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oldbaton · 1 year

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Broadway Productions in Las Vegas

Ok I'm going to make a nerd post about Broadway shows in Las Vegas. In the first two decades of this century producers got it into their heads that Vegas should be ~the Broadway of the West~. So they opened a ton of sit down productions. (Sit down meaning a resident production of a Broadway staging versus a touring production which do also blow through Vegas). Almost all of these lost money. This is for a few reasons:

This is just not why people are in Vegas. They want a mindless cirque show.

Almost all of them were edited down to 90 mins to allow them to be intermissionless so people could go gamble. There are some notable exceptions like The Lion King. Other shows, like Avenue Q, started with both acts and later trimmed it down.

A casino is a much more complicated landlord than a traditional theatre owner like the Shuberts. I do not fully understand it, but from what I know the money is a lot more complicated and the flow of it is... weird. And it is more expensive.

Again, almost all of these lost money. The Phantom of the Opera: The Las Vegas Spectacular is the only iteration of Phantom to lose money in The United States as of writing. I made a list of shows that did this with some notes. I cannot say it is complete but I think it is pretty exhaustive. Also please note that while Broadway shows did do Vegas sit downs in the past (Hello, Dolly! did a staggering 14 shows a week in Vegas with Ginger Rogers AND Dorothy Lamour but that's another post), I'm exploring a specific phenomenon that happened so these are from the first two decades of the 20th century:

Chicago at Mandalay Bay 1999-2000 (With Chita Rivera as Roxie, Ute Lemper as Velma, and Ben Vereen as Billy. Holy Shit).

Mamma Mia! at Mandalay Bay 2003-2009 with a quick return engagement in 2014 at Rio

Hairspray at The Luxor 2006 (With Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur reprising their Tony winning performances)

Avenue Q 2005-2006 at The Wynn (With John Tartaglia and Rick Lyon. This is also another post, but Wynn made a deal with the producers that he would have the exclusive rights to this show outside of New York. A touring production only opened after Las Vegas closed due to this reason).

Phantom of the Opera: The Las Vegas Spectacular 2006-2012 at The Venetian (I saw this! Hal Prince actually directed this and helped trim it down. It was done in a custom built theatre with a six piece chandelier that assembled in midair. It was stunning. And because it is not a substantial show, it was its strongest when it was 90 minutes. Additionally, this is the first place where Sierra Boggess played Christine).

Spamalot 2007-2008 at The Wynn

The Producers 2007-2008 at Paris (With, stunningly, David Hasselhoff as Roger de Bris)

Jersey Boys 2008-2016 at The Palazzo and Paris (This is the longest running Vegas production ever. And, as far as I know, one of the very few to make back its money).

The Lion King 2009-2011 at Mandalay Bay (This is the other one I saw. Full show with an intermission. According to wikipedia, this is the longest running sit down production in the United States that The Lion King has had, surpassing its run in Los Angeles).

Rock of Ages 2012-2017 at The Venetian and Rio

Million Dollar Quartet 2013-2016 at Harrah's

As of this moment, I do not believe there are any others running. Nor will we see any soon. Occasionally, a show will do an extended tour stop to flirt with the idea (Priscilla Queen of the Desert did and decided to pass) but I do not think we will see any of them soon. The only shows I think may consider it would be Moulin Rogue! because of how well it goes with Vegas or Six since it already is a cheap 80 minute concert that could fit in a smaller casino hungry for a show. But what a wild and bonkers era of theatre right?

#broadway

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velvetdestroya · 3 years

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And I'll be granting your permission. 'Cause you haven't got a prayer. Gerard taking the stage July 31, 2009 at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood.

[photo credit; erik voake]

#mcr #my chemical romance #roxy theatre 2009 #my chemical romance 2009 #gerard way #gee way

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only-johnny-deppp · 2 years

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4 years ago, on January 16, 2018, Johnny attended and was one of the special guests on The Joe Perry & Friends show, at The Roxy Theatre, in West Hollywood, California.

