Pick a Bio, Any Biopic

A while back, I wrote about songs that were based on literature, poetry, or anything involving the printed word. If you're interested, the article is here. I intend to talk about music inspired by movies one of these days, though that's a huge topic to tackle. Another time. 

But I do like this cross-pollination of the arts. Today I'd like to rattle on a bit about movies about musicians. Real life musicians, too, since there are many flicks about fictitious bands and singers... like Spinal Tap, The Soggy Bottom Boys (in O Brother, Where Art Thou), School of Rock, Wyld Stallyons (the Bill and Ted movies), Stillwater (Almost Famous).... okay, this looks like something for another article. More on that later.

I believe the first biopic I ever saw was Amadeus, back in '84, in a beautiful old theatre in downtown Toronto. Mozart was a musician who goes waaay back in time. The latter half of the 1700's, in fact. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, affectionately nicknamed Wolfie by his adoring wife in the film, is a sort of dark clown. Given to giddy excess with booze and sex, Tom Hulce plays a Mozart who is driven and passionate about his music. The movie shows us Wolfgang as a child prodigy, composing his first piece and performing before royalty at just age five. As an adult, he became wilder and more reckless, achieving great fame and yet never reaping the financial rewards due to him. A sad story, really, at least the way it is depicted in the movie. A classic movie about a classical genius.

The Lizard King sheds his skin... and travels through time

When The Doors movie hit theatres in '91, my entourage and I lapped it up. Val Kilmer nailed the role of charismatic Doors frontman Jim Morrison, at once dynamic and self-destructive. Kilmer even carried off the singing with great success. The story of the band's inception and career is largely fictionalized here, but the essence of the turbulent late 60's drops us right into that seething pit of rock'n'roll excess. And the music is excellent, of course, renewing my interest in The Doors at the time. 

The 2005 movie Walk the Line chronicled the rise of country superstar Johnny Cash. Joaquin Phoenix played Cash with terrifying intensity, helping us understand the dark past that created the Man in Black. Reese Witherspoon made heads turn with her acting and singing chops as Cash's wife June. I'd never been a country music listener before this flick came along, but that changed a little bit afterward. Walk the Line exposed me to a lot of amazing music, and from there I tentatively tried out the odd other C&W artist... the oldies, none of this "New Country" fluff. 

I seem to recall watching at least a bit of Sid and Nancy on video rental in a friend's dingy living-room when we were hanging out, sipping cold ones, one muggy summer evening back in '86. The thing was, I was never much interested in punk music. It would be a few more years before I'd even care enough to buy that Pistols' album Never Mind the Bollocks. And I rarely listened to that. So. The movie depicted with gritty realism the drug-addled young couple Sid (played by Gary Oldman) and Nancy and their troubled lives. This sort of thing did not appeal to me at the time. Never would, actually. Oh well.

Bird was a fascinating biopic, relating the story of famed, though suffering, jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. It wasn't until about twenty years after the movie's release (1988)  that I finally got around to it. By this time, I'd actually developed an appreciation for jazz. This Clint Eastwood-directed picture delivered the goods, and then some. Forest Whitaker brought the "character" of Parker - known to all as "Bird" - to vivid life, revealing to us the personal pain of the genius musician. 

My little Beethoven statuette alongside the immortal

recordings of the Ninth Symphony by Von Karajan

I had high hopes for Immortal Beloved, having been a long-time admirer of the music of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. But the '94 movie was a bit of a let-down. The glorious symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and so on were there, but the focus was mostly on the mystery woman to whom Ludwig wrote a love letter. I wanted more Beethoven biography (even if it's slightly fictionalized) and less theorizing about this so-called secret amour. Gary Oldman (again!) can be a great actor, but he does have a habit of chewing up the scenery, and I didn't like how that translated to his portrayal of Beethoven.

Daydream Believers was a TV movie that first aired back in 2000. Well, it was about time! I'd loved The Monkees ever since I was a young lad, watching their wacky TV show and spinning their records at every opportunity. Of course, the film delved deeply into the issue of these guys who didn't even play their own instruments. Well, we know better, don't we? It almost hurt to see the friction within the band, whether it was really that bad or not, and yet the bond that existed between the members seemed genuine enough. The actors' likenesses to the real Monkees couldn't have been much better - great casting! Other key people in the entertainment biz were woven into the story, like The Beatles, Hendrix, and Jack Nicholson, adding more fun to the mix. Pretty good overall.

