strangers on a train: dual version edition dvd
strangers on a train (restored british version) vhs
strangers on a train: hollywood version vhs
– (1951) director-alfred hitchcock. farley granger, robert walker, ruth roman. the tracks of this treasured feature run through almost everything i do. triggered the early tune “farley granger on a train,” which no one will ever hear again. honest. visited location sites during the recording of “assman.”
mars needs women vhs
– (1968) director-larry buchanan. tommy kirk, yvonne craig, byron lord. basically the same as frankenstein meets the space monster, but this time, the martians go to strip clubs instead of the beach. mentioned in “assman.”
this gun for hire vhs
– (1942) director-frank tuttle. alan ladd, veronica lake, robert preston. film noir at its best. veronica lake lip syncs to “i’ve got you right where i wanted you,” and “now you see it, now you don’t.” tried to recapture the feel of these songs in my tribute “veronica lake is missing.”
sullivan's travels vhs
– (1941) director-preston sturges. joel mccrea, veronica lake, william demarest. sturges’ “tug at the heart strings” comedy classic. mccrea tries to experience hobo life as a preparation for the film “oh brother, where art thou.” veronica lake says “take me with you,” and gives me another line for “veronica lake is missing.”
white zombie dvd
white zombie vhs
– (1932) director-victor halperin. bela lugosi, madge bellamy, joseph cawthorn. lugosi’s masterpiece. just as much an influence (if not more so) on “not john barrymore” as svengali.
magic
– director-richard attenborough. anthony hopkins, ann margret, burgess meredith. creepy ventriloquist story. anthony hopkins gives his wooden heart to ann margret, and to me to implant into the song “let my hair.”
the abominable dr. phibes dvd
the abominable dr. phibes vhs
– (1971) director-robert fuest. vincent price, joseph cotton, caroline munro. classic horror-art film. price keeps munro in suspended animation while terrorizing the men who put her in such a state. lines from “kill the thing you love” originated here.
the addams family dvd
the addams family vhs
– (1991) director-barry sonnenfeld. angelica huston, raul julia, christina ricci. tv show conversion before saturation cycle. cardboard cutouts of the cast inspired “interactive cardboard,” and the character wednesday addams appeared in an earlier tune “zero news team.”
help! dvd
help! vhs
– (1965) director-richard lester. the beatles, leo mckern, eleanor bron. underrated beatles film echoes through all that i do. i find myself speaking in lines from the film all the time. kaili!
plan 9 from outer space dvd
plan 9 from outer space vhs
– (1956) director-edward d. wood, jr. tor johnson, bela lugosi, vampira. the worst movie of all time, as it is lovingly known. influential more in approach than in content, but then again, plan 9 has probably had an impact on my use of the language.
ed wood vhs
- (1994) director-tim burton. johnny depp, martin landau, patricia arquette. the method behind the madness is revealed, and tim burton is the only man worthy to tell the tale. I watch this religiously every october 10th (wood's birthday) in a marathon of wood films. an excellent film!
carnival of souls dvd
carnival of souls vhs
– (1962) director-herk harvey. candace hilligoss, sidney berger, frances feist. eerie cult classic. hilligoss’ estranged behavior is definitely an influence on the relationship situations in many of my songs, and harvey’s menacing mystery man also wanders through my work.
invasion of the body snatchers dvd
invasion of the body snatchers vhs
– (1956) director-don siegel. kevin mccarthy, dana wynter, carolyn jones. must be seen in widescreen to absorb the masterful cinematography. the aliens’ vision of life without emotion built the foundation of an earlier work, “corporate anthem.”
the day the earth stood still vhs
– (1951) director-robert wise. michael rennie, patricia neal, hugh marlowe. sci-fi masterpiece. not only the backdrop during the recording of “assman from outer space” but also backdrop in my personal philosophy.
a clockwork orange dvd
a clockwork orange vhs
– (1971) director-stanley kubrick. malcolm macdowell, patrick magee, adrienne corri. kubrick’s brilliant adaptation of anthony burgess' futuristic vision of anarchy. nadsat, the language of the film, was used in the earlier song “the pyrovigilant,” and I've also built a song around some of the lines in the film in the song "homeways."
slacker vhs
– (1991) director-richard linklater. independent cult classic. another that inspires in approach rather than content. the idea of handing off the focus of the film from vignette to vignette is sheer brilliance.
slaughterhouse-five vhs
– (1972) director-george roy hill. michael sacks, ron leibman, eugene roche. kurt vonnegut’s story comes to life. the adventures of billy pilgrim wormed their way into an earlier work, “time is now.”
the black cat vhs
– (1934) director-edgar g. ulmer. boris karloff, bela lugosi, david manners. atmospheric deco-thriller. i’d be giving away the ending if i told you how this film affected “this is who i thought i was today.”
children shouldn't play with dead things dvd
children shouldn't play with dead things (letterboxed collector's edition) vhs
– (1972) director-benjamin “bob” clark. alan ormsby, anya ormsby. ren-fest caliber acting troop hash out one too many bad one liners and wake the dead. the emerging ghouls are the “what’s that in the ground” in “do i.” i also think of this film when robyn hitchcock sings "have you met my dead friend, seth" in "driving aloud." the lead dead man was played by seth sklarey.
storefront hitchcock dvd
storefront hitchcock vhs
- (1997) director-jonathan demme. robyn hitchcock, deni bonet, tim keegan. speaking of the devil's henchman, hitchcock performs acoustically and electrically in a vacant nyc storefront, weaving a tapestry of bizarre tales in between in the traditional hitchcock fashion. this will most definitely tickle your soul.