On that day, Joe Perry was celebrating the release of his brand new solo album since 2009, the “Sweetzerland Manifesto” which has Johnny as executive producer and guest. Along him, Joe also had Robert DeLeo of “Stone Temple Pilots”, Gary Cherone of “Extreme”, Slash, Buck Johnson and more guests performing in a sold out show.

Johnny joined on stage in the middle of the show to play guitar in two new songs: “Eve of Destruction” (which on the album version has Johnny playing drums) and “I Wanna Roll” and later returned to close the show playing The Beatles’ “Come Together” with all guests on stage and the Tiny Bradshaw’s cover “Train Kept A-Rollin'” with Slash.

#Johnny Depp #Joe Perry #Joe Perry & Friends #Special Show #Special Guest #The Roxy Theatre #West Hollywood #California #Sweetzerland Manifesto #January 2018 #Guitar Player

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girlandherfandom · 3 years

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they say red-hair Gerard is the hottest, I beg to differ

Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood, California

August 1, 2009

#gerard way #gerard arthur way #gerard way photos #gerard way pictures #my chemical gerard #my chemical romance #mcr fans #mcrmy #my chem #mcr #my chemical gee #mcrx #killjoys #black hair gerard #i am dead #i am in love with this man

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theimpossiblescheme · 3 years

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I was inspired to make a list of all the swing cats I’ve come across in different productions, partially from a post @the-cat-at-the-theatre-door made. These are all the babies I was able to collect!

For the London swings, we have Greycat (who was apparently named Hysperia at one point), NBQ, AJ, Tabbygirl, Patches, a female and male version of Calico, Caramel, Victor, and the Walking Cover.

For the Broadway swings we have Spike, older versions of Greycat and NBQ and AJ, and a handful of nameless cats.

For the China 2012 production, we have Grumbuskin, Murad, Noilly Prat, Olivia, and Quaxo (the latter four have shown up in different productions such as the Australasia and World Tours).

The Gothenburg 2006 production gives us Isis, Ramses, Garbo, and Shakespeare. They also have swings named Agustus, Moses, Savannah, and Tintomara, but I was unable to find pictures of them.

The Warsaw 2004 production gives us Fraszka, Fantasia, Sierściuch, and Zyleta/Kocik le Miau. They also have swings named Angelika, Mamrotka, Turbo Ptys, Menello Bianco, and Kara Kotek, but they also don’t have pictures available.

The Tecklenburg 2015 production has a frankly ridiculous amount of swings, but the “main” ones--the ones who take bows with the main cast--have been named Rocketta, Eris, Barnaby, Buttons, Bonzo, and Mab (shout-out to @rumplteazer for coming up with them!). The rest are just part of the circus background chorus.

From the Thunerseespiele 2017 production, we have Ishtar, Luna, Roxy (based on a hashtag suggestion from the actress’s Instagram), and another handful of unnamed swings.

The 2003 World Tour gave us Jonathan.

And the 2009 Italian Tour gave us Caligola, as well as an unpictured swing named Paride who apparently resembles Asparagus with a Cassandra-style rolled wig.

If anyone knows of another other swings I was unable to find, or if anyone can find pictures of the others I mentioned, feel free to add on!

#cats the musical #swing cats #I have the awful feeling this isn't even a comprehensive list--curse my love of minor characters. XD #But yeah I hope everyone enjoys this! <3

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1962dude420-blog · 3 years

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Today we remember the passing of Toots Hibbert who Died: September 11, 2020 in Kingston, Jamaica

Frederick Nathaniel "Toots" Hibbert, OJ (8 December 1942 – 11 September 2020) was a Jamaican singer and songwriter who was the lead vocalist for the reggae and ska band Toots and the Maytals. A reggae pioneer, he performed for six decades and helped establish some of the fundamentals of reggae music. Hibbert's 1968 song "Do the Reggay" is widely credited as the genesis of the genre name reggae. His band's album True Love won a Grammy Award in 2005.