There are plenty more biopics out there, and there is some consensus on which ones are the best. Most of the films I already talked about are among them, and here are a few others, all of which I've seen, but so long ago that I haven't enough recollection to comment on them now. Or I just didn't care for them all that much. 

The Buddy Holly Story - 1978
Backbeat (The Beatles) - 1994
Ray (Ray Charles) - 2004
The Runaways - 2010
La Bamba (Richie Valens) - 1987
Great Balls of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis) -  1989
Coal Miner's Daughter (Loretta Lynn) - 1980

R.I.P. Nick Menza

Drummer Nick Menza passed away on May 21st. 

Rust in Peace (1990) was, in my opinion, Nick Menza's finest hour with thrash band Megadeth. That album stands among the best metal albums of all time, showcasing the supreme talents of a quartet of individuals who were highly creative and gave it everything they had to produce energizing music for the world to enjoy for generations to come. 

Nick Menza played drums for Megadeth for most of the 90's. His style could be described as athletic. Powerful, driving, relentless, heavy. I missed seeing Menza play live, but judging from albums and concert videos I've watched, I'd say the man was a machine... no, more than a machine. A cyborg? His pummeling musical presence in studio and onstage definitely laid a rock solid foundation for the band's blistering and frenetic guitars and vocals. 

Menza drove the time-keeping engine on three subsequent Megadeth albums, all considered among the band's best efforts (maybe not so much with Cryptic Writings). He moved on from the band to work on other projects, some of which were interrupted by medical issues (including a near miss... almost losing an arm to a power saw). 

Nick, the son of jazz musician Don Menza, became involved in that same genre in recent years. In fact, it was during a gig on Saturday that he collapsed. Way to go... right to the end.

Rest in peace, Nick. 

Humanoid Hardware

I was just watching, for the first time in many years, that 1999 music video by Iceland's queen of weird, Bjork... All is Full of Love. I've never been very interested in Bjork's music, but her videos certainly are unusual and intriguing. The All is Full of Love video shows us two highly realistic female-shaped robots, one first undergoing a tune-up, then they break into song. Finally, the two of them sort of get entangled, kissing and caressing. Yep, strange - yet hypnotic. 

Bjork's music video precursor to Ava the A.I. in the

film Ex Machina

And that got me to thinking of songs about robots (though the Bjork song wasn't explicitly about robots; the video was). I couldn't think of all that many at first, but after I scanned my music collection, I began to get more ideas. There are innumerable Top 10's online, but I didn't want to pad my own list with entries I wasn't even familiar with. Anyway, the stuff that readily came to mind (a few needed a memory jump-start with a quick web search) are:

Robot Girl, by Was (Not Was)
Mr. Roboto, by Styx
Slaughter in Robot Village, by FM
Are Friends Electric, by Tubeway Army (featuring Gary Numan)
The Body Electric, by Rush
Robot Parade, by They Might Be Giants
Robot Rock, by Daft Punk
The Robots, by Kraftwerk
Iron Man, by Black Sabbath
Psychotron, by Megadeth
I Robot, by Alan Parsons Project

I remember a friend playing the Robot Girl song for me back in the late 80's, and I ended up getting that particular Was (Not Was) album... which is still in my collection, but I haven't listened to it in many years. A silly little ditty, really.

Mr. Roboto is a classic Styx tune, not exactly one of my favourites, but still pretty memorable and fun with lyrics that sound like they were made in Japan. 

Few people will know the band FM, let alone their song Slaughter in Robot Village. A Canadian act most active during the 70's and 80's, FM were cutting edge progressive rock. Their Black Noise album made the biggest statement with its futuristic jazz-rock fusion... with NO guitars. Slaughter in Robot Village is all instrumental, yet by pushing the boundaries of the art form, the band tells a compelling and frightening story through electronic music alone. 

Daft Punk robot rawks out

Are Friends Electric is one of those early synth classics that never goes out of style. Gary Numan often sang about futuristic concepts, and the accompanying music always supported the subject matter perfectly. Pop techno, sort of. 

