Last night, after watching Walkabout, a 1971 film by Nicholas Roeg, Mr. Royale started humming Big Audio Dynamite‘s “E = MC2.” I didn’t initially get the connection until Mr. Royale reminded me that the lyrics of that song describe characters and plots of multiple Roeg films, including Walkabout, Performance, Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Insignificance, and Eureka. So now I’ve been wondering why Jones et al. wrote a song about that director. Is it because Mr. Roeg has stated that he likes musicians (examples: Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Art Garfunkel) to be in his films as they are used to emoting in front of an audience? Or that the mosaic-like plots of his films are somewhat like creating a song? Maybe they are simply fans. I don’t know, but it is a question I’d like to ask Mr. Jones.
“E=MC2” has got me thinking about other songs that reference the movies, be it the plots, the directors, or the stars. I’ve thought of a few. But I’m interested in your “take.” Extra kudos if the song describes the film but doesn’t mention it outright.
Roxy Music’s “2HB” immediately comes to mind. That one never specifically references Humphrey Bogart or Casablanca other than the “Here’s looking at you, kid” refrain, does it?
Next I thought of Lou Reed’s endearingly geeky “Doing the Things That We Want To,” with a verse on the films of Martin Scorsese. I love that clunky song, the only song I’d ever consider spinning again from that album, and the sentiments expressed within!
It’s obvious, but its such a great tune that I have to mention “The Right Profile” about Montgomery Clift.
“Maybe The Misfits?!?”
Prefab Sprout had an album called “Steve McQueen.”
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions’ song “Rattlesnakes” has the line: “She looks like Eve Marie Saint in On The Waterfront.”
If you want to check out a good song about Scorsese films, try, “Martin Scorsese” by King Missile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQKS4_Y7QCI
He was one of the directors/film references I was thinking about.
Thanks, hank fan. Mr. Royale and I had thought of that album, one of my favorites. In the US, it was called “Two Wheels Good” due to difficulties with the McQueen estate.
1.Charlie Don’t Surf. (The Clash) Apocalypse Now
2. Red Angel Dragnet (The Clash)Taxi Driver
Brownsville Girl, that very long song that Dylan wrote with Sam Shepard starts out:
“Well, there was this movie I seen one time
About a man riding ’cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck….”
The song talks about this movie off and on, while telling the tangentially related story of the girl from Brownsville, but he never says exactly which one it was.
“All I remember about it was it starred Gregory Peck, he wore a gun
and he was shot in the back….”
Speaking of Gregory Peck, The Go-Betweens’ very first single was a song called Lee Remick:
“I love Lee Remick, she’s a darling
She was in The Omen with Gregory Peck
She got killed, what the heck
Her eyes are like gems
She’s an actress for Screen Gems
I love Lee Remick, she’s a darling”
I’m gonna take it back to the silent era.
“Marie Provost” by Nick Lowe, inspired by a morbid little anecdote in Kenneth Anger’s “Hollywood Babylon” book about fallen star Marie Prevost, who died in a drunken stupor and was eaten by her pets dogs after her corpse had been left undiscovered for several days – a story that, like a lot of things in that book, wasn’t really true (her dogs had nipped at her legs, probably trying to wake her up, but they didn’t eat her).
“Clara Bow” by Cleaners from Venus (Martin Newell). An ode the to the 1920’s sex symbol & partial inspiration for the cartoon character, Betty Boop. Several other performers have either made reference lyrically, or named songs after Clara Bow.
What’s that song called on the second Specials’ album – a cover, I recently learned here in the Halls of Rock – “Sock it to ’em JB,” or something like that? You know, the one with all the James Bond titles in the lyrics.
The title of In A Lonely Place by the Smithereens comes from a Bogart film and they fiddle with some of the lines to make them part of the lyrics.
