Ep. 207 - The Songs Bands Doubted Became Their Biggest Legends and Accidental Anthems

I chase the stories behind massive classic rock hits that almost didn’t happen, from “joke riffs” to last-minute album fillers. Then I pivot into how movies and TV lock songs into our brains and why 1980s films still set the standard for action, sci-fi, and cult classics. 
• Sweet Child O’ Mine starting as a warm-up riff 
• Don’t Stop Believin’ as slow-build cultural glue 
• Songs permanently linked to movie and TV scenes 
• Paranoid written fast to fill runtime 
• Under Pressure as chaotic improv that stuck 
• Metallica’s hesitation around personal lyrics 
• Dream On as a slow-burn power ballad 
• Jeff Lynne’s perfectionism and the “missing” feeling 
• Best 80s movies picks and hot takes 
• Blade Runner fandom and the power of soundtracks 
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Transcript

Pre-Show Tech Check

Scott McLean 2:00

I think we can push me you know I always gotta check these things when you do this by yourself. You just gotta check. Make sure everything is a okay. You know, I always gotta check these. That's me. Just gotta check. Check, check, check.

Welcome And Livestream Banter

Scott McLean 2:45

What's everybody? Welcome to the podcast. You know what name, not gonna say it. Streaming live right now of everything. Patty Yassi, first one in to the live stream. Uh, she says, I was just in the middle of part two of my Vets Connection podcast. It's all one word, V-E-T-S connection podcast. Find it on YouTube and all podcast platforms, Spotify, Apple, yada yada yada. I uh had interviewed I don't know, what is it, seven of my friends that I was stationed with 40 years ago at Clark Airbase in the Republic of the Philippines. And uh very interesting stories, some tragic stories. Uh yeah. But in the end, it's all good. Uh we've been getting together for 30 years, reunions for 30 years. So I thought it was about time I got them uh recorded. So it was a two-potter. And yeah, so there you go. Well, what do we got this week? Let's get right into it. Enough about me. Let's talk about me. Uh let me bring this up. You know what? Over here, let me do something over here so I can. Alright. Do I want to put the chat? No. Yeah, I always debate on this. I'll show the chat. Alright, then you know when I do this, I have to check the overlay. So it it used to be so simple. All settings. Uh let's go with background. Alright, that's better. People can see it if I give it a little opaquity. Opacity? Is it opaque? Opaquity? Alright, that's good. Let's go back to the chat. Let's see what's going on here. Alright. Yeah, yeah, let's get to our first story here. What do we got? You know what I do. You're gonna get the reaction video. See, but that overlay is in the way. I don't like that. I don't like that. Let me see how this looks. Alright, this one you can still see what's going on. Alright. You know what? Let's go. It's not gonna make a difference. And to full screen, it's not gonna matter. Alright, I'm just gonna get into it. Alright, here we

Classic Rock Anthems As “Filler”

Scott McLean 5:44

go. Seven classic rock anthems bands thought were a filler. This ought to be interesting. As you know how this goes, I I see the headline and I don't indulge the article until I bring it up here live. So what you hear is what what I hear for the first time, what I read. Alright, classic rock history has a funny way of rewriting itself. Once a song becomes untouchable, blasted through stadium speakers for decades, streamed hundreds of millions of times, hundreds of millions of times, folded permanently into pop culture, it starts to feel inevitable. Like everyone involved instantly recognized greatness the second it came together in the studio. That almost never happens. Some of the biggest songs in rock history began as afterthoughts, rehearsal jams, runtime fillers, what tracks bands barely argued for at all. Labels missed them, artists under underestimated them. In some cases, musicians were so close to the material they genuinely couldn't hear what would eventually connect with millions of people. And honestly, maybe that's part of why these songs lasted. None of them sound reverse engineered for mass appeal. They feel loose, accidental, human. The imperfections stayed intact because nobody was treating them like sacred masterpieces while they were being made. Most of the bands were focused on entirely different songs they assumed would carry the album. That disconnect between perception and legacy is what makes these stories so fascinating decades later, I agree. Because once a song becomes woven into culture itself, it's almost impossible to imagine the people who created it hearing anything ordinary, but they absolutely did. And we'll start with probably the bit one, all right, maybe the top three, one of the top three biggest songs of the 80s, Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child of Mine. The opening riff to Sweet Child O'Mine now feels almost mythological. One of those guitar parts so recognizable, it practically exists outside the song itself. But according to Slash, the riff originally started as a joke while warming up during rehearsal is not how it always happens. So let's get a note here. Slash despised the opening rift for years. He wasn't trying to write a hit, he was doing a string skipping technical exercise to warm up his fingers, basically a musical joke. He was reportedly annoyed when Axel Rose started writing lyrics to it, calling it a circus melody. I can hear that. I can see that. Yeah. The band slowly built around it without immediately treating it like a future classic. That casual beginning makes a song's eventual legacy even stranger. Sweet Child of Mine became Guns N' Roses' only number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains one of the defining rock songs of the 80s. Like I said, I'd say it's in the top three, maybe biggest songs of the 80s, right? It launched literally a mega group. Uh, all from a riff. Nobody initially took that serious. All right, here we go. Right to the comments. Jesus. Ah, big head Todd Red Sprockett. He says, I'm here at the tame me. You know, he's text, he sent me a text. I hate the word texted. I don't think it's a word. Texted. Texted. I think it's a made-up word. People say he texted me. I don't know. I don't say it. I don't like saying it. It slips every once in a while. Because my illiteracy slips out every once in a while. If you think I'm taking a shot at you, well, so be it. Why can't you just say he sent me a text? He texted it to me. He sent me a text. Okay, let me see. He texted it to me. He sent me a text. It's only a one-word difference. It's not even a word. It's A. A. The word, the letter A. So people get it right. Just like it's not February, it's February. Look at the spelling. You've heard me go over this with Jack a hundred times. You people need to get your shit together. Okay? Now you now he's got me all off track. And he says, glad you're back. But now that I dogged him for being a pain in my ass, I'm sure something's gonna happen. Jim Harris, King of the Villages. Checking in. What's up, buddy? Alright, here we go. Don't stop believing, Journey. Would you think that that was a filler song?

