Minutes of a conversation with my granddad, 05/08/06
I'll reply to everyone's comments and journals later, but this needs recording.
Granddad: Do you remember Nick Kamen? Briefly famous for that Levi's advert where he took his jeans off in a laundrette to the tune of 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine'?
Me: Oh yeah, I remember.
Granddad: He released a single after that, can you remember what it was?
Me: No.
Granddad: Could you look it up on Ask Jeeves or something? The lads at work asked me and I didn't know, and they always go to me for music questions. "Let's ask Jack, he'll know" I always get them, but this one I was stumped. I thought they were going to say Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds when they said his name.
Quick note: Kamen's debut single was a Madonna-penned track called Each Time You Break My Heart. Granddad reasserted his music-buff credentials when watching an advert featuring a song he correctly pegged as being by Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
Me: Yeah, I did too. Or that other favourite band of mine, Nick Cage and the Pointless Wicker Man Remake.
Granddad: Ah! You say this every time about Nic Cage, and then when we see the film he's good in it.
Me: Yeah, that's true. He's probably very good in it - it's got to be a bit easier for him than having Oliver Stone drop the World Trade Center on his head - but my delicate constitution can't take a remake of The Wicker Man. As ideas go, it's at the summit of Mount Pointless.
Laughs. We begin listening to the piped music in the cinema, a funky blues number of unknown origin.
Me: Sounds like someone with taste's hijacked the music desk.
Granddad: Aye. Stuart Maconie played some good stuff [on Radio 2] this afternoon too.
Me: Yeah, I was very happy to hear 'Veronica' by Elvis Costello. And that Isley brothers track...
Granddad: That was excellent!
Me: And you know me, a bit of Morrissey always goes down well.
Granddad: Mmm... I know that, y'know, generations have grown up with him, but I've never got anything out of Morrissey. I could listen to Echo and the Bunnymen, james, the Cure, but never his stuff.
Me: Oh! Just when you mentioned Echo and the Bunnymen there, I heard Owen Wilson do your old joke the other day?
Granddad: Which one?
Me: The one where, if Ste [his son] was playing Echo and the Bunnymen, you used to wind them up by asking whether this was Echo singing, or whether it was one of his Bunnymen?
Granddad: Oh aye?
Me: Steely Dan accused Owen Wilson of stealing the narrative of one of their songs for his new film, and he wrote a very courteous letter back addressing them as "Mr. Steely Dan".
He laughs.
Granddad: I used to do that for the Jesus and Mary Chain too. "Is this Jesus or Mary singing right now?" Always got him wound up...
The projector starts. The first two trailers are for World Trade Center and Snakes on a Plane.
Granddad: I think both of those movies could be usefully combined.
Me: Snakes in the World Trade Center? You're going to hell for that...
Granddad: Do you remember Nick Kamen? Briefly famous for that Levi's advert where he took his jeans off in a laundrette to the tune of 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine'?
Me: Oh yeah, I remember.
Granddad: He released a single after that, can you remember what it was?
Me: No.
Granddad: Could you look it up on Ask Jeeves or something? The lads at work asked me and I didn't know, and they always go to me for music questions. "Let's ask Jack, he'll know" I always get them, but this one I was stumped. I thought they were going to say Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds when they said his name.
Quick note: Kamen's debut single was a Madonna-penned track called Each Time You Break My Heart. Granddad reasserted his music-buff credentials when watching an advert featuring a song he correctly pegged as being by Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
Me: Yeah, I did too. Or that other favourite band of mine, Nick Cage and the Pointless Wicker Man Remake.
Granddad: Ah! You say this every time about Nic Cage, and then when we see the film he's good in it.
Me: Yeah, that's true. He's probably very good in it - it's got to be a bit easier for him than having Oliver Stone drop the World Trade Center on his head - but my delicate constitution can't take a remake of The Wicker Man. As ideas go, it's at the summit of Mount Pointless.
Laughs. We begin listening to the piped music in the cinema, a funky blues number of unknown origin.
Me: Sounds like someone with taste's hijacked the music desk.
Granddad: Aye. Stuart Maconie played some good stuff [on Radio 2] this afternoon too.
Me: Yeah, I was very happy to hear 'Veronica' by Elvis Costello. And that Isley brothers track...
Granddad: That was excellent!
Me: And you know me, a bit of Morrissey always goes down well.
Granddad: Mmm... I know that, y'know, generations have grown up with him, but I've never got anything out of Morrissey. I could listen to Echo and the Bunnymen, james, the Cure, but never his stuff.
Me: Oh! Just when you mentioned Echo and the Bunnymen there, I heard Owen Wilson do your old joke the other day?
Granddad: Which one?
Me: The one where, if Ste [his son] was playing Echo and the Bunnymen, you used to wind them up by asking whether this was Echo singing, or whether it was one of his Bunnymen?
Granddad: Oh aye?
Me: Steely Dan accused Owen Wilson of stealing the narrative of one of their songs for his new film, and he wrote a very courteous letter back addressing them as "Mr. Steely Dan".
He laughs.
Granddad: I used to do that for the Jesus and Mary Chain too. "Is this Jesus or Mary singing right now?" Always got him wound up...
The projector starts. The first two trailers are for World Trade Center and Snakes on a Plane.
Granddad: I think both of those movies could be usefully combined.
Me: Snakes in the World Trade Center? You're going to hell for that...