When the infamous epic Caligulawas first released back in 1979, a disco version of Caligula’s love theme — We Are One — was also released as a promotional gimmick.
This song is so over-the-top, so blatantly exploitive, so insidiously catchy, and so totally inappropriate for so many reasons that become clear after you watch the film it was written for that it simply cannot be ignored. To me, this song represents everything that makes the Grindhouse great.
(As well, I hope whoever was playing bass got paid extra…)
“The sad part is, I can’t really play the song live anymore because too many people misunderstand the connotations of Ground Zero. It’s not a reference to 9/11, obviously. It was written in 1986 when ‘ground zero’ just meant the epicenter of a nuclear attack.”
— Weird Al Yankovic
Try to force Weird Al to do a Christmas album and this is what you’re going to get.
In 1986, Weird Al’s record label insisted that he record something for the holiday season. In response, Yankovic came up with Christmas At Ground Zero, a Phil Spector-style production about Christmas in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. It wasn’t really what the record company had expected and, at first, they refused to release it. Yankovic responded by creating his own music video for the song. This video was not only his first stab at directing but it also proved to be popular enough to convince the record company to change their position on the song.
Though the majority of this video is made up of stock footage, the live action scenes of Weird Al and the carolers performing surrounded by rubble were filmed in The Bronx. No nuclear explosions were needed to get the bombed-out feel. Instead, they just filmed in New York in the 80s.
Apparently, when Norman Greenbaum wrote today’s song of the day, he wasn’t quite writing a parody but, at the same time, he wasn’t being totally serious either. Greenbaum wrote the song after watching a gospel performance on television and thinking, “Yeah, I could do that.” By his own recollection, it took him 15 minutes to come up with the lyrics for Spirit In The Sky.
Originally, he was going to perform the song with a jug band. (Yikes!) He also tried to do a folk version. (Double yikes!) Fortunately, he ultimately went for the hard rock sound that made the song a legend.
Usually, I’m the one who cries on Christmas. This is the month that I allow myself to get sentimental and everything. Seeing my presents. Getting my presents. Unwrapping my presents. Trying my presents on. Showing my presents off. Seriously, it touches my heart every time.
Today would have been the 82nd birthday of Jack Nance, the talented but troubled actor who was a favorite of David Lynch’s and who died under mysterious circumstances in 1996. Born in Massachusetts but raised in Texas, Nance first won acclaim as a star of the stage show, Tom Paine. The director of Tom Paine later received a fellowship to the American Film Institute where he met a young director named David Lynch and recommended that Lynch cast Nance as the lead character in his film, Eraserhead. Lynch and Nance were kindred spirits, two all-American eccentrics with their own unique view of the world. Lynch went to use Nance in almost every film that he made up until Nance’s death. Nance would also appear in small roles in films from other directors, usually cast as quirky and obsessive characters. Outside of his role in Eraserhead, Nance is probably best known for playing Pete Martell on Twin Peaks. Pete’s discovery of Laura Palmer’s body launched the entire saga.
Twin Peaks 1.1 — The Pilot (dir by David Lynch)
In honor of Jack’s talent and legacy, here is today’s song of the day!
This is apparently not the official video for The Waitress’s Christmas Wrapping. Instead, it’s a video that someone else put together using other clips of the band. I haven’t been able to find an official version so there might not be one. Or, at the very least, if there is one, it does not appear to be on YouTube. (If I’m wrong, let me know.)
Anyway, I like the song and tis the season. Interestingly enough, it’s often missed that the song is more about the chaos of the season than the joy of it.
Through the Shattered Lens 