4/3/13

Another &#@%*$! list: The Top 10 Usages of Songs in Film

I've stumbled across any number of lists touting the best usage of songs in movies and I have never, not ever, not once, nosirree, uh uh, come across the mention of what is undeniably the greatest -- and I do mean GREATEST -- utilization of a song in a film.  And it's a damned shame.

I don't care if the list is Top Ten or Top 50 or Top 100, I've not yet found anyone with the acumen to realize the importance of the adaptation of this song into a key moment in the film which, without said song, would be just another couple of minutes out of a hundred rather than a true centerpiece of the storyline.  And it's not as if no one ever saw the movie; it was a box office hit and can be found on cable TV with great regularity.   What is the song?  We'll come to that.   So . . .

In copyrighted David Letterman reverse numerical order, the Top 10 usages of song in film are:

10)  Midnight Special / Creedence Clearwater Revival from 'Twilight Zone'.  To quote John Lithgow's character, "Oh, I love Creedence!"   Dan Ackroyd's shining moment?

9)  Stuck in the Middle With You / Stealer's Wheel from 'Reservoir Dogs'.  The dance of the psychopath, choreographed to Gerry Rafferty's breakthrough toe-tapper.  Oops, did I nick your ear? That's gotta hurt.

8)  Oh Yeah / Yello from 'The Secret of My Succe$s'.  This is the only redeeming feature of this Michael J Fox dog of a movie, played as the characters do a bit of bedroom hopping that would have played better if staged by the Marx Brothers.  A lot of people will mention this song in such lists but will reference its use in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'.  Yeah, I get that.  But if I'm gonna pick a song from that movie, I'm going with Twist and Shout.

7)  You Can't Always Get What You Want / The Rolling Stones from 'The Big Chill'.  Now almost a cliché but, at the time, it was a slap in the face during the semi-somber opening scene of a movie that would depend heavily on it's pop-rock-soul soundtrack.  Changed funeral services forever.

6)  Just Dropped In / The First Edition from 'The Big Lebowski'.  Can you say "drug-induced"?  Hilarious hallucinatory bowling-with-Busby-Berkeley-on-acid scene.  Far out, dude.

5)  Tubular Bells / Mike Oldfield from 'The Exorcist'.  I had a friend argue the point that this song was played throughout this film as a sort of underlying theme.  It was not.  That is how powerful the connection is between this tune and the image of Father Merrin arriving in the night haze at the Georgetown apartment building of Regan MacNeil.  Indelible.

4)  In Your Eyes / Peter Gabriel from 'Say Anything'.  All I have to say is: Lloyd Dobbs. Boom box.  That's all you need to know.

3)  In Dreams / Roy Orbison from 'Blue Velvet'.  A heavily rouged Dean Stockwell lip-synching into a hand-held drop light.  Chilling.  Creepy.  I remember telling a friend of mine after we'd gone to see this film when it first hit the screen that this was always a weird and creepy song but this movie (and Stockwell) took it into uncharted territories of strange.

2)  The Sound of Silence / Simon & Garfunkel from 'The Graduate'.  It may be hard to realize or remember now just how unique, different and groundbreaking the scene over which this song played truly was back in 1967.  The techniques employed by director Mike Nichols, film editor Sam O'Steen and cinematographer Robert Surtees challenged the viewers' sensibilities, senses and expectations.  This was not your father's Oldsmobile.  Of course, Hollywood being the self-cannibalizing entity that it is, by 1969, these methods were old hat.  Still, mesmerizing.

And, now for . . .

1)  Sinnerman / Nina Simone from 'The Thomas Crown Affair' (1999).  Pierce Brosnan spreads his arms wide in the rotunda of the museum, dons his bowler hat, grabs his briefcase and saunters off to perform an ingeniously clever bait-and-switch with dozens and dozens of other similarly dressed men, all to the syncopation of Nina Simone's rhythmic take on this old gospel tune and a classic scene is etched forever within this oft-uneven, oft-unbelievable but oft-enjoyable remake of the Steve McQueen classic.  If I didn't know for a fact that Ms. Simone had recorded this song for her 1965 "Pastel Blues" LP, I'd have sworn that she'd recorded it specifically for this scene, hand-in-glove with the film's editor and director looking over her every take.  Perfection.  Don't argue with me.  I'm right; you're misinformed.

