Movies - Take Two. Action!

[GuitarGeek]

I think that means something different in a Hostel movie.

I've never really watched any of the Hostel movies, and honestly, have no interest in it. About the only one of those kind of movies I've seen is Turistas. Pass!

[dropforge]

I have the DVD of Black Panther here at home but like Guardians of the Galaxy 2, my summer has been too busy to watch them. But I am looking forward to it because, yes, I like that kind of movie. I don't know if I will like either one the way I loved the last Thor movie but that was just insanely fun (and obviously a homage to Jack Kirby).

Black Panther is a solid flick, but it's a stock three-act hero's journey actioner. The problem being Boseman's so stoic, he's a Bruce Wayne mannequin. Every other actors steals their scenes with him, especially Wright and Jordan. GOTGVol2 sucked. Great VFX, but they rendered yet another great antagonist into a punchline, and there were far too many stupid jokes.

Marvel does need to get off their ass and do a solo Black Widow flick.

The time to make that movie was between the first two Avengers films. They announced they're finally going to do it a few months back, but it generated little buzz.

They've been kicking DC up and down the curb in terms of movies

In gross receipts, sure, since 2013. But it's turned into a quantity over quality thing, watering down the source material and repackaging it with much unnecessary humor and baffling characterizations, like with Ragnarok. Then you have the two Ant-Man movies, which have some nice VFX but a wholly unconvincing lead. Forgettable fare. Doctor Strange should have been the movie to unseat Captain America: The Winter Soldier as the studio's best offering, but they blew it (with a good director attached to it, "strange"-ly enough).

DC stole their lunch money by beating them to the punch with Wonder Woman.

A Wonder Woman film was long overdue. Believe it, Marvel wanted DC to take that risk. That film grossed over 800 million dollars and was more leggy (pun intended) than any other 2017 flick.

That was an audience begging for something, anything, and with that film they got it.

Kevin Feige is the guy given the power to captain that ship. He's the one who had no confidence in producing a female-led CBM. That boy's whistlin' a different tune now.

[spellbound]

The Hot Rock is one of many caper movies based on novels or screenplays by the late, great Donald E. Westlake. You could do worse for entertainment than to seek out more of his work.

[moecurlythanu]

How tf is Captain Marvel a female lead? Mar-vel of the Kree was a dude with white hair.

[TheLoony]

What do you mean "name drops"?

Don't you remember the namesake series? Don't know if name drop is quite the words to use but he had cassette tapes of books and literary works read by people with the same last name, hence the Dr. J reading the works of Irving.

Denholm Elliot read the works of T.S. Elliot. Sorry if I confused you with modern terms.

[frinspar]

How tf is Captain Marvel a female lead? Mar-vel of the Kree was a dude with white hair.

Carol Danvers has been around since the 60s. She was Ms. Marvel for most of that time, and about 10 years ago took the name Captain Marvel.
Jude Law will play Mar-Vell in the upcoming movie.

Edited to add:
You mentioned white hair. That was Genis-Vell, Mar-Vell's son.

[GuitarGeek]

Don't you remember the namesake series? Don't know if name drop is quite the words to use but he had cassette tapes of books and literary works read by people with the same last name, hence the Dr. J reading the works of Irving.

Denholm Elliot read the works of T.S. Elliot. Sorry if I confused you with modern terms.

"Namesake" and "name drop" are two completely different things, though I suppose, by definition, he is namedropping by naming famous people. . I do remember the gag, though the only one I actually remember is "someone called Dr. J", I think is how Michael McKean renders the line.

Most of that movie I can recite off the top of my head, and I can even quote many of the real life things that are being lampooned in the picture. I can also tell you that the Stonehenge sequence almost certainly wasn't inspired by the Black Sabbath Born Again tour stage set (which was a Stonehenge replica so big, they couldn't even use all of it), because the movie was surely filmed before the Sabbath tour happened.

