I was doing the ironing at 6.00 am first morning, prior to the school run. when, for no particular reason, i started to sing Virginia Plain. Roxy Music’s first single is a perennial favourite, so why not?
Bryan was certainly firing on all cylinders with his cinematic references in the lyrics. Flying down to Rio, Whatever happened to Baby Jane and Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show from 1971. Who remembers that fine film today? (It featured a young Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges and was rather good).
Anyway, I would like to hear about any other songs which refer to movies. Interpret that as broadly as you like. It might be name dropping of a film title or could be something more obscure.
I’m nabbing Shades of Scarlet Conquering. What a magnificently complex song.
Here’s a lovely demo version.
Another early Roxy song, 2HB. Here’s looking at you, kid…
A lovely little gem of a song (no, not about lettuce) on the underrated late-period Prince album Planet Earth, the song “All The Midnights In The World” has lyrics referencing Zuzu’s petals and It’s A Wonderful Life.
Referencing the same movie, from their great (half) Christmas album, Smith & Burrows:
Re above:
Whatever happened to the fuckin’ Duke of Earl?
I’m not much of a film buff so the references don’t stick in my mind easily, but Frank Zappa’s track “Cheepnis” from the Roxy & Elsewhere album mercilessly lampoons the trash sci-fi and horror movies of the ’50s and ’60s.
What he said. My first thought too!
Come to think of it, if we extend the subject matter to ’80s American Rock Music videos..
Not heard that Prince song so hear it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLbtKtv2Asw
To my shame, I had to google Zuzu (I thought it was a Japanese triffid or something!)
No! It is Zuzu Bailey, James Stewarts daughter in Its a wonderful life whose rose symbolises family values.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0342216/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
That was interesting!
That collage of cheapo monster flicks is brilliant. Nice little song too. I share Franks love for those tacky 50s horror movies,
Now, by contrast, the very cinematic Life on Mars which is a song that has inspired films and TV shows. Not too many songs have given their name and ambience to a whole series.
Here is Jessica Lange doing it Carney style from the American Horror Story: Freak Show series.
The one that immediately springs to mind is E=MC2 by Big Audio Dynamite – basically a trawl through the filmography to that point of the (recently) late Nic Roeg – Walkabout, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Don’t Look Now, Insignificance, Eureka, with Performance sampled throughout. The fact that it’s a cracking tune as well (maybe my favourite Mick Jones record) is a bonus.
Cracking choice KDH. Great tune and I love their use of samples from the films.
And now something a little earlier. Arthur Penn’s film was released in 1967. In 1968 Gainsbourg and Bardot came up with their take on the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
Memorably sampled by M C Solaar in the stupendous Nouveau Western.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSG2qHBm7WM
which is also crammed with movie references
https://youtu.be/7l4L6HW5mQE
Given the same name, I always assumed some nudge between the film of the same name and the song.
Pretty sure the film was the inspiration for the song.
The Divine Comedy: Alfie
More Neil Hannon, on the joys of European cinema:
Time for a real treat: the final song from Paris 1919. John Cale’s tribute to Sunset Boulevard.
Mysterious, suggestive: a superb piece of song-writing.
I can’t see the released version of Brownsville Girl of YouTube, but that’s all to the good as I had never heard this alternative take before. Wouldn’t we all watch Gregory Peck in anything?
https://youtu.be/8cNAfeZ9RTM
Yes that was my first thought too. I hadn’t seen The Gunfighter when Brownsville Girl came out, but when I did I was grateful to Bob for the tip – it’s astonishing.
Dylan is a fine storyteller and his songs often have a very cinematic quality.
Nevertheless, I was surprised to hear the director of Call me by your name and the Suspiria re-make, Luca Guadagnino, is turning Blood on the tracks into a film!
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/16/blood-on-the-tracks-film-luca-guadagnino-bob-dylan
This could end in tears.
It must help that Brownsville Girl was a co-write with playwright Sam Shephard. I dare say that if I dared brave the pages of Expecting Rain I could find a detailed breakdown of how much input each man had, but much as I love the song I’m not that committed.
Lloyd Cole and The Commotions….Lloyd’s never been shy of a name drop
I’m sure there’s a Burial track where the drums are samples of pulse rifles firing from Aliens, but I can’t remember which one it is (perhaps @leicester-bangs might know?)
Children Of The Damned
Not a band consisting of the offspring of Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible et al, but a 1960s sci-fi horror thing, AND an Iron Maiden track (with a very fine acoustic-ish introduction)
Remember it well. Largely because it was an X film and I was far too young.