And . . . I can't end this without giving Honorable Mention to Sonny & Cher's chestnut, I Got You Babe, as featured (over and over and over and over and . . . ) in 'Groundhog Day'.  You never get to hear more than a few notes of the song but that's enough to drive you as crazy as it does Phil Connors.

4/1/13

Paul Williams X 2

We were sitting, eating breakfast, the much better half and I, talking quietly of a very close friend of ours who is spending her last moments on this planet at home with her family gathered around her, trying to make the best of the inevitable.  As we sunk into silence, I muttered, "Life goes on" and immediately found Paul Williams inside my head singing his song of that title. 

Keep your eyes on the open road
You're a fool if you live in the past
You're better off to forget the whole damn thing
Times been worse
Friends all gone
Don't get crazy
Life goes on
Times been worse
Friends all gone
Don't get crazy
Life goes on

Yeah, on and on and on. 

So then, I self-conciously shifted the subject of our conversation to last spring's SXSW music conference in Austin, one of my best weeks in recent memory.  The very first discussion/symposium/seminar that I attended was an hour with Paul Williams, the elfin blond singer-songwriter, as he and filmmaker Stephen Kessler discussed Paul's life and work and pitched the upcoming release of their documentary film "Paul Williams Still Alive." 

It was a wonderful, fulfilling hour.  Granted, not everyone would have found it as fascinating as I did but I was captivated from the get-go.

Williams had become a television fixture in the 70s.  Ever-youthful, it seemed as if he'd been around forever -- after all, he had auditioned, unsuccessfully, for both the original Mouseketeers and The Monkees --  and still never aged past his twenties.  I guess that my first recollection of him was in the 1966 film "The Chase", a movie with a helluva cast -- Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, E.G. Marshall, Robert Duvall, Diana Hyland, Janice Rule, Angie Dickinson, Miriam Hopkins -- wherein Williams played one of the town's teens and sat atop an old clunker in the city's junkyard, strumming a guitar and singing "Oh, Bubber, Bubber Reeves, they're out to get you" or words to that effect, as Redford, playing the aforementioned Bubber, tried to elude sheriff Brando.  "Teenaged" Williams was 25 at the time he made this film.

Although he has had a nice resumé of big screen and TV work -- Battle for Planet of the Apes, Smokey and the Bandit, Phantom of the Paradise, etc etc -- Paul WIlliams's true calling was not in acting but in songwriting.  After a stint in the band Holy Mackerel (a once-hard-to-find LP, used to go for fairly high $$$, not so much so these days), Williams settled in as a top notch west coast songwriter penning hits for the likes of Three Dog Night, The Carpenters, Helen Reddy, The Monkees and The Muppets.  His songs, in case you're totally unfamiliar with his work, include "We've Only Just Begun", "Out in the Country", "The Rainbow Connection", "An Old Fashioned Love Song", "You and Me Against the World" and, of course, the Academy Award winning "Evergreen."

I can hear you now:  Schmaltz.  Pabulum. Crapola.  Sure, it's not "Good Golly Miss Molly" or "Train in Vain" or "The Tracks of My Tears" even, but ol' Paul can write 'em.  Maybe he's a Tin Pan Alley throwback to the likes of Sammy Cahn, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein and the like but, nonetheless, he wrote some pretty cool tunes.  

I guess my appreciation for Williams's work goes back to the summer of 1972.  I was in summer school at West Virginia University.  By all accounts, certainly by my mother's, I should have graduated in May of that year but there I was, grabbing 12 hours in summer school in what was to be my never-ending quest for a degree.  I lived alone in a house on College avenue, way up the hill above the campus.  A large house, subdivided into 4 apartments of varying sizes, my one-bedroom was spacious as it contained the large kitchen area, a "sitting area" and a bedroom.  The kitchen was the best place as it was on the rear of the house and all three exterior sides were solid windows.  I'd return from class, open all the windows, let the breeze blow through and kick back for a little reading.  Being as this was the short summer session, I had left my (cheapass) stereo and records and my (equally cheapass) portable black & white TV home for safekeeping.   So it came to pass that my listening pleasure came to be fulfilled by my next door neighbor who, one day, arrived at his place around the same time as I, opened his 2nd floor bedroom window, propped the album cover of Paul Williams's "Life Goes On" LP in said window for all the world to see and then loudly played that album for all the world to hear.  Paul Williams?  Ah, come on, man.


