Growing up in Pittsburgh, PA, there was a theater (Kings Court) who every weekend still played midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was some bizarre movie with a bizarre cult following that was strange and risque. It had all sorts of mysterious auras attached to it, at least for my little 14 year old mind.
So, as usual for a lot of music i fell in love with in my early teenage years, i went out and bought… the sheet music. Yes, i learned a lot of albums and shows by playing through the sheet music on piano a hundred times before finally, months later, buying the album.
Rocky Horror Picture Show blew my 14 year old mind. (As did Jesus Christ Superstar. Somewhere in the shared space between those two works and Pink Floyd my entire bag of tricks today is pulled from).
What awesome songs! What… strange lyrics. What… unusual and almost monty python meets alternative americana humor. Shocking sexuality! Oh myyyyyyyy (George Takei, you are AWEsome and i want to be just like you when i grow up). The over the top sexuality was a matchbox to my furtive adolescent hormones. Even as a straight guy i can SO identity with both Frank’s strut and Janet’s bashful inhibition waiting to be let loose. (Brad’s just an asshole.) Hey, even if straight, i am and was especially at that age a Freak and Geek. And them up their on that screen were my peeps. (plus, by 15 i could utterly understand Frank’s desire to just hump anything that moved)
I can sing through the entirety of Rocky Horror to this day. Every lyrics. At one point i could even hang passibly with a good portion of the call and response. The opening acoustic guitar and piano chords of Double Feature will even to this day stop me in my tracks. THIS MOVIE IS AWESOME. And not in a… you know, great drama of all time kind of way, but in this absolutely bizarre humor/ rock opera/ b movie kind of thing made immortal by the most impressive cult following in history. Seriously people, Rocky Horror INVENTED the entire concept of cult following. INVENTED IT. Seriously. I ain’t joking.
Thus these 3 clips of behind the scene interviews during the making of the film in 1975 is an awesome sit through. I thus share them with you now.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF9cZUuvYt8&feature=relmfu]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ab_haeNICA&feature=relmfu]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9HYqfkYKQ0&feature=relmfu]