And anyway, the Stonehenge sequence is in the short film that Guest, McKean, and Shearer produced, as a sort of "demo" to show studios what they wanted the film to be like, and that was made even earlier, probably something like a year or so before they made the actual feature film. So it was, presumably, just a stupid coincidence that Sabbath managed to have a largely useless Stonehenge stage set, just a few months before the movie came out. I believe the short film was called Spinal Tap: The Final Tour. It's on Youtube, if you've never seen it before.

One of these days, I need to get that movie on DVD (or, if I ever get a player, Blu-Ray), I hear there's enough outtake footage to make a whole second or maybe even third movie. Amazing that all that dialog was improvised (as is the dialog in all the movies that Christopher Guest with, mostly, the same actors).

I've actually seen Spinal Tap in concert, twice, and I get basically two different reactions to my Shark Sandwich hoodie (which is now over 10 years old):

1. Man, that's awesome!

2. What the hell?! Shark sandwich?! What's that supposed to mean?!

Seriously, I've had at least three different people show bewilderment at that piece of artwork. One of them, oddly enough, was a security person at the Chicago Museum Of Art. She really couldn't figure it out, she was like "Wait, there's a shark swimming around in the bread?!" (shrug) I guess a lot of people have never seen This Is Spinal Tap. (double shrug)

[aith01]

Kevin Feige is the guy given the power to captain that ship. He's the one who had no confidence in producing a female-led CBM. That boy's whistlin' a different tune now.

Not even going to touch upon the other things you've said, but there is nothing factual to back up what you're saying here. And are you forgetting that Feige was not always the one calling all the shots? He was answering to Ike Perlmutter (whose influence has been controversial) until 2015, when Perlmutter stepped down from overseeing Marvel Studios production. Now Feige reports directly to the Disney chairman, and he has more control over the goings on in movie making.

Your dislike of Kevin Feige is obvious, but you can at least try to be objective about it right? Unless you have a quote somewhere of Feige saying he had no faith in a female-led comic book movie, I ain't buying it.

Whereas Perlmutter has said that female-led superhero movies aren't "profitable". So isn't it possible he's the guy you should be blaming?

[DocProgger]

I've got the Spinal Tap SE Criterion laserdisc, which came with a Tap guitar pick, and which contains multiple audio commentaries, as well as a plethora of extras, outtakes, videos etc., and the Criterion DVD. Criterion has never released it on blu ray though. Also have the regular studio DVD and blu ray, which also contain a slew of extras, some different, including a different audio commentary by the 3 of them. The audio commentaries by Reiner and STap themselves are worth the price of admission. There's a lot of hilarious stuff left out of the film, including a lot of extra dialogue by Bruno Kirby when the band gets him high and the whole Sinatra schtick if I remember.

Now, re the Shark Sandwich shirt, the problem I see with that is if it only contains a pic of the Shark Sandwich album, it's missing half the joke. The joke was the next line, which was a "review" of the album which simply said "Shit Sandwich". Maybe people are befuddled if the shirt doesn't contain the punch line to the gag.

[NogbadTheBad]

For me that makes the shirt better.

[aith01]

How tf is Captain Marvel a female lead? Mar-vel of the Kree was a dude with white hair.

In the comic books, Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel eventually took up the mantle of Captain Marvel. That's who Brie Larson is playing in the upcoming movie.

And this female-led Captain Marvel movie has been planned and in development for years -- as early as May 2013 -- so it's not a knee-jerk reaction to Wonder Woman's success (although dropforge would like you to think so).

[GuitarGeek]

Now, re the Shark Sandwich shirt, the problem I see with that is if it only contains a pic of the Shark Sandwich album, it's missing half the joke. The joke was the next line, which was a "review" of the album which simply said "Shit Sandwich". Maybe people are befuddled if the shirt doesn't contain the punch line to the gag.

Yeah, but the two word review isn't actually going to make it make any more sense to someone who's never seen the movie. And I imagine a lto of people who saw the movie might not know what they're actually making fun of in that scene. Yes, they're satirizing the critical scathing heavy rock bands get, but they're specifically taking a shot at Musician magazine, which would run an entire page of "Short Takes", which were literally one sentence album reviews. The one I always remembered was of a Men Without Hats record: "You can dance if you want to, but you probably won't".