One of Sam Peckinpah’s finest and the first major label outing for Stiff Little Fingers – Straw Dogs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RD8sIreqe4
Trivia note: the blurred figure walking past the butchers shop is SLF drummer Jim Reilly (who was going out with Siobhan Bananarama Fahey at the time)
Both obscure (certainly here) and extremely specific…and it’s all in the first lines of the song. Swedish indie king Markus Krunegård describes a scene from the film “Himlen är oskyldigt blå” where Bill Skarsgård is getting a BJ (now he’s more known as Pennywise the clown, but back then apparently for this scene…).
Not only does the song mention Pennywise’s todger, it also name checks the Harvest Home pub on Söder which DuCool and I are rather enthusiastic about.
http://www.lyricsreg.com/lyrics/markus+krunegård/Under+Broarna+i+Skanstull/
Weird Al Yankovic’s homage to all thing Stars-y and Wars-y
and another one:
Al Stewart’s Year Of The Cat mentions actors Humphrey Bogart and Peter awrie
More actors and actresses mentioned in Kinks – Celluloid Heroes
Mr Bogdanovich’s other claim to fame is that he was Dr Melfi’s therapist in The Sopranos
Dylan’s Tempest certainly draws heavily on the film Titanic as a lyrical aid
The Manchurian Candidate
Thanks! This band were completely unknown to me, Great, very moreish tune.
I’ve forgotten to mention the bleeding obvious: Elton’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Here’s Aussie songstress Sarah Blasko doing an unadorned version which brings out the best of the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOJg38pudHg
Who knows? Perhaps my fellow Pinner cinephile, Mr John and I at some point attended the ABC Pinner (now a Morrisson’s supermarket) at the same time?
The Wizard of Oz certainly has made cultural waves.
The Hold the Line Hitmaker Toto.
Spanish folk metal band Mago de Oz,
And last but not least, gay slang, namely “friend of Dorothy”.
According to Wikipedia, Baum’s original books about Oz had several LGBT-friendly plot lines.
And what of the audio-visual link between Wizard Of Oz and Dark Side Of The Moon?
Coincidental bunkum?
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-floyd-dark-side-wizard-of-oz/
Definitely bunkum, Rigid, but fascinating and highly enjoyable bunkum.
I enjoyed NIck Mason’s comment that it was all based on the Sound of Music
From the same album…
Didn’t he and Bernie Taupin write a song about Marilyn Monroe?
No. I think you got your facts wrong there, Tigs. But they did write one about Princess Diana.
You’re both wrong. It was about Guy the Gorilla.
Breakfast At Tiffanys
(don’t care much for the song though, so I’m not going to post it)
One of the great melodies and wonderful chords. Here..
😉
This is a great track and album…
Referencing Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon?
Just reading that on my Kindle, as it happens.
Referencing both Alien / Aliens and “that movie about Vampires”
John Grant – Sigourney Weaver
I do love that John Grant song!
And what a cornucopia of very varied gems you are finding. Thanks!
Up next, The Drifters, who I suspect did not consult IMDB before booking their cinema tickets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB08hqjJnPo
The Everly Brothers were not too good at choosing movies. The movie had little plot and the lovebirds fell asleep.
1957? I’ll bet good money that they went to see The Seventh Seal. Bergman at the drive in is never a good bet.
Just stumbled across this,,,,,
Bill and Ted: God (or the deity of your choice) gave rock and roll to them.
Those two films straddle the line of being a bit rubbish but eminently watchable at the same time
The first one is a joy, one of those films guaranteed to kept me entertained when I’m feeling down.
From what I remember they were rather fun in their geeky way.
Some songwriters are serious fanboys. Like Sparks, who did a whole album: The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman.
And my perennial favourite Caetano Veloso is also a fanboy.
A gorgeous song about Antonioni
And a whole album in hommage to Fellini and Giulietta Masina.
No songs yet about silent films or German cinema. Any suggestions, Fatima_
@kaisfatdad
Never got round to listening to that Sparks album…I’d heard it was a bit different to the ones that preceded it.
It is definitely a bit different, as this review explains @Freddy Steady. (I have only dabbled as regards listening to it)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/pgfd/
I was fascinated to read it had been performed live in LA.
https://www.laweekly.com/music/live-review-sparks-the-seduction-of-ingmar-bergman-2399900
Well there’s this, which you’ll know. Swoons optional.
It would be madness to neglect this. The sample of the Alfie-Hitmaker’s voice was specially recorded by the great man at the request of his daughter.
I am of course making a playlist of all the songs we mention.
I’ll see your Michael Caine and raise you Robert DeNiro
Here’s one for your list, kfd – don’t know how it did elsewhere, but in Australia it was a hit in Adelaide only. Like Gainsbourg and Bardot’s Bonnie and Clyde, it wasn’t officially connected to the film, but no worse for it.
And for a while Terry Britten of The Twilights was penning tunes that took the titles (but nothing else) of then-current films. There was this…
and this…
Later he wrote major hits for the likes of Cliff and Tina Turner.
