Elton John, The Measure of a Man, End Credits of Rocky V

Posted in Elton John, Fun and Crazy on July 5th, 2011 by Willie


Yesterday was July 4th, and the movie channel AMC celebrated by having a Rocky marathon. I’m a sucker for the Rocky movies. The original Rocky (1976) is clearly a masterpiece. It was subtle, bleak, realistic, hopeful, and filled with great original characters. Rocky II continues the tone of the first, but is more serialized and a little bit redundant. Rocky III and onwards are full blown cartoons of 80s excess. The worst movie of the bunch, Rocky V, is an absolute train wreck of a movie. In 2010, Stallone admitted he made the movie out of greed.  In an attempt to make Rocky more of the everyman he originally was, they radically change his life. First off, Rocky loses all of his money on account of Paulie (Burt Young) making some bad investments. This forces Rocky to move back to the Philly inner city with his family and start over. If I remember correctly, even Adrian (Talia Shire) goes back to work for the pet store she worked at in Rocky I. Insane. All Rocky would have to do, considering he established himself as the greatest American boxer ever, is make a few endorsements and he’d back on his feet financially. Anyway, Rocky begins training some stupid young boxer, his kid Rocky Jr. (Stallone’s real life son Sage) begins to resent him, and it ends with Rocky kickboxing Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison) all over the streets of Philly. It’s incredibly bad. However, the one thing that always got to me about Rocky V were the end credits. It’s a montage of all the Rocky films up to that point, with Elton John’s “Measure of a Man” playing in the background. The song, in proud Rocky tradition, is sappy, sentimental, cheesy, and overblown. Still, like the Rocky movies, its kind of touching and very memorable. I had no idea that this was Sir Elton until this morning when I looked it up. I also didn’t know this song was nominated for a Golden Raspberry for worse song in a movie…it lost…Hah! Well, to me, this is proof that the song isn’t that bad, so I’m sticking on my website despite the haters.  Enjoy.

PS: Youtube won’t let me embed the version with credits on my website, but I do have a link to it if you want to see the famous Rocky montage, just click these words.

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My Top 100 Youtube Favorites, a Retrospective, Part 3

Posted in Youtube Favs on June 29th, 2011 by Willie

We knocked off 100-50, now its time to begin rounding off the list of my 100 favorite youtube videos with part 3.  In this list you’re gonna find a lot of amazing super groups, all-star pair ups, and ultra rare collaborations!  Let’s begin the magical mystery tour right now!

#49.  John Lennon, Jealous Guy – I dig this video because of John’s ruminations on the philosophy of love right before he launches into the song.

#48.  Louie CK on Late Night With Conan O’Brien – Appropriate because Louie’s genius show Louie began its second season last week.  Don’t miss that.

#47.  Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Mean Woman Blues/Blue Suede Shoes – They were still young, and they were still thin, and of course they could still rock.

#46.  The Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever –  My favorite Beatles song, when I was 17 years old. Read more »

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George, Elton, Eric, Ringo, While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Posted in Elton John, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Youtube Favs on March 28th, 2011 by Willie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stepping up to part 25 of my youtube countdown, we visit some old friends reuniting in the 1980s.  George Harrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynn from ELO, and even Phil Collins all got together to play George’s legendary White Album classic, While My Guitar Gently Weeps.  Not only does this concert take place in the 80s, the song is incredibly “80s-ified” featuring very synthy digital sounding guitars, and booming hollow drums and the like.  Also, everyone is dressed to remind you its the 80s, especially Eric, in his horrible, yet rad checkerboard jacket over his electric yellow shirt.  Plus, you can’t ignore the scumbag 80s mullets everyone has too, legendary.  Still, despite the washed-upedness of everything, this is still incredible and you should watch it over and over, especially for the awesome dueling guitar scenario between George and Eric.  Fabulous.  Also, what the hell is up with Ringo’s face in this video?   It looks like he just mugged 5 people on the way to the concert hall.

 

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