I think anyone who's seen the movie doesn't need an explanation, they know what it is, it's a Spinal Tap hoodie. Period. End of story. It's no different than any other band t-shirt/sweater/hoodie/whatever. For other, perhaps more "normal" people, it's this weird non sequiter of an image, as I said, the one lady couldn't wrap her head around the image of a shark fin protruding from the bread.

But then, isn't that the case with most album covers, certainly the better ones? I mean, do you try to explain the cover of News Of The World or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or The Who Sell Out or Look At Yourself or Wish You Were Here or whatever to people who aren't "one of us"? They've all got meanings, but to someone "on the outside" it's just weirdness for it's own sake.

For that matter, for a lot people, This Is Spinal Tap is probably weirdness for it's own sake, too. Not everyone is a fanboy who knows "all the stories" that are being lampooned in the film. Things like "These ones go up to 11", the pod sequence, the Smell The Glove cover debacle, the album reviews bit, "he choked on someone else's vomit", etc probably fly over the heads of "normal" people. At best, they might think it's just a weird comedy (if in fact they understand it's not a real documentary, which they might not).

[GuitarGeek]

For me that makes the shirt better.

That it's simply the album cover? Yeah, I like that too. People who get it get it, and those who don't...well, no explanation is going to make it make sense for someone who's never seen This Is Spinal Tap. They want an explanation for the piece of artwork itself, not an explanation for the scene in the movie.

[DocProgger]

Do you have a hoodie with the album cover of Smell the Glove pictured on it (the new version)? That would really be diehard

[Scott Bails]

Which always made me wonder about executives who own stock in their own company. They know their company and the industry so buying or selling stock based on information they've learned at work would constitute insider trading, especially if selling their own, wouldn't it?

There are laws/rules in place to prevent this from happening. They include blackout periods, etc., often based upon one's position in the company. So, an employee involved in R&D might have a longer blackout period than the receptionist, upper management has longer blackout periods, etc. So, when a company is about to announce a new product or discovery (think of Apple employees before their new iPhone reveal), they're restricted from stock transactions around the time of the reveal.

[Hal...]

There are laws/rules in place to prevent this from happening. They include blackout periods, etc., often based upon one's position in the company. So, an employee involved in R&D might have a longer blackout period than the receptionist, upper management has longer blackout periods, etc. So, when a company is about to announce a new product or discovery (think of Apple employees before their new iPhone reveal), they're restricted from stock transactions around the time of the reveal.

I had a feeling there was some illegality to it. Thank you for that info, Sir.

[dropforge]

Not even going to touch upon the other things you've said, but there is nothing factual to back up what you're saying here. And are you forgetting that Feige was not always the one calling all the shots? He was answering to Ike Perlmutter (whose influence has been controversial) until 2015, when Perlmutter stepped down from overseeing Marvel Studios production. Now Feige reports directly to the Disney chairman, and he has more control over the goings on in movie making.

Your dislike of Kevin Feige is obvious, but you can at least try to be objective about it right? Unless you have a quote somewhere of Feige saying he had no faith in a female-led comic book movie, I ain't buying it.

Whereas Perlmutter has said that female-led superhero movies aren't "profitable". So isn't it possible he's the guy you should be blaming?

Yeah, because you require "incontrovertible proof," which means you need a quote. Why would he even have to say that to mean it? Any time you Marvel shills read something less than overwhelmingly glowing about the movies or the showrunner, you blow a gasket.

For the record, I grew up enjoying the output of DC, Marvel, Warren, Charlton, Pacific, Dark Horse, First, Eclipse, Last Gasp, Rip-Off Press and Lord knows what else, so consider that before you come back at me with an accusation of DC bias.

[TheLoony]

That it's simply the album cover? Yeah, I like that too. People who get it get it, and those who don't...well, no explanation is going to make it make sense for someone who's never seen This Is Spinal Tap. They want an explanation for the piece of artwork itself, not an explanation for the scene in the movie.

If I had run into you wearing that at a show I would give you a hug. It's a thing that I was never into until I started hanging out at my local watering hole. Met so many good people there that we just hug when we see each other.

