Celebrity Jukebox #35: Kurt Russell

Kurt Russell stars in one of my all time favourite movies: John Carpenter's remake of The Thing. It's a far better movie than Alien, in my humble opinion, and with all due respect to Sigourney (who will surely feature here one day very soon). 

Kurt began acting at the age of 12, back in 1962, when he appeared in a short-lived Western TV show, soon after signing a lucrative contract with Disney that carried him through his teenage years until he teamed up with Carpenter to create some of the most memorable action movies of my youth - not just The Thing, but Escape From New York and Big Trouble In Little China... as well as Carpenter's Elvis biopic, in which Kurt got to wear the Blue Suede Shoes. He maintained a high profile well into the 90s with movies like Tango & Cash, Backdraft and Tombstone, and has done pretty well in the 21st Century too, turning up in big franchises such as The Fast & The Furious and Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as a number of roles for Quentin Tarantino, most notably Deathproof. He also received credit from Tarantino in the recent novelisation of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood as one of the major sources of "old Hollywood" stories Quentin mined for that movie.

But how does Kurt do in the world of popular music? Well, as with most action heroes, he gets crow-barred into about 350 obscure rap songs, in order to create tough guy cool by association. But I'm only going to include rap songs here if they actually live in my record collection, otherwise they'd clog up this feature and I'd be the sad 50 year-old white dude trying to prove his cred by name dropping artists you and I have both never heard of such as Vinnie Paz, Gangrene, and Hoodie Allen (who at least gets points for his cheeky pseudonym). Special mention must however go to this, which I guess is kind of rap pastiche, but it did raise a momentary chuckle...

Luke Jenison - Peach Fuzz Kurt Russell

Mom says I'm sweet as dessert

Been that way ever since birth

You know who it is

Homie, it's Peach Fuzz Kurt Russell

Baby face with lots of stubble

Homie, it's Peach Fuzz Kurt Russell

At the other end of the spectrum, if you fancy a bit of Northern Irish thrash metal, you might lend your cotton-wool padded ears to this...

Gama Bomb - Kurt Russell

You'll be Tango

Kurt Russell

I’ll be Cash

Kurt Russell

Drinking cider

Kurt Russell

Smoking hash

Kurt Russell

However, nothing beats this, from local heroes to this blog (they formed while at Wakefield College), Ultrasound. This is one of their very best tunes, yet (such are the vagueries of rock 'n' roll) it was only ever released as a b-side. It was, however, one of the very first songs I thought of when I first came up with this series. Go on, put your hands down my pants...

You're never gonna see me fall,

I'll always be there when you call,

I want to be your hero,

Kurt Russell, Eastwood and me.