After about 2 run-throughs on Side One, I was ready to march next door and rip the record off the turntable and frisbee it out that open window into the oncoming traffic below.   But, funny thing . . . after the 3rd rebop, I started tapping my foot and singing along.  Damn.  This wasn't so bad at all.  In fact, I kinda liked it.  From that day forward, me and Paul and my neighbor had a thing going on.  I was hooked.

So it came to be that there I was, sitting in a room at the Austin Convention Center, listening to Paul Williams talk about songwriting, the pitfalls of fame and success and the good times that he had along his way.  He sang a few brief snippets from his catalog, accompanied by his longtime collaborator and keyboardist, Chris Caswell, spoke openly and honestly about his alcoholism and his sobriety and spoke passionately about his role as president of the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) which has kept him busy in recent years.  And as I left that room at the end of his session, I found myself grinning and humming "Life Goes On" and for just a brief moment, I was on College Avenue in Morgantown, West Virginia.  And it was 1972 all over again.

Then, today, I come to find out that, in one of those instances in life that can only be explained by Miller in the film Repo Man as an intersection of the cosmic lattice of coincidence, a few days after our breakfast discussion, I find that Paul Williams, the writer and founder of Crawdaddy magazine, the man who almost single-handedly invented rock criticism, has passed away.  The cause was onset of dementia brought on by a bicycling accident suffered in the 90s.  

Without this Paul Williams, it can be argued, there would have been no Rolling Stone magazine, no Greil Marcus, no Robert Christgau, no Richard Meltzer, no Lester Bangs, no Creem, no Cameron Crowe, no Ben Fong-Torres, no Jon Landau, no Patti Smith, no Lenny Kaye, no Chet Flippo, no Dave Marsh.  Started as a mimeographed handout in 1966 while Williams was a student at Swarthmore, Crawdaddy preceded Rolling Stone by nearly 2 years.  Williams quickly moved on from Crawdaddy, leaving in '68 to return to his west coast roots and a life of freelance writing that would lead to a number of articles for all sorts of publications and produce over 25 books.  


Along the way, Williams managed to become campaign manager for Timothy Leary's California gubernatorial run, sang back-up alongside John & Yoko on "Give Peace a Chance", hitched a ride to Woodstock in the Grateful Dead's limo, and saw Bob Dylan perform well over 100 times.

Williams became a champion of the author, Philip K. Dick.  An interview with Dick and subsequent articles about the author's works led to a revival of his career and the publishing of long out-of-print works.  It is generally regarded that, without the boost from Paul Williams, the world might never have seen the films based on his work -- Blade Runner (from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall (We Can Remember it For You Wholesale), Minority Report (same), A Scanner Darkly (same) and The Adjustment Bureau (Adjustment Team), to name a few.  After Dick's death, Williams was named his literary executor.

Williams tried to continue working and writing after his bicycle accident but could not.  Eventually, the early onset of Alzheimer's disease, directly attributed to the brain injuries suffered in his accident, forced him into full-time hospice care at a facility in North County, California. 

So, for one Paul WIlliams, life goes on.  For the other Paul Williams, another chapter begins.

Life goes on, dontcha get crazy, life goes on and on and on and on.

.............   for Zana

2/28/13

Ciao, Benedicto!


I'm hanging up now, Ziggy.  Goodbye.


2/25/13

The Top of the Top (1-250)

Wrapping up my exercise in hubris, here's the top third of my list of Top 750 Songs. 

After having posted my two previous installments (251-500 and 501-750), I've already come up with at least 5 songs that I should have included but . . . such is life.  I'm sure I'll think of a dozen more in the coming weeks.  No big deal.  It's the nature of the beast.

