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Post by zillagodreturns on Feb 11, 2021 8:05:21 GMT
Apologies if this has been answered previously---my brain doesn't always work right these days owing to some medical stuff---but...
Was this written for (or about) the 'Harry Canyon' vignette in "Heavy Metal"?
I always thought that line about using "that special action in your car" went along well with ye olde destructo ray.
Just curious.
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Post by eastmark on Feb 11, 2021 10:50:05 GMT
No idea but what a great song.
It was a dream hearing it live a few years back in NYC. Came off great.
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Post by duckbarman on Feb 11, 2021 12:15:14 GMT
Well, here's what it says in the Popoff book:
Fire Of Unknown Origin sort of washed, ebbed and receded to a finish with a curious track called Don't Turn Your Back, a hypnotic but almost stalled composition credited to Albert, Donald and Allen Lanier (Allen's only credit on the entire record) which was also designed for use in the Heavy Metal movie, being the last to get cut from use, leaving only Veteran Of The Psychic Wars to represent the band. "That lyric's straight out of the movie, about the cab driver picking up the girl," sez Bolle. "And it becomes a really nice, almost James Bond kind of lyric.
My favourite line is the one about using the special option in the car. That's where he discards the people in the back. He just pushes the James Bond button, and they just disintegrate, dispersed by gamma rays or something." Al: "Originally Allen wrote the music, like a long time before. And then I got the idea for the song, to do it around a certain aspect of the Heavy Metal movie, you know the taxi driver part. And Donald and I just hammered up the lyrics."
Al has also remarked that, "Donald wrote these lyrics after we'd been working on the track (originally written by Allen) for a couple weeks. For awhile I was thinking that he wrote it for me but now I think that it was probably just a coincidence that it corresponded to my situation six months later."
All in all, Don't Turn Your Back is one of the record's most pensive and anonymous songs. Adds Buck: "That was one of the songs written for that Heavy Metal movie. When they came to us looking for material, we all got on that and we cranked out about three or four songs actually. And of course, that one didn't make it to the movie."
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Post by marty on Feb 11, 2021 14:04:48 GMT
Misheard lyrics...until years later, even after seeing the movie, I thought it was “special action in your heart”.
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Post by edog40 on Feb 11, 2021 16:03:16 GMT
Apologies if this has been answered previously---my brain doesn't always work right these days owing to some medical stuff---but... Was this written for (or about) the 'Harry Canyon' vignette in "Heavy Metal"? I always thought that line about using "that special action in your car" went along well with ye olde destructo ray. Just curious. I thought that too, but I had also heard that the songs on FOUO were written for the movie but only Veterans was used. Vengeance (the Pact) seems to revolve around a story line too.
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Post by zillagodreturns on Feb 11, 2021 16:21:25 GMT
Apologies if this has been answered previously---my brain doesn't always work right these days owing to some medical stuff---but... Was this written for (or about) the 'Harry Canyon' vignette in "Heavy Metal"? I always thought that line about using "that special action in your car" went along well with ye olde destructo ray. Just curious. I thought that too, but I had also heard that the songs on FOUO were written for the movie but only Veterans was used. Vengeance (the Pact) seems to revolve around a story line too. Oh absolutely. Vengeance is obviously sync'd to Taarna. I had always heard the same thing about FOUO, something about Sony being obstinate. But that begs a sort of chicken and the egg question regarding tunes like Joan Crawford, i.e. was there supposed to be a Joan vignette in the film? Gotta say, given the way it's used in the movie I prefer the tempo of Hagar's "Heavy Metal" to BOC's HM:TB&S...though I can see other areas where that song would be well-placed (like "So Beautiful..." fer instance). Gooooood nyborg, man.
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Post by edog40 on Feb 11, 2021 16:22:42 GMT
I thought that too, but I had also heard that the songs on FOUO were written for the movie but only Veterans was used. Vengeance (the Pact) seems to revolve around a story line too. Oh absolutely. Vengeance is obviously sync'd to Taarna. I had always heard the same thing about FOUO, something about Sony being obstinate. But that begs a sort of chicken and the egg question regarding tunes like Joan Crawford, i.e. was there supposed to be a Joan vignette in the film? Gotta say, given the way it's used in the movie I prefer the tempo of Hagar's "Heavy Metal" to BOC's HM:TB&S...though I can see other areas where that song would be well-placed (like "So Beautiful..." fer instance). Gooooood nyborg, man. Hannover Fist deserved a Godzilla type song.
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Post by zillagodreturns on Feb 11, 2021 16:25:52 GMT
Well, here's what it says in the Popoff book: Fire Of Unknown Origin sort of washed, ebbed and receded to a finish with a curious track called Don't Turn Your Back, a hypnotic but almost stalled composition credited to Albert, Donald and Allen Lanier (Allen's only credit on the entire record) which was also designed for use in the Heavy Metal movie, being the last to get cut from use, leaving only Veteran Of The Psychic Wars to represent the band. "That lyric's straight out of the movie, about the cab driver picking up the girl," sez Bolle. "And it becomes a really nice, almost James Bond kind of lyric.
