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Top 10 Fictitious musicians/bands.
To be honest, I’ve heard very little this week that I could really put in a top ten, I’ll save some up for next week, hopefully there will be more bounty. A good tune is getting hard to find!
Indulge me for this week in my list of favorite fictitious musicians or bands from books, movies and cartoons!
Horse Badorties (from The Fan Man)
If you’ve not read The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle , put aside an hour some afternoon and do it. A pamphlet of a book, it’s still a heady, crud filled slice of anti-hero uber-slob and composer Horse Badorties ’ life in a day, as told in the present tense first person. Horse’s character is a filthy ball of id who still manages to pull people around him into his primary impulse, creating music, either with his Love Chorus or jamming the moonlute with his street musician friends, celebrating “Dorky Day” or driving a schoolbus into a swamp, all the while tending and feeding his epically filthy apartment. It’s a hilarious and surreal read.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Everyone kind of remembers the gist of this 14th century german folk tale. The town of Hamelin has a rat problem and hires the Piper, who lures away the rats with his mad piping skills. Rat problem done, the town then stiff the Piper who, righteously pissed, returns later and lures away the town’s children into a cave where they all disappear forever.
It’s hard not to see the allegory here: don’t screw the band, man.
Frankie Wilde from It’s All Gone Pete Tong
Paul Kaye is amazing in this fake doc about Frankie Wilde , a DJ at the top of his game who goes completely deaf while nearly succumbing to a coke addiction. The story of redemption and strength of will is solid rebar for the hilarious script and greasy Ibiza setting.
Sherlock Holmes
Holmes, when not applying his analytic genius in a case, spends time doing coke and improvising on the violin.
Thomas Builds-the-Fire from Reservation Blues
Thomas Builds-The-Fire a recurring protagonist from some of Sherman Alexie ’s other books meets Robert Johnson on the Rez who leaves him a guitar. Using the enchanted guitar, Thomas starts a band and eventually has a disastrous audition for a record label. It’s one of the more compelling of Alexie’s novels and appealing to rock fans in it’s skein of musical referents and ghostly characters.
The Blues Brothers
The SNL skit that became a movie that became a band that became another movie that became a parody. But the original Blues Brothers movie is a classic, it doesn’t get any more fun and full of amazing performances by the kings and queens of soul and R & B. I wore out the soundtrack cassette in my walkman as a kid.
Hollis Henry from William Gibson ’s Spook Country and Zero History
The former singer of the world famous The Curfew , Hollis is now approaching middle age, struggling with money and become an investigative journalist of sorts. Her character navigates the dense dark and mostly insinuated plot by Gibson , referencing and encountering her past at every turn, scenes where she ends up in front of her own giant poster have an ontological shiver to them. It’s rare to have a well fleshed out protagonist that identifies as a musician (so many protagonists in contemporary novels and films are bureaucrats, cops, lawyers, doctors etc.. “real” jobs as defined by the narrow minded.).
Tom in Tom & Jerry – Solid Serenade
The Leningrad Cowboys in The Leningrad Cowboys Go America
One of the best mock/rockumentaries ever made, it follows the pointy haired and shod russian rockers as they navigate the US, frozen lead singer in tow, followed by a man with a giant fish. I have no words for the wierdness, if you can find it you will love this movie.
Bad News from Bad News
Poking fun at everything campy and silly about British heavy metal of the 80s (and it was pretty much all campy and silly), Bad News had the misfortune to be made at the same time as This Is Spinal Tap, which eclipsed Bad News’ potential popularity. But it’s still a great counterpart, and the music is just as irreverent and hilarious, songs like “Warriors of Genghis Khan” are, in retrospect, nearly indistinguishable from many of the “serious” bands’ output of the day.