I will say this up front, although many similar lists may contain my #3 pick, "Baby, I Need Your Loving" by The Four Tops, I will grant you that no one will rank it as high as I have.  Rolling Stone ranks it at number 400.  Others may omit it altogether.  I understand.  I just think that it's a work of art, fueled by the desperation and pain in Levi Stubbs's voice and the relentless drive of the Motown house band.  (Viva Benny Benjamin and James Jamerson!)

As with the other postings, my ranking is on the far left and Rolling Stone magazine's ranking is shown in the next column (NA = not applicable, i.e., not included in RS list).

Enjoy it or ignore it.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

12SatisfactionThe Rolling Stones
21Like a Rolling StoneBob Dylan
3400Baby I Need Your LovingFour Tops
47Johnny B. GoodeChuck Berry
527LaylaDerek and The Dominos
621Born to RunBruce Springsteen
731Stairway to HeavenLed Zeppelin
8182Hey Ya!OutKast
9109Little Red CorvettePrince
10NAYou're Gonna Miss MeThe 13th Floor Elevators
1135Light My FireThe Doors
1254Louie LouieThe Kingsmen
1315London CallingThe Clash
146Good VibrationsThe Beach Boys
15372The LetterThe Box Tops
1634You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'The Righteous Brothers
17211GloriaThem
18349Baba O'RileyThe Who
1917Purple HazeThe Jimi Hendrix Experience
2048Bridge Over Troubled WaterSimon and Garfunkel
21198Sweet Child O' MineGuns N' Roses
2268Tangled Up in BlueBob Dylan
2318MaybelleneChuck Berry
2439That'll Be the DayBuddy Holly and The Crickets
2529Help!The Beatles
2637No Woman, No CryBob Marley and The Wailers
27NANight MovesBob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
289Smells Like Teen SpiritNirvana
29131Maggie MayRod Stewart
3050The Tracks of My TearsSmokey Robinson & The Miracles
3116I Want to Hold Your HandThe Beatles
3230I Walk the LineJohnny Cash
3342Waterloo SunsetThe Kinks
3461Whole Lotta Shakin' Going OnJerry Lee Lewis
3533River Deep, Mountain HighIke and Tina Turner
36197Peggy SueBuddy Holly
37193Free BirdLynyrd Skynyrd
3810What'd I SayRay Charles
39177I Fought The LawThe Bobby Fuller Four
40158I Only Have Eyes for YouThe Flamingos
41399Just My ImaginationThe Temptations
42NAPancho & LeftyWillie Nelson & Merle Haggard
4322Be My BabyThe Ronettes
44NAIt's Too LateCarole King
4562Bo DiddleyBo Diddley
46NACaravanVan Morrison
4741The WeightThe Band
4845Heartbreak HotelElvis Presley
49NALevi Stubbs TearsBilly Bragg
5074Summertime BluesEddie Cochran
5138Gimme ShelterThe Rolling Stones
52NA7 and 7 IsLove
5396Great Balls of FireJerry Lee Lewis
54150Cathy's ClownThe Everly Brothers
55NADo YaThe Move
5671Papa's Got a Brand New BagJames Brown
57NACypress AvenueVan Morrison
5890In the Still of the NightThe Five Satins
59NAPowderfingerNeil Young
60NAKiko and the Lavendar MoonLos Lobos
61NAMy Whole World EndedDavid Ruffin
62181Love Will Tear Us ApartJoy Division
63NAChoice of ColorsThe Impressions
64353Piece of My HeartBig Brother and the Holding Company
65191Stayin' AliveBee Gees
66NABorn on the BayouCreedence Clearwater Revival
67137Your SongElton John
6887Ring of FireJohnny Cash
69125Jumpin' Jack FlashThe Rolling Stones
70134Won't Get Fooled AgainThe Who
71298Train in VainThe Clash
7267Jailhouse RockElvis Presley
73110Brown Eyed GirlVan Morrison
74114Up on the RoofThe Drifters
