Celebrity Jukebox #60: Diane Ladd

I will readily admit that Diane Ladd means more to me as the mother of Laura Dern than as an actress in her own right. Probably that’s down to my age – Laura, who’s just a few years older than me, appeared in some of the most important films of my youth, particularly the David Lynch triple bill of Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart and Inland Empire.

Diane appeared alongside her daughter in two of those movies, and elsewhere, most memorably playing Laura / Lula’s crazy, lipstick-smeared mother, Marietta Fortune, in Wild At Heart.

Sadly, Diane’s name doesn’t appear in any songs I could find, so I went looking for songs relating to some of her most famous roles. Of course, there’s Chinatown, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (!), but the one I settled on was a little-remembered Burt Reynold vehicle from 1973.

Why that one, you ask?

Well, because it gives me the excuse to play three excellent versions of the same song. Firstly, the original, written and recorded by one J.P. Richardson, aka The Big Bopper, back in 1958. 

The Big Bopper – White Lightning 

A few months later, the legendary George Jones took the tune to Number One on the US country charts. Sadly, The Big Bopper never got to appreciate its success as he died in the same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens... just 6 days before George Jones’s version was released.

George Jones – White Lightning

Fast-forward thirty odd years to 1990 when Mark E. Smith decided to release his own unique interpretation… initial copies came with a free miniature bottle of “White Lightning" Tequila.

I know this will be a controversial statement, but I reckon some of the best tracks The Fall ever recorded were cover versions…

Anyway, this seemed like as good a tune as any to play in tribute to Diane Ladd. This whole world's wild at heart and weird on top.

 

Saturday Snapshots #10 - The Answers

Almost a complete sweep this week, guys... just one title you couldn't figure. (We obviously missed Martin!)



10. Dancing with a young Tom Hanks; goes well with French cream... and arsenic!

Dancing is bopping.

A young Tom Hanks appeared in the film Big.

French cream might be Chantilly.

Arsenic & Old Lace.

Like Alyson, who guessed this one from the clues, I had no idea The Big Bopper looked like this until quite recently.

Helllloo baby!

The Big Bopper - Chantilly Lace

9. Pidgin Creole, getting better with Barrett.

Pidgin & creole are types of "Broken English".

If you're getting better, you might be Coming On.

Barrett Strong wrote some of the greatest Motown songs ever.

Broken English - Coming On Strong

Well done to Alyson again, even though she didn't know the song at all. More on these guys shortly in the second edition of Gone Too Soon.

8. Pygmalion on acid, queen of the exploding stars.

Pygmalion = My Fair Lady

Acid is measured by pH.

The queen is Elizabeth.

Exploding stars go supernova.

Liz Phair - Supernova

Chris & The Swede pieced this one together.

(That was the most tasteful picture of Liz Phair I couldn't find on the internet. She's not exactly shy.)

7. Paradise gets down: it'll all be over soon.

Paradise island is just off Nassau in the Bahamas.

Get down and get funky!

It'll all be over soon...

The Beginning of the End - Funky Nassau

Top work from a tipsy C & late Lynchie.

6. The Great Bear Detective & The Case of the Finnish Goth Pronoun.

Rupert Bear + Sherlock Holmes...

HIM is a goth rock band from Helsinki. (They do a pretty cool version of Neil Diamond's Solitary Man.)

Alyson had a good week this week, but I knew this pic would pose her no problems.

Rupert Holmes - Him

5. Put the needle on the record, Mary!

The Virgin Mary is the Madonna.

(Was she ever so young and innocent?)

Well done, Chris.

Madonna - Get Into The Groove

4. Unicycle thieves get stck.

Unicycle thieves would steal just one wheel.

stck needs a U in the middle to become stuck.

Stealer's Wheel - Stuck In The Middle With You

More points for Alyson! She's got to be this week's winner.

3.  Generic pressure.

Shortest clue ever, snapped up by Charity Chic.

