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Weekend Discussion Thread: Best Rock Music ReferenceThe ever-resourceful Susan suggests:
Gotta go for Crow’s comment that “KISS were never cool.” What’s your pick? 151 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Best Rock Music Reference”Commenting at Satellite News
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I’ve wondered if it was intended to be a Zappa reference when Dr. F. said, “The Torture Never Stops” around here. That would make more sense than it being a reference to W.A.S.P. who also had a song of that name.
Oh, jeezus, yeah! The opening of the Screaming Skull title sequence music is a dead ringer for the “My Sharona” lick.
And speaking of Loverboy, I loved the riffing on the hairstyles of Deathstalker and his jousting buddy — “so, Michael McDonald is fighting the guy from Loverboy…?”
…and, as much as I’m a huge Deadhead, and thought Terrapin Station was actually quite good, I still get a huge laff out of Nelson’s riff on the closing credits music in Deathstalker: “…this sounds like Side Two of Terrapin Station!”
There’s an even better Johnny Mathis reference in Starfighters — when the pompous, slightly fey-talking Congressman gets the news of his son’s transfer and exclaims “Wonderful, wonderful!” and Nelson busts out a chorus of “It’s Wonderful” in his best Johnny Mathis voice.
Yeah, Servo seemed to take special delight in piss-taking on ’80s “power ballads”. He does some great ’80s hard-rock belting during the closing credits of Space Mutiny also, before things degerate into dark insinuations, name-calling and hog piling.
Speaking of Zappa, I love the “Weasels Ripped My Flesh!” reference in Killer Shrews. Followed by (I think) Servo going “RZZZZZZZ!” All Zappa references always reminded me of the credo, “The right people will get it…”
This might be the equivalent of the photographic negative of this (excellent) topic, but everything they say while “The Ace of Spades” plays in Zombie Nightmare.”
“That’s Woman School.”
“I saw Fist when they opened for Badfinger.”
Jeez, this is embarrassing–I just turned off “City Limits”. A solid wall of rock riffs, plus I’d completely forgotten Mike’s frightening Morrissey. “Hairdresser in a Coma,” one of the most savage things I’ve ever seen on MST.
Oh yeah.
Who else, at that point in time, on mass market television, was doing dead-on Morrissey impressions?
Kind of thing SNL would have done like seven years later (after network mainstream safety assessments turned out positive).
“Top Ten MST3K Host Segment” candidate.
Space Travelers … Black Sabbath, Iron Man (the spacecraft is named Ironman) Joel makes the reference. I’m failry certain there’s even another Sabbath/Iron Man reference in another Joel era episode(?)
Ha, yeah, great skit!
Reminds me of an old Comedy Channel commercial that used to run during MST’s era. It was Janeane Garofalo warning school children about the devious, elusive nature of ‘evil’ within the corp culture, and she says [paraphrasing] “Evil is every frat guy who holds up a plastic beer cup, exclaiming, oooowwwww!!! Evil is in the mouth of every woman who comes up to me and says, oh, you HAVE to read The Bridges of Madison County-it’s the BEST book!” ha
I’m not really an Allman fan, but I crack up each time Servo does his version of Jessica in The Thing That Couldn’t Die every time that shrill old traysure lady shrieks her name.
I tend to agree that Satellite of Love was the best reference, however. The Styx digs was close second. Rounded out by Spydor, Heela, Santa Claws and public domain karaoke when Frank said people vomit when anyone sings I Wanna Know What Love Is by Foreigner
Satellite’s gone up to the skies
Things like that drive me out of my mind
I watched it for a little while
I love to watch things on TV
I believe it was “Hercules Unchained” when Iole is playing the harp (and Herc is so sleepy he can barely stay awake) that Tom starts up with “We all went down to Montreux..”