There is a whole sub genre there, Sniffity. Songs with the same name and subject matter as a film but which do not appear in the film.
Add this one, then – Georgie Fame’s take on Bonnie and Clyde.
That was a pretty shameless bit of Bandwagon hopping by Georgie, @Sniffity. But it paid off in spades. Number One in the UK charts (for a week) and a Top Ten hit in the USA.
Just been reading about thse other bandwagoneers, the Twilights. Clearly they were enormous in Oz but unknown in the UK, as far as I know. That Cathy Come Home song has no relation to the film at all! I doubt that you could get away with riding on the coattails of someone else’s success in that way today.
10cc – Somewhere In Hollywood
A band who call their album The Original Soundtrack clearly are cinephiles. !0 cc manage to cram in quite a few film references in The Film of our Love. It is a marvellous parody of the kind song sung by crooners in restaurants favoured by Goodfellas.
Not my favourite film genre but westerns have their followers.
I thought the line ‘Baby Jane’s in Acapulco’ was a reference to Warhol’s Baby Jane Holzer (there’s a reference to her again in the penultimate line), not Whatever Happened To ….
Thanks for putting me right on that, Marjory. That sounds far more likely.
The Ramones Pinhead intro “Gabba Gabba We Accept You” is taken from the 1932 film Freaks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT_2K4ddG7g
A line from Guns Of Brixton is “At the end of The Harder They Come”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqcizZebcaU
And Red Angel Dragnet references and misquotes Taxi Driver:
Did anyone prophesize these people?
Only Travis
Come in, Travis
“All the animals come out at night,
Queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal.
Some day a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets”
Well remembered Alias. I had never seen that scene until just now.
You should check out the film, KFD. For a film made in 1932 it’s pretty astounding. Whole film is on youtube:
Let’s not forget the backroom boys and girls…..
Not forgetting the Bonzo’s The Sound of Music.
Couple for you. MSP – Black Dog on My Shoulder (in my top 5 of theirs) – “Like Carlito’s Way there is no exit sign.”
And Debaser by the Pixies, which references Un Chien Andelou by Louis Bunuel (which I’m unlikely ever to watch, but it’s a hell of a record).
Sean Penn’s film The Indian Runner is based on the Bruce Springsteen song Highway Patrolman, from Nebraska. While that album’s title track was inspired by Terence Malick’s film Badlands.
The Passions are not specific about which German film star…perhaps Klaus Kinski?
Oops, sorry (above).
Jack Bruce – Theme For An Imaginary Western
.
And now let’s go full-on Hollywood Musical..
Western actors can get some unusual songs written about them by the most unexpected of artists.
Haysi Fantayzee
The Gorillaz
I just did some research about what Haysi were singing. Perhaps not so appropriate for kids TV after all.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Is_Big_Leggy
AW favourites (alright, mine and @deviant808 favourites) Jets To Brazil took their name from a poster visible in Breakfast At Tiffany’s.
I didn’t actually realise that at the time, and did a massive comedy double-take on spotting the poster when watching the film several years later.
In Steely Dan’s “Haitian Divorce” there’s a slyly-used reference to clichéd movie techniques.
At the Grotto
In the greasy chair
Sits the Charlie with the lotion and the kinky hair
When she smiled, she said it all.
The band was hot so
They danced the famous Merengue
Now we dolly back
Now we fade to black
God the Dan were brilliant.
Nice one, Mike. That was very classy. I suspect the Dan were both avid cinephiles.
On the subject of the silver screen, here is a song by Dory Previn about the Hollywood Sign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofhaKy7DJGw
Steely Dan were such cinephiles, they once sang a song about a man who created a movie theatre in his own house. Or, so it seemed.
Everyone’s Gone To The Movies
I was thinking of posting that one but went for the least sleazy movie-related option in their canon.
It’s quite possible that their song “Peg” is about someone starting out as a performer in somewhat adult-oriented productions.
It’s a very pretty tune, though.
That was an interesting comment by Gary about a Springsteen songs generating a movie and vice versa.
Some songs are a movie just waiting to be made.
Such as……
Big Shot
I married a monster from outer space ( which was the name of an actual movie).
Gary Gilmore’s Eyes
Let me add this nugget
and indeed this “biscuit”
James Cagney and Rita Hayworth pop up in this Tom Waits masterpiece.
https://youtu.be/CELo-AmUKiU
Whaddya mean you’ve never seen Blade Runner?
Thanks Colrow! That was a treat. Very different from previous monkey business but nothing wrong with that.
And now a leftover. A Spanish song about the cinema by Luis Eduardo Aute who is a great favourite of mine, even though I don’t understand much of what he is singing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wGz7uTlZMM