The Body Electric was one of the cooler songs off the dystopian-themed Rush album, Grace Under Pressure. The plot parallels that of the runaway chased by android police in THX-1138, an early George Lucas film. And the song borrows its title from a Ray Bradbury short story. Quite cool prog rock for the thinking man (and woman). 

Robot Rock was written and performed by the droid-ish duo Daft Punk. The song itself is instrumental and there are no lyrical references to androids or anything of the kind, but the title alone says it all. It's electric music, guitars and synths raging up a storm. And the video will blow your face off... it's performed by the band in shiny new robot suits. 

The Robots, by electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk, was a vague memory for me, but a glance on Youtube brought it all back. Very mechanized-looking German men plinking on their odd little electro instruments. Very minimalist - some might say primitive music, but paired with the kind of creepy visuals, it's a full-on Kraftwerk experience. 

Iron Man. Need I say more? Well, maybe a lot of people, even the ones who've heard this song a zillion times, never really thought about the meaning of the words they were drunkenly singing along with. It's possible that the song is technically about a cyborg, a human with robotic parts or vice versa. Those heavy boots of lead may just be footwear for that poor dude who passed through the great magnetic field,though we learn in the song that he was turned to steel. So I think it's safe to say that man who traveled time was transformed into something inhuman - mechanoid even, returning to smash planet Earth. Yay!

Megadeth's latest album cover shows a creepy

futuristic version of band mascot Vic Rattlehead

Psychotron is among my fave Megadeth tracks, lyrically rivaling the story of Iron Man. Seemingly part flesh and part bionics, yet not a cyborg we are told, our dear Psychotron is a killing machine programmed to act as a RoboCop or Universal Soldier in our dystopian future. The instrumentation mimics machinery in an Industrial Music sort of way. Very effective in creating a scary sci-fi atmosphere. 

And finally, of course, there is I Robot, by none other than science fiction rockers Alan Parsons Project. Maybe less rock and more progressive pop, the song is equal parts funky groove and 70's synthesizers. An odd mix sometimes, but Parson made it work, achieving both artistic and commercial success. I Robot, the song, is both futuristic and rooted in Earth-y soulfulness. 

It seems the idea of Terminators and Chappies (the movie extremes of evil and good robots) is sort of popular in songs of the rock genre. Metal and progressive bands are more likely to approach the topic of humanoid hardware, though we've heard some playful and friendly depictions in pop, too. 

Release the droids....

A Disturbance in the Force

Now that May the Fourth (Be With You) has passed, we have another Star Wars date to celebrate. Today is the 72nd birthday of one George Lucas, the man who invented that whole cinematic universe of Wookiees and Ewoks, droids and TIE fighters, a variety of Deathstars, and daring heroes and menacing villains. 

The space fantasy genre was turned on its ear and cleverly recharged by Lucas with his 1977 film Star Wars (by the way, the "A New Hope" addition to the title was tagged on a little later). I was already a big sci-fi and fantasy fan at the time, so I'd been following the pre-production news of Star Wars in Starlog Magazine prior to its world theatrical premiere. I was definitely in the loop and eager to see this epic.

Obi-Wan and Serpico... er, a young George Lucas

Episode IV: A New Hope quickly won over audiences (and me) and box-office records, sending Star Was enthusiasts on a life-long memorabilia-collecting frenzy. I bought a number of Star Wars books and collectibles back in the 70's and have kept them in pristine condition to this day. I still like to browse the very first Star Wars Sketchbook from time to time. The Star Wars Blueprints weren't of much use in my quest to build an X-wing fighter in my bedroom, though. Take a peek through earlier posts for more photos and details about my vintage goodies.

Today, with the brand new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens sending fans old and new into delirious ecstasy, it's hard to believe that Lucas's little "low-budget" flick from '77 had started this whole thing. Three sequels (including The Force Awakens) and three prequels later, we've gotten more mileage out of the franchise than we ever imagined. Oh, and let's not forget the TV specials and cartoons. And the multitude of spin-off books that die-hard fans know inside and out, basking daily in the extended Star Wars universe. 

The Phantom Menace - a limited edition that nobody wants?