Hibbert was born on 8 December 1942 in May Pen, Jamaica, the youngest of his siblings. Hibbert's parents were both strict Seventh-day Adventist preachers so he grew up singing gospel music in a church choir. Both parents died young and, by the age of 11, Hibbert was an orphan who went to live with his brother John in the Trenchtown neighborhood of Kingston. While working at a local barbershop, he met his future bandmates Raleigh Gordon and Jerry Matthias.

Hibbert, a multi-instrumentalist, formed Toots and the Maytals in 1961. He could play every instrument used in his band and would later cite Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, and James Brown as key influences. According to Hibbert, Maytals is a reference to the Rastafari term for "do the right thing". There are also statements attributing the source of the name to Hibbert's hometown of May Pen. The band was originally a trio with Gordon and Mathias, and later added Jackie Jackson and Paul Douglas.

Much of Hibbert's early recorded output, such as "Hallelujah" (1963), reflects his Christian upbringing. He was also known to write about Rastafarian religious themes, and in an early Maytals song, "Six And Seven Books of Moses" (1963), he addressed the folk magic of obeah and its use of the occult literature of Biblical grimoires, such as the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.

The Maytals became one of the more popular vocal groups in Jamaica in the mid-1960s, recording with producers Coxsone Dodd, Prince Buster, Byron Lee, Ronnie Nasralla, and Leslie Kong. This success included winning Jamaica's National Popular Song Contest three times with songs Hibbert wrote: in 1966 with "Bam Bam", which won a national song competition, 1969 with "Sweet and Dandy" and 1972 with "Pomps & Pride"

The first Toots and the Maytals album released and distributed by Chris Blackwell's Island Records was Funky Kingston. Music critic Lester Bangs described the album in Stereo Review as "perfection, the most exciting and diversified set of reggae tunes by a single artist yet released." Chris Blackwell had a strong commitment to Toots and the Maytals, saying "I've known Toots longer than anybody – much longer than Bob Marley. Toots is one of the purest human beings I've met in my life, pure almost to a fault."

Hibbert also appeared in the groundbreaking Jamaican film The Harder They Come, in which his band sings "Sweet and Dandy". The film's soundtrack included the Maytals' 1969 hit song "Pressure Drop". The Harder They Come features fellow musician and actor Jimmy Cliff in the leading role as Ivan, a character whose story resembles Hibbert's.

On 1 October 1975, Toots and the Maytals were broadcast live on KMET-FM as they performed at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles. This broadcast was re-mastered and released as an album entitled Sailin' On via Klondike Records.

In 2004, Hibbert was featured in Willie Nelson's Outlaws and Angels. Hibbert carried on touring the world, and his band's True Love won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 2005. Nelson released a reggae album entitled Countryman (2005) which featured Hibbert on the song "I'm a Worried Man". Hibbert was also featured in the music video for the song, which was filmed in Jamaica.

In 2006, Toots and the Maytals covered Radiohead's "Let Down" for the Easy Star All-Stars album Radiodread, a reggae version of the English rock band's OK Computer. At the end of the year, Hibbert joined Gov't Mule for their New Year's Eve concert, documented in their Dub Side of the Mule release.

In 2009, Hibbert collaborated with MCPR Music and Steel Pulse's Sidney Mills, who produced Jamaican percussionist Larry McDonald's album Drumquestra. His track is called "What about the Children?" The same year he also performed vocals with Iowa reggae band Public Property on their album Work to Do.

In 2011, Hibbert was featured in the documentary Reggae Got Soul: The Story of Toots and the Maytals which was airred on BBC. Described as "The untold story of one of the most influential artists ever to come out of Jamaica", it features appearances by Marcia Griffiths, Jimmy Cliff, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Anthony DeCurtis, Ziggy Marley, Chris Blackwell, Paolo Nutini, Paul Douglas, Sly Dunbar, and Robbie Shakespeare.

