The record store in Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”

Extreme lower left of the photo, the small bit of shelving nearest the camera, middle shelf: Nick Drake, Pink Moon

thread of interest

Twitter's dying, it's time for some real content.

So I came in to to living room to find Dad watching Only Fools and Horses with the sound off and pausing it at random frames.

"I was trying to work out what records he's selling in his stall."

So we worked them out together pic.twitter.com/H7TI7UYQqE

— get ahead - Kathy Griffin (@fireh9lly) November 18, 2022

Watching Less Than Zero (a clumsy, artless movie)… there’s a scene where Robert Downey Jr. breaks into his dad’s house, picks up a CD copy of Robert Palmer’s Riptide, and is about to put it on the stereo… but his dad walks in, and apparently isn’t a fan:

https://i.imgur.com/a8faQPa_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

(maybe he was waiting for Heavy Nova to come out)

Btw – the (Rick Rubin–supervised) music in this movie is bewilderingly uncool... it's mostly classic rock and trashy stuff like Poison covering "Rock and Roll All Nite." There's almost no hip, youth-oriented music of the day (even the big Bangles song is, of course, a throwback).

Then again, maybe it's true to the milieu / characters, and their expected taste profile (I did also once pull up next to Rubin driving a convertible in or near Beverly Hills, true to the film).

Have you read the book? The characters are a bit hipper and there's a set piece at an X concert at the Whisky.

I haven't... I did read the plot on Wikipedia (and – eek)!

One other thing about the music in the movie is that some of the cues are super corny, and meant to "complement" the action... like Hendrix's "Fire" is playing in a club as Downey lights a crack pipe (geddit?), etc.

(Downey’s performance is good, btw)

Diana Rigg, 1973

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVWRzZsWAAAMKJZ.jpg

Aw. I was listening to that Jobim just the other day.

top left lp is josh white i would say

That Diana Rigg picture is too good to miss.

https://www.lifo.gr/sites/default/files/styles/lifo_lightbox_open/public/articles/2020-11-06/diana-rigg0_1.jpg

A few years ago I had discovered two photographs of Diana Rigg on the net, one black and white and one in colour, both from 1968, or a little later, that made me miss them.

They were taken at her home, presumably, and showed her standing (one) and sitting (the other) in front of her stereo. You could see her machinery, her books in the background, and even some of her records. Some of them were easily and clearly distinguishable:

1. Antonio Carlos Jobim's album "The Composer of Desafinado, Plays", probably the British edition on Verve, from 1965.

2. Otis Redding's album "The Immortal" on Atlantic in 1968, and...

3. Mikis Theodorakis and Odysseus Elytis' "Axion Esti", which was then only released in Greece, in 1964!

https://www.lifo.gr/sites/default/files/styles/lifo_lightbox_open/public/articles/2020-11-06/a_lifo_diana_rigg_1.jpg

https://www.discogs.com/release/12057569-Mikis-Theodorakis-Odysseas-Elytis-Axion-Esti-

i guess that obvious one can't not be this but the cover is very different

although discogs says Sweden

seems like it must be this version

Watching Risky Business… no record sightings (yet), but there’s a great moment early on when his dad detects “a preponderance of bass, perhaps?”; and scolds Cruise, “I told you, this isn’t a toy” as he adjusts the sliders back to his liking:

https://i.imgur.io/oPRodEs_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

This movie’s boring, though… weirdly, it’s like “fake John Hughes” (right down to the Highland Park, IL filming location), but it predates all those Hughes teenager flicks.

All of Cruise’s performance mannerisms were fully intact at this early stage, it’s really something.

Man i loved playing with the equalizer, though my Dad wasn’t a jerk about it

Risky Business ended up having some pretty good song selections (including Prince's "D.M.S.R.")... tho it's amusing hearing Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" used to soundtrack Cruise & De Mornay having chemistry-free sex on a commuter train.

I remember when the Risky Business soundtrack was the only way to get “D.M.S.R.” on CD.

following Diana Rigg, 1973...Francoise Hardy, 1973

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fwv0uElWAAAcSCK?format=jpg&name=900x900

fantastic

for a sec I thought it was The Doors "Strange Days" behind her but nope

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/65/Carly_Simon_-_Anticipation.jpg/220px-Carly_Simon_-_Anticipation.jpg

The fact that Nick Drake's "Five Leaves Left" is there shows that he wasn't as obscure as people seem to think he was.

"Bryter Layter" peeping out behind Carly, too. And I think that's her own album "La Question" to the right of the turntable.

to the right of five leaves left:

https://i.discogs.com/QqjRbhHpMvropMvmnDlVpMw4rnX8dnJ9leeY_tbNSac/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:597/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQxNTc2/MDYtMTM1NzIxNTMx/Ny0xNjE5LmpwZWc.jpeg

The fact that Nick Drake's "Five Leaves Left" is there shows that he wasn't as obscure as people seem to think he was.

wasn't there some kind of plan for a hardy/drake collaboration at one point? pretty sure i read about it somewhere!

Yes, I think you're right.

I remember an Ian MacDonald piece about Nick D where he questions the obscurity thing - when he was at univeosrity in the early 70s, everyone had the albums, he reckoned.

Dolphin's Of Hollywood, circa 1948

https://scpr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/05fb2f8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1800x1109+0+46/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fa.scpr.org%2F103606_e1441670831d0144cd918d7eaa7c60d9_original.jpg

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71fl5js4eRL._UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

https://scpr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/69e87dd/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1800x1109+0+46/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fa.scpr.org%2F103605_5a7c53e60ad9be75fc07241f645ff3a5_original.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PWTBvePj3QI/maxresdefault.jpg

https://media.gettyimages.com/id/74273036/photo/an-interior-view-of-people-shopping-at-producer-john-dolphins-dolphins-of-hollywood-record.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=RMQhDGRedNlHQPaYtauB4TMBS79gXjVuIRktRAdRdMs=

You were right, these photos are incredibly good. Just reading a bit about the history of the shop - it was open 24 hours?!?!

I missed that, the place must have been really hopping back in the day!

It was the toast of the coast!

It had a radio station in the store! I think i remember hearing about this in an episode on Andrew Hickey's podcast.

what a life

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dolphin_(music_producer)

with Billie Holiday

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/John_Dolphin_%26_Billie_Holiday_%28cropped%29.JPG/800px-John_Dolphin_%26_Billie_Holiday_%28cropped%29.JPG

(he's also the guy standing right under the big portrait of him on the wall in the pic before the Billie one)

https://i.imgur.com/a8faQPa_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium https://i.imgur.io/oPRodEs_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

Haha, same guy, right?

OMG, you’re right!

Now I need to watch Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home, in which he also placed the dad, to see if there’s a “disapproving stereo” scene…

The former location of an auto parts store near me is being dressed up for a production. Can we guess the year it is set?

https://i.imgur.com/zmzdNin_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand

https://i.imgur.com/AVdARmU_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand

late 1979

Is this anywhere near the filming sites for the alleged PTA Pynchon adaptation?

Huh, I don't know...

(Looks like that book is set in 1984, tho?)