I don't think I qualify as a Star Wars fanatic any longer. Back in the 70's, yes, I owned a SW bedsheet set and blanket, a t-shirt, posters hot off the press, the board game, the original soundtrack on LP record (plus a few goofy spin-offs on vinyl), wall calendars, movie stills, and books and magazines both fiction and non-fiction... all based on that little "Episode IV" (which we read with curiosity in the opening crawl of the movie). I was a bit too old for the toys, so I never bought any. 

Once Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi became part of the phenomenon, I settled down and simply enjoyed the movies on video rental. I did not collect anything more besides the music soundtracks and the odd poster. Into the 90's, I began buying the various versions of the films on home video, first on VHS and later on DVD. Other than that, just a few little trinkets are scattered around my home... like the R2-D2 and BB-8 miniatures on my computer desk, my Millennium Falcon bottle opener, my set of drinking glasses (the stormtrooper is my fave), an R2 Pez dispenser, a Rebel Alliance t-shirt, and so on. 

My vintage 70's wall calendars... for scheduling my days

right down to the nearest "parsec" (as Han would say)

And I have old George to thank for all these decades of space fantasy entertainment. Most of us fans can admit that Lucas flubbed on those prequels, but there were still things to like about those movies. Jar Jar Binks did his Gungan best to ruin The Phantom Menace, as did the dull and flacid acting of young Anakin, but Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul sort of evened things out for me... as did a delightful young Queen Amidala and the always lovable droids. 

At least after Disney bought the rights to Star Wars from Lucas, we felt a new hope. J.J. Abrams applied his directorial gifts to the new project, and knocked our collective socks off with The Force Awakens. This entry is a nice celebration of the old while introducing the new cast who would carry the torch (or in this case - lightsaber) into the future franchise films. 

My cute BB-8 miniature scans for dust bunnies 

I trust  the Disney-controlled Star Wars movies will all measure up reasonably well. The Force Awakens set the bar a bit high, I think. Mind you, more creative ideas and stories can now appear in the series and standalones. The observation that TFA storyline follows very closely that of A New Hope is understandable, though not a major criticism from my point of view. The SW franchise needed to sort of win back old fans who felt let down by the prequels. The Force Awakens assured us that a strong, likable cast of actors was taking the reins and that the films ahead would carry on with the same vision and tone of the original trilogy. Well, we'll see, won't we?

Band Brands

I just finished reading on Blabbermouth a bit about Motörhead's line of alcoholic beverages on the market. And I was struck by just how good the band's logo looks on bottles! The enterprising rockers certainly liked their drinks, so they were qualified enough to embark on this venture in the booze biz. Wine, beer, whiskey, vodka, and a new cider are part of the repertoire. But check out that snazzy label:

Booze labels aside, what are some other great and famous band logos? I can name a number of my own favourites: Cheap Trick, Van Halen, Metallica (and maybe the similar Megadeth logo), Kiss, Yes, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, Lamb of God, and even Anvil. These are all successful compositions of lettering, often turned into a graphic symbol in some respect. 

And of course, Motörhead. The band's word logo alone is very tough and "metal" in appearance, with its Germanic font and use of the umlaut over the second "O" (for no good reason... it just looks good). But pair that with the Snaggletooth head (the band's mascot), and you've got one mean lookin' image. I'm not even that big a Motörhead fan, but if someone gave me one of their t-shirts, I'd wear it just for the awesome graphics.

Kiss has perhaps the most famous logo in the history of rock'n'roll. The clean, simple stylized graphic relays the message instantly. The word "kiss" already pops the obvious thoughts into one's head. But add that bold, chunky, almost Nazi-ish "SS" and you've got something a little nastier, and heavier. And controversial, at least back in the 70's. Knights In Satan's Service. Sheesh....

My personal favourite is the repeated smudged typewriter text used by Cheap Trick from their first album onward. The band parlayed that image into distinctive and fun-looking shirts and buttons and other merchandise. My tee....

Van Halen's debut album sported a sleek and colourful VH logo that appeared on most of their album covers in one form or another. That first design incorporated the band's full name into the big VH symbol, but after that, the band dropped the written name and opted for a leaner, more streamlined symbol. Still very cool.

Metallica and Iron Maiden used workmarks that were probably among the most copied in the business... and maybe even outside the music industry. The sharp, jagged parts of Metallica's image implied the vicious and dangerous music, while the chunky remainder of the word gave the feel of power and heaviness. I've seen so many versions (some comical) of Metallica's logo that it's ridiculous.