BigSteve, “Lee Remick” was another one I was thinking about. Funny, as a life long Go-Between’s fan, I hadn’t heard that song until recently. And Mod, I was wondering when you would mention “Sock it to ’em…”
“Shadow of a Doubt” by Sonic Youth, the lyrics of which also mention another Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train.
Celluloid Heroes by the Kinks, listing a bunch of actors with stars on Hollywood Blvd.
Of course, there’s also Oklahoma, USA referencing that Broadway show/movie and it’s actors.
The Guns of Brixton by The Clash
“you see he feels like Ivan
under the Brixton sun
his game is called survivin
at the end of THE HARDER THEY COME”
Key Largo by Kenny Rodgers
“we had it all
just like Bogey and Bacall
Starring in our own late late show Sailing away to KEY LARGO”
Eyes Without a Face by Billy Idol and Nightporter by Japan are both named after movies, but I don’t know if either describe plot points.
There’s a couplet in one of my favorite Cotton Mather songs, My Before And After – Now I’m dangerously reprogramming/like that that guy in the Manchurian. Which would be referencing The Manchurian Candidate.
Cornershop’s “Lessons Learned From Rocky One to Rocky Three”
The Olympics “Western Movies”, although they’re singing mostly about television because they mention Maverick and Have Gun Will Travel.
Yo, shawnkilroy, pardon the pince-nez and all, but Key Largo isn’t by Kenny Rogers, but by Bertie Higgins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru2tsT32pHA
I’d have bet anything he was Canadian, but apparently he’s a Floridian. If that tells you anything.
Belle & Sebastian, “Like Dylan in the Movies.”
What’s going to trouble me more, that “Key Largo” song or it making me think of “Bette Davis Eyes”?
They were mentioned a bunch but I’ve always been a fan of
“The Right Profile” from The Clash
all about Montgomery Clift. Tossing out titles of his films and going into his crash.
i’ll take the Nez anytime with pleasure.
thanks for the new info.
sounds like Kenny though right?
at least in my head it does.
Well, he’s a guy with a beard, yes. By now the beard must be white like Kenny’s, so, yeah.
I agree, re: “The Right Profile,” junkintheyard. In fact, I can’t recall ever watching a movie or reading a biography about an actor based on a reference in a song the way I did on both counts thanks to “The Right Profile.” The biography of Montgomery Clift I read was pretty good. The films I rented that were mentioned in the song and the book were only so-so. I find Clift kind of annoying in most roles. He’s a bit of a moper, the kind of guy who’s begging for an ass kicking. I’m still trying to figure out why Joe Strummer decided to celebrate him and not a real scrapper, like John Garfield.
“Monty Got a Raw Deal” by R.E.M. is also about Clift.
The Pernice Brothers have a song about Judy Garland, called “Judy.”
Geez, Mod, Clift was a “moper”? That’s like saying Gary Cooper was “laconic” or James Cagney was “energetic” or Cary Grant was “suave.”
Red River, A Place in the Sun, From Here to Eternity–these are killers and he is brilliant in them. The Misfits–if he moped in that that would make him the cheeriest character in the movie. It is relentlessly depressing and also, I think, rather overrated.
I happen to rather like John Garfield, actually, he is almost always a welcome presence in a movie, sometimes is really great. He is definitely a different type than Clift–the idea of Garfield in A Place in the Sun, for instance, is kind of funny.
Oh, and, duh, “Candle in the Wind.”
It’s Not Enough from The Who’s Endless Wire has the line “like Bridget Bardot in Godard’s Le Mepris”. Pretentious? Yes but maybe fitting for Townshend’s 2nd career as a theater impresario.
The Ramones’ Pinhead and the “Gabba Gabba One of Us” chant are from Tod Browning’s Freaks.
Ladymisskir,
Medicine Show from B.A.D.’s is full of spaghetti western sound bites. Wasn’t Don Letts, the filmmaker, in that band?
I always found that record to be fascinating but ultimately a complete dead end.