7558Billie JeanMichael Jackson
76NAParadiseJohn Prine
77154A Hard Day's NightThe Beatles
78141KashmirLed Zeppelin
79279Somebody to LoveJefferson Airplane
80122Stand By MeBen E. King
81389Radio Free EuropeR.E.M.
82NAYou've Really Got a Hold on MeSmokey Robinson and the Miracles
83483White RabbitJefferson Airplane
84NAI'll Never Forget YouNoisettes
85NA(Marie's the Name) His Latest FlameElvis Presley
86NAYou Shook Me All Night LongAC/DC
87NABeyond the SeaBobby Darin
88333Good Lovin'The (Young) Rascals
89140I Saw Her Standing ThereThe Beatles
90135In the Midnight HourWilson Pickett
91218Do You Believe in MagicThe Lovin' Spoonful
92157The Sound of SilenceSimon and Garfunkel
93489Under the BoardwalkThe Drifters
9488My GirlThe Temptations
95344Beat ItMichael Jackson
96495Brown SugarThe Rolling Stones
97133Who Do You Love?Bo Diddley
98NARiders on the StormThe Doors
99NAUnder My WheelsAlice Cooper
100252Chain of FoolsAretha Franklin
101361All Shook UpElvis Presley
102NAGroovin'The (Young) Rascals
103NAWhite Lines (Don't Do It)Grandmaster Melle Mel and The Furious Five
104NASomeday, SomewayMarshall Crenshaw
105NAA Train LadyMink DeVille
106NAStoned Soul PicnicThe 5th Dimension
107NAI'm on FireDwight Twilley Band
108301Street Fighting ManThe Rolling Stones
109113That's All Right MamaElvis Presley
110195Wichita LinemanGlen Campbell
111155Rave OnBuddy Holly
1122151999Prince
113123The House of the Rising SunThe Animals
114NAThe PassengerIggy Pop
115267He's a RebelThe Crystals
116480SabotageBeastie Boys
117151Eight Miles HighThe Byrds
118NALolaThe Kinks
119196There Goes My BabyThe Drifters
12093I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking ForU2
12185CrazyPatsy Cline
12263For What It's WorthBuffalo Springfield
123108Not Fade AwayBuddy Holly and The Crickets
124189I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)Aretha Franklin
12556Anarchy in the U.KSex Pistols
126199MaybeThe Chantels
127NAI Got a Line on YouSpirit
128NAFourth of JulyDave Alvin
129145I Wanna be SedatedRamones
130231MoondanceVan Morrison
13177Mystery TrainElvis Presley
132156Proud MaryCreedence Clearwater Revival
133127Shake, Rattle & RollBig Joe Turner
134243The WandererDion
135NAAlong Comes MaryThe Association
136354La BambaRitchie Valens
13751The MessageGrandmaster Flash and The Furious Five
138NAReturn to SenderElvis Presley
139363Watching the DetectivesElvis Costello and the Attractions
140NAI Only Want to Be With YouDusty Springfield
141NAHere Comes the NightThem
142453Pressure DropToots and the Maytals
143274RoadrunnerThe Modern Lovers
144NAMr. LeeThe Bobbettes
145NAYou Wear It WellRod Stewart
146NAKicksPaul Revere & The Raiders
147234Only The LonelyRoy Orbison
148NAWhen You Walk in the RoomJackie DeShannon
149449Come Go With MeThe Del-Vikings
150437(White Man) In Hammersmith PalaisThe Clash
151401Summer in the CityThe Lovin' Spoonful
152152Earth AngelThe Penguins
153NAAmerican WomanThe Guess Who
154NABook of RulesThe Heptones
155445I Wanna Be Your DogThe Stooges
156NAAlex ChiltonThe Replacements
157NACopperhead RoadSteve Earle
158NAHeat WaveMartha and The Vandellas
159NASky PilotEric Burdon & The Animals
160NADon't Ask Me QuestionsGraham Parker & The Rumour
161120Go Your Own WayFleetwood Mac
162205Come TogetherThe Beatles
163184Save The Last Dance For MeThe Drifters
