The Silver Screen Oasis

movieman1957 wrote:How interesting! What instrument do you play? Do you write music?

I played drums in junior high but switched to guitar my freshman year in High School. After learning two chords, I wrote my first song, and with the third chord, my first hit single. Well, it would have been a hit because it was the first song to ever use the chords A, D and E.

I soon formed a band, a trio called Tandori Chicken (we played one gig) and, since no one but me liked the name, we changed it to Fall Out, after the first single by The Police. (The drummer in the band was a huge Stewart Copland fan. He played like Copland, too, which helped cover my inept playing.)

While I was never a good guitar player, I wrote at least one (horrible) song a week and was pretty good at arranging. We opened every gig with The Munster's Theme and I remember playing a long jam of Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall done kinda ska.

I hadn't played in years but last Christmas my wife bought me the Logic program for the Mac, and I've recorded a bunch of the old tunes including my hit single! Right now, I'm noodling with all of the Indian instruments in the program and working on a cover of the song Twitch from the Flintstones.

Current "band" name: The Adolescent Sound Patterns. (Or maybe The Cacophonies).

Michigan this was a funny story. Your funny, self-deprecating story made me smile and reminds me of the girl groups my friends and I ( unsuccessfully ) tried to emulate. I applaud you learning and using Logic too. It took me so long to wean myself off of Adobe Premiere and learn Final Cut Pro. Keep going.

I can't believe I forgot "The Year of The Cat." I have the sheet music. Of course if I can forget "Dig It" anything is possible.

Great story about the band. I've only played in a band at church or one affiliated with one. We played a concert once where we opened for Christian artist Phil Keaggy. (He is an avid Beatles fan.) We did a couple of songs I wrote and I have played some of mine at church. (Knitty has heard one and she is still my friend.)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

The ultimate song with people's names is an Alan Parsons song called "Call Up." It lists people that might make this a more interesting place to be if we had them back. The first half is full of musicians but the second half includes movie people like Groucho, Dietrich, Garbo, Mansfield, Bergman, Sinatra, Cosby and one or two more. Later come the artists.
http://www.absolutelyrics.com/lyrics/vi ... t/call_up/

Cheating? Maybe.

This is such a fun thread. I told my friend at work about it and he said "OO-Wee," referring to a song by Ringo Starr, and sang the lines,

She look just like the new Jean Harlow
With sultry lips and long blonde hair
They say, she came from Hades or was it the Euphrates
That brought my lady here, yeah?


Then, just now as I was posting this up, I remembered Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London, with the last verse:

Well, I saw Lon Chaney walking with the Queen
Doing the werewolves of London
I saw Lon Chaney Jr. walking with the Queen
Doing the werewolves of London

Hey, listen, I know it's a stretch but, remember Al Yankovic's "Uncle Frank's 2,000 Inch TV" ?
Well, might be that only Welkheads could ever really appreciate it, but Al's 'Uncle Frank' is none other than Frankie Yankovic, multi-generational renowned accordion virtuoso & all-time Polka King recording artist!
Like I said, a s t r e t c h . .

Nitrate--I remember the first time I heard Werewolves of London and cracking up at the way Warren says "I saw Lon Chaney, JUNIOR", making sure that we knew that he knew that it was Junior and not Senior in the film. Of course, neither Chaney is in Werewolf of London, but who's counting.

Thanks for the Ringo. Didn't have that.

Klon--That is quite a stretch. Just reading it qualified as doing my yoga for the day. (I have two Yankovic CDs, but alas, Uncle Frank's 2,000 Inch TV is not on either.)

I recently added the Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band's Intro and Outro (which features John Wayne on xylophone and Robert Morley on guitar, among others) and My Brother Makes Noises for the Talkies (Lillian Gish--the fifth or sixth silent star in the list).

Going way back, Cole Porter mentions Fred Astaire, Mickey Mouse, Jimmy Durante and Garbo in You're the Top.

I love the name Tandoori Chicken!

