Have I told you guys how great you look in garnet?
This is to make up for that long post that no one but me could have found interesting. (And I wouldn’t have, either, if it had been about someone else!)
This morning Phillip Bush said something way wrong on Twitter — that cool as it was, the theme from “Mission Impossible” wasn’t Lalo Schifrin’s best. That instead, it was the theme from “Mannix.”
Knowing I could not win an argument with Phillip about music, I tried anyway, saying, essentially, nuh-uh! I also mentioned “Peter Gunn,” to give my case force by mentioning a show that was on before I was old enough to stay up that late.
Obviously, I was doomed.
But then Bryan, whose brain has not been recently damaged by a stroke, said he agreed with me, then quickly changed the subject:
Related: Give me your top five movies that are primarily *about* music.
Nice one, Bryan.
Bryan, Phillip AND our own Doug Ross all offered their lists before I returned, as follows. Doug’s:
La La Land
Whiplash
That Thing You Do
Spinal Tap
Almost Famous— Doug Ross (@TheDouglyTruth) May 4, 2020
Bryan’s:
Amadeus
The Blues Brothers
High-Fidelity
Walk the Line
Sound of Music— Bryan Caskey (@BryanCaskey) May 4, 2020
and Phillip’s:
The Last Waltz
Amadeus
32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
Round Midnight
Shine— Phillip Bush (@PhillipBush) May 4, 2020
No, I don’t know know to separate those. Anyway, I had nothing to add. But I thought Doug’s was the most creative, and immediately endorsed his last three picks, adding two from the other lists:
I want to note that Doug and I are 60 percent in agreement. I borrow from the other two lists to complete mine:
Amadeus
High Fidelity
That Thing You Do
Almost Famous
This is Spinal TapI wish I’d thought of something on my own…
— Brad Warthen (@BradWarthen) May 5, 2020
I think we were all too contemporary. I suspect we did injustice to the music of earlier generations. For instance, were we all wrong to have left out “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” which featured Jimmy Cagney dancing down stairs?
And wouldn’t our grandparents have scorned us for leaving out “The Jazz Singer?”
I dunno. What do y’all think?
James Cagney, dancing down stairs!
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The amazing thing about Doug’s three contributions: They were all about fake bands, but were all awesome!
Of course, Almost Famous cheated by really being about the REAL music of 1973, limiting the fake Stillwater to one fake song.
And with Spinal Tap you were invited to laugh at classics like “Big Bottom” (still thinking “Stonehenge” was awesome WHILE laughing at it).
But “That Thing You Do” made up a band, played ONLY made up music (a whole album’s worth), and still worked. I don’t know how they pulled it off, but they did…
You see what I did? I replaced the “Almost Famous” image with one from “That Thing You Do.” I’m willing to try almost anything to get some comments.
If you liked the other one, here it is…
I’ll bite, as “Yankee Doodle Dandy” is one of my all-time favorite movies. Yes, it belongs on any “best-of” movies about music. Our original song-and-dance man portrayed pretty perfectly by another iconic song-and-dance man. Happy, happy, joy, joy, from start to finish. BTW, Cagney added the tap-dance-down-the-stairs bit during filming. Another reason to love him.
I would add “A Hard Day’s Night” to any best-of list about music. A real live band making music that will endure.
Speaking of enduring, Broadway.com streamed a 90th Birthday tribute to Stephen Sondheim Sunday before last, and it was delightful and moving. Lots of Broadway performers singing his wonderful songs from their basements, kitchens, whatever. His music and lyrics just shine. It’s called “Take Me To The World,” and it’s also on YouTube. Happy, happy, joy, joy, with his pitch-perfect ambivalence. But I effuse.
https://youtu.be/g_QR91Oil2Y.
Don’t know if this will work, as I have never tried to do a link from YouTube before.
A Hard Day’s Night
West Side Story
Woodstock
Stop Making Sense
Coal Miner’s Daughter
I was wondering when Bill would check in on this.
I like your first one and your last one. But I don’t think I’ll change my five…
I wasn’t sure whether concert films counted, there’s enough non-concert footage in Last Waltz to make that count I guess, and then do documentaries count? Actually here’s one that is kind of both documentary but mostly concert film that just devastated me when we saw it at the Nick last summer.
My list goes up to 6…
High Fidelity
Spinal Tap
Blues Brothers
Buddy Holly Story
Get On Up
School of Rock
Some others that are well worth watching if you haven’t seen them before…
Inside Llewyn Davis
Blaze
Crazy Heart
Searching for Sugar Man
Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best
Buddy Holly Story! That’s a great one…
School of Rock is a fun movie.
Absolutely. I wouldn’t consider it for Top Five though, unlike “Buddy Holly Story”…
Saturday Night Fever
Yesterday
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mama Mia 2
Singin’ in the Rain
Every Day I’m Schiffrin
https://unclejohn.bandcamp.com/track/every-day-im-schiffrin
How can nobody have The Commitments on their list?
It’s kind of hard to choose just 5. I am going to steal from other people’s lists:
A Hard Day’s Night
Yesterday
That Thing You Do
Almost Famous
I walk the line
And add
Once
You are so right about the Commitments! One of my favorites.
The amazing thing about that one was, the movie was better than that book. It was impossible, even with Roddy Doyle’s talents, to bring out the full magic of the music via the written word. And the film was amazing…
p s:Control