164NASally Go 'Round the RosesThe Jaynettes
165200Don't Be CruelElvis Presley
166364Bad Moon RisingCreedence Clearwater Revival
167NAI Can See Clearly Now Johnny Nash
168216Rockin' in the Free WorldNeil Young
169NALong Cool Woman in a Black DressThe Hollies
170NAWild in the StreetsGarland Jeffreys
171217Your Cheatin' HeartHank Williams
172NAJump AroundHouse of Pain
173NASurf CityJan & Dean
17486Thunder RoadBruce Springsteen
175NADown on MeBig Brother and the Holding Company
176NABreak on ThroughThe Doors
177NASet Me Free (Rosa Lee)Los Lobos
178474Into the MysticVan Morrison
179153Foxy LadyThe Jimi Hendrix Experience
180452Come As You AreNirvana
181NAEvery Day is Like SundayMorrissey
182NAShake Some ActionFlaming Groovies
183438Ain't That a ShameFats Domino
184173Dream OnAerosmith
185NAOoh La LaThe Faces
186149Lust for LifeIggy Pop
1875RespectAretha Franklin
188NARadio RadioElvis Costello and the Attractions
189NAThe Last TimeThe Rolling Stones
19011My GenerationThe Who
191350The Harder They ComeJimmy Cliff
192NAViva Las VegasElvis Presley
193NAMidnight RiderAllman Brothers Band
19464She Loves YouThe Beatles
19560Let's Stay TogetherAl Green
196224Oh, Pretty WomanRoy Orbison
19747All Along the WatchtowerThe Jimi Hendrix Experience
198NATell MeThe Rolling Stones
19926(Sittin' on) the Dock of the BayOtis Redding
200280Born in the U.S.A.Bruce Springsteen
201335For Your Precious LoveJerry Butler and the Impressions
20282Blueberry HillFats Domino
2033ImagineJohn Lennon
204167Fast CarTracy Chapman
205316What's Love Got to Do With ItTina Turner
206NAI Love You, GoodbyeThomas Dolby
2074What's Going OnMarvin Gaye
208NADa Doo Ron RonThe Crystals
20989California Dreamin'The Mamas and the Papas
210NAI Can't Stand the RainAnn Peebles
211238EverydayBuddy Holly and the Crickets
21297Roll Over BeethovenChuck Berry
213NASuzy QDale Hawkins
21470Walk On ByDionne Warwick
215NAGirls Just Wanna Have FunCyndi Lauper
216NAWishin' and Hopin'Dusty Springfield
21755Long Tall SallyLittle Richard
218NACinnamon GirlNeil Young
219130Born to Be WildSteppenwolf
220106The BoxerSimon and Garfunkel
221NASpeedooThe Cadillacs
222NAGypsy WomanThe Impressions
223159(We're Gonna) Rock Around the ClockBill Haley and His Comets
22499Fortunate SonCreedence Clearwater Revival
225NAAin't Even Done With the NightJohn Cougar
226NAVenus of Avenue DMink DeVille
227NAHorsesPatti Smith Group
228126Will You Love Me TomorrowThe Shirelles
229388Pride (In the Name of Love)U2
230NAWild NightVan Morrison
23179Mr. Tambourine ManThe Byrds
232314Why Do Fools Fall in LoveFrankie Lymon and the Teenagers
233340Subterranean Homesick BluesBob Dylan
234NASave It For LaterThe English Beat
235457The TwistChubby Checker
236235We Gotta Get Out of This PlaceThe Animals
237222Walk Away ReneeThe Left Banke
238NATrain Kept a-Rollin'Johnny Burnette & The RocknRoll Trio
23943Tutti-FruttiLittle Richard
240206Positively 4th StreetBob Dylan
241299Tired of Being AloneAl Green
242NALand of 1000 DancesCannibal & The Headhunters
243NAMountain of LoveClaude King
244NADon't Make Me OverDionne Warwick
245247Gimme Some LovinThe Spencer Davis Group
246NAPoor, Poor, Pitiful MeWarren Zevon
24752When Doves CryPrince
248111I've Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop Now)Otis Redding
249NADarling Be Home SoonThe Lovin' Spoonful
250NACan't Hardly WaitThe Replacements