By
Phantom Troublemaker
Seeing Guardians of
the Galaxy Vol. 2 got me thinking about the phenomenal effectiveness of
Baby Groot dancing to The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” at the end of the prior movie.
I’ve said it many times in many places, but that single
instance of film created a universal moment the likes of which our world rarely
sees – everyone around the world that saw that scene experienced joy akin to
the Grinch’s heart growing three sizes. I have no empirical evidence to support
this claim, but I have yet to meet anyone that doesn’t smile when you mention
it and even critics of the film agreed that that was a bright, shining moment.
I feel like it was a landmark in pop culture history
where everyone put aside their snark and their vitriol and just smiled at Baby
Groot.
While Vol. 2
didn’t feature anything quite as viscerally pleasing – though it had many
powerful musical moments – there are plenty of films from my lifetime that have
used pop music brilliantly. Some so well that songs I would not otherwise have
enjoyed are now a part of the playlist of my life. Today I wanted to sit down
and think about some of the best uses of pop music in film.
*The music has to play over an actual part of the
narrative and not just credits, though the characters do not have to be aware
of the music.
*The song cannot have been made specifically for the
movie. It sucked to leave out “The Touch” and “Flash’s Theme”, but that’s a
different list for another Wednesday.
*The characters in the movie can’t be performing the song.
They can be singing along, but not
providing the song itself, for example Marty playing “Johnny B. Goode” in Back to the Future. That, too, is
another list.
*The song must be relevant to the scene. It’s not just playing
in the background while characters talk.
“Stuck
in the Middle With You” by Stealer’s Wheel – Reservoir Dogs
I thought I was pretty hardcore when I first saw this
movie. I had seen plenty of Freddy, Jason, and Pinhead doing unspeakable things
to irresponsible teenagers. But the scene that this song accompanies was one of
the first times I had seen a regular old human being brutal and horrific on
film and it affected me. My film taste had always leaned towards the
fantastical, so I hadn’t sampled many of the more grounded movies available. It
was one thing to see Clarence Boddicker and his wacky gang blow Officer Murphy
to pieces in the futuristic Detroit of 1997. It was quite another to see the
homicidal glaze in Mr. Blonde’s eyes as he tortures Marvin Nash. It was so real
it almost put me off the movie. And it was so powerful that anyone who has seen
Reservoir Dogs can’t help but think
of the scene when this song plays.
“I
Want You Back” by The Jackson 5 – Guardians
of the Galaxy
As I mentioned above, the scene with a revived baby Groot
dancing in his little flower pot is a source of almost universal joy. For that
one brief scene, everything is okay in the galaxy.
“For
Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metallica – Zombieland
What better way to open a post-zombie-apocalypse movie
than with Metallica’s doom-filled dirge?
“Tiny
Dancer” by Elton John – Almost Famous
This is one of my favorite “come together” scenes.
Everyone is on the tour bus and just fucking sick of it. Then Elton’s voice
comes on the radio and nobody can resist singing along.
“Bohemian
Rhapsody” by Queen – Wayne’s World
This one is probably one of the most iconic music related
scenes of my generation. Even though the height of Queen’s popularity predated
our pop music by a decade, everyone my age knows “Bohemian Rhapsody” in its
entirety and it’s because of this movie. Heck, Queen saw quite a resurgence
thanks to this scene.
“Shoot
to Thrill” by AC/DC – Avengers
I’m a wrestling fan. Wrestlers have entrance music. And
in Avengers, Iron Man has entrance
music.
Jon Favreau used an entire playlist of AC/DC songs as the
soundtrack for Iron Man 2. Among them
was “Shoot to Thrill”, which Iron Man used in the opening of the movie to
announce his arrival at the Stark Expo. That scene was awesome, but the one
where he arrives to battle Loki in Avengers
is incredible because he is literally using the song as a preamble to his fight
against a bad guy – just like a wrestler
would. In the very context of the movie our favorite egomaniac Tony Stark
is using an AC/DC as entrance music. It’s fantastic.
“Free
Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd – The Devil’s
Rejects
Rob Zombie uses one of the most famous songs in the world
in its entirety as the backdrop to the Firefly family making the decision to go
out in a blaze of gory. It works for the movie because rather than making the
antagonists of House of 1000 Corpses sympathetic
or at least anti-heroes, Zombie doubled down on their villainy. Lord knows they
can’t change.
Honorable mention to Kingsman:
The Secret Service for its use of “Free Bird”; while the scene was
outstanding, it wasn’t as thematically appropriate is it was in Rejects.
“Tequila”
by The Champs – Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
For many years I thought that this was the greatest song
I had ever heard in my life, all because Pee Wee Herman entertained a bar full
of roughneck scum while dancing to it. And it is a pretty damned good song.