Waterloo Sunset is not about a movie, but it borrows the names of its characters from Terence Stamp and Julie Christie, who had starred in John Schlesinger’s Far from the Madding Crowd and as a couple were Swinging London icons.
Speaking of British movies from the ’60s, Belle & Sebastian have a song that refers to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, don’t they?
misterioso, I think you agree that Clift is a moper, right? I simply find his mopey demeanor a little distracting at times. I know he was “ahead of his time” in terms of moping, but I sometimes think his acting doesn’t fit the tone of the movie he’s in. I don’t dislike him or find him to be a deal breaker, but I’d rather see James Dean doing what he would do with the young, moody rebel type. Dean’s characters mope and are full of angst, but at least they seem capable of responding to a hug now and then. Dean’s moody rebels seem like they were at one time connected to the society that has shunned them, whereas Clift’s moody guys seem like they never fit in, if that makes sense.
By the way, for me, Gary Cooper is a major DEAL BREAKER in movies. He delivers lines like he’s recovering from a stroke.
Also by the way, I was NOT suggesting that Garfield play any of Clift’s parts. That would be funny! I just want to hear a rock ‘n roll song about John Garfield. Maybe it’s up to me to write one.
Speaking of the Kinks, let’s not forget Dave’s Groovy Movies! No, wait, I meant “let’s forget Dave’s Groovy Movies.”
Sure, he’s a moper. Perhaps one could call it introspective? I know, six of one, half a dozen of the other. I think James Dean was more of a moper, in a lot of ways, without communicating that there was as much going on inside.
As for Cooper–too bad. He gets a bad rap for some of his more wooden moments, especially later in his career. In the 30s he did adventure, comedy, drama, sometimes brilliantly, almost always entertainingly. After the early 40s, it gets a little lean and he seemed to settle into becoming the cliche.
I think Garfield could have played Clift’s role in From Here to Eternity, actually, and been more believable in the fight sequences. Clift is great in that movie, but Garfield could have pulled it off.
Just realized hank fan mentioned “The Right Profile” before I did, I just didn’t see it. Didn’t mean to jump on that, bro!
Also, I recall 2 tongue in cheek Star Wars themed songs:
“A New Hope” from Blink-182 where the Narrator pines over Princes Leia but was too busy “drinking Colt 45s with Lando”
“Mind Trick” by 2 Skinnee J’s
The two MC’s make a point of saying “these are not the J’s you’re looking for”
Speaking of “Star Wars,” Queen mentions their dislike of both that fine movie and “Jaws” in “Bicycle.”
Oats, thanks for the reminder of SY’s “Shadow of a Doubt” – I was just reading about that song, too.
And k., Don Letts was in BAD. Good call on “Medicine Show: (although it isn’t really about movies, I think).
I’ve been making the song/movie connections by thinking of of a movie and then trying to recall songs that sample it or reference it. Citizen Kane is referenced in White Stripes’ “The Union Forever.” We’ve talked about several Scorsese connections, but what about something having to do with The Godfather???? There was the band, The Godfathers, but that could be referencing a more generic term.
And I was never a huge Clift fan until I saw “The Misfists” and then I was won over.
For those of you who are fans of Bergman (or aren’t fans but want a Cliff-Note version of one film), check out Scott Walker’s “Seventh Seal.”
Also, Daniel Johnston (and later Tom Waits) neatly encapsulated King Kong.
The Kinks have a “King Kong,” too. We’ve identified a few bands that frequently cite films and actors.
Pere Ubu’s “Caligari’s Mirror”
So I wonder why some bands frequently reference movies? As others have mentioned, first The Clash and then Jones/Letts seemed to really like the cinema or movies and Letts was a director himself. But the Kinks? Anyone know the connection?
And then there is the reverse trend of movie/tv stars going in to music. William Shatner, anyone?
Speaking of the Kinks, on Preservation Act 1 there’s a song called Where Are They Now? that looks back at British cultural icons of (mostly) the 60s — like Teddy Boys, rockers/mods, Christine Keeler, etc. There’s also this verse referencing characters from films of that era:
I hope that Arthur Seaton is alright.
