Alan Arkin was one of those actors who made a movie better whenever his name was added to the cast list. Fans of Catch 22 will remember him as the Sisyphean pilot Yossarian, a man trapped by the paradoxical logic of the military intelligence machine. He also had memorable roles in The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Grosse Point Blank and one of my favourite moves, David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross. And in his latter years, he became the archetypal Grumpy Old Man, with Michael Douglas in The Kominsky Method and in Little Miss Sunshine, a performance which earned him an Oscar.
As young man, Arkin started out as a singer and guitarist in two 50s folk groups, firstly supporting Vince Martin in The Tarriers, then as one of The Baby Sitters, a group which also featured his wife Barbara and 8 year old son Adam (who would later follow dad into acting). And he even released a solo record...
I could only find two lyrical reference to the late, great Alan Arkin, but fortunately one of them was pretty good. First though, he's MC Mantra...
Ain't got no gats in the crew, but if you're asking to lose
You can Catch like Alan Arkin
We chase the light, but roam into the darkness
If home is where the heart is, then we'll open up your carcass
You'll be disappointed to hear that I couldn't find that anywhere on the tube of you. Luckily, I could find this, a song I featured here a while back. Drip Drip Drip by The Tragically Hip is dedicated to Alan Arkin and Madeline Kahn. But why? To answer that, I had to consult The Hip Museum...
[In his] memoir, "An Improvised Life," released in 2011: "Arkin recounts how he once asked a friend and colleague, the late, ferociously talented comedian, singer and musician Madeline Kahn, what she first wanted to do as a kid: Sing? Play the piano? Make people laugh? She answered that she used to listen to a lot of music; then she thought for a while and added, "I wanted to be the music."
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