A generic band would be called The Band.

Pressure is weight.

The Band - The Weight

Take a load off, Annie.

2. Baby goats wear a short-sleeved shirt while visiting the studio of the lion.

Baby goats are kids.

MGM + a T-shirt

MGMT - Kids

Top work, Chris.

1. Freddie and a short vicar watch a film without Batman.

Freddie Mercury + a short Reverend = Mercury Rev

Well done, Swede.

Perhaps the title clue was a bit too tricky though.

There's a Batman film called The Dark Knight Rises. If Batman is the knight and we lose him...




Apologies for not visiting all your blogs this week. Hope to catch up soon!

My Top Ten Telephone Call Songs

You may have spotted a recurring theme over the last few weeks... There were far too many telephone songs for one Top Ten, so I've tried to group them into some more specific categories. (I know, I spend far too much of my life thinking about this, don't I?)

Anyway, here's ten songs that feature actual telephone conversations... mostly.


10. Meri Wilson - Telephone Man

By popular demand... honest.

Look, she's gossiping on the phone in the video. It fits here as well as it would in any of my other phone-based Top Tens. Let's just get it out of the way, shall we?

9. Shelby Lynne - Telephone

I never really thought you would answer.
Now it's a big blown up thing.
I wish you hadn't been at home when the telephone rang.
When the telephone rang.

8. The Wedding Present - It's For You

David Gedge gets well pissed off when his girlfriend's ex keeps calling up...

No, it’s for you but then you didn’t need me to say that
‘Cos you already knew, how many times is it today that
He’s had to call? 
It’s as if you’re still together
I don’t care at all, 
I’m just wondering whether
You think you and he will ever run out
Of things that you have to talk about?

7. Jonathan Richman -  I'm Straight

Jonathan has seen the object of his affections hanging round with that loser Hippy Johnny... so he calls her up and offers to take his place. Hippy Johnny's always stoned... but Jonathan's straight. Honest.

6.  The Dead Kennedys - Kinky Sex Makes the World Go Round

In which the US Secretary of War calls up the British PM and outlines his plans for a nice war. This was released in the mid-80s... a decade or so later, Tony Blair took the very same call for real.

5. REM - Star 69

There's a lesson here - don't call Michael Stipe without leaving a message. He'll know it was you... and call back, mad as a box of frogs.

I know all about the warehouse fire
I know squirrelies didn't chew the wires
Three people have my number
The other two were with me.
I don't like to tell-tell but I'm not your patsy.
This time you have gone too far with me.

If you're in the UK and you want to know who just called you, you may try 1471 by Arab Strap. I can't find a link to that though.

Still, having included both *69 and Arab Strap in the same post, I'm bound to get a few more hits...

4. Billy Joel - Sometimes A Fantasy

Haunted by a schizophrenic badboy version of himself, Billy (or is that Sly Stallone?) calls up his girlfriend in the middle of the night... the symbolism suggests a heavy bout of phone sex... but then again, it might all be in his head.

I used to like this song... having now watched the video for the first time, it scares the hell out of me. 

3. Department S - Is Vic There?

No, he's out, sorry.

Call back later.

2. Lou Reed - New York Telephone Conversation

Lou gets woken up by the phone... and a most inane conversation follows.

1. The Big Bopper - Chantilly Lace

"Hellllloooooo, baby!"

The only thing I really knew about the Big Bopper was that he recorded this excellent rock 'n' roll song (used to great effect in Tarantino's True Romance) and that he died in the same plane crash as Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. The one thing I didn't know about The Big Bopper was that he was a white guy who looked like Peter Parker's old school bully, Flash Thompson. With a voice like that, I always pictured a black Fats Domino type... and I see from youtube that I wasn't alone in that misapprehension.




I have still got a few telephone songs to feature, but they'll have to wait a while. Meantime, which call would you take... and which one would you let go to the ansaphone?