I hope we have some classic rock fans here -- and if you're not into classic rock, perhaps you can just give it a try, anyway.
Years ago I was introduced to Pink Floyd and the astounding fact that many of their albums can be watched with classic films. Most notable is The Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz -- it is
perfect. And even more, I love The Wall with Alice in Wonderland -- which is probably because Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Anyway, ever since then, I've combined music with film... I like to do it intelligently... for instance, I like to watch Lord of the Rings while listening to Led Zeppelin. In case you are unaware, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were
huge fans of the Lord of the Rings books and many of their songs and lyrics were inspired by events and happenings in the literature. In fact, their song "The Battle of Evermore" is
entirely about a chapter in The Return of the King. So it's fun to watch the films that were inspired by the books along with the
music that was inspired by the books.
With that said, I needed some tunes to watch Brokeback Mountain with. But what? Well, it was an easy choice. Favorite film of all time that defines itself as a 60s period piece... ahem, what better than my favorite band of all time, which is the overall definition of the 60s -- oh, yes, The Beatles.
Now, the question was... which albums do I go with. I wanted to do some hardcore legitimate defining Beatles albums... and so the first one that came to my mind was Abbey Road. Which, I honestly felt, kept with the same mood of the summer on Brokeback Mountain. And, while I'll be getting to this soon, I must say... I was absolutely right.
I've been trying to get an entire running length Beatlemaniac track going... but I'm falling a little bit short. Mainly because I'm so set on getting the Let It Be album in there. I'm convinced that Let It Be has to close the last act of the film... because Jack has a line where he says, "let it be" ... and I think that the title track which closes the album would be perfect for the "Jack, I Swear" conclusion. So... I've been trying mighty hard to get a middle-act album that not only fits time-wise... but mood-wise, as well. I found an album that went pretty well, which was Sgt. Pepper. However, I ran a mere five minutes shy of the total running time for the film. If one of the albums just had
one extra song on it, I would have been good. Just one!
Thinking about it now... perhaps I can throw a single in the filler spot... something defining like "Hey Jude" or something. (a little bit longer than five minutes, but it could work).
Hmmm... while I have yet to really perfect my second and third acts, I want to let everyone know about this. Listening to Abbey Road while watching the Summer of '63 is absolutely
amazing. It's so wonderful and I encourage everyone to give it a try. Abbey Road is quite possibly the greatest album ever made... and you're listening to it with the greatest film ever made. It allows me to just soak in the beauty of the imagery, too -- which we all know and love.
Just to give you a few off-the-cuff memories from my viewings (yes, plural) of Abbey Road with the Summer of '63... the opening track on Abbey Road (if you aren't aware) is called "Come Together" and it plays during the exchangeless "meeting" of Jack and Ennis. Imagine this... Jack hops out of his truck and his eyes undress Ennis as he leans up against the trailer shading his face with his hat... and John Lennon is singing... "he's got to be good lookin' 'cause he's so hard to see."
And for those of you who are a bit worried... I want to assure you that the second tent scene has a great song with it. You'll be pleased to know that the saliva-strand kiss is accompanied by the lyrics, "one sweet dream came true, tonight."
And, oh! Oh! The "roping" scene that precedes the two bloody shirts... it's got this killer guitar solo that plays over it -- and I'll be honest, I was watching Brokeback Mountain this evening with the actual dialouge and I'm serious when I say that the actual film should have that guitar solo playing with it because it is
that perfect! -- Oh, and when Ennis takes the punch to the nose, John Lennon just happens to say his little ad-lib, "oh, look out!"
There's a lot of little things throughout the Summer of '63 like this. And at worst, you're getting to watch some beautiful imagery while listening to one of the greatest rock albums ever released. If you're interested at all, I merely synced up the clocks of my DVD player with my CD player. I started the album at 0:00:00 the same time as the film -- you know, just before the logo with the car driving down the winding road. It's that simple.
Hopefully I can find a way to get the entire film with some Beatles' tunes. Until then... enjoy the Summer of '63 -- it so wonderful with Abbey Road.