In May 2013, Hibbert received a head injury after being hit by a thrown bottle during a performance at the River Rock Festival in Richmond, Virginia, U.S. forcing him to cancel several months of live shows. The bottle was thrown by William C Lewis. Lewis was facing a charge of malicious wounding, but he pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Despite Hibbert pleading in a letter to the judge, "He is a young man, and I have heard what happens to young men in jail. My own pain and suffering would be increased substantially knowing that this young man would face that prospect," the judge gave Lewis a six-month sentence.

After a three-year hiatus following the incident at the River Rock Festival, in 2016 Toots and the Maytals returned to the stage and began touring again. Hibbert's vocals appear in the Major Lazer and Bad Royale 2016 collaboration, "My Number", which samples his band's earlier song "54-46 That's My Number".

On 25 July 2018, Hibbert performed on the U.S. television show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with Toots and the Maytals where they debuted an original song entitled "Marley" as well as performing their classic hit song "Funky Kingston" in a live performance.

Toots and the Maytals have been cited as inspiration for other music artists as per career longevity. Jamaican artist Sean Paul explained this in saying, "I've seen some great people in my industry, you know, people like Toots…Toots and the Maytals. Toots, he's a great reggae artist and he's still doing it…He's up there in years and he's doing it. Those kind of artists inspire me. I know I'm just going to keep on doing music as long as I can."

In 2010, Hibbert ranked No. 71 in Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In August 2012, it was announced that he would receive the Order of Jamaica, the country's fifth highest honour

In August 2020, it was reported that Hibbert was in hospital "fighting for his life" in a medically induced coma. On September 12, 2020, a statement on the band's Facebook page announced that he had died, at the age of 77. The Gleaner and Rolling Stone later confirmed the announcement, reporting that Hibbert had died at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, in a medically induced coma. It was later confirmed that COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Jamaica was the underlying cause of his death.

#September 11 #2020 #Toots Hibbert #R.I.P.#Reggae

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brookstonalmanac · 3 years

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Events 3.11

222 – Alexander Severus becomes emperor of Rome, replacing his cousin, 18-year-old Elagabalus. The bodies of the assassinated emperor and his mother, Julia Soaemias, are dragged through the streets of the city and thrown into the Tiber. 1343 – Arnošt of Pardubice becomes the last Bishop of Prague (3 March 1343 O.S.), and, a year later, the first Archbishop of Prague. 1641 – Guaraní forces living in the Jesuit reductions defeat bandeirantes loyal to the Portuguese Empire at the Battle of Mbororé in present-day Panambí, Argentina. 1649 – The Frondeurs and the French sign the Peace of Rueil. 1702 – The Daily Courant, England's first national daily newspaper, is published for the first time. 1708 – Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from the Scottish Militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation. 1784 – The signing of the Treaty of Mangalore brings the Second Anglo-Mysore War to an end. 1845 – Flagstaff War: Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hone Heke, Kawiti and Māori tribe members chop down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drive settlers out of Kororareka, New Zealand. 1848 – Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government. 1851 – The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice. 1861 – American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted. 1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England. 1872 – Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; it is located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain. 1879 – Shō Tai formally abdicates his position of King of Ryūkyū, under orders from Tokyo, ending the Ryukyu Kingdom. 1888 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400 people. 1917 – World War I: Mesopotamian campaign: Baghdad falls to Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Frederick Stanley Maude. 1927 – In New York City, Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the Roxy Theatre. 1941 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan. 1945 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2. 1945 – World War II: The Empire of Vietnam, a short-lived Japanese puppet state, is established. 1946 – Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, is captured by British troops. 1977 – The 1977 Hanafi Siege: Around 150 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join negotiations. 1978 – Coastal Road massacre: At least 37 are killed and more than 70 are wounded when Fatah hijack an Israeli bus, prompting Israel's Operation Litani. 1981 – Hundreds of students protest in the University of Pristina in Kosovo, then part of Yugoslavia, to give their province more political rights. The protests then became a nationwide movement. 1983 – Bob Hawke is appointed Prime Minister of Australia. 1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, making Gorbachev the USSR's de facto, and last, head of state. 1990 – Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union. 1990 – Patricio Aylwin is sworn in as the first democratically elected President of Chile since 1970. 2004 – Madrid train bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain, kill 191 people. 2006 – Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as the first female president of Chile. 2009 – Winnenden school shooting: Sixteen are killed and 11 are injured before recent graduate Tim Kretschmer shoots and kills himself, leading to tightened weapons restrictions in Germany. 2010 – Economist and businessman Sebastián Piñera is sworn in as President of Chile. Aftershocks of the 2010 Pichilemu earthquake hit central Chile during the ceremony. 2011 – An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. 2012 – A U.S. soldier kills 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar. 2020 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares COVID-19 virus a pandemic.