I so would do that for that hoodie. I saw a guy a while ago with a T-shirt from the Electric Banana that so cracked me up I was almost on my knees with laughter. Blew me away that that existed.

The criterion edition, last I heard, which was back in the early 2000's, was out of print and has the commentary as themselves, where the dvd commentary is done as the band basically ripping Marty DiBergi for doing a hatchet job on them. It does have a little more of Bruno Kirby in his underpants singing Sinatra but damn I so want to get that Criterion edition. I don't know if it's still out there somewhere, if they have re-released it, whatever, but I would really love to hear what they have to say as themselves about that movie.

Mime is money.

Funny, I think it was wiki I was reading a while back that said the Stonehenge thing was based upon Black Sabbath. Don't care about the timeline but it was damned funny and I happened to see that Sabbath show with the whole stage set. First time I ever saw Sabbath and it totally rocked. They had two monks come out and open up the front of the drum riser to reveal a very, very bright cross down there. So stupid it was cool.

That was the night when while flying from Vegas to Salt Lake City that Ian Gillan met Mitzee Dupree and hence the Deep Purple song came about. BTW that is a great DP song even if that album lacks a little. The last three songs on that album are stellar.

[aith01]

Yeah, because you require "incontrovertible proof," which means you need a quote. Why would he even have to say that to mean it? Any time you Marvel shills read something less than overwhelmingly glowing about the movies or the showrunner, you blow a gasket.

Marvel shills. Oh brother... Sure, resort to name-calling -- I don't care.

And yeah, unless you're a mind-reader, I would need some kind of evidence that Feige didn't believe in female-led CBMs before I jump on that bandwagon. Your argument is pure conjecture, based upon nothing tangible.

You also conveniently ignore the fact that Captain Marvel was in development long before the Wonder Woman movie was even announced, much less a reality. So why would Feige have been planning that if he was so against the idea of female-led superhero movies? I'm dying to hear your answer to this one.

For the record, I grew up enjoying the output of DC, Marvel, Warren, Charlton, Pacific, Dark Horse, First, Eclipse, Last Gasp, Rip-Off Press and Lord knows what else, so consider that before you come back at me with an accusation of DC bias.

Now you're projecting. I never said you were biased in favor of DC -- just that your disdain for Kevin Feige is a known fact. There's a difference, and you know it. But nice try at deflection.

Sheesh...


Edit: Here's a link to the section about the development of the Captain Marvel movie, from the Wikipedia article.

I had assumed you'd followed the production history of this movie like I had, but in the event that you haven't, here you go:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captai...lm)#Production

Kevin Feige, President of Production at Marvel Studios, said that if Marvel was to make a female-led film, he would prefer it to be a new character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe like Captain Marvel, who could receive an origin story.[37] In August 2014, Feige stated that Black Panther and Captain Marvel were "both characters that we like, that development work has been done on and is continuing to be done on" and that the studio is often asked about it by the public, "more than Iron Man 4, more than Avengers 3 ... I think that's something that we have to pay attention to."[38]

[dropforge]

Marvel shills. Oh brother... Sure, resort to name-calling -- I don't care.

And yeah, unless you're a mind-reader, I would need some kind of evidence that Feige didn't believe in female-led CBMs before I jump on that bandwagon. Your argument is pure conjecture, based upon nothing tangible.

I assume you saw the graphic in my post above. "Feige admits that Wonder Woman's popularity did give the studio confidence in Captain Marvel."

You also conveniently ignore the fact that Captain Marvel was in development long before the Wonder Woman movie was even announced, much less a reality. So why would Feige have been planning that if he was so against the idea of female-led superhero movies? I'm dying to hear your answer to this one.

Disney's made a lot of stupid decisions lately, all initiated with the aim that certain changes made to certain films will result in much bigger payola. Maybe it worked for Rogue One (they've admitted two different cuts exist, but I'd like to see Edwards'), but not so much for The Last Jedi and especially Solo. Ant-Man & The Wasp's domestic performance was underwhelming, and again they looked to China for it to turn a profit. The Thor saga finally got a hit with Ragnarok because, I guess, they elected to make it nearly as silly as the Guardians movies. Warner attempted to follow suit with the tonally uneven Justice League and ended up with a total dud.

