Slow news days around here makes us look at another cinematic quote/reference and salutation. Now we never thought as much about “Boogie Nights” as some people who went apeshit for it when it first came out (in fact, we thought it was a QT-like pop-culture flick knock-off and dismissed it inititally). We grew to like it, but when we found out where director Paul Thomas Anderson appropriated the Dirk Diggler cheese-rock power anthem, “You’ve Got The Touch” we flipped.
“Do you think the bass is taking away from the vocal?”
If you remember the scene in PTA’s film, Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) and his buddy Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly) are coked-up, porn-star losers trying to break into the music industry with their self-penned rock tune. Aimee Mann’s husband, Michael Penn (who composed the film’s score) plays the studio producer that has to record and put up with their god awful song (Mann of course would go on to provide songs for PTA’s “Magnolia,” never forget the connections). At the time – similar to the feeling we had during ‘King of Kong’ – the song provoked that, “where have we heard this before?” sensation.
“The magic that is on those tapes. That fucking heart and soul that we put onto those tapes, that is ours and you don’t own that!”
Years later we discovered the song was jacked from the 1986 “Transformers” animated movie; using the anthemic cock-rocker track by Stan Bush (the song was the big single from the film and a cheesy video with clips from the movie was made, see below). When we realized this, we freaked and our respect and admiration for PTA soared. That was a good lookin’ out trainspot on his part if we ever did see one and our hats will be permanently off to him for that moment (we also love that the “Transformers” movie was basically the last film “appearance” of a washed-up, bloated and drunked Orson Welles who lent his voice to Unicron – the planet eating destroyer – shortly before he died).
We also found the DVD bonus clip on YouTube that features the extended scenes with Wahlberg and Reilly recording in what were scenes originally intended as a birthday gift to Michael Penn, but some of the moments were so good – many of them improvised by Reilly – that they were actually included in the film. Watching Reilly play the heavy, trying to force Penn to “turn up the bass” and mask Wahlberg’s poorly-pitched vocals is definitely one of the highlights of this film. Comedy gold.
Download: Stan Bush – “The Touch”
Video: Stan Bush – “You’ve Got The Touch” video (with “Transformers” blue-screen footage)
Watch: “You’ve Got The Touch” From “Boogie Nights”
Watch: Outtakes And Extended Scenes From the “Touch” Recording Sessions of “Boogie Nights”