There's a movie promo for "Zero Dark Thirty" that has a boy choir in the background.
It took me a second more than I'd like to admit to realize they were singing "Nothing Else Matters" by Metalica. Three things popped into my head at the time. First, my buddy Aaron would be very disappointed in how long recognition took me, second, how badly I needed that recording, and third, how movie and TV music would make and good Friday five post.
So here they are, the first five movie/TV songs that popped into my head:
Needle in the Hay - Elliott Smith
This song is playing in The Royal Tenenbaums during Luke Wilson's suicide attempt. The movie was co-written by Owen Wilson who tried to commit suicide in real life, but was unsuccessful. The same of which cannot be said of Elliott Smith who was.
. . . Incidentally, the first concert that Joann and I ever went to was Elliott Smith's last tour.
Suicide is Painless - Mike Altman
This was also playing during a suicide scene in the movie MASH but is best known as the theme song during the opening credits of the TV show. I used to watch this show with my dad all the time and could never figure out why a show about silly people doing silly things would have a theme song about suicide, but then again, the first season had a black character everyone called "Spear Chucker." So mistakes were made.
. . . Incidentally Joann and I met David Ogden Stiers at a theater cast party on our first date.
Hallelujah - Buckley Version
This Leonard Cohen song pops up everywhere (I know cause I just read an entire book about it), but the one I just heard was on The West Wing when Mark Harmon is shot and killed. It's moodily appropriate, but the lyrics "She tied you to her kitchen chair . . ." coincides with Allison Janney crying on a bus stop bench. Mistakes were made.
. . . Incidentally, a few episodes later, a guy named Omar Miller made an appearance as huge football player. Omar also happened to play opposite me in "Hair" which was where Joann and I first met.
Pathetique Sonata - L.V. Beethoven
This was the piece that was played by the girl that Billy Bob Thorton falls in love with in the movie "The Man Who Wasn't There" What makes this remarkable, is that for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why the girl was playing an instrumental version of Billy Joel's "This Night" It never occurred to me that The Joelmeister would appropriate a Beethoven theme and add lyrics. Ludwig was credited on Billy's album, but where do the royalty checks go?
. . . Incidentally, "The Man Who Wasn't There" was filmed in Santa Rosa when I was doing "Hair" for the first time at Santa Rosa College. The production was so lame that I looked for every opportunity I could get to do the show somewhere else. Which I did. A year later. With Omar and Joann.
The Sound of Music - Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge
At the same time as I was performing "Hair" in Santa Rosa, I was also performing as an extra in "The Sound of Music" There were a lot of bad memories of the lameness of that particular performance that when I first heard Ewan belt out those all familiar opening lines, I was ready to walk out of the theater. But I stayed, and held my girl's hand, and we laughed and cried and fell in love instead.
. . . Incidentally, we still do that.
No comments:
Post a Comment