"In development" is just a sign they hang on the door. It means "planning to do something with." It's not the same as preproduction, let alone production. The perception that they were stalling making major moves on Captain Marvel until they could analyze Wonder Woman's performance is anything but far-fetched. They admitted it.

A Wonder Woman movie had been planned over ten years earlier, under the aegis, of all people, of one Joss Whedon, but he was let go in 2007, citing the usual, i.e. creative differences.

Now you're projecting. I never said you were biased in favor of DC --

You hadn't said it, but you were thinking it.

just that your disdain for Kevin Feige is a known fact. There's a difference, and you know it. But nice try at deflection.

Oh, I'm not deflecting at all, baby. I don't see why the guy needs to have as much control as he does.

[aith01]

I assume you saw the graphic in my post above. "Feige admits that Wonder Woman's popularity did give the studio confidence in Captain Marvel."

Oh yes, I saw it. And it doesn't change the fact that Captain Marvel was already a movie that had been announced well before Wonder Woman was. All they were saying was that Wonder Woman's performance made them more confident that Captain Marvel would do well, not that they were waiting to start making it until after Wonder Woman had already come out. There are a million other reasons why it could have taken so long to get through development.

"In development" is just a sign they hang on the door. It means "planning to do something with." It's not the same as preproduction, let alone production. The perception that they were stalling making major moves on Captain Marvel until they could analyze Wonder Woman's performance is anything but far-fetched. They admitted it.

Doesn't matter what "In development" means to you. They announced a female-led Captain Marvel movie long before a Wonder Woman movie was actually being put together for real and not just an idea being passed back and forth.

And please show me where they "admitted it". All I have to go on is your word, which is not exactly unbiased here when it comes to Kevin Feige and Disney.

A Wonder Woman movie had been planned over ten years earlier, under the aegis, of all people, of one Joss Whedon, but he was let go in 2007, citing the usual, i.e. creative differences.

Of course it had been planned years ago -- it actually dates back even further than 2007 if you want to get technical. That property had been waiting around for someone to make a movie out of it. They've been trying for decades to make it into a movie. It didn't start to gel until after Man Of Steel came out, which was in 2013, and it was several months later when Gal Gadot was cast as Wonder Woman for Batman v Superman (not even a Wonder Woman solo movie yet).

Wonder Woman is arguably a more recognizable character than any of the female Marvel superheroes anyway.

You hadn't said it, but you were thinking it.

Not really. I think for you, this is about Snyder vs. Feige. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

I don't see Marvel and DC fandom as being mutually exclusive; I love both properties. However, I don't like Zack Snyder and what he has done with his movies. You and I fundamentally disagree on this, I think.

Oh, I'm not deflecting at all, baby. I don't see why the guy needs to have as much control as he does.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter. No amount of arguing is going to change your mind, and so far you haven't changed mine either.

I don't care what you think about the movies -- love them or hate them, it's cool with me and it doesn't diminish my enjoyment at all. But I draw the line when falsehoods about actual people are presented as fact, when there's nothing to back that up. To say that it's all Feige's fault that there hasn't been a female-led Marvel movie yet? Or that he was against it, but suddenly changed his mind because audiences liked Wonder Woman? And yet you haven't even backed those statements up with any actual evidence. How is that not just conjecture?

C'mon, give it a rest, man.

[GuitarGeek]

Do you have a hoodie with the album cover of Smell the Glove pictured on it (the new version)? That would really be diehard

You mean the revised version of the artwork that the record company approved? I have several t-shirts with that!

[GuitarGeek]

If I had run into you wearing that at a show I would give you a hug. It's a thing that I was never into until I started hanging out at my local watering hole. Met so many good people there that we just hug when we see each other.

I had someone at one show ask me if I had made it myself. I confessed I bought it at one of the Tap shows I saw, in 2008 or 2009, I think it was. The funny thing about that is, when we got our first computer, my mom but this paper that you could use to print up iron-ons, so anything you could print with a printer, you could make into an iron on and put it on a shirt or whatever. I had these plans for all these album covers I always wanted to have on a t-shirt, but we never got around to doing any of them, for some reason.

