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…)
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!
Through the Shattered Lens 