When Songs Get Stuck To Movies

Scott McLean 10:48

Is that the biggest song of the 80s? I believe it was the most downloaded song for the longest time. I think it was the first one to a, I don't know, like fucking 100 million or a billion or whatever it is. Today, Don't Stop Believing feels like less a song feels less like a song and more like permanent infrastructure. Can you not? Okay. Before I go any further with this, when you hear this song, can you not at this point in time think of the sopranos? Did that ending of the sopranos leave a different footprint on your brain with this song? Think about that. Of the Sopranos that pops up in that song. I just believe so. There are certain songs that are tagged into movies that um you just you just hear them and you think of the movie. Let me see if I can do something here. Hold on one second. Let's go. Um I'm gonna do something here. And tell me if this song, another journey song, I'm gonna use my phone. I'm just gonna put it up to the mic, has not imprinted, have a new had had a footprint on your brain when you hear this song. What do you got in here, Rox? Are you kidding? When I was your age, I would lock 50 pounds of ice, up five, six bites of stead.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

So what? So what? So let's dance, dance. Right?

Scott McLean 13:02

Does that song not bring Caddyshack to mind when you hear that? Anyone from the 80s? Anybody? Anybody? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Right? So there's certain songs that that are attached to movies, attached, and I think Don't Stop Believing is permanently attached to the ending of The Sopranos. I could be wrong. Uh not to me. I never liked that song. The Music Relic Show, I think that's wait a minute. I think that's that's that's light fingers, Perry Dedovich, the AI. He's in now, he's in, he comes in now under at Music Relic Show. Go listen to the Music Relic Show. I love plugging my friends. I love plugging my friends. Go listen to them. It's a lot more deep dive than me. That's for sure. Perry does a good job putting that show together. And they all hang together. They've been doing it for a while, like I have. Much respect. Mark, Lou, and Perry. Perry, Lou, and Mark. Perry, Mark, and Lou. I have to do a different horse because each week, that's the thing about Music Relish. They have it, they there's three of them, and each week each one hosts. Like next week, Lou will host. The following week, Mark will host, then Perry will host, then it cycles back again. And the funny thing is, I know the behind the scenes stories. Perry's laughing right now. The behind the scenes stories. And sometimes they get into it right there on the show. It's like, this is my episode. It's pretty funny. It's pretty funny. But it's a good show. Go listen to them. Anyway. Not to me. I never liked that song. Well, did you like The Sopranos? I mean, if even if you liked the song, you didn't like the song, Perry. Did you see the ending to The Sopranos? And again, it's inevitable that somewhere you're going to play something on either the radio or Sirius, and you're going to hear that song. And well, the Sopranos. Okay, here we go. Don't stop believing feels less like a song and more like a permanent infrastructure. Sports arenas, karaoke bars, streaming playlists, television, television finales. See? See? It somehow became unavoidable without ever really disappearing. What's easy if I get is that its dominance happened gradually. Upon release in 1981, imagine that, came out in 81. The track wasn't viewed as an obvious defining centerpiece of Journey's catalog. Over time, it simply refused to go away, eventually becoming one of the best-selling digital songs of the 20th century and one of the most streamed classic, see, classic rock tracks ever made. See, I know my stuff. I know things. I'm smart. I'm not stupid like everybody says. I'm smart. And I want respect. So give it to me, music relics. Give me that respect. All right. Paranoid,

Black Sabbath’s 25-Minute Hit

Scott McLean 16:12

Black Sabbath. Okay. One of Heavy Metal's foundational songs reportedly came together because Black Sabbath needed another track to help complete the runtime. You know what? I think Perry Dedovich probably knows this too. They all know everything over there on that other podcast. Help complete the runtime of their 1970 album. That's what I, you know, that's what I miss about Lou. Lou always had these little, when me, him, and Mark would do this, when they were nice enough to come on this show, uh, Lou always had these little nuggets. He had these little nuggets that every once in a while he would drop in there, these little did you know's or things like that. So uh uh, you know, again, props to Music Relish. Mark would contribute to. I can't go without mentioning Mark. Mark has his had a lot of moments. So uh Paranoid was written quickly in the studio and initially treated more like a practical solution than a defining artistic statement. Note, Black Sabbath's biggest hit was written in literally 25 minutes. The band finished the rest of the album, and the producer told them, I've heard this story before. They were three minutes short. Tony Iomi strummed the riff while the rest of the band was at lunch. By the time they got back, the song was finished. They almost didn't include it because they thought it sounded too much like a pop song. What? What? What? Let me see something. Come on. Uh paranoid. Oh, come on, don't do this to me, sir. Not my library. Go over here.

unknown 17:53

Fucker.