Iron Maiden, too, emblazoned their recordings with a bold and stylized font that was imitated or altered slightly for the purposes of other artists. For some reason, I keep thinking that an 80's UK metal band Brighton Rock had a similar-looking logo. Am I right? Or maybe I'm thinking of somebody else. Anyway, that Maiden lettering style is all over the place now.

The Misfits, The Strokes, Venom, Run DMC, Nine Inch Nails, Whitesnake (with the snake head), maybe Electric Light Orchestra, and The Who... all have well-designed logos, even if not quite among my faves. 

Rush, Black Sabbath, and Pink Floyd all used a new name font or graphic on nearly every album they made. Rush especially had a number of eye-catching logos. I particularly liked the big bold word logo on the first Rush album, and the scrawled cursive on the Hemispheres album had a neat look to it. I've also got a thing for the blotchy ink look on the Signals record, and even the slightly medieval font on A Farewell to Kings. And of course, Rush's famous "man in the star" image works beautifully as a standalone or in combination with any of the many Rush word logos. Take a peek at some examples in my pin, button, and patch collection here. 

Same story with Sabbath. Ozzy and the boys did strike gold with their Master of Reality cover art, though. That bold wavy lettering has become the sort of unofficial band logo, and that's just as well, since it is probably the best of the bunch anyway. 

Pink Floyd was exactly the same, with something different on every album, but their loose, sketchy logo from The Wall remains to this day the band's brand.

I don't care for some of the artwork that either accompanies the band name logo or stands on its own... like that dead-eyed smiley face variation I see on Nirvana t-shirts. No, that one doesn't do it for me. And I find the G'n"R yellow life-preserver (as I like to call it) kind of attractive but at the same time a bit too busy, and perhaps not representative enough of the band. It should feel meaner... like get that yellow ring out of there, and maybe lose that too literal an image of the guns and roses. Not very inspired. 

Led Zeppelin used a different word logo on every album they released. Early on, there was the balloon-y word logo, but then on their fourth album (untitled, but nicknamed either IV or Zoso), inspiration struck the art director. The Zeppelin logo here became the best known and most representative of the band. The lettering evoked the feel of the Tolkien fantasy script we saw in his Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books, upon which some of IV's songs were loosely based. The album's and its logo's four accompanying symbols representing each member of the band were and still are hugely popular. Oh, and I can't forget the winged man of the Swan Song album label. All of these images are closely linked to each other and to the band... and their mystique. All beautifully designed. 

The Aerosmith word design alone is groovy and very 70's, but it looks even better with the flight wings attached, like a proper emblem . That's a nicely constructed graphic, though in some incarnations, the name itself is hard to read. Still....

The Queen logo, while very simple, elegant, and fairly effective, is rather plain compared to most band logos. Their elaborate "royal" crest depicting a bird and lions surrounding a crown looks pretty enough and means something when linked to the word logo, but it seems a bit crowded or overly complex with so much going on there. 

There are different sorts of logos: word logos, where quite simply, it is the band name and nothing more; image logos, which consist of a graphic, a drawing of some sort, like the popular Rolling Stones' "lips" picture; and then there is the combination of word and picture art, which can create a potentially busy logo, but they can work very nicely, too. For example, The Misfits' combo logo consisting of their name and their Crimson Ghost face look terrific together; the Ghost face alone looks pretty cool, too. 

I've also always liked the Public Enemy word and graphic pairing... the militant feel of the lettering plus the sniper rifle cross-hairs really get the message across... "in full effect."

The spidery lettering used (over-used, really) by nearly every extreme metal band is unreadable in most cases, and to that I say, "What's the point then?" Too bad they weren't more imaginative in that department. 

The Doors, Def Leppard, Nirvana, The Beatles, Scorpions, Anthrax, Slayer, and Deadmau5.... all of their logos are very distinctive and easily recognizable, but are not necessarily great designs in their own right. They're fine, but nothing amazing. The simplicity of some of them, like The Beatles or Deadmau5, (without the mouse head image) works in their favour... a memorable stamp, at the very least. 

Mind you, the rather plain Deadmau5 word logo comes alive with the additional of one of the many mouse head symbols that appear on album covers. Again, simplicity is often the best solution.