With the exception of “Rock Hard,” recorded for the flop Robert Stigwood-produced punk rock film “Times Square,” “The Wild One” is my favorite Quatro song. I was a big fan of Quatro’s, but strangely never heard “The Wild One” until I saw “The Runaways” biopic in 2010, where the song was used over the opening credits. Quatro was too often dismissed as a gimmick back in the day, but she had a lot of great songs and a true pioneer. And if her 2006 album “Back to the Drive” is any indication, she hasn’t lost any of her talent over the years either.
The opening lines are VERY inspirational: “All my life I wanted to be somebody AND HERE I AM!!! I know what I’ve got, and there ain’t nobody gonna take it away from me. So let me tell ya what I am!!”
Here’s a great song you almost never hear on Oldies stations these days … even though it was a Top 10 hit in 1969 (and got as high as #2 on the Billboard R&B charts). This is the late great David Ruffin on his first solo single after leaving the Temptations.
From their self-titled 2001 album (also known as “the Green Album”), “Photograph” is my favorite Weezer song of all time. This is a damn near perfect pop song, overlaid with lots of guitar noise, and says what it needs to say in 2 minutes 19 seconds. In other words, my wheelhouse.
Yes, the accompanying video seems a little too self-consciously geeky, but try to ignore the visuals and groove on the song.
Another killer B-side from the Stones … this time from their 1968 hit “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” No disrespect intended to “Flash,” but this is another B-side that would’ve been an A-side in a better world. Now available on “The Singles Collection: The London Years” boxset … which would be my Desert Island album. Yes, I realize that a 3-CD box set of the Stones singles and B-sides from 1964-1971 is cheating a bit … but if you insist on putting me on a desert island in the first place, we’re going to have negotiate a little if you don’t want to be physically harmed in the process of moving me to said island.
Back when I was an aspiring filmmaker (as opposed to … you know … actually BEING a filmmaker … writing scripts, shooting on VHS, etc.), I always thought this song, from the 1988 album “Peepshow,” would have made a great song for a sleazy sex industry thriller set in L.A. The sleazy sex industry thriller has always been one of my favorite genres of film (i.e. Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” Paul Schrader’s “Hardcore,” Gary Sherman’s “Vice Squad,” or Brian DePalma’s “Body Double”). “Peek-a-Boo” has always had a near-perfect mix of sleaze, glitz, and danger … and it’s catchy as hell.
P.S. If you have inclinations towards being a filmmaker, don’t waste your money and go to film school. Just write … and preferably shoot … your damn movie already! When you have a full 1080p HD camera at your disposal … on your freakin’ phone or iPod, for crying out loud … and with YouTube, you have instant distribution if no one officially buys it … you have no excuse if you’re even remotely serious. There’s no such thing as “aspiring” anymore. You just do it.
The first time I heard this was on a Saturday morning when I woke up with a horrible hangover. I had bought the album the night before and ran into a female “friend” while I was out and about. After spending several hours of drinking horrendously cheap beer together and having one of those conversations that get embarrassingly “deep” when too much imbibing takes place, I confessed my true feelings for this person and she gave me the “we’re better off as friends” speech. In retrospect, I don’t know what I was expecting. That Rob Reiner – Nora Ephron “When Harry Met Sally” nonsense is … well … nonsense. Every meaningful relationship I’ve ever had has started off on a playing field where both parties are clearly interested on a non-platonic level. Don’t let asinine Hollywood rom-com BS let you believe any differently.
Anyway, nearly 25 years later, I think I got the better end of the bargain with this album. I remember thinking this horribly recorded, but intense song summed up said hangover the next morning pretty well.
Here’s one of the better tracks from the still-groundbreaking 1989 album “Paul’s Boutique.” Any song that manages to cross-mingle Ocean’s “Put Your Hand in the Hand” and Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen” and make such a combo sound positively heavy is a great song in my book. Later covered by Anthrax on the 1993 “Beavis and Butthead Experience” album.
“Jackie Brown” was quite a shock for Tarantino fans when it came out in 1997. It shared some of the characteristics of his prior films (rat-a-tat dialogue, dark humor), but was much more subdued. The violence wasn’t as grisly and the focus was more on the characters. Because it didn’t explode off the screen like “Pulp Fiction,” many people didn’t like it. However, I think it’s one of Tarantino’s best films.
The biggest strength was the interplay between Pam Grier’s Jackie Brown and Robert Forster’s Max Cherry characters. The way these two characters flirt and grow fond of each other is remarkable and it plays out quite nicely. Most films would have these characters make their flirtation more obvious or play up the comedy more. But Tarantino has these characters circle each other a bit. It’s obvious there’s an attraction, but Jackie and Max are middle-aged, have had some many ups and downs in their lives, and are thrown together by Jackie’s arrest and Max’s role in helping bail her out as her bail bondsman. They’re interested in each other, but are cautious … without either one tipping their hat too much in either direction. It’s too bad this scene cuts out so soon. Especially because this is the best use of the Delfonics’ “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind” I’ve seen in any idiom.
It’s one of the best portrayals of a relationship “of a certain age” ever put on film. Though … it doesn’t quite work out the way moviegoers would necessarily want. The book it was based on (Elmore Leonard’s “Rum Punch”) had Jackie and Max running off together. However, Tarantino’s denouement takes a different direction. The denouement may not be satisfying because we like the characters a lot … but probably more truthful given Jackie’s and Max’s life experience.
Here’s something that would not have been out of place on an early 1970s Badfinger, Harry Nilsson, or John Lennon-solo album. “Smile” is the title track from their 2000 album, produced by the legendary Bob Ezrin (who produced most of Alice Cooper’s early classic albums, KISS’s “Destroyer,” Lou Reed’s “Berlin,” … and a little something by Pink Floyd called “The Wall”). This is far removed from the alt-country that initially made the Jayhawks famous, but I think this got unfairly ignored. A really lovely pop ballad.
From Eddie Murphy’s first comedy album, this is an extended routine that starts out about hassling girls with doo-doo, then goes into a routine about Grandmothers, and then goes into an extended monologue about Christmas gifts for family members. Three words: “BRUT … by Faberge.”
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