Jaws - The Sharksploitation Edit

I've weirdly never talked about this on here but Jaws is one of my favorite movies of all time. I was 5!!! when my parents first took me to see it and it instilled a lifelong mortal fear of sharks and the ocean in me. Not in a horrible I can't function or ever go to the beach again kind of way but definitely in a I can't help but worry about what's swimming beneath me whenever I'm in the ocean.kind of way. This is pretty fucking epic. Somebody took Jaws and reworked it using a variety of sources (other movies, deleted scenes) to make what they call The Sharksploitation Edit which seems to be as if the movie was made as an Italian ripoff of Jaws which when I word it that way sounds like it's going to be awful but actually it's way cool. I apologize for having to post the movie in so many parts but it's way too large to post as one file on here and YouTube would nuke it for copyright so you have to watch it piecemeal. I'll put all the parts in order. Enjoy!

Deep Cuts Corner Volume 4 - Elton John

I'm breaking with my own tradition and picking 15 cuts instead of my usual 5 but holy shit narrowing it down to 5 would be impossible. Even 15 is too few, really. Narrowing it down to ONLY 3 songs from Tumbleweed Connection will be hard enough. Seriously if you've never heard that album seek it out immediately it's the definition of sublime. But Elton John has had such a long and prolific career that there is a wealth of material to choose from. And pretty much every album has at least one or two hidden gems. Even the album where he didn't play any of the instruments and was coked out of his mind featured a minor hit (a cover of Johnny Be Goode which isn't on this list but I'm just using it for example). Some of these might be more well known than others. For instance, I would have picked Burn Down the Mission but I feel like a lot more people know that one now. Hip people, mind you lol. I should also say that, as with Joe Cocker and Stevie Nicks from my other posts, Elton has, at this point in his career, recorded songs for countless soundtracks, tribute albums, and charity projects and they're almost always great. But my favorites where he's concerned are usually forgotten album cuts so the tracks here are at least easier to find on streaming services. Anyways, here is my list in no particular order...


1) Ballad of a Well Known Gun - fom the afformentioned Tumbleweed album. Bernie and Elton make their attempt at a country story song. It doesn't sound much like country, but goddamn it's good. While I would normally choose album versions to post, here I picked the live version from Elton's 60th Birthday Concert at Madison Square Garden. The kids chorus in the background adds so much fun to the proceedings and Elton and the band are in fine form. It was the first time they had played it in 30 years and they haven't played it since. Seek this concert out if you're so inclined it's one of the best live shows I've ever seen. He plays all the hits, a plethora of deep cuts, and sounds great through all of it.

2) American Triangle - from the Songs From the West Coast album, regarded as Elton's comeback of sorts to pop albums after almost a decade of making Disney soundtracks and Broadway shows, this song is about the hate crime murder of Matthew Shepherd. Rufus Wainwright sings backing vocals on the album version but again I chose a live version from Top of the Pops (mostly because it at least gives you something to watch while you listen) and he sounds great here.

3) Friends Never Say Goodbye - from The Road to El Dorado Soundtrack and featuring the Backstreet Boys doing background vocals.

4) A Woman's Needs - from the Duets album, this is a duet with Tammy Wynette written by Elton and Bernie and it's absolutely gorgeous and gave Tammy one of the best songs in her later years. Hearing this makes me wish they did more journeyman song writing for varied artists. Bonnie Raitt could kill this song, for instance.

5) Where to Now, St. Peter? - from Tumbleweed, another song Elton has only played sparingly throughout his career which makes me wish he'd actually do one of those full album tours to revisit it. Alas, with touring canceled indefinitely and Elton deeply ensconced in his farewell tour at that, it will likely never happen.

6) Electricity - The penultimate track from the Broadway show Billy Elliot, which I absolutely love. There's just so much I relate to in this story, from a rough relationship with my father to being queer and feeling different to having the strength to follow your passion. I so wish they would make a movie musical out of this score because it's one of the best things Elton has ever done. This is his version released as a single around the same time that the show first premiered in the West End in London.

7) Son of Your Father - also from Tumbleweed, again a story song, again a forgotten gem.

8) High Flying Bird - this gorgeous album cut is from Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player and I again chose the 60th Birthday Concert version because I think its so good and he again hasn't played it since.

9) Holiday Inn - Elton's cheeky ode to America's low rent hotel chain first appeared on the Madman Across the Water album. The message is slight, but the music is beautiful.

10) Gone to Shiloh - from The Union, the album Elton made with Leon Russell, and featuring Neil Young on backing vocals. This is a beautiful story song about the Civil War. Somebody on YouTube made a haunting video out of pics of Elton and Leon and real photos of soldiers during the period.

11) Sleeping With the Past - from the album of the same name. Club At the End of the Street was the hit off of the album but there are numerous gems on it.

