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.
From Doug Stanhope’s unbelievably awesome comedy special “No Refunds” from 2007 is his take on artists who people think died too young. Stanhope’s comments on Jimi Hendrix and Lenny Bruce may seem sacrilegious … but it doesn’t make them any less true. Not safe for work or little ones by any stretch of the imagination.
One of the funniest scenes in movie history. Peter Sellers plays an American president giving a courtesy phone call to the Soviet premier letting them know that nuclear weapons are heading their way. As Sellers’ president Merkin Muffley advises: “I’m sorry, too, Dmitri… I’m very sorry… All right, you’re sorrier than I am, but I am as sorry as well… I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don’t say that you’re more sorry than I am, because I’m capable of being just as sorry as you are… So we’re both sorry, all right?… All right.” The fact that Rex Harrison won on Oscar over Sellers that year is a major tragedy.
One of the funniest anti-drug songs ever recorded, this song with the f-bomb in the title actually made the Top 40 in Great Britain in 1981. When British radio announcers were forced to acknowledge the song, they referred to it as “a record by the Dead Kennedys” like it was a piece of dog poop that inadvertently wound up on their hands.
The DK’s supplied a sticker to record stores that could be placed over the single that read: “Caution: You are the victim of yet another stodgy retailer afraid to warp your mind by revealing the title of this record so peel slowly and see…” However, much to the band’s amusement, some of those stickers wound up on Tom Petty’s “Damn the Torpedoes” albums instead.
The song can now be found on the compilation “Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death,” which achieved Gold status by the RIAA in 2007.
One of the Germs’ earliest and best singles. Much better than the admittedly decent version that later appeared on the classic Joan Jett-produced Germs’ debut album “GI,” you can actually make out lead singer Darby Crash’s lyrics on this one. Contains one of my all-time favorite lyrics: “Let’s give this established joke a shove!” Yes, indeed.
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