Something old, something new, something borrowed (but not really blue)

T-Rex--the band, not the dinosaur (you have to make that distinction in our house, ever since the kid got a little older!)--is one of the very, very few bands that I have no recollection of when I first heard them or where. I do know it was not during the scavenging of family members' basements for old LPs from the 60s and early 70s. It definitely wasn't listening to my sister's music, while she lived in the house! Like Queen, it just seems to me that I've always known of their music and could identify their songs as theirs, ever since I've had a music recollection.

(My only guess is that the nanny I had for the first two years of my life--a 19 year old girl who was universally adored by the family, so I've heard--must've played their songs while we were together during the day. It's a farfetched guess, but it's all I've got).

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Now that I am well over 30, it always gives me pause when I read (or reread) about someone dying before they turned 30. Not in the way, you might suppose, though--I mean, of course, I think wasted potential and all that, but I also mostly wonder (looking at my own life post 30), would it have made much difference for them, if they had lived? Would they have been any better, bigger, more influential--any happier?

Marc Bolan, who was the frontsman and inspiration behind T-Rex died in a car accident before his 30th birthday. No one knows for sure how the rest of his life would've turned out, but this much is true: he'll forever be a 20th century boy.

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If I told you how many times I've watched Velvet Goldmine, you might look at me a little weirdly. In my defense, I've watched the movie in its entirety, in one sitting, only four or five times; mostly, I like watching bits and pieces of it, over and over. Mostly bits and pieces, of course, that includes actual singing. Which, well, is quite a bit.

If you're not familiar with the movie, it's the story of a rising glam rock star in the 70s, based somewhat on David Bowie (actually, his Ziggy Stardust persona) and also Marc Bolan. There's also a character based on Iggy Pop, and the third main character--the last person in the triangle--is a glam rock fan turned reporter who is trying to regain some of the headiness of his groupie days by trying to discover what happened to the idols of his youth.

It goes without saying that the music in this movie is really the fourth main character--or, really, the main character--as I've noted music is, for some movies. It's just...amazing. This movie was a labor of love and it shows in every frame and every note. (And perfectly portrayed by three very fit actors! Talk about a feast for the eyes as well as the ears (and Toni Collette, superb as always)).

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I love, love, love all the performances, but Placebo's cover of 20th Century Boy, performed as the band Flaming Creatures in the movie, is one I always end on.

20th Century Boy - T-Rex




20th Century Boy (cover) - Placebo (from the movie Velvet Goldmine)



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I've never seen The Truman Show from start to finish, but I have seen all of it, again in bits and pieces, over the years while channel surfing (TBS or TNT-I can never remember which--is very fond of showing it).

Actually, I thought I had seen all of it, until just a couple of days ago. I was channel surfing through our HBO channels and there it was--except that I didn't actually register it immediately as that movie, because it was a senior prom dance scene, which I guess I'd missed up to that point, and so didn't associate with The Truman Show. In the slight hesitation to bring up the menu and see what movie it was, my ear caught a snippet of the music from the scene, and I suddenly sat up and turned the volume up. Was it really? Yes, it was! Amazingly, I found the song on youtube, so here it is.

20th Century Boy (cover) - The Big Six (from the movie The Truman Show)