12) Roy Rogers - from the Goodbye Yellowbrick Road album, this is Elton's ode to the cowboys and movie memories from his childhood.

13) The King Must Die - from the Elton John album. I prefer the live version from '86 with a full live orchestra but there were no usable videos for that one, but the song is great no matter what.

14) Hey Ahab - another cut from The Union, one of the best late period albums Elton has made.

15) Harmony - from Goodbye Yellowbrick Road. Pure bliss.

Coming Out Kaiju Style

This is the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen lol. I hate to take away from the original creator, so look up her stuff on YouTube her name is Cressa Beer. She's got some other funny and creative Godzilla vids on there as well. Enjoy!

Mr. K

One of my favorite LGBT movies of recent years was Love, Simon. In that film, Simon's search for a boyfriend, and the titular character he is writing to all along, leads him to the beautiful and charming Keiynan Lonsdale. As an out queer, I'm following his career with interest. But as a horndog I was thrilled that he seems to be as horny as his character in the movie was shy. Enjoy!

See You Soon

This movie broke my fucking heart. I mean who hasn't been there, am I right? Long distance shit can be hard on your soul. This is a beautiful, gorgeous short. Enjoy.

Deep Cuts Corner Volume 3: Joe Cocker

I've loved Joe Cocker since I was in high school and somebody at some point (I can't remember who but it was probably in my family compact disc store where I worked at the time) put on his version of With a Little Help From My Friends. It wasn't an immediate love if I recall. Having been a fan of the Beatles' version of the song, I wanted the Tin Pan Alley Billy Shears style version only to find this spaced out drugged up sounding epic jam with a screaming madman at the center of it. But after a few listens, I clocked the size of the balls it must have taken to mount this version of such a beloved song. And I started to sway along with that cracked and weathered growl, and I was hooked. Then the Unchain the Night album came out and from then on I bought every album the man made. They weren't all gold, to be sure. Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight (Unchain the Night, When the Night Comes) were certainly the best fit as producers of Joe's later career and it's too bad they didn't do more albums with him. But there were always gems, and there was always that voice. That amazing howl that could go from tender to broken in about half a second. I should note that Joe is one of those artists whose catalogue is SCREAMING OUT for a box set of unreleased songs, b-sides, and soundtrack entries (three of which are included here). I wish I knew who to contact to get the job of compiling this thing because I want this stuff out in a decent copy of some sort. Almost all of these songs are a testament to why I can never JUST go with a streaming service alone but require either a turntable or a streaming service which also allows cloud space for my own music that isn't available in their library (which is why I use Apple, although even that has issues but maybe that's a topic for another blog post). All but one of these songs are extremely hard to find (unless you dupe them from YouTube with very poor sound quality as I've done here). Without further ado, here are 5 of my favorite Joe Cocker Deep Cuts.


1) Love Lives On (from the Harry and the Hendersons Sountrack) - I believe this song started Joe's association with Dan and Charlie and while some may find it treacly, I think it's one of the best ballads he ever did. His voice is killer on it. There are 2 versions of the track. The one actually in the movie features a synthesized flute solo to open the song and the version on the soundtrack begins with a sax solo. I chose the sax version, but the video is pretty dull as it was the only one I had to choose from. C'mon couldn't they make some of the images less blurry? Jeez

2) We Stand Alone (from the Wildcats Soundtrack) - another great track with Joe in great vocal form. This is impossible to find unless you track down a vinyl copy, and I only had one video to choose from so you get only a static picture of Joe, but the song is killer.

3) Edge of a Dream (from the Teachers Soundtrack) - Another great ballad with a catchy as fuck chorus that lets Joe wail. This video is much more interesting at least as it's from Solid Gold around the time that the movie came out and features a live band (Solid Gold would later go to full lip syncing).

4) Not Too Young to Die of a Broken Heart - A b-side from the Night Calls album, this is boith rocking and funky and features Joe at the peak of his powers vocally.

5) I'm So Glad I'm Standing Here Today - This is the one song on my list that might be easiest to track down as it's sometimes featured on his hit collections although it's generally not listed in his catalogue as it was simply a guest spot on a Crusaders track but at the time, after Joe had been gone for many years in the wilderness of drink and drugs and excess, it was certainly regarded as a comeback of sorts.

Turn It Around

Watching this I was thinking to myself "Is it really such a big deal for people to come out anymore?" In the radiant haze of all the progress we've made in the last 50 years or so (present political climate notwithstanding) and the proliferation of queer characters on tv and in film you can sometimes forget just how much progress still needs to be made. The fact that there are no black faces in this short is just one example. But I digress. This is cute as fuck and made me remember the indelible electricity of even sitting next to someone you liked when you knew you were still closeted and therefore not supposed to be acting on it. That moment when your fingers almost touched. Sigh. Good times. Enjoy.