Paris, Texas is a beautifully slow paced and delicately handled masterpiece from German film-maker Wim Wenders. Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell, and Nastassja Kinski, it's the story about love, loss, redemption and a journey of self discovery. As amnesiac Stanton wanders out of the desert after being missing for 4 years, to rebuild his life, and reconnect with his past.

Many people eulogise about about Paris, Texas. There is review after review out there describing it as one of the greatest films ever. I wouldn't put it up there as one of my personal top films ever, but I do appreciate its beauty as a cinematic work of art. The cinematography by Robby Müller, is stunning. Using the desolation of the countryside, small towns and the endless roads, as an externalised metaphor for Stanton's character. Causing the scenery to become as much as a character in the movie as the actors wandering through it. The opening scene is one of my personal favourite openings to any movie.

However, Paris, Texas is an American movie. and in many ways, mainly due to the cinematography, is a quintessential slice of Americana apple pie. Ordered from a diner on a desolate dusty road somewhere between Houston and L.A. Not to everyone's tastes, Paris, Texas is undoubtedly a classic that Wenders is likely most widely known for. Though of his English language movies of that period, I prefer Until The End Of The World (1991). But I'll save that for another post.

An early 70s live-action kids TV show that was shown both in the UK and USA. The show featured a gang of 7 kids whose clubhouse was an old red London double decker bus, sat disused in a junkyard. The show was a British and American co-production, that ran for only 17 episodes, and told the misadventures of the gang. All the child actors were unknown at time, and were joined on the show by well known comedy actor Melvyn Hayes. Hayes who would become best known for his campy role as, Gunner "Gloria" Beaumont, in the mid-70s sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum. Hayes played the only regular adult, as a street sweeper who befriended and looks out for the Double Deckers.

Among the child cast of the show, which appeared on the BBC in the UK and ABC in the United States, some went on to success in the entertainment industry. Actress Gillian Bailey, who played Billie, went on to star in the children's TV series Follyfoot. Peter Firth who played Scooper, would find international acclaim in the lead role of the both the theatre production and the movie adaptation of the controversial play Equus. Established child actor Brinsley Forde, who played Spring, would go on to appear in a number movies, and form the British reggae band Aswad. 

Even though the show wasn't a musical based show unlike, The Monkees or The Partridge Family. It did often feature catchy musical numbers. The Double Deckers is well remembered for its happy up-tempo and annoyingly catchy theme tune, that seems still to this day to get stuck in your head after a listen to it. Warning... Listening to the Double Deckers theme tune may result in you humming the bloody thing all day long.

The British "virtual" TV host that first appeared in the cyberpunk TV movie on Channel 4,  Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into The Future. First broadcast in 1985, the character was so successful that he was developed into a VJ, with his own show, The Max Headroom Show, that same year. The show ran for 3 seasons, until 1987. In 1987 a further spin-off sci-fi drama series was made, which ran for 2 seasons.

Max became such a massive hit, especially among youth audiences that he began to appear everywhere. He was used to promote New Coke, he appeared on Sesame Street, he appeared at the 1988 Winter Olympics and released a song Paranoimia with the synthpop group The Art Of Noise. In 1986, Quicksilva released a Max Headroom game, which was sold in the UK for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.

Max has been parodied on many occasions. From David Letterman to Back To The Future and an Eminem music video. Infamously in 1987, Max's character was hijacked as part of a TV broadcast signal intrusion prank. When a hacker dressed in a suit and wearing a Max Headroom mask, hijacked the TV signal of a Chicago TV station and its affiliate, in an incident known as the "Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion". Most recently Max was revived as an old man to promote Channel 4's digital switch-over.

The Vapors were an English new wave and power pop band, that existed between 1979 and 1982. Despite purposely releasing their hit song Turning Japanese, as their second single, so they didn't become one-hit-wonders! The Vapors are only remembered for that one song, that still makes 80s kids snigger every time they hear it. The idea being that in the UK "Turning Japanese" is a euphemism for masturbation, making reference to the way that lads eyes "squint" at the point of climax.

Which is all very funny, but unfortunately not true. Until The Vapors released the song, there was no such phrase in British English. It's thought that the mistake occurred when the band toured America, and the audiences there picked-up on the lyric, spreading the masturbation rumour. Along with being connected to the British school-boy slang "Jap's eye", for end of the urethra, an urban legend was born. One that has persisted, following the song throughout its history, and possibly sending the band into music history as being a novelty band, with one silly song about wanking.

The song from 1980 used the term "turning Japanese" as an expression of turning into something you never expected. A reference to teen angst, at losing their loved one. The lyrics of the song constantly refer to the protagonist looking at photographs of his lost love, and sinking deeper into a feeling of loneliness. The use of "Japanese" was a random lyrical choice, and likely buying into the new wave sub-culture's love of all things Japanese in the late 70s and early 80s. 

A single from the stadium prog rock band Styx, from their 1983 rock opera album Kilroy Was Here.The story of the opera is of Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (ROCK), a rock and roll performer who was placed in a futuristic prison for "rock and roll misfits" by the anti-rock-and-roll group the Majority for Musical Morality (MMM). Kilroy, over powers a "Roboto", and hides inside its emptied out shell. The song tells of Kilroy's meeting with another character, as the robot, and his eventual unmasking. (Yeah, it was the early 80s, these guys had probably taken a lot of drugs in the 70s!) When the band performed the rock opera, they had robots designed by special effects genius Stan Winston, which featured on the album cover.