Scott McLean 17:54

See, someone sent me a text right in the middle of doing this. Fuck me all up. Paranoid. Here we go. This is a pop song? What were they thinking? A pop song? Well, you know what? Back then. Back then, back in the 70s, in the early 70s, mid-70s, I think, you know what? There was a lot of uh kind of really heavy rock on the radio, and that was probably considered pop type until it started to shift into like, you know, uh, you know, like boy band, not boy bands, that that came later, but you know, like soft rock, and then the bubblegum music came along. I mean, who sent me a text? Hi, if you have a minute, could use your insight. I'm doing my live stream podcast right now. Yeah, okay. Uh, the irony now feels almost absurd. What started as a fast filler track became the band's signature song, and one of the blah, blah, blah. Under

Queen, Bowie, And Cultural Hype

Scott McLean 19:20

the pressure, Queen and David Bowie. I'm not, I'm just not a big I like the song. I never loved the song. I don't know. You know, I I think there's this thing. I think there's this thing that people feel. Oh, okay. You know what? I I I saw a a meme early, like, I don't know, about three weeks ago, maybe a month ago, and it said, I now have permission to not like you too because I found out that everybody, not everybody loved you too, and I thought everybody did. Everybody thought everyone else loved you too. That's why they loved you too. Right? Think about that. Everybody thought everybody loved you too until they realized that not everybody loves you too. So now I don't really have to love you too. I'm not saying that. I'm saying, and I think it goes for queen. I think people just think queen, oh queen, oh queen, oh, Freddie Mercury, oh queen. Like everything they touched turned to turn to platinum. I don't know about you, but I did realize at a certain point that go listen to a queen album. A queen album, when it gets released, or when it got released, had one, maybe two, at the most three, and that's rare, hits on those albums. They were not a like front to back, song to song, all great songs. There's a lot of songs you'll never hear on the radio. We've never heard on the radio. Queen was good to put out a big hit, and then the album would sell off of that. And maybe they threw out an album like, I don't know, Night at the Opera or, you know, whoever. Whatever. Day at the Races. By the way, their names were after Mox the movies made by the Mox brothers. Uh, but they didn't have a lot of hits on their songs. Big Head Todd says, uh, people think just because it's Bowie, it's mandatory, you have to love everything he does. I change the channel whenever Bowie has played. Now, I I'm gonna I'm gonna, okay, that, and that's your choice. I I I will never argue with you on that. Because you can't really argue with somebody over their taste, who they like, who they don't like. I'm not gonna try to sell at this point in time, you know, David Bowie, the big head taught. I'm not gonna try to prove, oh, but, but, but. But David Bowie had a lot of fucking great songs on all of his albums. Like he would have really great. Good songs on those albums. Queen was just like, to me, other than the hits, they're not they're not memorable. They're not memorable. Songs. And I and I dare anybody to name, you know, give me fucking give me 10 big hits by Queen. Right? Okay, and then you'll give me 10, and I'll say, but how many albums did they put out? I don't know. Maybe it's just me. But this under pressure thing, I I was I was a do I was a Bowie fan when I was fucking 10. So yeah. So I always loved David Bowie. Uh Under Pressure wasn't definitely not calculated a calculated masterpiece. It was a beautiful, wine-soaked accident born from a 24-hour marathon sweat session in Switzerland. David Bowie and Queen were just jamming and experimenting to see what they what would stick. The session was famously chaotic, chaotic, fueled by ego and alcohol, with Bowie reportedly taking over the mixing desk. He was good at that, though, and clashing with the band over the song's direction because it was born from pure improv improvisation rather than a mapped-out plan. It was initially viewed as a loose throwaway experiment that might not even see the light of day. Here you go. On a note, the song's iconic bass line was almost lost forever. After a long night of jamming and a heavy lunch break, bassist John Deacon completely forgot the riff he had created. That was a liquid lunch, I think. Thankfully, drummer Roger Taylor remembered the notes and played them back to him, saving one of the most recognizable books in rock history from being literal filler memory. Now, as as as musicians, as musicians, now that's a different category. Queen is top-notch. They are in the elite. But that's that's it. Like I said, Freddie Mercury, can widely considered one of the top three greatest frontmen of it. It depends on who you talk to, right? Um Big Head Todd. He gives he gave me ten Queen songs. Let me see. Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bohemian Rhapsody. I think you get the rest. Uh so again.

