A cover of David Bowie’s best song, performed by a band Bowie handpicked to record the song for the War Child benefit album “Heroes” from 2009. War Child is a non-governmental organization founded in the UK 1993, which focuses on providing assistance to children in areas of conflict and post-conflict. So, if you’re looking to do something good and want some really killer music at the same time, purchasing the “Heroes” album provides a nice way to do this.
A rare (and very baroque) ballad by Mott the Hoople, from 1971. According to legend, lead singer Ian Hunter wrote it while he going through an early divorce, as Waterlow Park in North London was where he used to take his children. You can tell that R.E.M. likely took notes when composing “Drive.”
One of the three lovely, almost-forgotten country songs recorded for the Talking Heads’ underrated “True Stories” album in 1986. As snarky as the “True Stories” movie seemed, the music was anything but, including this gem.
Can you sense a theme here today? Sorry, but I’m just really digging late 1970s English variety power pop this lovely afternoon. Rockpile was a “supergroup” for the power pop era if there ever was one: Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Billy Bremner, and Terry Williams. And their album managed to squeeze into the US Top 40 back in the day as well. Too bad Rockpile didn’t record a follow-up, though according to Wikipedia, Lowe’s “Labour of Lust” and Edmunds “Repeat When Neccessary” and “Tracks on Wax 4” were technically Rockpile albums.
Written by Elvis Costello, but covered way better by Dave Edmunds in 1979. Those vocals, those harmonies, and that wonderfully sloppy late 1970s production style endemic of Costello and Nick Lowe from the period. A song that proves that even acoustic guitars can rock just as hard as electric ones.
Produced by Dave Edmunds, the Groovies’ best known-song. It sounds like an almost-perfect Stones-Byrds hybrid, which is an awesome concept in any musical idiom.
Andy Griffith … as Satan! One of the most frighteningly intense performances of all-time by one of America’s favorite “nice guys.” As much as I love “The Andy Griffith Show,” this performance makes me wish he had gone an edgier route in his career. He certainly had the chops for it. Seriously, as great as Burt Lancaster was in “Elmer Gantry,” could you imagine Griffith tearing it up? Regardless, this is the performance of a lifetime and of course, was ignored by every major film awards society and group back in the day.
One of the most ferocious performances I have ever seen on film is Bogosian’s turn as talk radio host Barry Champlain in Oliver Stone’s film “Talk Radio.” Like Andy Griffith’s performance in Elia Kazan’s “A Face in the Crowd” and Ryan Gosling’s performance in Henry Bean’s “The Believer,” these are performances so frighteningly intense that they seem to come from another planet. Tellingly, none of these performances were ever nominated for any major awards.
Unfortunately, all I’m able to post here is the original trailer. The stunning monologue / freak-out Bogosian does near the end of the film that I originally posted has since been taken down by YouTube. To be fair to this trailer, this was one of the first uses of George Thoroughgood’s “Bad to the Bone” in a film (after its use in John Carpenter’s “Christine” and a film called “Slayground” from the mid-1980s) before it got overused during the 1990s.
Why Bogosian never became a bigger star is beyond my comprehension. If you ever have the chance to see him live, do yourself a favor and go. I saw him in 2001 in Albany, NY and it was one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. Also recommended, his performance film “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee.”
Patton Oswalt’s hilarious monologue about a forgotten and since found film “classic.” Lots of bad language on this one, so not safe for work or your kids.
Dave's Strange World 