I hope that Charlie Bubbles had a very pleasant flight,
And Jimmy Porter’s learned to laugh and smile,
And Joe Lampton’s learned to live a life of style.
Mr. Mod, look no further than “The Late John Garfield Blues” by John Prine.
And regarding Waterloo Sunset, this is from Wikipedia so it must be right: “The song was rumoured to have been inspired by the romance between two British celebrities of the time, actors Terence Stamp and Julie Christie. Ray Davies denied this in his autobiography, and claimed in a 2008 interview, “It was a fantasy about my sister going off with her boyfriend to a new world and they were going to emigrate and go to another country.”
But then Ray says he wrote all those Kinks songs…
Thanks for the tip, Al!
I think the Clash got into Clift because he was such a maniac. On film he was, as Mr. Mod says, a moper, a decent actor, pretty boy. But his real life was totally fucked up. That dichotomy is what makes him interesting. I agree that he’s generally not all that interesting on the screen but he’s pretty great in the Misfits–great movie all around and it always makes me feel creepy while watching it.
There are a number of ska instrumentals which take their titles from movies, most notably The Upsetters “For A Few Dollars More”.
I always looked at “The Right Profile” as a song about the perils of fame–the car accident is crucial to the song, since post-crash Clift photographed better from one side of his face than the other. John Garfield really wouldn’t have fit the theme….
The historian’s reference to ska instrumentals reminded me of Desmond Dekker’s song A Shanty Town, where he makes explicit the connection between rude boy violence in Kingston and onscreen shoot outs by James Bond and the Rat Pack:
0-0-7
0-0-7
At ocean eleven
And now rudeboys have a go wail
‘Cause them out of jail
Rudeboys cannot fail
‘Cause them must get bail
Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail
A Shanty Town
Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail
A Shanty Town
Dem rude boys out on probation
A Shanty Town
Them a rude when them come up to town
A Shanty Town
“Annie Hall leaves New York in the end/Press rewind, Woody gets her back again” – Blur, on “Look Inside America”. A case of Damon Albarn accurately profiling the taste of his band’s average fan on the same album they’d get a ton of listeners who would thereafter consider them one-hit-wonders.
The Who was mentioned upthread, and they also drop a reference to the great thespian Rin Tin Tin on “Who Are You?” This weekend, I was trying to come up with the lyrics to Eminence Front, and when you put those two together with Athena…what was going on with their lyrics in the late ’70s, early ’80s?
Has anyone written a rock song about Fatty Arbuckle yet? If not, Danzig (another fan of referencing movies) should get on that.
Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy makes a lot of references to literature and other bits of high and low culture. For film, the most obvious example I guess is “Becoming More Like Alfie.” Also, “Gin-Soaked Boy” ends with the line: “I’m Jeff Goldblum in The Fly/Well who am I?”
Good one, alexmagic, about Fatty Arbuckle. Given FA’s murderous history I would nominate Nick Cave or Phil Spector to cover his life.
Stan Ridgway seems to draw a lot of inspiration from film noir, and has borrowed the occasional title like “The Big Heat” and “Lost Weekend”. He’s very good at finding that mood.
“Beloved Movie Star” starts with:
My beloved movie star / There’s more than cold cream in your jar
Alexmagic, I think without Moon around to stick a whoopie cushion under his pretentious ass, Towsers felt free to go ahead and crawl right up it.
There have been A LOT of mentions made of movies in Jamaican popular music titles & lyrics since the latter half of the last century (particularly the western & action/crime genres), which I wouldn’t doubt had an influence on The Clash & Don Letts – being as they were such big fans of that music.
Mod, “Sock it to ’em, JB” was a cover of a ’66 Soul/R&B tune by Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers (I’ve got it on a couple of different soul comps). It was a double tribute to James Brown (stylistically) & James Bond (lyrical shout-outs).