Vulnerable Hits And Slow Burn Classics

Scott McLean 24:41

Uh Nothing Else Matters, Metallica. James Hetfield originally viewed Nothing Else Matters as too personal for Metallica. Reportedly unsure whether the song even belonged on a Metallica album at all. That hesitation makes the song's crossover success even more fascinating in hindsight. What once felt emotionally vulnerable became one of the band's biggest global hits, helping expand heavy metal into spaces metal rarely occupied before. The very thing that made Hetfield uncomfortable ultimately made the song universal. It's a good song. I I'm I'm more of a Metallica fan than I am a Queen fan, I'll tell you that. More than a Failing, Boston. Okay. Let me see. How the hell did this What happened? Yeah. So you give me more than a failing Boston, then they continue to talk about Hesitation on these songs. Yeah, they don't they they put it in there, but they continued this uh this thing about Hetfield originally. I'm not gonna read that whole thing. But more than a failing boss, and I guess you just make it up yourself. Uh Dream On, Arosmith. Dream On eventually became one of Classic Rock's definitive power ballads. It's top five, right? Would you say top five greatest power ballads? I think that's fair. Uh but it its rise wasn't immediate. The song initially struggled commercially before gradually building momentum through re-release and radio support. Uh note, this is the only song on their debut album where Steven Tyler used his real voice. He sang higher on the rest of the album because he was insecure about how he sounded. Now that album is, and it's considered called featuring Dream On because it would just say Arrowsmith, and it had a picture of them in the clouds, which, by the way, uh, you know, six degrees of separation. Uh one of my my father was a photographer for over 50 years in the Boston area and you know, around Massachusetts, and uh a good friend of his who was called English Bob, English Bob took that picture of Aerosmith uh for the cover of that album. He set that picture up, and in the end, they didn't pay him. He didn't get paid. Uh, so there you go. Uh the slower trajectory changed the entire perception of the track. Over time, dream on transferred from modest early single into the emotional center piece of Aaron Smith's catalog. Some songs explode instantly, others take over culture. Let's see. And that's that for that. How long has this been thing going? We're only a half hour in. I gotta talk to you people for another half hour. What the fuck? Okay. You people. I love you people. All right, let's get this off the screen. My computer's been slow lately. I don't know what's going on. I don't like it. Okay, let's see. Let me pull up the uh let me pull up the next thing. Yeah. What do we got here?

Jeff Lynne’s Perfectionist Ear

Scott McLean 27:50

You know what? Um let's go with uh the 79. Yeah, let's go with this one. This is interesting. Let's get rid of this. See if I can do this again. Uh, you know, every time I take time off, I forget how to do this shit. I got a lot of my mind, people. I got a lot of my mind. Here we go. See, some weeks I got it, some weeks I don't. All right, the 1976 song Jeff Lynn from ELO, if you don't know, could never fully enjoy. Quote, it's probably not as good. The art behind any great ELO song was for Jeff Lynn to have every single instrument sounding perfect. He was a child of the studio, and the work was never completely done in his mind until he had recorded had to had a uh record that he felt could stand alongside the best pop records that he heard when he was a kid. But even if there were moments where he knocked it, knocked it out of the park, there were more than a few songs where he felt like he didn't get it as perfect as he should have when working on the record. That's why he is a genius. But even though every rock song and uh every rock and roll band truly shows their stuff on the live stage, that wasn't exactly the case for Lynn. There was no way for him to capture the same sense of grandeur when he didn't have a full orchestra to work with on stage. And even if he had the time and the resources to make the biggest rock and roll songs that he could, it would have been impossible to create the same experience of hearing Mr. Blue Sky unless he exclusively played in massive theaters. Then again, the orchestral pieces were only one part of his sound. Despite being one of the central figures in the Baroque music, Lynn knew that he could create a good pop song when he could. And even though Can't Get It Out of My Head was his first chance at hitting the big time, the strings were often taking a back seat to the strumming guitars and the harmonies that he laid over the top of everything. And by the time he worked on a new world record, he felt like he could finally make the kind of pop music that he had always dreamt of. The Beatles' influence was almost too on the nose in some spots, but even if the orchestral touches were in the song, Telephone Line would still be considered one of the best ballads of the 70s. I agree. That's a great fucking song. Uh, but for a tune that was all about heavy guitars, Lynn felt that do you left a lot to be desired. Interesting. Do you do you woman, I love? Woman! See, I can sing. Compared to everything else on the record, though, this was one of the best rock and roll productions that he ever made. He had already done his homework by making the song with the move back in the uh move back, the move back in the day. But when left on his to his own devices, the guitars practically sound like walls of sound hitting your eardrums. Only this time, they have even more force than what Phil Spector had in mind in the 1960s. I think he had more advanced equipment, right? Maybe. Everything sounded perfect, but Lynn felt that he was still preferred the original versions of the tune that the move made, saying, I always liked the song and I always thought I wish I could, you know, redo it and just have just so somebody could hear it, because no one ever heard it really, imitating someone. No, I never heard of that one. And I always really I was always really pleased with the tune, and so I recorded it. You know, in hindsight, it's probably not as good as the first one, the first version that he did. Uh technically it's better, but there's something missing, I think, like spontinuity of the original version. Interesting. You know, you hear these great songs, and you're like, there's nothing wrong with that song. You know, nothing wrong with that song. But these guys, these geniuses, these musical geniuses, these genius producers and engineers, and they hear shit. They just hear shit differently, which is which is kind of odd. That is a uh an absolute gift from God to be able to be that consistent like Jeff Lynn was, because he was a prolific producer, still is. So all right, do ya? He thinks do ya could have been better. I don't know. I don't know. Let me see. Do ya? Do ya? Do ya? Do you think? Let me see. Do ya. There we go. Classic intro, right? That's a classic intro. As soon as you hear those first two notes, look at it, let's go back. As soon as you hear those first notes, you know exactly what this song is. That is the sign of a great song. That's it. That's all you need to hear, right? That's all you need to hear. That is a sign of a great fucking song. All right, let me see. You know what? I uh uh let's go out of this. What do I got left? What do I got over here? Let me let me bring this up. Okay, you know what? I'm gonna do something interesting. I said in the past that I'm gonna stop bringing a little movies into this. And uh because I think it's it's a good break. So let's go with this. Let's see

