After writing about The Boat That Rocked the other day, I thought about other music-related movies that I really enjoyed and found that I had several favorites that I could watch over and over again and enjoy almost as much as the first time. These aren’t concert films – those are obvious repeat performers – but movies about pop music. I’m also focusing on the more modern era (forgive me, Sal Mineo). Plus the movie has to be good (sorry, Tommy) . A few are obvious commercial favorites (is there anyone who doesn’t quote Spinal Tap?) but a couple of these must be off the path; I find most people have never heard of them, let alone seen them.

But hey, that’s a large part of why I do this, to share information about what knocks me out and hopefully expose people to a great band, film or book they might have missed. I highly recommend every single one of these, and hopefully there’s at least one you haven’t seen that you will take a chance on. Enjoy some great movies with great music, whether it’s a library rental, a used copy on Amazon or circling the listing in TV Guide when you see it. Without further ado (you’ve had just the right amount of ado so far, right?) and with apologies to The Committments and The Rutles, here they are in alphabetical order…

Almost Famous : Cameron Crowe drew upon his own story to craft this brilliant peek behind rock’s curtain, from the groupies (sorry…Band-Aids) to the roadies and the madness that is rock’n'roll. Great music and wonderful performances from the leads and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s great turn as Lester Bangs.

A Hard Day’s Night : The Beatles. Need I say more? “I’m a Mocker”

Hedwig and the Angry Inch : Absolutely the best rock opera ever. John Cameron Mitchell’s brilliant performance and Stephen Trask’s music are a perfect match, and both the musical and the movie soundtracks could stand on their own as great music. But the film is phenomenal.

The Idolmaker : Ray Sharkey should have won the Academy Award for his performance as a teen idol Svengali. Great performances from Paul Land, Joe Pantoliano and Peter Gallagher.

A Mighty Wind : The Spinal Tap of folk music and another perfect movie from Christopher Guest. Tremendous performances from everyone, but Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara as “Mitch and Mickey” were brilliant. How did this song not win the Academy Award?

Rock and Roll High School : The Ramones. Need I say more? “Things sure have changed since I got kicked out of high school”.

Spinal Tap : Absolutely hilarious, with pitch perfect performances from the three leads and an amazing array of bit parts and cameo roles, like Paul Shaffer as Artie Fufkin and Bruno Kirby as the Sinatra-loving limo driver (the extended deleted scenes are priceless). Here’s a song so good I like it even though it’s parody.

Still Crazy : I think the common thread in all these movies is perfect casting. Bill Nighy is wonderful as the fragile lead singer and you can’t go wrong with comic geniuses Billy Connolly and Timothy Spall. But the story is as heartwarming as it is funny and the music is phenomenal.

That Thing You Do : Tom Hanks nailed the screenplay about a one-hit-wonder band and even wrote many of the songs that the other acts in the “galaxy of stars” performed. The main songs benefitted from pop wizards like Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and Mike Viola, but the perfect casting was only exceeded by the movie’s heart. One of my favorite films of all time in any genre.

Velvet Goldmine : Glam fans will lap this up – an Eddie and The Cruisers type plot in the world of glitter and decadence, with Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as thinly disguised Iggy Pop and David Bowie plus great performances from Christian Bale and Eddie Izzard.

O Rock’n'Roll High School é um projeto de Steven Van Zandt, o Little Steven, que pretende convencer as escolas norte-americanas a ensinar História do Rock em suas salas de aula. Aos colégios que já fazem isso, a instituição ajuda fornecendo material. Os anúncios abaixo dão uma idéia da intenção de Steven, que pretende manter viva a memória do rock, cada vez mais descartável.

Um dos anúncios diz: “The White Stripes arrasam… Graças a Ike Turner, que em 1951 criou o clássico som de guitarra distorcida do rock’n'roll, quando ele enfiou papel dentro de um amplificador que quebrou ao cair de seu carro no meio do caminho para a gravação de Rocket 88.”

Para ler os outros (em inglês), clique nas imagens para ampliar:

[Fontes: Rock and Roll Forever e Ads of The World]

Först fick vi veta att MTV tänker göra en remake på Rocky Horror Picture Show, och jag kände genast illamåendet komma smygande. Det kan bara och enbart sluta i katastrof. Jag har redan börjat få mardrömmar om hur de senaste antiseptiska popstjärnorna klär sig i raffset och tror att de är edgy. Jag får lust att göra någon fysiskt illa bara jag tänker på det.

Sen visade det sig att Howard Stern tydligen har planer på en remake av Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. Jag vet inte om det är någon lysande idé det heller – “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” – men jag litar nog faktiskt mer på Howard Stern än på MTV när det gäller att det här. Så i det fallet avvaktar jag med domen ett tag till.

Generellt har jag nog ungefär samma grundinställning till remakes som Michael Caine: “My view is that you should always do remakes of failures. Then you’ve got nowhere to go but up, you know?”

Andra bloggar om film, remakes, rocky horror

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Well I don’t care about history
Rock, rock, rock’n'roll high school
‘Cause that’s not where I wanna be
Rock, rock, rock’n'roll high school
I just wanna have some kicks
I just wanna get some chicks
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock’n'roll high school
.
Well the girls out there knock me out, you know
Rock, rock, rock’n'roll high school
Cruisin’ around in my GTO
Rock, rock, rock’n'roll high school
I hate the teachers and the principal
Don’t wanna be taught to be no fool
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock’n'roll high school
.
Fun fun rock’n'roll high school
Fun fun rock’n'roll high school
Fun fun rock’n'roll high school
Fun fun, oh baby

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