From Roxy’s terrific 1975 album “Siren,” here in just slightly over 5 minutes is the blueprint for most of Duran Duran’s output from between 1981 – 1986. Duran squared claimed they sounded like a cross between the Sex Pistols and Chic. But I would argue that statement was a subterfuge to mask their real influence. Durannies, I’m calling you out.
Wow! Just discovered this on an awesome Norton Records Flamin’ Groovies compilation called “Slow Death.” All of the songs on “Slow Death” were recorded between 1971-1973 and this is an earlier, slower, janglier, and spectacularly cool alternate take on the Groovies signature song. Don’t know if I like it more than the best-known version recorded with Dave Edmunds in 1976, but it’s still pretty f–king cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPae_l0291I
After “Bell Boy,” this is my favorite song from the Who’s amazing and brilliant rock opera “Quadrophenia,” an album that gathers deeper meaning the older I get. The 1979 film (directed by Franc Roddam) is damn good too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-KbfYYyM10
From her 1997 album “20th Century Blues,” Marianne Faithfull performs a moving cover of one of Harry Nilsson’s best (and least-known) songs. Faithfull gives a nice tribute to Nilsson at the beginning of this. I can’t think of any one better to cover this song, except (maybe) for Tom Waits.
Nilsson’s original version is from his album “Pussy Cats,” credited to both Nilsson and John Lennon and recorded during Lennon’s infamous “lost weekend” period in the early-mid 1970s. You can find Nilsson’s original version of this elsewhere on Dave’s Strange World.
There are some movies that are so terrible, they’re funny. There are other movies which are intentionally campy, but not so funny, because they’re too knowing of their own stupidity. And then there’s some movies that fit between both camps. They are movies that are over-the-top, so off-the-charts weird that you’re never quite sure if the filmmakers were in on the joke or not.
The two best examples of this are: the Russ Meyer-directed/Roger Ebert-scripted “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” … and “Road House”.
“Road House” is the most ridiculous, hysterically funny, and arguably, one of the greatest action films of all time. It’s a film that never ceases to entertain and amaze. And every time I see it, I find something new that makes me break out in an idiotic grin. Patrick Swayze was THE perfect choice to play the mulleted, King-of-All-Bouncers Dalton. I could go on and on about how brilliant this film is, but I thought I would let the movie speak for itself:
Doctor: Your file says you’ve got a degree from NYU. What in?
Dalton: Philosophy.
Doctor: Any particular discipline?
Dalton: No. Not really. Man’s search for faith. That sort of s–t.
Emmett: Calling me “sir” is like putting an elevator in an outhouse, it don’t belong. I’m Emmett.
Steve: Being called a c–ksucker isn’t personal?
Dalton: No. It’s two nouns combined to elicit a prescribed response.
Steve: What is somebody calls my mama a whore?
Dalton: Is she?
Wade Garrett: That gal’s got entirely too many brains to have an a– like that.
Wade Garrett: This place has a sign hangin’ over the urinal that says, “Don’t eat the big white mint.”
and … last … but certainly not least:
Jimmy: I used to f–k guys like you in prison.
Why the Library of Congress has not selected this as a film for the National Film Registry deserves a criminal investigation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc3myRavUvo
My all-time favorite Go-Go’s song that really should have been a huge hit for them, circa 1984. However, I think the video for this song may have had something to do with why the song stalled out. While it’s very cool on a meta-pop cultural level, the vision of the Go-Gos in male drag probably freaked out a lot of their core audience. Since I can’t find the video, you’ll just have to groove to the Go-Go’s finding their inner Buzzcocks … the band, that is.
POSTSCRIPT: Loose Handlebars has kindly provided a link to the video, located currently at Daily Motion:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1zdc7_the-go-gos-turn-to-you_music#.UPnauSepDuQ
And while you’re at it, check out Loose Handlebars’ terrific music blog:
It turns out the Black Keys were not the first band to pay loving homage to the joys of paracinema in a music video. Muse’s video for “Knights of Cydonia” is a fake sci-fi, kung-fu spaghetti western from Europe (circa 1979) that would probably rank high on Quentin Tarantino’s favorite movie list if it actually existed. It doesn’t hurt that the song is an ultra-cool homage to 70s prog rock either.
Carrying on the theme of rockin’ greetings from my last post, this is the lead-off track from Cheap Trick’s terrific 1977 album “In Color.” It was also used memorably at the beginning of Jonathan Kaplan’s seminal 1979 troubled youth film “Over the Edge.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrR3Dx7OTdg
From Courtney Love’s criminally underrated 2004 album “America’s Sweetheart” is this raver, which (aside from “Celebrity Skin”) may be the best thing she’s ever done.
This is the legendary appearance by the hardcore punk band Fear on Saturday Night Live for the Halloween episode in October 1981. Fear were hired at the behest of John Belushi, who was a huge fan of Fear’s, and Michael O’Donoghue, that season’s head writer. Producer Dick Ebersol asked O’Donoghue what Fear was like and the infamous Mr. Mike explained that they were a pop group, just like the Carpenters. What resulted is mayhem and underground TV history.
O’Donoghue and Belushi bused in multiple punks from Washington D.C. (including, legend has it, Ian MacKaye). After being introduced by actor Donald Pleasance, the band started playing and the punks went completely nuts, violently slam dancing and stage diving. During the third song, one of the punks grabbed lead singer Lee Ving’s microphone and either said “F–k you New York” or “New Your sucks!” The scene faded to black and transitioned to a repeat of the infamous (and funny) satire of Norman Mailer’s sponsorship of Jack Henry Abbott, “Prose and Cons”.
Nowadays, such antics seem corny and quaint. But back when hardcore punk was virtually unknown to the masses, this moment was a sight to behold. One of the all-time best performances by a music guest on SNL.
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