I saw a guy a while ago with a T-shirt from the Electric Banana

The show that I got the Shark Sandwich hoodie, they were also selling "retro vintage" t-shirts (or whatever you call them) for the Isle Of Lucy jazz/blues fest (or was it blues/jazz fest) where the one drummer exploded. I think they had at least one other t-shirt, but I decided on the hoodie because I thought that look the coolest. The only thing was, it was May, and since this was a new item in my wardrobe, I wore it a number of times in weather that was more than just a little too warm for a hoodie.

The first time I saw Spinal Tap (back in 1992, on the Break Like The Wind tour), I bought a Bitch School t-shirt. The funny thing about that is, for whatever reason, I didn't wear my glasses to that show, so when I was looking at the t-shirts, I couldn't see correctly what they were, and I thought I was picking a shirt with some sort of castle artwork on it, it was only when the guy handed it to me, I realized that what I thought was a castle was actually a nubile young woman, in a leather teddy and a graduation cap, sort of kneeling, with a dog collar around her neck, with the leash being held by a dog's paw.

I also have their Arsenio Hall Show appearance from 92, on VHS, where they explain that Bitch School isn't about women, but actually about dog obedience school. I've also got their appearance at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert on tape, where they're introduced by Bob Geldof, who says that Tap have "put this whole day in perspective. Too much perspective".

The criterion edition, last I heard, which was back in the early 2000's, was out of print and has the commentary as themselves, where the dvd commentary is done as the band basically ripping Marty DiBergi for doing a hatchet job on them.

That was one of the gags they used when they were interviewed in Guitar World in 1992. THey spent a couple paragraphs griping about "the hatchet job", saying they actually filmed five different shows, and DiBergi used the show where one of the pods didn't work. They also explain the reason they got together for a reunion was because they met up at Ian Faith's funeral, where they each figured maybe they might bump into one of their late manager's relatives, who could give them the money he owed them or whatever. I also recalling some riffing on Nigel supposedly having been asked by Keith Relf to play in one of his post-Yardbirds bands and a few other things.

I also have the broadcast version of The Return Of Spinal Tap, that recorded off whichever network, again back in 1992. It was a TV special, hosted by Martha Quinn, that had concert footage linked with interviews with not just the band but also most of the people who ewre in the movie, as well as a few other people. Mel Torme sings a bit of Sex Farm, as if it were a jazz standard, you just hear "Living on a sex farm" and then he starts scat singing, but it's funny. Jamie Lee Curtis talks about falling asleep the time she was Tap in concert ("loud music makes me drowsy", I think was her excuse). If I remember correctly, there was a VHS release that was 90 minutes long, whereas what I have is like an hour, including commercials.

We also find out in the Return Of Spinal Tap that Artie Fufkin now (well, "now" in 1992) runs Australia's first not quite 24 hour music video channel and refuses to play the Bitch School video. Marty DiBergi is shown sitting at a pay phone in the hallway of an office building, explaining that his office is being remodeled so this is where he's doing business while he's waiting for the builders to be done. Lt. Hookstraten informs us that how everyone remembers how bad Spinal Tap was when they played at the base that one time, with it being implied it affected his military career (you're not supposed to retire as a lieutenant, are you?).

Mime is money.

You remind me of Michael McKean towards Tony Hendra and mouthing the words "Who is she", when Fran Drescher starts schmoozing with the band members at the party, as if they're supposed to already know who she is. I always thought that was hilarious.

Funny, I think it was wiki I was reading a while back that said the Stonehenge thing was based upon Black Sabbath.

Yeah, a lot of people think that. But the Born Again tour was summer of 1983. This Is Spinal Tap came out in April, I believe, of 1984. The movie would have almost certainly been shot no later than spring 1983. And the Spinal Tap: The Last Tour short, which also has the Stonehenge gag in it, had to have been shot in sometime in 1982, if not earlier. So there's no way the Sabbath thing could have been the inspiration.

