Sorry about all the movie references... - justin_guber

Sorry about all the movie references...

...but I'm on a roll, here. Whilst surfing Amazon I found a couple of cool lists of music based movies. If any of you have ANY of these movies, PLEASE let me know. Preferably on DVD. I've already got 'Ray', 'Almost famous', '24 Hour Party People', 'Spinal Tap' & 'The Doors'. The ones below are a little tougher to come by here since they're not too recent. God, why didn't I think of this when I went down to London...? Most of these I only caught on TV. I wants them!

The Little Richard Story - I caught 3/4's of this on Astro. Sure, it's not the most accurate of biopics, but I love Little Richard's stuff, and watching this was super cool, especially the kick ass ending when Little Richard pops out on stage after he's found Jesus, dressed in his preacher clothes and everyone's booing him, yelling for some rock n' roll. Little Richard faints and falls to the ground, everyone panics, when suddenly... "Wap babaloobop, a-wap bamboo!" he jumps up, rips up his clothes to reveal his glittery suit and breaks into song. Kickass!

Other key moments would be the bit where he writes 'Tutti Frutti', and the moment when he realizes Perry Como is covering his songs in a slow hokey fashion, much to his annoyance. His response? Why, make the songs more 'Little Richard', by singing them wilder and faster than Perry ever could. Dope.

Interesting fact: did you know one of Lil' Richard's guitarists for a while was a young left-handed dude named Jimi? Yup. Even got the bootleg CD to prove it.

Hail, Hail, Rock & Roll - When I went down to London in 2003 I caught this on Channel 4 on my last night there in a hotel. Why this movie isn't available on DVD I have no idea because it is is super-cool. Part a look at Chuck Berry's life, part concert directed by Keith Richards. And that's where the best moments are. Nowhere else are you going to find Chuck Berry and Keith Richards arguing over amp settings and how to bend the opening note of 'Oh, Carol'. Their dynamic practically begs for a comedy series: Chuck is the over meticulous, raging perfectionist whilst Keith is the easy going Brit who won't take no shit, not even from the true king of Rock n' Roll.

That's right. I said true King. Elvis was great, but he wasn't this great.

There's also great interviews with a who's-who of rock n' roll, with appearances by Eric Clapton and even Lennon's son (I think Julian) singing with the great Berry. Sure, Berry comes across as a bit of an asshole at times, but he's Chuck Berry, godammit! He can do what he damn well pleases!

Two Of Us - No, it's not a Will Smith biopic.

Izuwan is the one (hehe, geddit?) who reminded me of this movie, of which I caught only ten minutes on HBO (I think), centering on a fictional meeting between John Lennon and Paul McCartney in New York just before John got shot. I'm intensely curious about this movie. I have heard many good things. Especially about the Lennon actor.

One moment in particular (which I was only told about) features two old biddy's telling John how much they loved one of 'his' songs (I can't remember which), which so happens to have been written by Paul. In not so many words John tells them to fuck off. Brilliance!

Backbeat - What pisses me off is I used to own this on VHS and I have no idea where the fucker is.

I loved this movie when I was in my A level college. This and "That Thing You Do" we're regular movies to watch with my band at the time. This was the first time I'd seen the Beatles as something other than those guys that wrote Strawberry Fields and Yellow Submarine. In this, they were young, brash, trying to make a dream come true, and most importantly, cool as fuck. Especially Lennon. Damn, Lennon's a bad motherfucker.

Sample scene: Lennon's on stage in a tutu, arsing about. Some guy tries to harrass a girl. Lennon jumps off the stage and confronts the German.

"If you wanna fight someone fight me. If you don't wanna fight, sit down, drink your drink and listen to the band. If you don't wanna drink, then fuck off!" says John.
"I cannot fight you, you are wearing a dress," the bulky German promptly replies.

Great Balls of Fire - Another movie I only caught half of on TV, but cool as fuck nonetheless. Dennis Quaid is brilliantly OTT in this movie, although I saw some actual photos and the underaged cousin Jerry Lee Lewis married was nowhere near as hot as Wynona Ryder.

What I remember liking most about this movie were two things:

1. How mad Jerry Lee Lewis was. I thought Kurt breaking guitars was excess, but destroying piano's? Madness!

2. The way they made it seem like if Lewis hadn't married his cousin, the mantle for white boy rock n' roll king would never have gone to Elvis. In fact, the whole Elvis/Lewis thing was a nice touch, regardless of whether or not it's true.

God, he married his 13 year old cousin. Ew...

La Bamba - I can't believe I never saw this movie, especially considering when I was seven this was my favourite song of all time.

Everyone I've talked to says this movie is great and I actually saw it in the DVD store but I was broke. Plus I always thought Lou Diamond Phillips was cool as ice. Even in 'The Big Hit', although more so in 'Young Guns'. Last movie I heard he was in was 'Bats'. That was a while back.

Boy, did that suck.

Apparently Brian Setzer's in the movie too. Sweet! And Los Lobos. Super sweet! Very curious about this, must give it a go.

The Buddy Holly Story - I have heard nothing of this movie. I don't even listen to much Buddy. But I do like rock n' roll, and reading about how this movie was made, with Gary Busey performing the songs live instead of overdubbing it, and reading the rave reviews, I'm intensely curious.

Apparently the movie doesn't even look like a slick biopic, but very real. Have any of you guys seen this movie? Tell me, people, tell me!

And how the fuck is Gary Busey supposed to be Buddy Holly? That's what I'm really curious about.

That Thing You Do - Ok, it's not a great movie, but it sure is fun. More than that, it's a landmark movie for me in terms of personal history.

The first band I was in, 'Crap Budget Tattoo', were a covers band, straight up. We recorded one original track, but for the two (and a half) gigs we played at Concord College, we played covers, and if there was one song we'd always cover, it was "That Thing You Do". I've only got this movie on VCD but I really want a DVD copy.

So, yeah. I'm also curious about Quadrophenia, Ziggy Stardust & Tommy, but we'll save those for another time.

And why is this post in the 'Random Research' section? Hmmm...

3.8.05 07:42

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