It Ain't Me
I saw a Time-Life infomercial last night. It was about this new C.D. Box Set. It's called FLOWER POWER. But it's in a different font. The letters look PSYCHEDELIC. It's got all of the greatest songs of the 1960s. Peter Fonda was in it. I don't actually know what Peter Fonda did before he got into infomercials, but now he wears a leather motorcycle racing jacket and talks about the olden days. Before everything got so uncool.
Anyway, It had that "If You're Going to San Fransico" song on it, which I just realized is actually a good song. I'd never heard of that song until I heard the Forest Gump Soundtrack in grade 7 or 8, and even when I did I thought it was kind of bad; but then when I heard it last night, I liked it. It makes me want to rent a classic auto and hit the road for Frisco. Go 49ers! Trolley! Alcatraz!
The Forest Gump Soundtrack changed my life. It was the soundtrack that defined a generation. What a time to be alive, the 1960s-1970s. Everytime I hear "Fortunate Son" I think of being dropped out of a chopper in the jungles of Nam. Same with the other songs. All of them make me think of that.
Will we ever have a Forest Gump Soundtrack of our own? I can't tell you that. I'm no movie executive. But I'm still curious: in the future, will there be a movie about how Tom Hanks is linked to the newsworthy events of the 1980s and 1990s? Do you think they could do that? I do. Tom Hanks repatriates the constitution on a napkin in a diner, goes to Poland, becomes Lech Walesa, and all the other stuff that happened. It ends with the Accountability Act. No more problems. That's a movie. Roll cameras. Action. Lights.
Anyway, I wonder what would be on the soundtrack. I'm thinking definitely something off the Forest Gump Soundtrack.
Any other ideas?
I wouldn't mind hearing some Red Hot Chili Peppers. "The Power of Equality", maybe. Or How about some U2? In They could play "Mysterious Ways" when they introduce the love interest. And a Dave Matthews Band song during the softwood lumber dispute.
Hey, here's a question: what song would you play for the 9/11 scene? Life is a Highway? "Hard to Handle" by the Black Crowes? Something like that?
Not me.
Personally, I'd play "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" by the Jeff Healy Band. It'd be cool. I'd just superimpose the video over grainy footage of wreckage and people running and all that jazz. And then I'd superimpose the words "Jeff Healy 1959-2008" (or whenever it was) over that. Yeeahhhh.
If I were a highschool/Intro Film teacher, that's what the 1st assignment would be. I'd tell them to go find existing footage of the destruction & aftermath and edit it to a song of their choosing. Wouldn't that be a good assignment? You'd get an automatic 100% if you could do it in a way that didn't make everybody completely uncomfortable. Plus, I've always wanted to teach young people about the horrors of war.
War is terrible. It's a lose-lose for just about everybody involved. And even when you win, there's insurgency.