I have a strict policy against telling anyone reading this website that I am 47 years old. (Oops.) But my age is relevant to this post because I recently stumbled across a USA Today article in which I was quoted a music editor with a finger on the pulse of the industry. (In reality, I was more of an authority on where to score grocery coupons than on music.)
The USA Today article discussed the music industry’s attempts to ward off music downloading, which at the time was a new phenomenon catching on like AI has in recent years: at hyper-speed, with even the music industry powers-that-be having no idea where the new technology would lead us.
A funny thing happened when Robyn Hitchcock released his 12th studio album, Jewels for Sophia, in July 1999 and toured behind it: Quizzically, he decided to devote one of its songs to actor Gene Hackman, whose previously ubiquitous appearances in gritty crime capers from yesteryears had inexplicably slowed to a trickle.
Hitchcock latched onto Hackman’s fading presence like a mesmerizing curio one might find in an antique store, haunting him to the extent that he felt compelled to address it in song. (Hackman passed away this month at age 95, according to news reports from today, hence this homage of sorts.)
The lyrics to “Don’t Talk to Me About Gene Hackman,” which was unlisted on Jewels for Sophia, went like this:
I’ll have a warm bath I’ll have a bottle of wine I’ll put myself to bed And I’ll feel just fine But don’t talk to me about Gene Hackman
He’s got an evil grin He’s got curly hair And every time he smiles It means trouble somewhere So don’t talk to me about Gene Hackman
He’s in every film Sometimes wearing a towel And if it isn’t him You get Andie MacDowell So don’t talk to me about Gene Hackman
Don’t talk to me at all Don’t say hello You could be Gene himself for all I know
In Unforgiven He was totally mean But when he got his I really felt for Gene But don’t talk to me about Gene Hackman
I’ll have a cold shower I’ll have a bottle of pop I’ll get a dog named Laszlo From a Laszlo shop But don’t talk to me about G-E-N-E H-A-C-K-M-A-N Gene Hackman
Some fans regarded the song as Hitchcock at his quirkiest, while others dismissed it as irritating British wit. But in one of the first interviews I ever conducted, in the same year as Jewels for Sophia reached the CD bins at record stores, Hitchcock elucidated his train of thought while writing “Don’t Talk to Me About Gene Hackman.”
Here is an excerpt from my feature on Hitchcock for my old magazine The Creature; the full interview isn’t online yet:
“When asked why [Hitchcock] chose [to focus on] Hackman [in song], Hitchcock says, ‘Who knows? He appears to be in almost every film. I could’ve sung [about] Michael Caine, but it was more fun singing [about] Gene Hackman. I hope he doesn’t have me rubbed out or anything. I gather he’s quite genial. Have you seen the film Unforgiven?’ “
RIP Gene Hackman. Long live Robyn Hitchcock (who is 71, for those keeping score at home). And for that matter, long live 91-year-old Michael Caine too.
With Gladiator 2 in theaters, hear the immortal Nick Cave–who wrote the screenplay for the underrated Australian Western The Proposition, among others–talk about the rejected script he wrote for a proposed Gladiator sequel, at the request of fellow Aussie Russell Crowe, shortly after the release of the 2000 original:
Hate to say we told you so, but a few years after an anonymous leaker from the Biden Crime Family provided Extra-Super-Top-Secret Classified Files to The Bad Penny, we can now officially confirm that the Deep State Documents are completely True and prove that two famous rock musicians (Hollywood Elites, of course) are indeed among the 47 million Lizard People living among us in the United States (which is a “garbage bin,” by the way). We call it “The Maynard/Yow Connection.”
The Bad Penny (beta) 