From the 1971 album “Imagine,” here’s John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth,” a residual track from Lennon’s Phil Spector / primal scream era. A wonderfully angry, self-righteous song about the quest for truth and authenticity. Yes, you can blast 10 million holes in this by a mere fart, but it’s still a great song.
I would also present the equally awesome cover by Billy Idol’s punk band Generation X, but allegedly those clips have been blocked by YouTube due to “copyright” reasons. Funny, I can show you John Lennon, but not the band that Billy Idol was involved with before he became famous. So it goes, so it goes…
This is a song from what was supposed to be the German rock band Can’s debut album in 1968, when Malcolm Mooney was lead singer. The tracks did not attract interest, so they wrote “more accessible” tracks which resulted in the immensely awesome “Monster Movie” album in 1969. The early demos were later released in the “Delay” compilation in 1981. “Uphill” is a particularly awesome track from that compilation.
I’m a day late, but not a buck short on this 15th anniversary greeting for one of the greatest cult movies of the last 25 years. “The Big Lebowski” was the Coen Brothers’ follow-up to the the critically-acclaimed, multiple-award winning “Fargo” from 1996. Having loved “Fargo,” I went to see “The Big Lebowski” on its opening weekend in 1998.
My initial reaction? I enjoyed some parts of it, but ultimately thought this was a kind of “f–k you” film they made after the success of “Fargo.” There were just so many weird parts that (at first) didn’t seem to fit together that I concluded that this was a film that was going to be repository of every weird and cool idea that the Coen Brothers had, but weren’t able to put into their other movies.
It wasn’t until I watched it again a few years later that I (finally) got what made “The Big Lebowski” one of the best films the Coens ever had any involvement with. The film is not a mere depository for strange ideas. It’s a wonderful take on Raymond Chandler L.A. detective noir, only instead of a a cynical detective with a secret heart of gold as the hero, we get an aging, overweight stoner who just wants his damn rug back, man. I don’t know why this second viewing struck me more funny than the first, but it did. And I laugh more and more each time I see it. This would make a great double-bill with Robert Altman’s piss-take on Raymond Chandler “The Long Goodbye.”
“The Big Lebowski” arguably contains Jeff Bridges’ best-ever performance as Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, John Goodman’s best-ever performance as Jeff’s gun-crazed bowling partner Walter, and a host of other stellar supporting performances by Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Tara Reid.
The scene here is Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski’s porno film fantasy based on his love of bowling and his general dudeness. Nothing too salacious here, but probably not safe for work. The Dude abides!
Here’s Neneh’s wonderfully sleazy, avant-garde, and punk-jazz cover of Iggy and the Stooges’ nihilistic S&M masterpiece. This sounds like an outtake from Sly and the Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” … only with Iggy’s passion, anger, and brain full of God-knows-what. Neneh has evolved into a cross between Nina Simone and Diamanda Galas. This is some seriously deep and scary s–t. If that’s not a cool f–kin’ concept, I don’t know what is!
Here’s the fake Clinger Sisters … OK, not really, but this is the kick-ass female band The Carrie Nations from the Russ Meyer-directed and Roger Ebert-scripted 1970 film “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.” In addition to the killer song, there’s lots of groovy editing, overacting and dialog in this scene. Oh, and needless to say, women that actually look like women. Gotta love the late 1960s … and Russ Meyer for that matter.
As much as I despise the idea of a remake of this classic film, I do have some casting ideas if one ever comes to fruition: Johnny Depp (or Robert Downey Jr.) as the flamboyantly fey Ronnie “Z-Man” Barzell, Ashton Kutcher as gigolo Lance Rock, Lindsay Lohan as Kelly McNamara, Beyonce as Petronella Danforth. If you have better or different casting ideas send them to Dave’s Strange World Productions via the comments section below …
A stupendous rip-off of Bob Seger’s “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” that’s so good that I like it better than the song it’s ripping off. Crazy Elephant were promoted as a band of Welsh coal miners, but were actually studio musicians created by famed bubblegum rock producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz. “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'” was their only real hit, but if you’re going to have one hit, this is a damn good one to have.