#Events

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brucespringsteen · 4 years

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what are in your opinion Bruce's best live recordings / concerts?

i gotta think about live recordings but here’s some of my favorite shows...

The Main Point, February 5, 1975 - you can hear history in the making thats all i will say about that

Hammersmith Odeon, 1975 - bruce thinks this was a bad show but it has its place in e street history. and it really captures where the band was at the time.

Brendan Byrne Arena, New Jersey 1984 - peak born in the usa tour and the energy is insane

Nassau Coliseum, 1981 - the new year show! its fun and exciting

Mountain View, CA 1988 - peak tunnel of love tour. i’m speechless about it

The Christic Shows 1990 - the best vocal performances from bruce

East Rutherford 1993 - roll of the dice... the end of the human touch tour and appearances from steve, max, southside johnny....and....clarence comes out during tenth avenue and the ENERGY

Belfast 1996 - grace & intensity the whole night

Madison Square Garden, New York, July 1, 2000 - the reunion tour 💛 this performance of blood brothers came from this show

Schottenstein Center, Ohio 2005 - the d&d tour produced some of the most beautiful arrangements and this show is the epitome of them

i think the darkness tour deserves its own list

The Agora, Cleveland, 1978

Winterland, San Francisco 1978

Capitol Theatre, Passaic 1978

The Roxy, Los Angeles 1978

honorable mentions

Boston, November 19, 2007 - danny’s last show 💕

Milan, June 28, 2003 - final night of the europe rising tour and the crowd is wild. this makes one of my dreams to see bruce in italy

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 2006 - first stop for the sessions tour and it’s a special one

Buffalo, New York November 22, 2009 - the greetings album is played in full.. and this was c’s last show ❤️

Memorial Sports Arena, 1981 - “a night for the Vietnam veteran”

East Rutherford, August 20, 1984 - steve joins for a cover of “drift away”

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clacclo · 4 years

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Live at The Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood, 07/07/1978:

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ADAM RAISED A CAIN

In the summer that I was baptized

my father held me to his side

As they put me to the water

he said how on that day I cried

We were prisoners of love, a love in chains

He was standin' in the door I was standin' in the rain

With the same hot blood burning in our veins

Adam raised a Cain

All of the old facesask you why you're back

They fit you with positionand the keys to your daddy's Cadillac

In the darkness of your room

your mother calls you by your true name

You remember the faces, the places, the names

You know it's never over it's relentless as the rain

Adam raised a Cain

In the Bible Cain slew Abel

and East of Eden he was cast

You're born into this life paying

for the sins of somebody else's past

Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain

Now he walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame

You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames

Adam raised a Cain

Lost but not forgotten, from the dark heart of a dream

Adam raised a Cain

Live at the Olympic Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden, 1988:

