Car Wash

Car Wash
(1976 American comedy starring George Carlin,
Lorraine Gary, Richard Pryor, The Pointer Sisters;
directed by Michael Schultz)
A Musicale presentation at the Royal Cinema
Toronto August 14, 2016
by Live Music Head

It’s gritty downtown Los Angeles,
circa 1976.
And soul, gospel, R&B and disco
make up the soundtrack
to a “day-in-the-life”of a car wash known as
Dee-Luxe:
a gathering place for a multiracial group of employees:
Mexican American,
Native American,
and Afro American,
all tryin’ to earn a lousy buck,

the only way they know how.
Dressed in prison-orange, and gettin' down
on your Chevrolet Camaro,
Ford Mustang, or Pontiac Trans Am.
And some of their women drop by for a fight.
Alright!
T.C.,
the breast and thigh man
has one big-ass motherfuckin’ ‘fro.
Between steam gunnin’ and vacuumin’,
he rushes to the telephone booth repeatedly
tryin’ to win concert tickets from KGYS, 

555 on the radio dial.
Disc jockeys and pinball machines!
He wants to impress Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa
the waitress who works at the 5-Spot diner across the street.
On a break,
T.C. is shown leaning on the jukebox
fawning over her,
and mouthing the words I Wanna Get Next To You.
Cut-off jean shorts and halter tops!
Mona thinks he’s a loser
with no money, no future and no class.
From inside a smelly locker room,
Floyd and Lloyd impersonate James Brown
like on Soul Train,
while practicing their stage act between
manual high pressure pre-washes and tunnel brushes.
Big-ass lapels!
Sexy Bitch, the drag queen
the first drag queen ever, prob’ly
to be employed full time at a car wash
is Antonio Vargas!
Remember?
He was Huggy Bear on the television cop show,
Starsky and Hutch.
"More man than you'll ever be,
and more woman than you'll ever get!"
Station Wagons!
Duane,
also known as Abdullah,
is a black Muslim revolutionary wannabe,
with a chip on his shoulder.
C’mon, brother!
Look!
That’s Pepe Serna,
also known as Rooster in Honeysuckle Rose,
one of my all-time favourite road films
starring that red-headed stranger from Blue Rock, Montana.
VW buses!
One thing is certain,
when it comes to serving the public,
these men will stop at nothing.
But I thought this was a drive thru/get clean.
Not a walk by/get clean.
Like Marleen,
a lonely, broken-hearted prostitute
who does it in the rest room,
hiding out from George Carlin,
the taxi driver of a yellow Standard cab.
Hang Loose, sister!
In red platform boots.
While street kids on wheelie bikes go by,
or on skateboards in slo-mo,
regularly.
Sportin’ Adidas and Converse running shoes.
Until Daddy Rich shows up!
That famous money-hungry television evangelist
with The Wilson Sisters,
his back seat singers
also known as The Pointers.
They do a gospel number right there in the car wash parking lot.
Why Not Believe In Me?
Praise the Lord!
TITHE is what it says on the license plate
of their gold chauffeur-driven pimpmobile.
Soapy suds, water balloons and hot wax.
Daddy is Richard Pryor!
He gets outta that car and sits on Snapper’s shoe shine throne,
with JFK and MLK looking over each of his shoulders.
They’re passin’ the hat,
but it’s on me, brother!
Other characters in the story include
a pop bottle urine sample bomber
who gets tackled.
Datsun by Nissan.
And Miss Beverly Hills,
also known as Chief Brody’s wife in Jaws
who arrives hysterical because her boy,
in red Levi’s jeans,
has thrown up all over her Mercedes Benz.
The guy who works the gas pump is Scruggs,
a cowboy with a social disease,
and Hippo is the one who whizzes around on a moped,
with a transistor radio held at his ear.
Right on!
And that guy Sly,
also known as Garrett Morris from Live, it’s Saturday Night
is a con-artist who drives a Cadillac.
Hey baby, how you doin'?
Far out!
Marsha is the hot-and-chesty office girl
who’s having a secret fling with big-hearted Mr. B,
the married owner of the Dee-Luxe.
But holy Plymouth, Oldsmobiles and Pacers!
Marsha has feathered her hair
just like I used to do back then,
with a curling iron.
I also used to have one of them yellow lace-up tops like hers.
I’d wear mine with similarly dark, bell-bottomed blue jeans too,
and those very same clogs.
Typewriters and rotary phones!
The Farrah Fawcett wanna-be forgot all about
her lyin’, cheatin’ married boss
when that Ken doll swooped in and flirted.
Man.
Originally conceived as a musical, 

