Montgomery Clift is another of those names I recognise more from song lyrics than actual movies, though his name is mentioned in the same breath as Marlon Brando and James Dean as a pioneer of method acting. Red River, From Here To Eternity and The Misfits are among his most famous roles, though he turned downing iconic roles in High Noon, Sunset Boulevard and Shane. A car crash in 1956 left him dependent on alcohol and drugs for pain relief, ultimately leading to his untimely death ten years later.
Montgomery's filmography is pretty strong... but his Celebrity Jukebox contains some real heavy hitters, starting with The Clash...
Say, where did I see this guy?
In "Red River"?
Or a "Place In The Sun"?
Maybe "The Misfits"?
Or "From Here To Eternity"?
And everybody say, "Is he all right?"
And everybody say, "What's he like?"
And everybody say, "He sure looks funny"
That's Montgomery Clift, honey!
From there, let's visit my favourite Tom Waits album, Nighthawks At The Diner...
And it's a skid mark tattoo on the asphalt blue
Was that a Malibu?
Vroooooom, vroooooom
Yeah, it's Liz Taylor and Montgomery Clift
Coming on to the broads with the same old riff, yeah
What about The Waterboys?
Grandma
We are Jonah
Rolling along
In the teeth of the whale
Then the scene did shift
To a sun kissed sea
There was Montgomery Clift,
Jonah, the whale and me
As the sun it set
Montgomery placed his bet
Then the whale did yawn
And fell asleep in four
And, just to take a break from the heavy hitters, I take you to back to 1979 for an encounter with Italian Prog Rock band New Trolls who namedrop Montgomery along with Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr in this joyous little ditty...
Moving on, here's Earth Kitt... a lady who's anything but monotonous...
I met a rather amusing fool
While on my way to Istanbul
He bought me the Black Sea for my swimming pool
Monotonous!
For thirty days, salt air I sniffed
While I was shipwrecked and cast adrift
With a man who looked like Montgomery Clift
Monotonous!
Simon Joyner is not as big a name as Eartha, but he has some famous fans. Beck, Bright Eyes and Gillian Welch all consider him an influence.
You don't know me
He said to the swinging door
You used to look like Montgomery Clift, he reminded the mirror
I know how you got so sick
The mirror hypothesized
But he'd already turned his back and then he rolled his eyes
Random Hold formed in Dulwich, back in 1976. If you were reading the Melody Maker back then, you may remember their name...
This lot, on the other hand, hail from the early years of the current century... but count among their influences The Birthday Party, Suicide & The Gun Club...
Doug Powell gets filed under "Power Pop", which guarantees he'll get a listen...
How about some overblown melodramatic 90s Europop? Go on. You know you want to...
How do I follow that? Easy.
John Prine can follow anybody... and he's even brought Tom Petty along with him.
Hamburgers, Cheeseburgers
Wilbur and Orville Wright
John Garfield in the afternoon
Montgomery Clift at night
Some big hitters indeed.I immy thought about the Clash when his name appeared.
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ReplyDeleteNice to see footage of John Prine in his "Prime" as I really only got to know about him in his later years.
ReplyDeleteThe Misfits was Marilyn's last film before she died and poor Montgomery sounds as if his life was cut very short - lots of tragedy around then - James Dean before them. Such beautiful men born to be film stars.
The Clash came to mind for me straight away too, I hadn't realised there were so many other name checks in song. He certainly was beautiful, and his life so tragic.
ReplyDeleteI assumed this would be a dead cert for The Clash as I couldn't think of any other Montgomery Clift related songs. I'm amazed at how many there are.
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