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Live at the Olympic Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden, 28/05/1993 (acoustic version with sub ita):

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Live in Boston, 22/08/1999:

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ADAMO ALLEVO' UN CAINO

Nell'estate in cui fui battezzato

Mio padre mi teneva al suo fianco

Quando mi misero nell'acqua

Disse quanto piansi quel giorno

Eravamo prigionieri dell'amore, un amore in catene

Lui era in piedi sulla porta, io in piedi nella pioggia

Con lo stesso vecchio sangue che ci correva nelle vene

Adamo allevò un Caino

Tutte le vecchie facce

Ti domandano perchè sei tornato

E ti mettono nella posizione di tuo padre

Con le chiavi della sua Cadillac

Nel buio della tua camera

Tua madre ti chiama con il tuo vero nome

Tu ricordi le facce, i posti ed i nomi

Sai che non è mai finita, è inesorabile come la pioggia

Adamo allevò un Caino

Nella Bibbia Caino ammazzò Abele

E fu scacciato dall'Eden

Sei nato in questa vita

Pagando per i peccati che altri hanno commesso in passato

Papà ha lavorato per la sua intera vita ricavando niente altro che dolore

Ora cammina per queste stanze vuote cercando qualcosa da incolpare

Tu erediti i peccati, ed erediti le fiamme

Adamo allevò un Caino

Perso ma non dimenticato dal cuore oscuro di un sogno

Adamo allevò un Caino

Live at The Paramount Theatre 2009:

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Live in Seattle 2016:

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#adam raised a cain #bruce springsteen #e street band #darkness on the edge of town #1978 #musica #musica rock #rock #classic rock #rock music

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rocksbackpages · 5 years

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New for RBP subscribers this week

“I have all our reviews divided up into Good, Bad and Worse. The bad reviews are a lot more fun to read...”

— Van Halen's David Lee Roth (1980)

PLUS pieces on...

• The Beatles (1963) • Lulu (1965) • Stevie Wonder (1965) • Scott's Scott (1967) • Donovan (1967) • Big Brother & Holding Co. (1968) • CSNY @ Winterland (1969) • Pete Townshend (1970) • Charlie Rich's Tears (1971) • Jerry Garcia (1972) • Diana Ross @ Albert Hall (1973) • Mike Oldfield (1974) • Allen Toussaint's Nights (1975) • Dr. Feelgood (1976) • Wild Cherry @ Roxy (1977) • Jefferson Starship (1978) • Chic's Risqué (1979) • Theatre of Hate live (1981) • The Waitresses (1982) • Gwen Guthrie's Portrait (1983) • Howard Jones (1984) • The Blasters live (1985) • The Bangles (1986) • Madhouse's 8 (1987) • Europe (1988) • Alyson Williams @ Dominion (1989) • Homophobia in music (1990) • Tad's Santa (1991) • Producer Paul Fox (1992) • Dina Carroll live (1993) • Johnny Cash (1994) • Emmylou Harris' Ball (1995) • The Mercury Music Prize (1996) • Oasis @ Earl's Court (1997) • Tony Bennett (1998) • Celine Dion's Christmas (1999) • A&R scouts (2000) • Albums of the year (2001) • Underworld's Karl Hyde (2002) • Todd Rundgren's Todd (2003) • Graham Coxon (2004) • Pajo's Pajo (2005) • Gnarls Barkley (2006) • Flying Burrito Bros. (2007) • Paul Weller (2008) • Guster @ Orpheum (2009) • Talking Heads (2010) • The Grammys (2011) • Gaz Coombes (2012) • Primal Scream's Light (2013) • Beyoncé (2014) • Marky Ramone (2015) • XTC's Andy Partridge (2016) • Bob Dylan @Palladium (2017) • Chris(tine) live (2018) • Fred Foster R.I.P. (2019)

