Pop Culture from an Alternate Dimension

  To continue with the 1960s I present another movie from 1969. Unlike the last one that was written, produced and directed by Anthony Newley to showcase himself, this one was written, produced and directed by Carl Reiner to showcase his friend Dick Van Dyke. The Comic  is about a silent film comedian narrating his life and talking about his bad breaks, the flashbacks however show that he was the problem. The "modern day" parts are drama, but it has clips of the character's old movies where you can see Van Dyke doing classic slapstick. Michelle Lee played Billy's wife and Mickey Rooney played a fellow silent comedian. Here is a clip that shows some of "Billy Bright's" work:  Dick van Dyke - The Comic (1969) - video Dailymotion

  I've done fictional bands of '80s before and now I have thirteen fictional '60s bands. Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher appear again as Spinal Tap (before they went heavy metal) and those three are also here as The Folksmen. Eric Idle's Beatles parody, The Rutles, had to be included. Eric Idle also makes an appearance with Peter Noone as London's Bridges from an episode of "Laverne and Shirley". From the tv series "Gilligan's Island" I used their Beatles parody, The Mosquitoes. I have Frankie Avalon as Potato Bug from Bikini Beach . I chose a different Wonders song instead of the title track of That Thing You Do . From other movies about fictional musicians I used Grace Of My Heart , Eddie and the Cruisers , Walk Hard, the Dewey Cox Story and  Inside Llewyn Davis.  Peter Cook makes an appearance as Drimble Wedge singing (?) "Bedazzled" from the movie of the same name. The Singing Sixties - YouTube

I have a feeling very few people know about this movie. I only knew about it because my mother owned the soundtrack on LP. Two years after Anthony Newley was in the family musical Doctor Dolittle  he produced, directed and co-wrote this musical that was rated X when it was released in 1969. The full title is Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?  which is a very sixties title. In 1964 there was Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb as well as The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies . In 1967 there was  The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade . If you have seen the Monkees movie Head,  directed by Bob Rafaelson, you know the kind of surreal movies made in the late sixties. This is very surreal but it seems like Newley was basing it on personal experiences....

  Some people that know me have been surprised by some of the bands I have included on my blog. Considering when I did the New Edition the only song I remembered by Bell Biv DeVoe was "Poison". Which brings me to today's post: Poison. Not a band I am associated with but thought deserving of a post. Most of the songs are from lead singer Bret Michael's solo album Songs of Life , primarily "Party Rock Band" where he reunites with C. C. DeVille. I chose two songs from Rikki Rockett's album Glitter 4 Your Soul , (which had fellow Poisoner Blues Saraceno) "Tear It Down" has Bret Michaels on lead vocals and "Life's a Gas" which has Rikki singing lead. To wrap up the album I put in "Something to Believe In #2" from Poison's 2003 album Best of Ballad's and Blues  which was mostly a collection of previous works but this song was a total reworking of a previous song ("Something to Believe In") with new lyrics and...

  In the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap , David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) says he listens to classics on tape read by actors with the same last name as the authors. I designed what I thought the ones he mentioned would look like if they existed, plus I added one of my own.