Best Movies From Each 80s Year

Scott McLean 33:43

what you think about this one. Audience. Audience members. Let me get rid of this. Delete. Add the scene. Do it all. See, when people have producers, they can do this. That's what they do. It should already be on the screen. And there it is, the best movies from every year of the 80s. Ah. Let's see. Let's see if you agree. Let's see how many you've seen. Let's get rid of some of these fucking ads. Oh, you fucking got me. You ever hit the X? It's like, hey, X out this ad, and it brings you to the fucking ad. Fuckers. Motherfuckers. Okay. 1980s is one of the most important decades for cinematic genres like action and horror, and it consistently stands out as one of the most beloved and acclaimed decades in recent cinematic memory. Boasting an eclectic lineup of masterpieces over the years, the 1980s still to this day stand out as one of the most jam-packed eras for classic films. Though many years from the 1980s had numerous masterpieces, each year in the decade arguably has one definitive entry that stands out as the cinematic outing. Whether they are horror classics, quiet dramas, crime thrillers, or sci-fi adventures, many of the films in the 1980s are unique, exciting, and now utterly iconic. Let's see what they have for the best movies of each year. This isn't the Academy Awards, this is according to this writer. Uh, and his name is Maxwell Pishney, and he looks like he was probably born in like 2000. So good for him to go back and do a little research. Let's see if he if he actually watched these movies. I don't know, right? Because writers today, they're not journalists. I don't call them journalists. These are people that write things. Oh, they do a lot of Googling, and now they do a lot of AI searches. Uh, you can come up with, I can come up with this fucking list and write an article. What's this dude write? He wrote two paragraphs as the intro to this. So I'm I'm not really getting. We'll see. We'll see. All right, let's see. We got The Shining. Uh that would probably I'll say what is this? This is from, I don't know, 1980s. Uh, bringing never before seen levels of terror, blah, blah. Okay, here we go. That was 1980s' best song, best movie, The Shining. That's what they're saying. Uh, that's what it looks like. 1981 best movie is Thief. Have you seen Thief? James Conn, almost at his probably one of his top three best movies. Thief is definitely a movie you want to re-watch. It's definitely a go back and watch movie. Fucking James Kahn was a very unique actor. He just had his own way of doing things, had his own look, his own attitude. Uh, he was definitely one of those standalone guys with Clint Eastwood, you know, Al Pacino. Like James Conn was his standalone guy. Sonny Colleone, right? He also did uh Rollerball. Right? Great movie, Jonathan. Uh, director Michael Mann is one of the most important and acclaimed filmmakers in the modern world of Hollywood filmmaking. And his debut feature film, Thief, might just be his masterpiece. You gotta go watch this again. Tightly paced, incredibly moody and atmospheric, and containing one of the most groundbreaking and awe-inspiring musical scores ever made. Thief is an underrated masterpiece. Starring James Kahn as an expert jewel thief, the film depicts the world in which this criminal is trapped in, a system that consistently fights against his ability to succeed or excel outside of crime. Stylish, emotional, and consistently providing viewers with some of the most jaw-dropping, beautiful cinematography of the decade. Thief is the ultimate feature debut, and it was a strong sign of what men would do later. Michael Mann movies are just they're they're always 98% of the time, they're banging movies. Uh, 1982 best movie? Blade Runner. So check this shit out.