My favourite line is the one about using the special option in the car. That's where he discards the people in the back. He just pushes the James Bond button, and they just disintegrate, dispersed by gamma rays or something." Al: "Originally Allen wrote the music, like a long time before. And then I got the idea for the song, to do it around a certain aspect of the Heavy Metal movie, you know the taxi driver part. And Donald and I just hammered up the lyrics."
Al has also remarked that, "Donald wrote these lyrics after we'd been working on the track (originally written by Allen) for a couple weeks. For awhile I was thinking that he wrote it for me but now I think that it was probably just a coincidence that it corresponded to my situation six months later."
All in all, Don't Turn Your Back is one of the record's most pensive and anonymous songs. Adds Buck: "That was one of the songs written for that Heavy Metal movie. When they came to us looking for material, we all got on that and we cranked out about three or four songs actually. And of course, that one didn't make it to the movie."Well...sheet. Makes me wish I could still read for pleasure lol. Popoff's was one of the books on my "to read" list before my illness. Thanks for clearing up what I had wondered about (and for all I know, probably read or heard somewhere prior to this)...this group is a wonderful resource of great minds, awesome lore, and heartfelt appreciation for our favorite band!
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Post by zillagodreturns on Feb 11, 2021 16:28:40 GMT
Oh absolutely. Vengeance is obviously sync'd to Taarna. I had always heard the same thing about FOUO, something about Sony being obstinate. But that begs a sort of chicken and the egg question regarding tunes like Joan Crawford, i.e. was there supposed to be a Joan vignette in the film? Gotta say, given the way it's used in the movie I prefer the tempo of Hagar's "Heavy Metal" to BOC's HM:TB&S...though I can see other areas where that song would be well-placed (like "So Beautiful..." fer instance). Gooooood nyborg, man. Hannover Fist deserved a Godzilla type song. Agreed. And they should have changed the payoff to "Four bucks" lmao (and yeah, I know "Heavy Metal" predates "The Stoned Age," but no one would have believed the boys were peddling shirts for a buck...Eric was upset enough that it wasn't a fin).
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Post by zillagodreturns on Feb 11, 2021 16:41:54 GMT
To build off of my prior musing about what songs were written with the movie in mind, given Buck's quote above I would guess that Veteran, HM:B&S, Vengeance, and DTYB were the obvious movie tie-ins (though the use of Veterans during the mining scene was always a little incongruent to me, I guess there's no obvious spot for it...except possibly the end).
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Post by The Ocean on Feb 11, 2021 18:17:38 GMT
My favorite thing about that song is the five chord progression. The only other songs I can recall off the top of my head with one are Limo Wreck by Soundgarden and Sleight of Hand by Pearl Jam. Im sure there are plenty more, but I love that.
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Post by Buck on Feb 11, 2021 18:54:43 GMT
HM: Black and Silver wasn't a movie song, unless Sandy intended for it to be a contender. He might have. Neither was "Veteran," technically, since it was a Moorcock lyric written years prior. But it was submitted, and won.
Probably "Don't Turn Your Back" was too long to work in the movie and couldn't be excerpted to effect. Or they just didn't like it. I'd actually forgotten the opening chord progression was once Allen's germ of a song. My memory isn't all that. I should just read the credits.
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Post by sirrastus on Feb 11, 2021 19:51:22 GMT
Hannover Fist deserved a Godzilla type song. Agreed. And they should have changed the payoff to "Four bucks" lmao (and yeah, I know "Heavy Metal" predates "The Stoned Age," but no one would have believed the boys were peddling shirts for a buck...Eric was upset enough that it wasn't a fin). 'Real tour t-shirts,guaranteed authentic".
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Post by sirrastus on Feb 11, 2021 19:53:39 GMT
Was great hearing that at B.B.Kings.Loved the whole Allen tribute.
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Post by zillagodreturns on Feb 11, 2021 21:07:13 GMT
HM: Black and Silver wasn't a movie song, unless Sandy intended for it to be a contender. He might have. Neither was "Veteran," technically, since it was a Moorcock lyric written years prior. But it was submitted, and won. Probably "Don't Turn Your Back" was too long to work in the movie and couldn't be excerpted to effect. Or they just didn't like it. I'd actually forgotten the opening chord progression was once Allen's germ of a song. My memory isn't all that. I should just read the credits. I admit to including HM just because of the title lol...shoulda known it was too perfect. As for Veterans, as I said I never really thought it "fit" with anything in the film, though I do love the song and Moorcock's work. I always thought the intro to DTYB was spookyish and snazzy at the same time, to use technical terms.
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