The video for the song, features the band dressed in the robot costumes, long before Daft Punk were ever around. And despite the over-the-top acting and dramatics of the video and the band's performance, the robots do add a creepy dystopian element to what is otherwise a bad 80s music video. Though I'm still confused as to how the prisoners in the video manage to over-power robots by a punch in the guts! Bit a design flaw in poor old Mr. Roboto.

The vocoded chorus is what the song is most well known for, with the repeated Japanese line, "dōmo arigatō misutā Robotto". Making the song popular in Japan. In 2002, the Japanese new wave band Polysics recorded a cover version of the song, which was a hit in Japan and Korea. And was accompanied by a fun video that paid homage to Japanese giant robot sci-fi movies and TV shows of 1960s, like Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot (1967-1968).

Perhaps one of the weirdest "love songs" ever written and recorded. Written by song writing genius Jimmy Webb and bizarrely recorded by his mate, actor and infamous hell-raiser Richard Harris. Who couldn't sing! MacArthur Park, is a 7 minute long psychedelic orchestral trip, involving surreal metaphors about cakes being left out in the rain, and an instrumental middle section that sounds very similar to the cinema advertising music of Paul & Dean. No wonder most people who Jimmy presented it to rejected it. The song is epic, and in a bizarre twist, getting his drinking buddy Richard Harris to sing turned out to be a mad moment of musical wonderment. Thus creating a crazy classic, one hit wonder.

The musical collage of strange imagery, was written by Jimmy in 1967, after he broke-up with his girlfriend. Harris had asked Webb for a song to record, and after listening to a number of possible choices, he went for the last song Webb played him, MacArthur Park. Harris recorded the song in late 1967, backed by the infamous LA based session musicians, the Wrecking Crew. Despite making onto lists of the worst songs ever recorded, it was a hit. Peaking at No.4 in the UK charts and No.2 on the Billboard charts in the US. 

In the summer of 1978, disco diva Donna Summer, recorded a version of the song. The song reached No.1 on the Billboard charts, giving Jimmy Webb his only No.1 hit in the United States. In addition, Summer recorded an 18 minute long 12" version, called the MacArthur Park Suite, which stayed at No.1 in the charts for 5 weeks.

Yet another cult film that they through the "worst ever" moniker at. I mean come on, how many more movies can people call the worst ever? I can think of dozens of movies that Hollywood pump out to numb our minds, that are far worst than the movies that get called the "worst ever!" Anyway, back to Astro-Zombies...

Directed by the cult film-maker Ted V. Mikels, and starring John Carradine, is a great piece of late 60s schlock "take your brain out" horror sci-fi. So good in fact that Mikels waiting 34 years before doing a sequel, 2002's Mark of the Astro-Zombies, a third one in 2010, Astro Zombies M3: Cloned and a forth and final sequel in 2012 Astro Zombies M4: Invaders from Cyberspace. Though to be fair to Mikels, he'd lost his touch and the original Astro-Zombies of 1968 is by far the best. Now the title is somewhat misleading, as the creature in the movie are neither from space or is a zombie in the traditional sense. But a mad scientist does create a Frankenstein-esque monster from a dead body parts and a criminals brain, that is called Astroman. 

The Misfits did a tribute song to Astro Zombies on their legendary first full-length album Walk Among Us (1982). The opening lyrics of are:

With just a touch of my burning hand,
I send my astro zombies to rape the land
Prime directive, exterminate
The whole human race...

Ever since The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) was released, and Richard O'Brien packed it was campy references to b-movies, there has followed a number of both stage and screen musicals that a have delved into the kitsch past for their themes. Since the opening lines of Science Fiction/Double Feature, a sub-genre of cheesy musicals was born. 

Some of these musicals along with Rocky Horror, were covered in our Top Ten: The Horror Of Movie Musicals, such as Little Shop Of Horrors (1986). But one of the kings of cheesy retro referencing musicals must be John Waters, who wrote and directed both Hairspray (1988) and Cry Baby (1990). The former set in a kitsch and campy 1960s and the latter the 1950s. Then of course there is absolute classic of such musicals, Grease (1978). And unfortunately Grease 2 (1982), but we'll just brush over that load of rubbish and move on.

The Shaggs: The Worst All-Girl Band In The World Ever?! - The infamous 60s band made-up of sisters, that recorded the album, Philosophy Of The World, one of the worst albums ever made.

Top Ten: Horror Of Movie Musicals - A bizarre countdown of some of the worst and the best of weird and way-out movie musicals based on the themes of horror and sci-fi. 

Camper Van Beethoven are an American alternative rock band from California, who formed in 1983. They initially confused the audiences of the "Inland Empire", who were more used to hardcore punk than irreverent iconoclasm. There music played with genres, skewing wildly between twee surf-rock, garage, country, and multiple other influences throw into the mix. Whatever took their fancy, all strung together with sardonic lyrics, that was belied by the often up-tempo delivery. Quirky, fun, but with a sharp edge of wit and anti-establishment, especially the "establishment" that pre-ported to be "underground" or counterculture. Mocking whoever and whatever they saw fit to.

As David Lowery said, "We regarded Take The Skinheads Bowling as just a weird non-sensical song. The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning. Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line. It was the early 80′s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning. It was our way of rebelling." ... Another happy, quirky song for a Monday! Enjoy!