MovieChat Forums > The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) Discussion > That world has vanished

That world has vanished

posted 14 years ago by filmmekker
3 replies | jump to latest

Most hotels book bands and many of the piano bars have gone the way of the dinosaurs. It's sad but there are no "standard" songs anymore and today's music is all rhythm based and melodically sub-par. Try whistling a hip hop song sometime. This movie perfectly captures the "piano bar" era dying out.

Open the door for Mr. Muckle!!

[–] jcosyn-1 12 years ago

I don't know where you live, friend, but in just about any major city you can still find piano bars. Most of them still have mediocre piano players doing mediocre songs loaded with cheese, but now and then you run across somebody who can actually play and improv.

[–] filmmekker 12 years ago

I've played in a few and believe me, they're a dying breed. There's a few that have closed in LA and Chicago. even in NY there are fewer than ten years ago.

Open the door for Mr. Muckle!!

[–] LTUM 11 years ago

This movie perfectly captures the "piano bar" era dying out.

that's how i feel exactly. to me this movie is a snapshot in time of an era that is going away, has gone away. it preserves on film lots of things some of us want preserved. in a way it's a double time capsule, because the baker boys at the time this was made were ALREADY throwbacks, even in 1989. so the movie has them in 89 preserving earlier decades, then also 89 is preserved in this film for people today.

i have never been to seattle but i appreciate that this film showed a lot of the downtown area. i understand some of these locations are no longer there.

but yeah, that lounge singer era is closing fast. even hotel bars in general, are a thing of the past almost. (because there's always a chili's or applebee's across the street now, right? right?)

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