Top Ten or so “Rock N Roll Threat” Notes (by Howard Hampton)
greilmarcus.substack.com
Top Ten or so “Rock N Roll Threat” Notes (by Howard Hampton)
Howard Hampton sent this in as a response to the Real Life Rock Top 10 item on Jeffrey McCarty’s video for Foster Timms’s “Rock N Roll Threat.” He says (and shows) a lot that I didn’t.
1. NATIONAL ENQUIRER HED: “Rock’n’Roll Lovechild Bombshell: Secret Hollywood son of Sally Timms and Loudon Wainwright Revealed. Shocking exclusive photos!”
2. Julie Christie’s Eyes
3. "Saints disguised…”
4. …as Rock Dreams murals
5. “I’ll catch a break”
6. “Or catch my death”
7. “Cracking wise”
8. “Holy jokes”
9. “I’m still….”
10. …trying to believe these images are from a 2004 feature the video’s director made, The Ballad of Ponyboy (starring Foster Timms himself), not an abandoned Monte Hellman film from the ‘70s.
10a. Last shot is from Warhol screen test:
10b. Favorite juxtaposition:
10c. Trivia that turns out not to be quite true: The Paul LeMat shots are from Floyd Mutrux’s Aloha Bobby and Rose; I thought what a great footnote that Gail Mutrux is still active as a producer, only she didn’t actually work that movie. However, what the hell, she’s listed as executive producer on Slow Horses, which features a hilarious theme song by Mick and a hilariously dissolute Gary Oldman as what Jagger’s character in Performance might become if he’d joined MI5 after the mic drop of “Memo From Turner.”
My man-in-the-street review: I laughed, I cried, I watched my dream life flash before my eyes…
That's not Cher, it's Grace Slick! Never thought someone could extend Ray Davies's joke in "Better Things" — where he pretends not to be able to come up with the meter or rhyme and settles for "very best of chorus-es, too" — for an entire brilliant song. I look forward now to exploring the oeuvre of Forest Timms, fellow rock star manqué.
The shot of Kurt Cobain is from a show filmed in December of 1993 for an MTV special called Live and Loud. They are at the end of their encore, “Endless, Nameless,” where they smash all their instruments. By clapping his hands in that fashion, and with the sarcastically gleeful expression on his face, Kurt seems to be making fun of the crowd for their enthusiastic applause. Seeing it after his suicide, I couldn’t help but wonder if that moment was an indication of how dissociated he was by that point.