Are There Hidden Words in Theme Tunes?

 Are there hidden words in theme tunes?

I am on the fence, I naturally lean toward explaining it as coincidence in most cases. But when you have actual composers explaining that they started with the title, there's obviously something to it.

Also, trees don't need love most of all, it's really just water and light.

Late Show - Marc Maron

 

Just a standard funny interview with Marc Maron.

James Taylor: Darker Than Previously Thought

 

I've always really enjoyed James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." Sure, it's mid-tempo Boomer folk, but it's just a great song. But it took me way too long to figure out that it's a bit darker than I had assumed.

The first verse starts as depressingly as we all know it does:

Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone.

Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you.

I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song,

I just can't remember who to send it to.

This was inspired by real life. Taylor had a friend Suzanne committed suicide while he was in London recording an album. His friends didn't tell him right away, fearing that it would interfere with his ability to record. But they told him weeks after the fact.

Then the chorus (we'll come back to that later). 

Then the second verse:

Won't you look down upon me, Jesus, You've got to help me make a stand.

You've just got to see me through another day.

My body's aching and my time is at hand and I won't make it any other way

This was written while Taylor was in rehab, recovering from a heroin addiction. The lyrics are a literal prayer to simply survive one more day. Haunting and harrowing. 

I won't go into the third verse except to say that it's about his failed band and his stay in a mental hospital.

So that's all pretty dark and its history is fairly well-known at this point, but between these verses is the chorus which I always assumed was the hopeful counter-punch. The chorus goes:

I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end.

I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I'd see you again.

The "fire and rain" part goes along with the verses - life is sad and turbulent - but, forgive me if this is obvious and I'm the only one- but I always interpreted "I always thought that I'd see you again" as meaning "you're a good friend, I can count on you" - the positive light among the darkness of a fallen world. I only recently realized that "I always thought that I'd see you again" refers to the friend who committed suicide in the first verse. It isn't optimistic, it's mournful and heartbreaking. It's a lament that "In all the storms of life, I thought I had you as a constant and now you're gone" and "What do I do now that the light of my life has been snuffed out?"

The Official Unofficial Clue Commentary Track

 

As far as I know, this is a very rare situation, indeed. While it's fairly normal for people to put out movie commentary as a separate track (Rifftrax, Red Letter Media, etc.), this is the first time the unofficial commentary track is by the writer/director of the film.

The "Clue" DVD and Blu-Ray releases are great but quite minimal when it comes to the special features. And so it's quite interesting that now you can have a writer/director commentary for free.

This is one where they do get so lost in watching the movie that they forget that they're supposed to be talking over it, but whatever, it happens.

Popcorn in Bed - 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

 

"3:10" is a great movie. Most of the time I think it's probably under-seen/underrated.  But, when you get to that ending.... I can understand why it can never have broad appeal. Still a great movie.

The Peanut Butter Solution (1985)

 

In an earlier post, I mentioned "The Doughnuts" - a movie I remembered from school. Well, in the same category is "The Peanut Butter Solution" - at least, I think I remember it, it seems familiar.

"The Peanut Butter" solution is nuts and it's so nuts that if I went into detail, this post would end up being way too long. But if I play my cards right and keep things high level, it will still be way too long. This movie is nuts.

"TPBS" is about a boy who sees something shocking in an abandoned building (we don't see what) and the shock is so great that he passes out and goes bald. The movie (and the kid) describes the experience of baldness thusly:

"I LOOK DISGUSTING! YOU HEAR?! DISGUSTING!"

He becomes the pariah of his school (literally a soccer game stops so that everyone playing can chase him with insults). But in the night ghosts of homeless people visit him and give him the secret formula to hair growth - The Peanut Butter Solution. And that should be enough story - kid loses hair, uses secret formula - this story follows in the same vein as other childhood classics such as "The Chocolate Touch" and "Freckle Juice." But at this point in the movie we're only halfway in. For whatever reason, there's so much more going on...

