Dazed and Confused (1993) at Twenty

Oct23 by theelderj

[Note: this post was inspired by my brother’s recent post about the music of Dazed and Confused and by the fact that the Professor has not seen this film! Check out my brother’s post and join me in mocking our editor, host and master.]

Man, it’s the same bullshit they tried to pull in my day. If it ain’t that piece of paper, there’s some other choice they’re gonna try and make for you. You gotta do what Randall “Pink” Floyd wants to do, man. Let me tell you this, the older you do get the more rules they’re gonna try to get you to follow. You just gotta keep on livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N.” Continue reading →

Committing to the Commitments (1991)

Oct16 by theelderj

We’ll put the band back together, do a few gigs, we get some bread. Bang! Five thousand bucks. (Blues Brothers, 1980)

There are lots of movies about music. Most common are the character-driven biopics that follow the same plot (talented but troubled youngster gets into music, gets into drugs and then finds redemption later in life, with variations: Walk the Line, 2005; Ray, 2004). And then there are the tragic-arc narratives that memorialize performers brought down before their time (Selena, 1997; The Doors 1991; Notorious, 2009). We even have nostalgic fantasy pieces (That Thing You Do 1996; Dreamgirls, 2006;, Rockstar 2001), musicals and humor based in and around being in a band or a near a band (Blues Brothers, 1980, This is Spinal Tap, 1984; Wayne’s World 1991; The Rocker, 2008). Continue reading →

Music on the Radio in the Movies: Pump Up the Volume (1990)

Oct1 by theelderj

Note: In honor of College Radio Day and a little old-fashioned cross-promotion, the good Professor let me interrupt the regularly scheduled program to help resurrect a movie that even he hasn’t seen.

Continue reading →