This is the Clinger Sisters doing a really awesome cover of the Easybeats’ “Good Times.” Just try not to frug too violently when you here this.
Re: the Clinger Sisters, I don’t know much about them, other than they were a group of Mormon sisters from Utah that used to perform with the Osmonds when they were very young, but then got the rock and roll bug and hooked up with the legendary and infamous self-proclaimed “Lord of Garbage” Kim Fowley, a scenario that sounds like the Russ Meyer-directed / Roger Ebert-scripted “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” … but probably not … who knows?
If you’re not sure who Fowley is, he was the manager and producer of Joan Jett’s and Lita Ford’s first band The Runaways. If you see “The Runaways” film, he’s the guy in short shorts and makeup throwing garbage and yelling obscenities at his teenage proteges (a brilliant performance by Michael Shannon, by the way).
Comedian Bill Hicks was one of the greatest stand-up comedians and … dare I say it … modern philosophers. Hicks was very controversial due to his language and “take no prisoners” attitude. But Hicks was not a shock comic, like Andrew Dice Clay. Hicks had some very profound things to say about how we as a culture choose to close our minds and hearts, allowing “the demons run amok.” He constantly urged everyone to “squeegee (our) Third Eye,” wake up, and open our hearts and minds again.
On June 16, 1993, Hicks was diagnosed with liver and pancreatic cancer. He let very few people know of his condition and worked nonstop even while receiving chemotherapy.
On October 1, 1993, Hicks made his 12th appearance on David Letterman’s late night show, but his entire performance was cut from the final show due to Letterman and his producer being nervous about a religious joke that Hicks had made. Hicks succumbed to cancer on February 7, 1994. He was 32 years old.
Letterman expressed regret for his decision to cut Hicks’s performance and on January 30, 2009, Letterman broadcast Hicks’s entire routine uncut, had Hicks’s mother Mary on as a guest, and publicly apologized to Mary for the way he treated Hicks. A very classy thing to do.
The clip above features Hicks’s entire cut performance as well as Letterman’s interview and apology to Mary. The clip below is Hicks’ most profound statement about life. It’s a routine called “It’s Just a Ride” …
The World is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real, because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round, and it has thrills and chills and is very brightly colored, and it’s very loud. And it’s fun, for a while.
Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they’ve begun to question, ‘Is this real, or is this just a ride?’, and other people have remembered, and they’ve come back to us and they say ‘Hey, don’t worry. Don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.’ and we … KILL THOSE PEOPLE.
“Shut him up! We have a lot invested in this ride! SHUT HIM UP! Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account, and my family. This just has to be real.”
It’s just a ride.
But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that. You ever noticed that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn’t matter, because … It’s just a ride.
And we can change it anytime we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear wants you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead see all of us as one.
Here’s what we can do to change the world right now, to a better ride: take all that money we spent on weapons and defense each year and instead spend it feeding, clothing, and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and WE CAN EXPLORE SPACE, TOGETHER, BOTH INNER AND OUTER, forever … in peace.
From Bob Fosse’s terrific, but sad biopic of the late comedian Lenny Bruce comes this scene where Lenny (played by Dustin Hoffman) attempts to do a stand-up routine without saying a certain word that got him arrested a few nights earlier. As he points out, the routine is far dirtier without the bad word than with the word. A funny and clever way to make a very crucial point … that the truth, as ugly as it may be at times, is far less offensive than the lie that’s often used to mask the truth.
One of the earliest … and funniest … mash-ups, memes, what have you … ever created. This is Cliff Roth’s ingeniously edited pre-digital masterpiece where Ronald and Nancy Reagan deliver a pro-drug message to the nation. Hysterically funny stuff. And if you like what you see, please check out the terrific article about Roth from io9’s website about how he put it all together back in the day.
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