As the story begins, the kid and his family are saying things like "I wish mom were here" sorrowfully and the sister of the family is acting like the mom. Very serious and somber... No, the mom didn't die, she's just on a road trip, she'll be back soon. Okay...? Meanwhile, the kid has a mean art teacher and he's fired. There were reports that he caused nightmares. Sounds like insubstantial grounds and he has a lawsuit. Remember that "Peanut Butter Solution" from the homeless ghosts? It works but it works too well and his hair grows about an inch per minute and the movie explores the problems of too much hair. Then he gets kicked out of school because the constant hair growth is distracting the children. There's also a side-plot where the best friend gets crazy hair growth in his pants - it makes no sense, it's weird, it's never resolved; as far as I can tell.

Then there are a series of kidnappings in the area and the main character is one of the kidnapped children. A little heavy for a children's movie, but okay. The kidnapper is the evil fired art teacher, he has an evil sweatshop where he's using the kids to make art supplies and selling paintbrushes made from the main kid's hair. Oh, and also he makes magic art, no big deal. Are you following this? The kid's sister and best friend figure out that the art teacher is the kidnapper and do they call the cops? No, they decide to pursue him themselves so they can get in perilous situations.

Here's the climax of the movie - spoilers if that matters to you - the evil art teacher has made a magical painting of the original abandoned building where the shocking thing was seen which made the kid go bald. The evil art teacher then steps into his own magical painting and sees the shocking thing in the building (how?) and passes out just like the kid did. The kid goes in and does the same again, but this time, he's not scared; lesson/personal growth?

Oh wait, that's not the climax because the evil art teacher wakes up after we forgot about him, ala a Slasher film, and the sweatshop kids have to fight him. They do, they succeed. At the end, the family's mom is back from her trip and presumably the kid still has a hair growth problem - or did his victory at the abandoned house fix his hair?

Crazy enough plot for you? Did you follow all that? Stranger than the plot, I think, is the tone and pace of the film. This all sounds wacky and fun. It is wacky but the movie is actually slow and plodding. This movie is serious and unusually dark; it's kind of a psychological horror film except slightly toned down for kids. It's like "Goosebumps before Goosebumps." The oddity is particularly extreme in the part where the kid becomes bald and he becomes depressed, withdrawing from society - it's played completely straight. He cries convincingly, it is a brutal depiction of trauma. Children's movies are supposed to be fun... usually. This is like a kid's version of "Rosemary's Baby."

My memory of this story is so vague as to be nearly non-existent. I really only remember the title and short premise. Even so, it seemed most likely that we read the book in school but didn't watch the movie. Now I realize that it was never a book, it only exists as a movie. I wish I could remember anything for sure, I have to assume we watched this movie in school.

A final side note. Wikipedia notes that "This film features the first English-language songs performed by Céline Dion" so we can pretty much credit this film with the career of Celine Dion. Wonderful.

Can Water Solve a Maze?

 

Red Letter Media Poorly Performs Minor Tasks

 

Based on the title, I thought this would be a "10 Minute Power Hour" clone. 

But no, it isn't that. The title is accurate and the video has no right to be as enjoyable as it is.

The David Letterman Story

 

A short documentary about the life of David Letterman.

Searching for the Writings of Thomas Jefferson on Amazon Yields a Slinky

 

In 1785, the Continental Congress created a report proposing what kind of money unit should be established in the United States - coinage of gold, silver, copper, etc. Titled "Propositions respecting the coinage of gold, silver, and copper," it was partly authored by Thomas Jefferson. Searching for this document on Amazon returns an error and a slinky.

But they make the slinky out of metal rather than paper, so there's that.

Irish People Try Smash Burgers

 

Are Smash Burgers superior? 6 Irish people can't be wrong.

I myself have been trying to perfect smash burgers recently and it's been a struggle but I'm learning and making progress. The amazing thing about smash burgers is: it's pretty fool-proof - even when I've messed up everything, the burgers are still good.

The Mr. T Set