• Subscribe and become an RBP member

#Van Halen #david lee roth #todd rundgren #the beatles #underworld #talking heads #johnny cash #xtc #Music Journalism #crosby stills nash and young

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Terminator 2 at 30: How Guns N’ Roses Created the Perfect Hype

https://ift.tt/3y90I2n

As far as blockbuster sequels go, Terminator 2: Judgment Day remains widely hailed as one of the best, having constructed a skillfully expanded spectacle without indulgently redefining the original premise. Yet, the film had to be sold to the public going into its July 3, 1991 wide release, which was nearly seven whole years after the first film cemented the superstardom of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fortunately, a partnership with rockers Guns N’ Roses yielded a theme song in “You Could Be Mine” that would effectively convey the film’s intensity and attitude. Thirty years later, the song remains an indelible part of the revered sequel.

While fan-magazine-read sci-fi cinephiles saw Terminator 2 coming from the time the film’s tightly-scheduled principal photography commenced in October of 1990, the sequel was a surprise to the general public when its first teaser trailers ambushed big screen audiences. After all, this was a time before the prevalence of the Internet (specifically YouTube,) made the frequent release of trailers into a commonplace, slow-burn promotional strategy. Thusly, the $102 million-budgeted film had to rely on theatrical trailers and television spots, which had effectively spoiled the film’s narrative notion of Schwarzenegger’s new T-800 being the hero this time around, poised to battle Robert Patrick’s groundbreaking, visually-perplexing T-1000. However, the still-thriving music video realm of MTV (and the radio-fueled Billboard Hot 100) would provide an additional platform for the film’s promotional pièce de resistance: a music video theme song. But, what?

The Terminator franchise’s returning director, James Cameron—who had since pulled off an amazingly up-scaled sequel feat by following up Ridley Scott’s masterpiece with 1986’s Aliens—was subverted by suits from distributing studio Tri-Star Sony, who unilaterally acted on the idea that the film needed a music video of some kind. As the director recounted in an interview collected in The Ringer’s recent Terminator 2 oral history piece, “[T]hey’re saying, ‘Well, we’ve got to do a music video.’ And so, they go to Arnold—they didn’t talk to me—and they say, ‘We want you in a music video with some act.’ Arnold says, ‘OK, look, if you’re going to do a music video, you get the biggest band in the world. I don’t even care who they are.’ They flip open Billboard: ‘Guns N’ Roses makes sense. We’ve got a rose in the movie and bloody guns. Good, do it.’”

Consequently, it would be star Schwarzenegger himself—not Cameron—who would first foster the film’s partnership with Guns N’ Roses, who had essentially been picked out of a Billboard magazine based purely on their current position. However, Guns N’ Roses were indeed the hottest rock band in the world of the time, and, fortuitously enough, they were moving toward the September 17, 1991 dual release of the ambitious “Use Your Illusion I & II” albums. Thusly, Terminator 2’s usage of “You Could Be Mine” (from “Use Your Illusion II”) would advantageously attach the film to the debut single from the albums, which were the long-awaited first proper new material from the band—notwithstanding low-key compilation-released songs “Civil War” and a cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” both of which would be included on the “Use Your Illusion” albums—since the stratospheric success of 1987’s “Appetite for Destruction” and 1988 live/acoustic album “G N’ R Lies” had fully digested on the charts in 1989. The connection made the film’s release a true multimedia event, which was about as good as promotional material got during that era.

Unlike other famous chartbusting soundtrack songs directly inspired by their films, “You Could Be Mine” was not written specifically for Terminator 2. Interestingly, the song, written by Axl Rose and imminently-outgoing guitarist Izzy Stradlin, was a throwback composition from the “Appetite” era that didn’t make the final cut. This explains why the song lyric, “With your bitch slap rappin’ and your cocaine tongue you get nothin’ done” almost presciently appeared in the liner notes of the 1987 album. However, the band’s inclusion was cemented after they were courted for a private screening of the film. As Schwarzenegger recalls in the oral-history-collected interview, “We had a specific screening, it was just for us, the cast, James and myself, and Guns N’ Roses. I think that Axl Rose was extremely impressed. I remember him going to Jim and saying, ‘I’m in.’”

