A lot of film fans rate Stanley Kubrick as the pre-eminent auteur director of the 20th Century. Some of those same cinephiles don't rate The Shining as highly as his other movies. Stephen King famously hated Kubrick's adaptation of his novel.
I can take or leave most Kubrick movies, especially 2001, which I just never got. Yet despite the fact that Stephen King is my favourite author, I love Kubrick's The Shining. It must have watched it more than just any movie apart from The Big Lebowski, Back To The Future and Die Hard. And following on from Shelley Duvall, Stanley Kubrick was an obvious contender for the Celebrity Jukebox.
Turns out he's an incredibly well-referenced fellow, particularly in the rap world where auteurs and visionaries are clearly admired. Frank Ocean drops his name more than once. Jay Z, Lupe Fiasco, A$AP Rocky... they all dig Stan. And who better to follow those cutting edge sophisticates than... Jimmy Buffet?
The future, captain's log, stardate two thousand and something
We're seven years from the millenium
That's a science fiction fact
Stanley Kubrick and his buddy Hal
Now don't look that abstract
I guess Jimmy wrote that 30 years ago. 1993, in case you need a kick where it hurts this morning.
Here's another fun song from contemporary hit-makers Bastille. (OK, maybe not that contemporary. They've been around since 2010.)
I'm here feeling lower than the sterling
How'd you look so good?
Groundhog evening, dancing on the ceiling
Kubrick's Hollywood
You've no idea how many songs I found that mentioned Stanley Kubrick. Some of them referencing 2001, others A Clockwork Orange or Full Metal Jacket, a surprising amount his final movie, Eyes Wide Shut. Some even seem to believe that old conspiracy theory that NASA hired Kubrick to fake the 1969 moon landing. Take Mansun, for example...
Your philosophy's so cool
With your tranquillizers, valium and gin
You talk of euthanasia
And your breakdown was so cool
Did Stanley Kubrick fake it with the moon?
It was incredible how many of those references were from modern artists, proving how much of an influence his movies still have among the young people. It got to the point where I was just an old man wandering through a virtual record store and every shelf was filled with artists I'd never heard of and couldn't even begin to connect with. Although there were a few discoveries that matched my own oddball sensibilities. Here's a few titular mentions as brief evidence of how I spent my Christmas holiday...
In the end though, I had to admit defeat. There were literally thousands of musical references to Stanley Kubrick, and like a clockwork orange about to explode, the jukebox was on the verge of overload.
Then one song came to my rescue. It's by Scatman Crothers, an actor and singer who began his musical career in the 30s... and went on to be immortalised as The Overlook Hotel's head chef, Dick Hallorann. He's the man with "The Shining". And he knew Stanley Kubrick quite well. He even wrote a song about him, from first-hand experience...
There's a man living in London town, makes movies, he's world renown
Yes, he's really got the fame Stanley Kubrick is his name
Yes he does it all, I'm telling you all, Stanley does it all
He might work you days and days, you'll find out it really pays
He's a perfectionist you know, he's got to be right before you go
He does it all, he does it all, Stanley does it all