Can't believe it took me this long to litmus this from the backwash of my mind's drain-catch, but there is that split-name put-down of Neil Young from Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama", and, on the name-dropping-to-sound-cool file, there's a "Sweet Home Alabama" mention in Kid Rock's top-40 insult from last Summer. {Don't remember the name, and who cares anyway, right?}

Sinatra's Nancy mentions actresses names, which he changed over the yrs. I remember Keep Audrey Hepburn Keep Liz Taylor, Nancy's the Feature There Just The Trailer

Clive Dunn's novelty record Grandad mentions Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin Made Us Laugh

Dear Mr. Gable

A couple from me. Elton John did a song in the eighties called, I think, Dress Her Up, George Michael sang backing vocals, at the end of the song they listed many of Hollywoods greatest beauties, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Viven Leigh etc. I'm sure we've had Candle in the Wind.

The opening to Rocky Horror mentions a few star names, Michael Rennie and Claude Rains are two.

stuart.uk wrote:Sinatra's Nancy mentions actresses names, which he changed over the yrs. I remember Keep Audrey Hepburn Keep Liz Taylor, Nancy's the Feature There Just The Trailer

Wow, it's interesting to see the lyrics. The version I have, Frank drops the last verse altogether. Thanks.

Fossy wrote:Dear Mr. Gable

Thanks. The video was blocked for my viewing, but I fortunately have the song in the Ultimate Anthology of MGM Musicals set, so I popped it in the playlist.

charliechaplinfan wrote:The opening to Rocky Horror mentions a few star names, Michael Rennie and Claude Rains are two.

Thanks CCF; Rocky Horror turned out to be a goldmine of names not mentioned yet. (Plus I was able to brush up on my Time Warp steps.)
Science Fiction/Double Feature--Michael Rennie/Claude Raines/Fay Wray/Leo G. Carroll/Janette Scott/Dana Andrews
Sweet Transvestite--Steve Reeves
I'm Going Home--Fay Wray/ Lili St. Cyr

Dear All,

One of my disadvantages being severally hard of hearing is that I don't always hear everything in movies and after spending several days reading all of your posts (this is my 1st post on this thread) I'm amazed the number of Songs that Mention Stars in Movies. Literally, my friends.

I need Close Captioned or English Subtitles in order for me to enjoy Movies like the rest of us here at Silver Screen Oasis. The only one I know of before this thread existed is when Madonna sings a song that mentioned that Rita Hayworth gave good face. That's the only one I know of.

Reading all these posts ... I was stunned the number of movies that has songs references to movie stars/starlets of the past and the present alone. I did not know that until this until all of you that contributed to this thread in the first place.

All your posts - has been an eye-opener for me and I for one, has enjoyed reading all of them with equal enthusiasm and learned that I should pay more attention to the movie itself because I find this topic to be fascinating and educational at the same time.

Everyday, I learned something new, something old, and something different here on this thread. Keep those posts coming ... maybe I might find one or two along the way!

MichiganJ wrote:

stuart.uk wrote:Sinatra's Nancy mentions actresses names, which he changed over the yrs. I remember Keep Audrey Hepburn Keep Liz Taylor, Nancy's the Feature There Just The Trailer

Wow, it's interesting to see the lyrics. The version I have, Frank drops the last verse altogether. Thanks.

Fossy wrote:Dear Mr. Gable

Thanks. The video was blocked for my viewing, but I fortunately have the song in the Ultimate Anthology of MGM Musicals set, so I popped it in the playlist.

charliechaplinfan wrote:The opening to Rocky Horror mentions a few star names, Michael Rennie and Claude Rains are two.

Thanks CCF; Rocky Horror turned out to be a goldmine of names not mentioned yet. (Plus I was able to brush up on my Time Warp steps.)
Science Fiction/Double Feature--Michael Rennie/Claude Raines/Fay Wray/Leo G. Carroll/Janette Scott/Dana Andrews
Sweet Transvestite--Steve Reeves
I'm Going Home--Fay Wray/ Lili St. Cyr

I'd been listening to Rocky Horror to pick up the other names, you beat me to it, I don't think there are any you've missed. Why the reference to Dana Andrews do you think, the others made horror/sci-fi did Dana Andrews make a horror/sci-fi that I missed?

The NoMen released an album in 2006 called The Apprentice of Agnes Moorehead, which is available for download here. I've only played a few of the tracks but the first song, Vanish, mentions AM toward the end.