This is what the Wiki page for the Born Again tour has to say about the matter

The tour's early stages featured a dwarf, dressed to look like the demon-infant from the album cover. The dimension problems and use of dwarfs bear strong similarities to the infamous Stonehenge scene in the movie This Is Spinal Tap, released a year after Sabbath's tour. However, this is simply a coincidence, because the "Stonehenge scene" was in a 20-minute early demo of the film from 1982

Geezer Butler said "It was great when I saw that film, though, because it was at the end of that tour with Gillan… I thought they'd had a spy with us or something – it was so like us."

I happened to see that Sabbath show with the whole stage set. First time I ever saw Sabbath and it totally rocked. They had two monks come out and open up the front of the drum riser to reveal a very, very bright cross down there. So stupid it was cool.

I wish I could have seen that tour, if for no other reason than because Bev Bevan played on that tour. I've got a CD-R of a radio broadcast of one of the shows, I seem to recall it was pretty good, with them doing stuff from throughout the band's career up to that point, including a couple tunes from the Dio era.

That was the night when while flying from Vegas to Salt Lake City that Ian Gillan met Mitzee Dupree and hence the Deep Purple song came about. BTW that is a great DP song even if that album lacks a little. The last three songs on that album are stellar.

You're talking about House Of Blue Light. I think that's the only one of the Mark II lineup albums I've never owned. I have all the others, apart from a couple archival things that have slipped past my radar. I remember seeing House Of Blue Light in used record stores a couple times back in the late 80's, but somehow, I kept passing it over in favor of other stuff.

The thing I remember about House Of Blue Light was the video for the song Call Of The Wild, which is an ok song, nice melodic chorus but with some dumb lyrics. Anyway, the video hinges on the band refusing to make a video. Their "manager" calls each band member, starting with Ian Gillan, who at the start of the video is shown cackling, while talking to someone on the phone, he suddenly stops, says "NO!" and hangs up the phone. Cut to the other end of the line, the manager is on a soundstage, with musical instruments, and he tells the video director, "I told you, Deep Purple 'doesn't do' videos!". The director says, "What do you want me to do? Drag people off the streets?", and the manager says "Be my guest!".

Then the song begins, and we're introduced a parade of what we're supposed to be people who were "dragged in off the street", including a bag lady, a wino, a priest, a nun (who attempts to play the guitar with her teeth), a Temptations/Four Tops style vocal group, construction workers, kids etc, who proceed to mime/lip sync the song. Obviously, these are in reality just escapees from central casting, real people dragged in off the street wouldn't have been nearly as humorous. And as the video progresses, each of the other band members is called. Lord and Paice each say, "Video? No!", Roger Glover tells some people who are visting that the manager "Wants us to do a video", and he turns his attention back to the phone and promises to call him back. Blackmore is shown playing a Roland G-505 guitar, while a woman who's face we don't see answers the phone, she says "Video?", Ritchie gives her "the look" and she hangs up. Given RItchie's famous disinclination towards doing "promo" stuff, one wonders how much arm twisting it took to get him to do that.

Anyway, finally at the end of the video, as the song fades out, the entire band is shown sitting on a road case, in the back of the soundstage, and Gillan says, "See? You don't us at all!", and everyone starts laughing. It seemed clever at the time, but yeras later, I dug out the VHS tape I had with the video on it and I thought it looked dumb. It was an attempt to "shoot around" a band that one way or another didn't like making videos (the videos for Perfect Strangers itself and Knocking At Your Back Door would appear to back that up), with the results just being...I dunno, it's like a really bad sitcom or something. Like said, it's an ok song, wish they could have come up with better lyrics, but then, you're not listening to Deep Purple for the lyrics, are you? I know I'm not.

[GuitarGeek]

I apologize for that last post. I literally had to cut out half a sentence for it to post, because it was too long otherwise. I need to learn how to be more concise.

[Scott Bails]

I apologize for that last post. I literally had to cut out half a sentence for it to post, because it was too long otherwise. I need to learn how to be more concise.

You wouldn't be you if you were concise.

I say that with affection, Chris!