Roger Ebert called this motion picture
"a wash-and-wax M*A*S*H".
And the theme song was an enormous hit for Rose Royce.
What’s more,
the soundtrack won the Grammy
for Best Original Score.
Thank you, come again!

The trailer for Car Wash…

Rose Royce performing the theme song for Car Wash

on Soul Train...

SNL 40

SNL 40

Saturday Night Live anniversary special

February 15, 2015

by Live Music Head

Saturday Night Live just celebrated four decades on television 

with a 3-and-a-half-hour 40th Anniversary Special.
And it seemed that anyone who is anyone was there,
in NBC’s Studio 8H.
I watched the whole thing,
including the red carpet special that preceded it,
and there was much that made me laugh, and cry...
The two Paul's (McCartney and Simon) breaking out

“I’ve Just Seen a Face” during the opening monologue;
that ignorant slut Jane Curtin’s return to Weekend Update
with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler;
Bill Murray and Paul Shaffer performing the “theme” from Jaws;
Chris Rock reminiscing over the greatness that is Eddie Murphy
and what he brought to the show back in the eighties;
and the Mom Jeans ad.
But being someone who grew up on the early days of the show,
I particularly liked Jack Nicholson’s appearance and comment
on what the climate was like in 1975 when the show first aired,
and that being what made SNL socially and politically necessary,
and important.
Why satire is necessary and important.
It was a time when respect for authority was at an all-time low.
And no one made us think, and laugh about it as much as
Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase,
Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman,

and Gilda Radner.
The Not Ready for Prime Time Players.
Oh, and Don Novello as Father Guido Sarducci too.
George Carlin was the first host.
1970s genius made more brilliant with the arrival of Bill Murray 

in the 1980s.
The show changed television as we knew it back then,
and suddenly everyone wanted to stay home on Saturday night.
We couldn’t get enough of Roseanne Roseannadanna,
those Two Wild and Crazy Guys,
The Blues Brothers,
Steve Martin as King Tut,
and the Coneheads.
All brought to us live from the great city of New York 

with more cowbell,
and cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger!
Great characters brought to us by great actors, 

great comedians, 

and cocaine.
The program also saw some of the most important,
and politically necessary musicians grace its stage.
Most notable: George Harrison and Paul Simon’s duet 

of Here Comes the Sun and Homeward Bound.
I don’t really watch Saturday Night Live anymore.
I lost interest after the first twenty years or so,
but I still tune in from time to time.
And because he was born on this day,
I’d like to mention the late Chris Farley,
and that time I tuned in to see 

a very funny mock interview he did with Paul McCartney.
Other highlites from the 40th Anniversary Special
were Paul Simon’s performance 

of Still Crazy After All These Years,
and the In Memoriam segment reminding me that Don Pardo,
the show’s announcer and voice now ingrained in popular culture,
recently passed away.
May he and Mr Farley rest in peace.
Oh, and Louis CK reminiscing on SNL’s short films,
the unlive parts, reminding me of two of my favourites:
Eddie Murphy in White Like Me
and John Belushi dancing on the graves 

of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players 

in Don’t Look Back in Anger.
Thought-provoking, hilarious, honest, 

and completely unforgettable.
Thank you Lorne Michaels.


Saturday Night Live on NBC...
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live