“Hip
to Be Square” by Huey Lewis and the News – American
Psycho
Hearing Patrick Bateman giving a dissertation on the
relative merits of the albums of Huey Lewis and the News while putting on a
plastic suit and preparing to murder Jared Leto with an ax has to be one of the
greatest scenes in the history of horror.
“Just
Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” by Kenny Rogers and the
First Edition – The Big Lebowski
I had no idea that Kenny Rogers sang anything other than
country until I saw this movie. The Dude’s trippy flight through bowling alleys
and Valkyries was weird enough without realizing that the Gambler was providing
the weird psychedelic tunes. My friend, Andy Samford, does a pretty righteous cover of this one.
“Army
of Me” by Björk – Sucker Punch
There are as many things to dislike about Sucker Punch as there are things to
like, but I think we can probably all agree that Babydoll’s fight against giant
samurai robots with Gatling guns is awesome, and made all the more so by Björk’s
musical weirdness.
(CLIP NOT AVAILABLE)
(CLIP NOT AVAILABLE)
“Salutation/Jump
Around” by House of Pain – Kiss of Death
I don’t know if many people remember this movie, let
alone this scene. In it, Nicholas Cage’s character Little Junior Brown brings a
huge boom box into a room, plays these tracks, puts on a plastic poncho, and
beats a guy to bloody death with his bare hands. At the time I saw Kiss of Death Nicholas Cage was still
considered more cool than weird and I was a HUGE mark for House of Pain.
“Blue
Moon” by The Marcels – An American
Werewolf in London
What remains one of the greatest werewolf transformation
scenes in cinematic history is accompanied by this sweet song.
“Wake
Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham! – Zoolander
I still don’t know if I even like this movie, but I sure
do like Wham! and the montage of Ben Stiller and his moron friends driving
around and being morons delights me to no end. Particularly the climax, which
is unbelievably morbid and gruesome. Stiller has a dark, dark sense of humor
and I love it when he goes a bit too far.
“Get
Back” by Ludacris – Tropic Thunder
Speaking of Ben Stiller, his humor isn’t always dark.
Sometimes it’s just insane. Like putting Tom Cruise in a fat suit and enough
makeup to make him unrecognizable and having him do the world’s most incredible
interpretive dance to Atlanta’s own Ludacris.
This kind of breaks my first rule since it's just a credits sequence, but I also fully believe that this scene is a critical part of Les Grossman's character arc.
This kind of breaks my first rule since it's just a credits sequence, but I also fully believe that this scene is a critical part of Les Grossman's character arc.
“ABC”
by The Jackson 5 – Clerks 2
If I were ranking these selections, this might be number one,
even over baby Groot. Rosario Dawson is one of the most luminous and delightful
human beings ever to walk God’s green earth, and the pure joy she displays in
this scene is worth every shitty thing Kevin smith has ever done. Next time you
see something like Yoga Hosers or
that shitty episode of The Flash,
just look this scene up on YouTube and recognize that the universe is, indeed,
balanced.
“Dare
to Be Stupid” by Weird Al Yankovic – The
Transformers: The Movie
The pure electric thrill of seeing my favorite animated
transforming robots on the big screen was only overshadowed by the thrill of
seeing them dance to the music of the greatest musician of all time, Weird Al
Yankovic. I don’t have very clear recall of my childhood, but I remember
watching this scene in the theater next to my sleeping mother vividly.
The use of Al's song also lessened the sting of Ultra Magnus's death.
I'm just kidding. Nobody cared about Ultra Magnus.
The use of Al's song also lessened the sting of Ultra Magnus's death.
I'm just kidding. Nobody cared about Ultra Magnus.
“Come
Baby Come” by K7 – Suicide Squad
I never imagined I would hear K7 in a 2016 theatrical
release, but there was really no better song to have Margot Robbie’s Harley
Quinn kicking ass to. I wish the scene had been a bit longer and she had taken
out a few more goons, but it was still an awesome piece of the movie.
“Beat
on the Brat” by The Ramones – Billy
Madison
A little on the nose, but it still delights me every time
I see Adam Sandler dodgeballing the shit out of a bunch of little kids on the
playground. Listening to the unadulterated wonderfulness that is The Ramones
while it happens is just a bonus.
“Cannned
Heat” by Jamiroquai – Napoleon Dynamite
This has to be one of the most unexpected scenes I’ve
ever watched. I had no idea what was about to happen and nothing could have
prepared me for it. I didn’t even like Jamiroquai at the time, but seeing Jon
Heder bust out those dance moves was phenomenal. Me and the missus were both
laughing so hard we were crying.
I know I left plenty of songs off of this list. Why don’t you go join
the Needless Things Podcast
Facebook Group and let me know which ones I missed!
You can follow Phantom Troublemaker on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for all
the latest on pop culture!
If you enjoy wrestling, stupid chants, or Needless
Things, you might enjoy SupportPhantom.com. Huge thanks to our
wonderful Patrons Zack, Gary, Lucas, and Beau!
No comments:
Post a Comment