Fatefully, “You Could Be Mine” was on tap as the hard-driving debut single for their then-upcoming dual album event. The song’s lyrics may be topically divergent from Terminator 2’s apocalyptic time-crossing cybernetic warfare—instead a seedy Los Angeles story of a destructive relationship with a cocaine-addicted rock groupie—but the song’s hard-driving tempo and Axl Rose-imbued swagger make it a tonal match for the actioner. The song was prominently featured in the film, serving as the brash musical backdrop to the introductory scene of Edward Furlong’s John Connor, who throws shade on his imminently-doomed foster parents before riding off on his motorbike for a spree of ATM-scheming and arcade splurging. In essence, the song was John’s defiantly-loud theme song, representing his imminent transition from delinquent to post-apocalyptic leader.

This idea, of course, would become evident with the music video over which the whole partnership was based. With the single itself having dropped on June 21, 1991 (editor-in-chief Mike Cecchini and myself have recounted similar warm memories of owning the song’s cassingle), the video manifested under the auspices of veteran music directors Jeffrey Abelson and Andrew Morahan, along with the late effects wizard, Stan Winston. Yet, it was a conceptually simple clip, in which Guns N’ Roses are playing a concert that gets an intruder in Schwarzenegger’s T-800, who’s there to terminate the band!

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The “You Could Be Mine” video was put together with footage taken from a Guns N’ Roses 1991 concert performance at New York’s Ritz rock club edited against the footage of T-800’s ominous approach toward the stage, mixed with movie-promoting material from the film’s trailer, notably its inclusion of the now-iconic “hasta la vista, baby” line. Of course, the most memorable part of the video occurs after Axl reaches the song’s high-note killer coda, at which point we see the band finally intercepted by their cybernetic pursuer while trying to leave the concert venue; an exterior scene that, according to guitarist Slash, was actually shot outside L.A.’s Roxy Theatre. However, the chase ultimately proves futile, since a scene through the killer’s mechanical infrared point of view reveals that killing the band—specifically Axl—would be a waste of ammo, thereby ending the confrontation with an awkwardly anti-climactic—albeit hilarious—detente.

Ultimately, “You Could Be Mine” became a signature tune for Guns N’ Roses. The song peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 9, 1991 at #29 (mind you, at a time in which such a feat reached far more people than it does today), and lasted 15 weeks on the charts. Moreover, it became a Top 10 hit globally and even reached #1 in Finland and Spain. It remains intrinsically associated with not just Terminator 2, but the film franchise as a whole, evidenced by its nostalgic usage in 2009’s post-apocalypse-set Terminator Salvation, in which Christian Bale’s grizzled adult John Connor plays the song on an old boombox to lure a Moto-Terminator for a quick hotwire job.

Likewise, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was properly hyped by the success of “You Could Be Mine,” notably with the visual promotion by the video’s constant rotation on MTV that summer. Partially propelled by that momentum, the film went on a worldwide box office tear, breaking records and going on to gross a global total $520 million (which, adjusted for inflation, would be $1.027 billion). Notwithstanding resolute fans of the first film, the sequel remains widely revered as the best entry in the franchise (we won’t go over the sad, divisive state of the franchise’s subsequent entries) and, in 2017, even received a major 4K 3D overhaul—notably with digitally updated effects that, for example, edited Schwarzenegger’s face onto his stunt double in some key scenes.

Indeed, fully-vaccinated moviegoers who were too young or just missed out on experiencing the film on the big screen would be well-advised to check local theaters for 30th anniversary screenings. As the song in question pertinently says, “Now holidays come and then they go. It’s nothin’ new today. Collect another memory.”

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