MovieSongs
I think there are some SongLyrics that are just crying out to be adapted to a full length movie, or taken literally to be a scene in a movie. The relationship to the original song may only be in passing. or could be very explicit.
Contents |
Adaptable to a movie
Piano Man (Billy Joel)
Everyone should know Piano Man. I'm not going to track down the lyrics now.
A movie based on Piano Man would be kind of like a movie of Cheers, but sombre somehow. The song tells snippets of the lives of patrons of the bar, and the movie should be about the bar, and feature those characters. Maybe either just seeing them in the bar, or follow each character in turn from the bar for a few days of their life, untill they get back to the bar and then we follow another character. This could either be done chronological, or mishmash - Pulp Fiction style - such that it's not obvious till late in the movie that the bar is the central feature of otherwise seperate stories.
Piano Man should, of course, be the one character that EVERY patron interacts with, and the song be played over the closing credits... possibly with everyone in the bar singing along in a live version of teh song :)
Yet Another Movie (PinkFloyd)
Yet Another Movie would seem a natural choice of song to use as a vehicle for a movie. This should seem to give some major themes which might very well provide a skeleton for a movie overall... Each scene described in the song should parallel a specific (hopefully pivotal/memorable) scene in the finished movie.
First up, the song literal...
(thanks to http://www.pinkfloydfan.net/ for the lyrics)
Pink Floyd - Yet another movie
One sound, one single sound
one kiss, one single kiss,
a face outside the window pane,
however did it come to this?
A man who ran: a child who cried
a girl who heard, a voice that lied
the sun that burned a fiery red
the vision of an empty bed
The use of force, he was so tough
she'll soon submit, she's had enough
the march of fate, the broken will
someone is lying very still
He has laughed and he has cried
he has fought and he has died
he's just the same as all the rest,
he's not the worst, he's not the best
And still this ceaseless murmuring,
the babbling that I brook,
the seas of faces, eyes upraised
the empty screen, the vacant look
A man in black on a snow white horse,
a pointless life has run it's course,
the red rimmed eyes, the tears still run
as he fades into the setting sun
Some specific storyline thoughts...
Let us assume that the scenes in the movie should appear in the same order as in the song - but that is no requirement that the story in the movie must be chronological.
We'll start with a general look at the song...
The first verse ends with 'however did it come to this?' - which would seem to lead nicely into a flashback. This idea grows with the second verse which almost immediately talks about a child. Is this the child who grew up to kiss in the first verse? Or is this the child who grew up to be the face? The girl who heard - did she hear the sound in the first verse? Or did she hear the voice that lied?
Verses three and four describe the tragedy of a man. He's tough, he beats her (maybe the girl from the second verse?), untill she's dead (or at least unconscious). This could nicely tie back to the end of the second verse - the empty bed. In the fourth verse we learn that this man isn't nescessarily 'evil'. 'He's not the worst, he's not the best'. The movie is a tragedy about him?
Verse 5 seems to be about madness (of course, it's also a meta-narrative - of sorts, especially the last two lines. ie, an observation of the moviegoers watching the movie on the screen). What happens to the man? Or maybe this is the story of the girl again?
Verse 6 then is about death? 'A man in black on a snow white horse' - a direct personification of death? 'A pointless life has run it's course'. I wonder if someone comitted suicide - but we don't know who. Finally we end with the red rimmed eyes that are crying, the man looks into the setting sun - refer back to verse2 here.
...
I think it would suit the style of Floyd if the movie was a tragedy, and if the story was, in a way, cyclical.
So, more specifically, 'One sound, one single sound'. It occurs to me that the most dramatic single sound would be a gunshot... a suicide witnessed by the face at the window - a child.
We then see the life of a child, growing up, disturbed by an earlier trauma, untill eventually that person commits suicide. It should be left ambiguous if the cycle of the story is that of a child growing and repeating what he/she saw, of if the growing up of the child is in the past - and telling the backstory to the adult who commits that suicide - thus leaving the childs face in the window to be the next 'untold' cycle...
(to be continued, more ideas/comments welcome)
Tweeter and the Monkey Man - (Traveling Wilburys)
This song has a pretty straightforward narrative that would be easy to turn into a classic cops-and-robbers car chase movie.