watch me jumpstart vhs
– director-banks tarver. guided by voices. tarver takes you to dayton, ohio, for an inside look at the 1996 incarnation of lo-fi’s kings. robert pollard gives insights into his method of writing on the toilet, misreading signs for song ideas, and drive-in liquor stores.
mystery train dvd
mystery train vhs
– (1989) director-jim jarmusch. joe strummer, nicoletta braschi, screamin’ jay hawkins. jarmusch’s look at memphis, tennessee, and elvis’s impact on its visitors and inhabitants. three hilarious stories bound together by a single gunshot in a run-down hotel, with hawkins at the check in counter.
bedazzled vhs
- (1967) director-stanley donen. peter cook and dudley moore's hilarious comedy extravaganza of the devil's recruitment techniques. i could have sworn I'd blown my raspberry into one song, but i can't remember what one. beware the horrific remake!
barton fink vhs
- (1991) director-joel coen. john turturro, john goodman, july davis. the coen brothers surrealistic comedy of a playwrite sucked into the hollywood machine. very much inspired my writing of prose at the time, which is inevitably linked to my lyric writing. steve buscemi's "chet" is one of the funniest creations in screen history.
trust vhs
- (1991) director-hal hartley. adrienne shelley, martin donovan. a hal hartley film is like a well written song, probably because he writes the films' scores, and this is what i believe to be his finest. it's all in the pacing. this is what i try to achieve in my songwriting, really.
the creeping terror vhs
- (1964) director-art j. nelson. vic savage, shannon o'neill. the absolute worst. giant, man-eating carpet devours all of angel county while its deputy enjoys newly wedded bliss. the tension during the search for "bobby" inspired some early production work.
the incredible shrinking man vhs
- director-jack arnold. grant williams, randy stuart, paul langton (plankton). great saturday afternoon sci-fi viewing. williams is exposed to a radioactive mist and begins to decrease in size. a childress family classic which inspired the microscopic outlook of "within a million miles of you."
fantastic voyage vhs
- director-richard fleischer. stephen boyd, raquel welch, donald pleasance. perfect sci-fi for 4:30 viewing, as it was a 4:30 movie staple on wabc-tv. scientists are shrunken to microscopic size to perform surgery from within a man's skull, and do battle with the immune system. another childress family classic that also inspired the miniaturized outlook of "within a million miles of you."
it came from hollywood vhs
- director-malcolm leo. gilda radner, john candy, dan aykroyd, cheech and chong. the film that launched a hundred films. if it weren't for this comedic look at "b" movies, a good chunk of the crap-o-phonic catalog would never have been written. they're all here: monsters, aliens, apes, giants, small people, and a touching tribute to the king, edward d. wood, jr.
invaders from mars vhs
- director-william cameron menzies. jimmy hunt, arthur franz, helena carter. classic tale of little boy vs. outer space. another one of those films that kind of runs through everything I do. you will LOVE the martian leader, a sort of octopus man inside a glass ball, and the martians' visible zippers.
the fearless vampire killers, or: pardon me, but your teeth are in my neck vhs
- (1966) director-roman polanski. roman polanski, jack macgowran, sharon tate. sharon tate stars in husband polanski's black comedy with jessie robinson, who starred in magical mystery tour the following year with the beatles, who the year after that recorded the infamous white album, which the year after that inspired charles manson to have his family kill sharon tate, which makes this a very beatlesque film indeed. has the same "saturday matinee" sort of feel as the christmas that almost wasn't and the russo-finnish co-production jack frost, but much sexier!
freaks vhs
- (1932) director-tod browning. wallace ford, olga baclanova, leila hyams. browning's classic tale of freak-show freaks' revenge on gold-digging acrobat. I used a classic still from freaks on the cover of the syd sartre cassette clique.
the trouble with harry vhs
the trouble with harry dvd
- (1955) director-alfred hitchcock. john forsythe, shirley maclaine, edmund gwenn. hitchcock's immortal classic about the dead body "harry," and the adverse effects he has on a small new england village. used a still from harry on the cover of the early, early cassette zombie picnic and other tales from the void.
them! vhs
- (1954) director-gordon douglas. james whitmore, james arness, edmund gwenn. sci-fi gem in which giant ants infest the desert, and then move in on the sewers of los angeles. it was probably the edmund gwenn link (and the giant ants, of course) that prompted me to use a still on the cover of zombie picnic and other tales from the void.
cape canaveral monsters vhs
- director-phil tucker. scott peters, linda connell, jason johnson. if joe meek made monster movies, this would certainly be one of them. a transistor radio plays a very important part in the battle against aliens bent on destroying the united states space program. they conduct evil experiments, as well, including chin replacement surgery. The first movie to graphically depict two people "sleeping together."
american beauty dvd
american beauty: the awards edition vhs
- director- sam mendes. kevin spacey, annette bening, thora birch. multiple academy award winning tale of the not-so-average american family and the father's demise into muscle cars, fast food and death. inspired lines in the upcoming tune "low leader," written for a tentative chris maruzzelli project.
they saved hitler's brain vhs
they saved hitler's brain dvd
- director-david bradley. walter stocker, carlos rivas, nestor paiva. lo-fi filmmaking at its best... or is it worst. the people at rhino have finally brought us this classic film, which started out as a beautifully photographed story of nazis keeping hitler's head alive in south america, but sadly, laid around for a few years until extremely low budget producers got a hold of it in 1964 and stitched it together with ultra-cheap footage. rent or buy rhino videos every day!
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