The 2nd track from the classic “The Velvet and Underground and Nico” album from 1967, this is a song about buying heroin in NYC when songs about heroin were not chic or cool. This drug song is not about expanding your mind, yadda, yadda, yadda. This is about the cold reality of street drugs and the desperate need for them. The relentless, driving rhythm of this song is infectious, but scary given the subject matter.
F–k “The Exorcist”! THIS is the scariest film of all time … because it involves real life at its worst … whatever good is in it is eroding away bit by bit. Based on David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, this is a film about men who have had varying degrees of success in their life, but are now not doing so great. They’re a millimeter away from losing their livelihood … and they’re resorting to desperate means to hold onto what little they have. This movie disturbed me as recent college graduate in 1992 … it scares me even more 20+ years later.
This scene … the most famous in the film … involves a sales leader browbeating and emasculating the desperate men who are their weakest. This is darkly funny on one level … horrendously sad and depressing on another. This is the dark side of the American Dream … the side which says if you fail, it’s because you didn’t work hard enough, you didn’t want it badly enough, because … you weren’t man enough.
Aside from his genius portrayal of CEO Jack Donaghy on the comedy TV classic “30 Rock,” this is Alec Baldwin’s greatest performance. The other performances by Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, and Kevin Spacey are all top-notch, as well. This is not safe for work by any means. This is verbal brutality at its most heinous. A-B-C. Always be closing … ALWAYS BE CLOSING!
The Butthole Surfers’ “unique” take on Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf”. One of the greatest openings to a song ever:
“Daddy, what does regret mean?
Well son, the funny thing about regret is,
It’s better to regret something you have done,
Than to regret something you haven’t done.
And by the way, if you see your mom this weekend,
Be sure and tell her, SATAN, SATAN, SATAN!!!”
From the 1988 album “Locust Abortion Technician.”
The terrific and gloriously politically incorrect opening of writer/director Christopher McQuarrie’s 2000 film “Way of the Gun” … McQuarrie’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning script for “The Usual Suspects.” The performance by Sarah Silverman as the obnoxious girlfriend is beyond perfect. The fact that the entire sequence is underscored by the Rolling Stones’ “Rip This Joint” makes it even more memorable. Be warned, though. The language (and action in the sequence) is beyond obscene … not safe for work, little ones, or those who are highly sensitive.
From Bob Mould’s game-changing 1989 solo album “Workbook,” the former Husker Du frontman and punk rock God channeled his inner Richard Thompson into decepitvely quieter, but no less intense songs. The opening acoustic bridge was used for years as bumper music on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” One of my all-time favorite albums.
One of my favorites from the early 1990s. From Cracker’s 1992 self-titled debut. Favorite line: “I see the light at the end of the tunnel now … Someone please tell me it’s not a train.”
A great performance of one of the more memorable (albeit extremely depressing) songs from Lou Reed’s stellar 1973 song cycle “Berlin.” If you like what you hear, you should check out the original album, or the brilliant 2007 film adaptation (lensed by Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel) called “Lou Reed’s Berlin.”
One of the best films about the art / history of comedy, as well as the early days of TV is director Richard Benjamin’s hilarious and touching 1982 film “My Favorite Year.” The unspoken denominator in this enterprise is (uncredited) producer Mel Brooks. Mel Brooks was a comedy writer for Sid Caesar’s early TV show “Your Show of Shows,” which the film’s show within a show “The King Kaiser Show” is based on.
Mark Linn-Baker (as rookie writer Benjy Stone) is the obvious Brooks stand-in, trying to keep notorious debauched movie star Alan Swann (brilliantly played by Peter O’Toole based on debauched real-life movie star Errol Flynn) sober and on schedule for his appearance on the show. However, the constantly drunk Swann has other plans.
“My Favorite Year” may not be perfect … or even a great film, but it’s one of those films that always puts me in a good mood. And it earned Peter O’Toole a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination in 1982. The film also resurrected Lainie Kazan’s career, who plays Benjy’s overbearing, but loving mom. Kazan resurrected the role in the 1992 Broadway musical adaptation of the film.
The title track from Cave’s amazing 1988 album “The Mercy Seat.” The term “mercy seat” does have religious connotations, for which I’ll consult Wikipedia for a more literate translation than I could ever muster:
According to the Bible, the cover or mercy seat (Hebrew: כפורת, Kapporet ; “atonement piece”) was an object which rested upon the Ark of the Covenant, and was connected with the rituals of the Day of Atonement; the term also appears in later Jewish sources, and twice in the New Testament, from where it has significance in Christian Theology.
The English phrase mercy seat is not a literal translation of the Hebrew term kapporeth, which appears in its place in the Masoretic text, nor of the Greek term hilasterion, which takes the same place in the Septuagint but instead is the translation by William Tyndale influenced by the German term Gnadenstuhl, from the same narrative position in the Luther Bible; Gnadenstuhl literally means seat of grace, in the sense of location of grace.
Despite this meaning, the song is sung from the perspective of an inmate on death row who is facing imminent execution in what I imagine is an electric chair. Cave’s version is unremitting in its intensity. However, Cash’s quieter, but still fierce cover from 2000 is damn good. Both versions will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
“Layla” may be the best-known song from Eric Clapton’s and Duane Allman’s pseudonymous 1970 band Derek and the Domino’s “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” album. While it’s a great song, unfortunately, it’s power has been greatly diminished (at least for me) over the years due to endless replays on classic rock radio and other places. Though, Martin Scorsese did redeem it somewhat through its use in “Goodfellas” but I digress …
For my money, their cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” is the highlight of the album. I’ve never heard hard rock sound so damn sad, but not in a grandiose “Pink Floyd The Wall” type way. This may be just the blues … but it’s played with such incredible power and sorrow. Clapton was in a bad way (emotionally and healthwise) when he recorded this and you can feel it.
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