Blade Runner And The Power Of Sound

Scott McLean 38:19

I just got tickets the other day. I got tickets the other day. Uh there's a theater, like a a playhouse type uh theater, not a theater theater, that is going to play the movie Blade Runner. But here's the twist. They have a live orchestra playing the soundtrack as the movie goes. How fucking cool is that gonna be? Big screen, orchestra, playing the soundtrack as the movie goes along. Not like one of these, we're just gonna play the songs from the movie because that's not one of those movies. And Blade Runner is a movie you can watch all the time. That is one of those movies, at least personally, I never get sick of. I like the director's cut where there's no narration. I don't know if you ever saw that version. It's a whole different feel to the original cut with Harrison Ford narrating throughout the movie. But the director's cut, he's not narrating. It's just the movie. Not many movies can pull that off, and both versions be really good. Even though you know what's gonna happen, both movies, both versions of the movie are great, but I'm taking Dr. Vera. See, she doesn't always take me places. I take her places too. I can do that, you know. I'm a kept man, yes. She's my sugar mama, yes. She just shakes her head when I say that at restaurants. They go to hand me the check. I'm like, no, no, no. That's my sugar mama. She just shakes her head every time. It works every time. Because the waiter goes, ooh, good for you. Anyway, uh, yeah, so that's gonna be that's gonna be crazy to see that. Uh that's a unique experience. That's a unique movie watching experience. Uh Ridley Scott's director uh directed two of the most important and impactful science fiction films of all time within the span of three years. 79's Alien in 1982. I never put those two together. Like, he did those in three years. Alien and Blade Runner. Are you fucking kidding me? Like, what the fuck? The latter, one of the most important cyberpunk art creations of all time. I've seen things. That Rutkahawa monologue with Harrison Ford, and that the character is about to die. Rutkahawa was a very underrated character actor. Rutka Hauer was a really good actor. Like he could play these bizarre roles and pull them off. I first saw him in a movie probably from like 82, 83, 83, The Hitcher. I don't know if you've ever seen that one. That's a fucking crazy movie. With Harrison Fordy, it's crazy. I mean, not with with Rutka Hauer. And that monologue that he says, and it's not a long one, but he starts it with I've seen things. Yeah. It's great. You know what? Let me see something. I don't care at this point. I don't care. Uh let's get rid of that.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Let me see. Let's see. Let's see if it comes up.

Scott McLean 42:04

All right, let's see if this will come through. That's gotta be one of the greatest monologues in the history of movies. That is so that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. Fucking great. Uh, let me see. Throw night the 1982 contained numerous other classics, including John Carpenter's the Thing, Steven Spielberg's E.T., and Ted Kotcheff's First Blood. I never really liked that. Uh, it's hard to deny that Blade Runner is the definitive entry of the year. Harrison Ford's performance, the world building, uh, and sci fi. Production design and the splendid music music that I'm gonna see live all lend themselves to Blade Runner being one of the best sci-fi films ever made and easily one of the highlights of the 80s. 1983's best movie, uh Local Hero. I don't know if I ever saw that. Although 1983 contained many films, far popular, more popular than uh director Bill Forsyth's Local Hero, including Return of the Jedi, Brian DePama's Seminole Scarface, and David Cronenberg's Video Drone. That's a good movie. The underrated drama comedy starring Bert Lancaster, Pete Rygert, and Dennis Lawson is the highlight of the year, an emotional and surprisingly funny drama about an oil company employee sent to survey a small Scottish village for a potential new oil facility. Local hero is tender, hilarious, idiosyncratic, and wonderfully unconventional. It has been unfortunately forgotten by so many general audiences, but remains one of the best films of its era. I'll give this kid credit. He if he did his homework, then good. Uh best movie of 1984, Paris, Texas. Yeah, James Cameron's uh original, the turn, let me see, excellent franchise entries like James Cameron's Terminator, Spielberg's Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, and the first Ghostbusters might have dominated the box office in the minds of most audience members in '84, but director Will Wim Wender's iconic road trip drama, Paris, Texas, is easily the finest work of the year. Uh, following the late great Harry Dean Stanton, he everything he's in was good, uh, as Travis, a quiet man who wanders out of the desert to reconcile with his past and his family. Uh, Paris, Texas is a slow-moving, quietly touching tale of reconnection, the beauty and heartache of the American landscape, and the importance of family. It's a film about rebuilding what was lost, and it's one of the most emotional films of its decade, of the decade. Uh, let me see. 1985's best movie is Ran. R-A-N. Akira Kurosawa is perhaps one of the most recognizable names in foreign cinema. Yeah. Uh to general American audiences, and that in large part is due to his impact on the world of American action films, westerns and crime dramas like Seven Samurai. That's a good movie. High and Low, didn't see that. Might be as fine as achievements, but 1985's Ran is late career epic. I might have to watch this. A reimagining of Shakespeare's King Lear in the world set of feudal Japan. Ran is one of the most lush, beautifully rendered historical epics. I love movies like that. Uh, the use of color, camera movement, and the blocking and framing of performers is unrivaled, and the film contains some of the boldest and most audacious battles ever put to screen. It's an utterly perfect film and proof of Kurosawa's consistent mastery of his art form. I might have to watch that. Maybe I did see it. I just don't remember it. 1986's best movie. This is a fucked up movie.