(lyrics care of http://www.springsteenlyrics.com/lyrics/t/tweeterandthemonkeyman.php)
Tweeter and the Monkey Man were hard up for cash
They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash
To an undercover cop who had a sister named Jan
For reasons unexplained she loved the Monkey Man
Tweeter was a boy scout before she went to Vietnam
And found out the hard way nobody gives a damn
They knew that they found freedom just across the Jersey Line
So they hopped into a stolen car, took Highway 99
And the walls came down, all the way to hell
Never saw them when they're standing, never saw them when they fell
The undercover cop never liked the Monkey Man
Even back in childhood he wanted to see him in the can
Jan got married at fourteen to a racketeer named Bill
She made secret calls to the Monkey Man from a mansion on the hill
It was out on Thunder Road, Tweeter at the wheel
They crashed into paradise, they could hear them tires squeal
The undercover cop pulled up and said "Everyone of you's a liar
If you don't surrender now, it's gonna go down to the wire
And the walls came down, all the way to hell
Never saw them when they're standing, never saw them when they fell
An ambulance rolled up, a state trooper close behind
Tweeter took his gun away and messed up his mind
The undercover cop was left tied up to a tree
Near the souvenir stand by the old abandoned factory
Next day the undercover cop was hot in pursuit
He was taking the whole thing personal, he didn't care about the loot
Jan had told him many times it was you to me who taught
In Jersey anything's legal as long as you don't get caught
And the walls came down, all the way to hell
Never saw them when they're standing, never saw them when they fell
Someplace by Rahway Prison they ran out of gas
The undercover cop had cornered them said "Boy, you didn't think that this could last"
Jan jumped out of the bed, said "There's someplace I gotta go"
She took a gun out of the drawer and said "It's best if you don't know"
The undercover cop was found face down in a field
The monkey man was on the river bridge using Tweeter as a shield
Jan said to the Monkey Man, "I'm not fooled by Tweeter's curl
I knew him long before he ever became a Jersey girl"
And the walls came down, all the way to hell
Never saw them when they're standing, never saw them when they fell
Now the town of Jersey City is quieting down again
I'm sitting in a gambling club called the Lion's Den
The TV set been blown up, every bit of it is gone
Ever since the nightly news show that the Monkey Man was on
I guess I'll go to Florida and get myself some sun
There ain't no more opportunity here, everything's been done
Sometime I think of Tweeter, sometime I think of Jan
Sometime I don't think about nothing but the Monkey Man
And the walls came down, all the way to hell
Never saw them when they're standing, never saw them when they fell
And the walls came down, all the way to hell
Never saw them when they're standing, never saw them when they fell
Lyrics for a scene
- see also: NoveltyCD#Conversation
Comfortably Numb - (PinkFloyd)
This one is almost cheating, as it was written as a conversation originally. Nonetheless, it's not exactly a dialog as sung... but, could the literal lyrics be dialogised word for word, and yet the context change enough to make it unrecognisable?
(thanks to http://www.pinkfloydfan.net/ for the lyrics)
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
Hello,
Is there anybody in there
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone at home
Come on now
I hear you're feeling down
I can ease your pain
And get you on your feet again
Relax
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts
There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand
This is not how I am
I have become comfortably numb
O.K.
Just a little pin prick
There'll be no more aaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working, good
That'll keep you going through the show
Come on it's time to go.
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
And I have become
Comfortably numb.
Ok, so for turning those words in that order into a scene... let's lay down some ground rules to help.
- Any number of speakers, regardless of the number implied in the original song
- Changes in punctuation are allowed.
For the scene, I've given the characters generic titles, rather than names, so the scene should make sense within itself without further outside context. (to be completed)
Hello? Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me Is there anyone at home Come on now I hear you're feeling down I can ease your pain And get you on your feet again Relax I'll need some information first Just the basic facts Can you show me where it hurts There is no pain, you are receding A distant ship smoke on the horizon You are coming through in waves Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying When I was a child I had a fever My hands felt just like two balloons Now I've got that feeling once again I can't explain, you would not understand This is not how I am I have become comfortably numb O.K. Just a little pin prick There'll be no more aaaaaaaah! But you may feel a little sick Can you stand up? I do believe it's working, good That'll keep you going through the show Come on it's time to go. There is no pain you are receding A distant ship smoke on the horizon You are only coming through in waves Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye I turned to look but it was gone I cannot put my finger on it now The child is grown The dream is gone And I have become Comfortably numb.
