I’ve just seen that Whistle Down the Wjnd is being shown on Talking Pictures tonight. I haven’t seen it in years so have no idea how its aged but it always reminds me of this Toto song which took it as lyrical and Video inspiration.
Do any other examples of songs or videos inspired by the movies spring to mind?
Black Sabbath took their name from the Boris Karloff film, and probably the darkness too
Iron Maiden are good at his, so I’ll just give you three for starters.
see also: The Phantom Of The Opera, Aces High and The Lonliness Of The Long Distance Runner.
And … When The Wind Blows
The Duellists, Quest For Fire, To Tame A Land, Murders In The Rue Morgue, Run Silent Run Deep…
(from TV land)
The Prisoner
Wow, they don’t have much inspiration do they? Did they ever do a love song?
Yes, Wasting Love on Fear Of The Dark. Not very good indeed.
Man On The Edge.
A recent visit to Pearl Harbor had several examples of the Japanese attack featuring in popular culture – particularly the film Tora! Tora! Tora!. I looked in vain for any reference to this early Depeche Mode number.
Bruce’s Nebraska is a retelling of ‘Badlands’. Both are accounts of the Starkweather killings in 1958.
Sean Penn later based his movie The Indian Runner, which is a great watch, on Nebraska song Highway Patrolman, but I guess that’s another thread.
Here’s a two for one – Bubba Sparxxx (back when he was good) with the track Deliverance with a video looking like another film; Oh Brother…:
Surely the lodestone of rightness in this thread is Neil Young’s A Man Needs a Maid?
‘In the last verse, Young describes watching a movie and falling in love with the actress. This is an autobiographical reference to Young’s falling in love with actress Carrie Snodgress, who would become the mother of Young’s first son. Young had first become smitten by Snodgress when he saw her acting the part of the role of the titular housewife in the movie Diary of a Mad Housewife.’
On their first album, Big Audio Dynamite offer up Medicine Show, peppered with Spaghetti Western samples, and E=MC², a homage to the film works of Nic Roeg.
As we all know, the answer is always Sparks. The most obvious one is ‘Gone With The Wind’ but I’m sure there must be others.
Sparks appeared as themselves in mid-70s disaster flick Rollercoaster
Sparks, always the answer.
And they did that Ingrid Bergman thing too…a little tenuous maybe.
It was Ingmar Bergman and it seems it was on the verge of being made into a film. Indeed the brothers have been invloved in several film projects that either changed track or never saw the light of day, one of the better know was a collaboration with Jacques Tati on the aborted film Confusion. The song of the same name appeared a couple of years later.
The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman began life as a Swedish radio broadcast
It became a stage performance as part of the Los Angeles Film Festival. Here’s a taste.
The Mael Brothers were also involved in an anime film. Mai the Psychic Girl. They even had Tim Burton onboard but it never came to anything
This interview covers several of their film projects.
A salutary tale.
Crikey @kaisfatdad
Thanks for that. Really good stuff.
And thanks to the other Sparks fans on here too.
…and it looks like there actually will be a Sparks movie quite soon. Mainly live stuff and probably more a documentary than a film but Edgar Wright is a big fan and he’s been directing it.
Fantastic! An Art House only release for sure!
That is exciting news! The Maels are clearly great cinephiles so I am very pleased they are working with a director who can do them justice.
…and one more thing I only learned today (because I’m always a bit behind with twitter at the weekend).
A film, Annette, written by Sparks with new music by Sparks, is currently in production. Starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EA-kO1VVUAE5NtD?format=jpg&name=900×900
Thanks @johnw
One of the more obvious ones is Bruce’s Thunder Road, although Bruce has said it wasn’t the film, which he hadn’t seen, but the poster for the film which he saw outside the cinema.
With respect to the OP, there is Nick Heyward’s song Whistle Down The Wind, though I’m not sure if it takes anything from the film other than its title.
Hi Carl, thanks.
Re: the Nick Heyward song it did spring to mind on Friday but like you wasnt sure whether it went beyond the title. I need to do some more research.
(I said ) what about Breakfast At Tiffany’s?
No thanks, I’m full.
Contains spoilers.
John Cale’s splendid Antartica starts here references Sunset Boulevard, along with other stuff.
Which Lloyd Cole song am I thinking of?
Rattlesnakes.
Bullseye! I have heard that song so many times, but today is the first time I took a look at a film clip. She has something!
Here’s an instrumental by the Church called, er, Film.
Prince referenced It’s A Wonderful Life in latter-day gem All The Midnights In The World (from Planet Earth).
Northampton’s finest were inspired to write this classic after viewing a Bela Lugosi horror flick.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=skXn7jhXc5w
The 11 minute epic Brownsville Girl off the otherwise ordinary Knocked Out Loaded album obliquely references The Gunfighter starring Gregory Peck.
The Cleaners From Venus with their wonderful tribute to the silent film star Clara Bow.
Bob Dylan/Sam Shepard co-write, inspired by the Gregory Peck movie “The Gunfighter”
Bob Dylan – Brownsville Girl from Not Dark Yet on Vimeo.
Jackie Leven and his dalliances with Joan and Tilda…. oh and Patsy as well
Same song but a more entertaining ‘film’
“She looked like Eva Marie Saint in ‘On the Waterfront”‘.
Just spotted KFD’s post above… 🙁
Thanks for the responses folks I’m working my way through the links. Who knew that Iron Maiden had so many.
As an addendum and straying into TV rather than film I’ve managed to find this example which condenses the first season of Stranger Things into a song albeit with an unofficial video.
https://youtu.be/KbXW2h9M6Qg
This one is LITERELLY about films and comes from the album of the same name.