Blue Velvet To Die Hard Debate

Scott McLean 47:09

This is a fucked up movie. Blue Velvet. If you've never seen it, holy fuck. Dennis Hoppo is out of his fucking mind. And a very young Kyle McLaughlin. And I forget her name. Uh, what was her name? This French, this French actress. Uh uh, it's gonna say it anyways. Uh, one of the most important directors of his age, David Lynch, created some of the finest works. This is a true, fucking true to form David Lynch movie, by the way. Uh, created some of the finest works of cinematic art ever crafted. His acclaimed TV series Twin Peaks, the original Twin Peaks, not the later versions, which made no fucking sense. Has entrapped, well, they say the first one didn't either. Uh, has enraptured audiences for decades. And films like Malholland Drive, just watched that recently. Lost Highway, that's uh that's with uh what's his name? From Beretta, Robert Blake. Ho ho ho! That's another fucking crazy movie. And of course, Blue Velvet have gone down as unadulterated masterpieces in the years since their release, starring starring Kyle McLachlan as a young man who gets wrapped up in a terrifying underbelly of crime and danger lurking beneath the cozy surface of his small American town, Blue Velvet is a tale of descent into darkness and supporting turns by and supporting turns by Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossolini, that's who it is. Uh, she's beautiful too. She was beautiful back then, are all utterly spectacular. It's one of the most impactful films of its era. Yes, it is. Uh, and and by the way, if you go and watch the movie and you see Dennis Hopper sucking, he puts the the the like the the the oxygen mask. He's he's fucking inhaling um what do you call it? The shit that fucking blows up balloons. I forget what it's called. He's really doing it during the movie. He kind of wishes he didn't because he thought he could have given a better performance. When you're seeing him, uh it's not helium, he's inhaling something. He's all fucking whacked out. Still, and he that's that was real, what you're seeing. Uh 87's best movie. You know, people look at Robocop like it's just like Robocop. They don't take it serious. It's actually a good movie. Robocop is actually a good movie. I don't think a lot of people take it serious, but it's it's it's got a serious, serious undertones. It's a good movie. Uh, though 87 had several iconic films that could easily stand as the year's best, including The Princess Bride, Ultimate Classic, Instant Classic, Princess Bride, Instant Classic. Predator, full metal jacket, and the untouchable. So this dude went way out on a limb to pick this movie. Uh, Paul Verhoeven's seminal sci-fi satire, Robocop, takes the cake with stunning special effects, hilarious satire, and spectacular levels of gord violence. Robocop is one of the defining blockbusters of the 80s. Containing equal levels of action and subversive social commentary, RoboCop is a rare beast for its era. A seemingly mindless action flick that actually deconstructs and takes down the corporate and capitalist mindset so often surrounding films of its kind. Though its sequels would never live up to it, of course not. They very rarely do. Robocop's legacy has surely been cemented in pop culture and it remains a highlight of its decade. 88's best movie, Die Hard. Well, well, that's that's okay. Uh let's let's let's see. Uh while RoboCop is a subversive and unique take on the action genre popularized during the 1980s, director John McTiernan's Die Hard is the ultimate epitome of what of that very genre, with a runtime composed almost exclusively of perfectly paced, expertly crafted scenes of tense drama, incredible character work, narrative economy, and spectacular action, Die Hard is an unabashed classic. Oh, with a career-defining lead performance by Bruce Willis, the action flicks set the standard for all other films of its kind. I can intend to agree with that. In the years since its release, and countless action films have attempted to capture the magic of 1988's diehard to no avail. It's the perfect mix of humor, heart, violence, and narrative momentum. And most importantly, it's absolutely a Christmas movie. Nice throw-in at the end. Nice throw-in. Uh yeah, I mean, it it the kids got a point here. It it did set the gold standard for action movies after that. And you know who was in it? It was Bruce Willis, and what was the uh the guy, the the bad guy. I forget his name. I think he was in Harry Potter, too. Um they were perfect characters for this movie. They played them, they played those characters perfectly. And I think Bruce Willis, you know, you you can say this about a lot of actors. And Bruce Willis, I like to say Kevin Costner was in every movie, he was Kevin Costner. And I always use the Robin Hood as a as as a as my go-to. Kevin Costner playing Robin Hood. Hey, Maid Marion, you need to come over here now. Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves. Hey, Indian guy, you need to come over here now. It's fucking Kevin Costner. Bruce Willis could do that, but he's one of those guys that has that, or he had, he's he's not acting anymore. Uh, he had a personality that could flare up and then go down. Like he he like you know, they like Mariah Carey had a six-octave voice or whatever. I I think Bruce Willis had like a three-octave acting range. You you you know, you go to Sixth Sense, right? Sixth Sense was a serious movie. He was still Bruce Willis in there, but he was the lowest and most easiest. Let me see. Uh nobody loves Kevin Costner more than Kevin Costner. Big heads on. But you know what I mean. I I I think I'm right with that. 1989's best movie, The Abyss. I recently watched this. Another crazy ass science fiction movie that got overlooked or gets overlooked as time goes by. But that movie is a good movie. Like that is one of those really creepy, keeps you on the edge of your seat sci-fi movies. Uh, it's honestly hard to believe that James Cameron's sci-fi masterpiece of the abyss came out in '89. The film feels so timeless, so modern, and so utterly convincing that it's special effects and technical crafts that if one didn't know better, it could easily be mistaken for a film from this year. 1989 had some excellent entries, including When Harry Met Sally. Okay. And Do the Right Thing. Another movie you need to watch. That's a great movie. Uh, but Cameron's underwater epic is unbeatable. I agree with that. The Abyss is James Cameron's most underrated film, and it might just be his finest achievement. It's not nearly as beloved as something like Titanic, Terminator 2, Judgment Day, or Aliens, the second alien movie, but it stands out as the ultimate example of the iconic director's style, interest, and technical ability. It's the kind of film that simply doesn't get made anymore, and it's absolutely the finest cinematic achievement of 1989. Oh, there you go. All right, let's see if there's a if I don't know how this this could be an end up being a all right. What film is highlighted as the best of 1980? Renowned for its terrifying visual. I think, didn't we just go through this? It's The Shining. All right, which 1981 is this? Alright. Oh, so they've they're fucking testing you to see if you watched if you read the article. Go fuck yourselves. Can't believe I fell for that shit. Now I'm probably gonna get about fucking 40 spam emails from them. Fuckers. Alright, you know what? Let's see. What do we got? I don't think I have anything else. I I I don't think I have anything else. Let me see. What do I got? Seven classic anthems. That and Jeff Lynn. I had two more, but I'm coming up on an hour anyway. So how long into this are we? Yeah, we're just about at an hour, so I don't want to waste any more of your time. Well, it's good to be back. It's good to be back. I I thought this was gonna be all right. Let me see. Um let me look at some of the let's show the chat.

