I recall seeing where he was asked about BB King.  He essentially replied that he never thought much of him but then he heard him bend a note, which he imitated, and that note bending, made him stop and say, BB’s alright, if simple.  It struck me as a backhanded way to treat a colossus, and dismiss the electric blues tradition.  But that distance from the blues was marrow for jazz players in a way I could certainly never understand.  Still and all George, BB deserves what's due unto BB. 

Anyway, I loaded up a bunch of early George Benson recently and it's lovely, if notably polished.  “The Shape of Things to Come” must be from 1970 or so*.  The title track is a cover of the same named movie and song.  The movie must have been a laugh, as the premise is that the youth party win an election and mandate everyone drop LSD or be thrown into 'oldster' prison camps.  I’ve written about the original song before and it’s catchy if preposterous.  

High above Nan Chang, or Wen Zhou or someplace between Shanghai and Shenzhen.  Happy to be aboard the folks at Shenzhen airlines for a change.  Air China is a constant like dealing with Con Edison or Kellogg’s. Aboard Shenzhen Airlines you notice the ups and the downs of difference.  No pillows.  But there’s a jar of hot sauce condiment with the dinner.  On the screen we appear to be watching, and I can’t help but watch it, a mini documentary of three Shenzhen Airlines stewardesses in their uniforms as they ooh and ahh on a trip down the Yangtze River stopping at all the picturesque spots.  Each time they hit a new destination it pulses from the map upon the screen.  No stewards need apply.  

Plane was about forty minutes late, departing.  Who knows why?  No one bothered to say.  In the U.S. the pilot who would be very grateful for our business and aware that we have other carriers we can choose from would have been letting us know how sorry he was that Air Traffic Control had held us and earnestly informing us of his intention to make up as much time as possible. The Chinese are quite familiar with shitty service.  Expectations are low.  The ability to endure compromise, far more robust than for that of most Americans. Silence.  We’re leaving late.  Compromise assumed. 

The ladies must have arrived in Wuhan.  There are great shots of them up at the bow of the boat.  It does strike one as odd that an airline company would spend thirty minutes of flight time trying to persuade me how great it would be to sail down a river in a boat.  A marketing mind, far subtler than my own, no doubt.  Time for my condiment dollop.  Just remember, nothing can change the shape of things to come. 

*(1969)