Dec 052008
The subject line should be self-explanatory, but in case it’s not clear enough, this rules out lines from Spinal Tap, School of Rock, That Thing You Do, and that movie starring Paul Simon (with Lou Reed!), One-Trick Pony. On the other hand, I can think of killer lines about rock ‘n roll in movies like Repo Man and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, two movies that embrace rock ‘n roll culture but are NOT about rock ‘n roll in any way.
I wish I could find the full rant from Martin Donovan‘s character in Hal Hartley‘s Simple Men, but this brief excerpt give you an idea of what I have in mind to kick things off:
And oh how they danced…
Let’s get this one out of the way. From The Big Lebowski:
“I’ve had a rough night, and I hate the fucking Eagles, man!”
What, I ask you, could be more rock ‘n’ roll than that?
Here’s you a Fast Times one
“…then I’m gonna wing on over to London and jam with the Stones.”
Featuring the great Stu Nahan.
If Fast Times counts here, so does Singles, right?
“Man, where are the anthems of our youth? Where is the `Misty Mountain Hop,’ the `Smoke on the Water,’ the `Iron Man’ of today?”
Singles is pushing it, Oats – isn’t it loaded with characters who are in bands, right? What do you think?
For this group, I would say Shrevie’s line from Diner – “You never ask me what’s on the flip side!” would be appropriate.
Apart from Matt Dillon (who speaks the quoted line), all the band members are peripheral characters. It’s really a romantic comedy; rock is in the background.
Now Almost Famous, that’s a Crowe film that’s definitely ineligible here.
Fair enough, Oats. We’ll let the line and any other lines from the movie stand. Thanks for the refresher.
From Trainspotting (which, yes, I just wrote in the poll):
DIANE: You’re not getting any younger, Mark. The world is changing, music is changing, even drugs are changing. You can’t stay in here all day dreaming about heroin and Ziggy Pop.
RENTON: It’s Iggy Pop.
DIANE: Whatever. I mean, the guy’s dead anyway.
RENTON: Iggy Pop is not dead. He toured last year. Tommy went to see him.
“I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.” – Back to the Future
High Fidelity, anyone? I mean, it’s a love story, but not really about rock n roll…Take anything said by Jack Black in that film.
TB
latelydavid is pushing it with High-Fi.
here’s one from “do the right thing”:
spike lee: who you like more? prince or bruce?
john turtorro: bruce!
spike lee: nah come on, you know it’s prince.
turtorro: nahh…BRUUUUUUUCE (with fist pumping).
“I quote John Lennon, “I don’t believe in The Beatles, I just believe in me.” Good point there. After all, he was the walrus.”
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) – Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick)
C.
“Dammit, man, the Doobie Brothers broke up! Shit! When did that happen?”
Romancing The Stone(1984) – Jack Colton (Michael Douglas)
Ghost World: “Rock & Roll, baby. Freedom of speech.”
And speaking of Romancing the Stone:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/dec/04/romancing-the-stone-remake
as eddy grant would say: “good god!”
There’s that speech by Peter Fonda from the Roger Corman movie The Wild Angels that was edited and sampled by Primal Scream for their groovy song Loaded:
“Just what is it that you want to do?” [the Man says]
“We wanna be free
We wanna be free to do what we wanna do
And we wanna get loaded
And we wanna have a good time
That’s what we’re gonna do
(Away baby let’s go!)
We’re gonna have a good time
We’re gonna have a party”
The full version of Fonda’s soliloquy can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnGzl-OEyGE
Apparently it was used on some Mudhoney song too. It pretty much epitomizes the rock & roll Weltanschauung.
Sy Richardson’s character in Repo Man, while popping a Bee Gees 8-track into his car’s player: “You like music? You’ll love these guys.”
hate to give you the Nez treatment Mr. Mod, but it’s a Juicy Banannas tape, not the Bee Gees. In the movie, it’s instrumental, but on the soundtrack, Lite(Sy) does a monologue version of the rap he gives Otto.
This is me nerding out.
Rooney(Kevin Dillon)in Heaven Help Us, says to his friends in a movie theater, while watching Blue Hawaii, “What happened to Elvis? They cut his balls off or something.”
Rock on, Kilroy. Pince Nez accepted! How did I mess that up? This confirms my belief that I’m long overdue in revisiting that movie, which I saw about 15 times in the years following its release.
another fast times moment:
damone, while trying to sell some cheap trick tickets to an underclassman:
“come on…who could resist the charm of a robin zander?”
Or what about when they’re sitting in the cafe and a couple of guys are talking when one of them says “so you wanna check out some reggae tonight” and then Enid (Thora Birch) says “see I told you” after saying some other misanthropic thing about how everyone in their town is a loser or something (sorry I’m paraphrasing a lot here; I haven’t seen it in a while). Anyway there’s another line where after she dyes her hair green and sports a black leather jacket, she proclaims that it’s a classic punk look after someone gives her shit for it.
Got any Blue Oyster Cult? 🙂 Anyway that movie is full of musical references ranging from Ozzy to Earth, Wind and Fire to Van Halen. Do the posters in Damone’s room count? I remember the Elvis Costello “Taking Liberties” one and maybe there’s a “Trust” one there, too? Oh yeah, he’s got a Buzzcocks’ A Different Kind of Tension poster, too.
Ernest Borgnine in BASEketball:
“You kids these days with your loud music and your Dan Fogelberg, Zima, hula hoops, and Pac-Man video games”