Chat Questions And Hall Of Fame Picks

Scott McLean 56:32

Let's see what we got. Now I gotta do this again. Let me see. All settings. Let's do the uh background opaquity. There we go. Now that I'm not, let's get rid of that. Let me see. Uh Bohemian Rhapsody, he was great in elf. Nobody loves Kevin Cup. Uh best viewers, bloated death, best viewers, trend, whatever. Uh music Perry does uh light fingers. Perry said, How did you and Jack do on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame picks on your Milk Crates and Turrettable show? I picked Jeff Buckley, Phil Collins, Iron Maiden, and Luther Vandros in excess. I won. Jack didn't. Who the fuck is Jeff Buckley? was the question. Jack picked Jeff Buckley. I'm like, the fuck is Jeff Buckley? Uh I believe we both picked Phil Collins. I'm not sure about Iron Maiden. I don't know if either one of us picked Iron Maiden. I know I picked Luther. Uh, and I think in excess, uh I'm gonna say I I thought Jack wrote them down, then he never came back on the show again. But uh I think I thought I wanted them in, but I I don't think that they were gonna get in on this first try. So I I ended up doing better. I think Jack uh actually sent me a text. Uh let me see. Let me see if I can pull it up. I I I don't know. Let me see. They get a lot of them from let me see, Jack. All right, let's go here. Jack says, uh, and he sent this on April 14th. I think you won our rock and roll hall of fame discussion. No black crows, which I knew they weren't gonna get in. No Jeff Buckley. And these are his words. I will show you. Let me see. I don't know if the camera's gonna pick it up because of the phone. Come over this way, this way. Uh I don't know if it's gonna pick it up. Zoom in. No, okay. It says, no black crows, no Jeff Buckley. You're smart. I'm done. You're attractive. I'm not a good looking man.

SPEAKER_00 58:44

I won! I won! Nay! I won!

Scott McLean 58:51

Damn it! So yeah, that's it. Uh yeah, it was good to be it's good to be back. I I I thought for sure I was gonna have some sort of technical difficulty. I always do when I when I take a break like that. Uh I will be back more either Wednesdays or Thursdays this summer. Summer's here, pretty much. Right? It's already feeling like summer down here. I always say May is when it starts down here. That's when it gets hot. So I don't care though. I got a fucking pool and I get air conditioning. I got an ocean. Every year it's the same thing. Ah, it's too fucking hot. Well, I don't know. I remember some summers recently up in Boston. It was fucking 40. So or if not, I guess last summer was a scorcher up there. My friends in Boston. It's too fucking hot. It's humid. It's fucking humid up there, too. It's humid in Chicago. It's fucking humid everywhere. Except for the desert. That's a dry heat. Sacramento, Todd, big head Todd will tell you, he lives up there. And he used to, he was stationed with me there. And in Sacramento had like, it would be like literally 105, 107 in the daytime sometimes in the summer. Then at night it will drop down to 70, which is beautiful. I mean it was perfect. But during the day, it's like it's literally a pizza oven. It's a fucking pizza oven. I don't know. I I think I might like the humidity. I've lived in both. I don't remember saying, oh, this isn't so bad. So there you go. Anyway, all right, everybody. Thanks

Wrap-Up And Next Stream Plans

Scott McLean 1:00:37

for watching. Thanks for listening. If you like it, share it. Uh Big Head Todd says it'll be 100 on Monday in Sacramento. Uh yeah, if you like it, share it. If you didn't like it, well, thanks for watching and listening and listening for I don't know, one hour and 54 seconds. I appreciate that. And uh yes, I will be back next week, either Wednesday or Thursday, one way or another. I just pop up live. Most likely it'll be Thursday. Uh Patty says, thanks, Shock. Great, thanks, Scott. Great show. Have a good night. You too, Patty. By the way, Patty, Todd says he's my number one fan. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. Patty was around for the King of Facebook show. Like she goes back in the day when I first started doing this whole thing. So I don't know. Patty's like the OG number one fan. I gotta admit, she put up with that King of Facebook shit. I don't know. Don't go looking for those videos on YouTube either. There's a lot of them. I think I did like 150 episodes of that shit. That's that I might start re-releasing them on Friday nights. Just replay old old the King of Facebook shows from the beginning. I don't know. We'll see. All right, everybody.