In any event – these are all lovely, wonderful suggestions, but you’ve all forgotten the all-time classic:
“Hamilton Joe, Frank, and Reynolds”
“Hamilton Joe Frank, and Reynolds”
“Hamilton, Joe, Frank, Ann, Reynolds”
Gare.Chicago
Were they really that much more negative about Rush during the later years? Not counting Final Sacrifice, I’d love to go through the episodes and count how many negative Rush references there actually were. No time these days though – too busy listening to Rush live double albums!
My rock music ref is vague and I can’t remember the episode or exact riff but its Trace’s Crow as a curmudgeonly old man saying something like “Damn kids drink cheap wine and listen to Anthrax…”
@111,”Jessica” good one! Forgot about that.
Watching this now, and just caught this one:
“You know something Moon – they’re looking for you..”
“You too huh?”
Crow – “I like that band!”
– Beatniks
Gare.Chicago
I LOVE the Steely Dan references! I can think of a couple more. During one of the times Mike was trying to escape, he taunted the Mads with “Listen up, Babylon Sisters!” And in Progress Island, they had “Feel the glory of the Royal Scam.” Of course, the original line was “See the glory…”, but it’s close enough. :)
The Yes orchestra hit and “You’re own personal moonrock.”
Yeah – Joel shouts out “I am Iron Man” as he’s putting on his JiffyPop popcorn costume.
First of all, Rush rules!!
Second, great topic!
I’m going to go with:
1) Can’t remember which episode it was, but a loaner Crow has a radio that’s playing the Allman Brothers
2) In Werewolf, some of the archeology workers look like southern rockers, prompting one of the guys to say “Heard it in a love song…” “Can’t be wrong.”
Love the Nirvana reference in Overdrawn at the Memory Bank: “Come as you are, to my mall, to my atrium yeah yeah”
(weird music behind curtain)
Crow: “Garth Hudsons behind there!” :-D
IT’S ZEE WANGO ZEE TAAAANGOOOO!!!!
Just remembered the old guy in Teenagers from Outer Space who was singing “White Wedding” to himself. Same episode had a nurse singing “You Shook Me All Night Long” to herself as well.
#113
Check Ward E for a list of Rush references.
From Gunslinger
(Joel is telling the Bots about the 70s)
TOM: What about the James Gang?
JOEL: Oh no. They broke up when Joe Walsh went to form Barnstorm.
Late to the party. Not sure if previously mentioned;
In GODZILLA VS. MEGALON Rokkuchan (sounds like Roxanne) is called and Tom(?) adds “you don’t have to put on your red dress…”. The Police
I’m with Steve in #56 because I’m a huge Gary Numan fan and every time they name checked him I got a little buzz, but the best had to be when Joel said, “You know, guys, I just don’t know if we’re cut out to do a train song. I think who we are being trapped in space and all I think we really should be singing about being… IN CARS!”
I wore my Gary concert shirt when I saw the cast at the Gateway Sci-Fi Con in St. Louis and I meant to thank them for every time they made fun of him… but I choked. I turned into just another drunk fan telling them how much I loved them and how beautiful they are, and I wasn’t even drunk. Oh, well, maybe if they saw the shirt they still got the message?
I love two references purely for their absolute insane degree of obscurity: In ‘Human Duplicators’, when Richard Kiel introduces himself, he says, “I am Kodos,” and they follow it up with, “…the god of hellfire. And I bring you FIRE!” And in another episode (can’t remember which), during a particularly “wacky” piece of on-screen mayhem, someone (I think Joel) says, “This is it, guys! This is the actual crazy world of Arthur Brown!”
Both of these are references to the obscure psychedelic Brit-rock band, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, whose lead singer (Arthur Brown himself) was known for setting things on fire during stage shows while calling himself “the god of hellfire”, usually as part of his introduction to the song, ‘Fire’. Dropping those references is a true commitment to obscure pop-culture riffs. :)
Yup, and the only really negative ones are when Mike sings part of “The Trees” and is told to shut up and maybe the mention in the Final Sacrifice sketch. Not exactly a lot of negativity.
I can’t believe, what with guardians of the galaxy being such a big hit, that we missed “Eegah-Shakka, Eegah-Shakka…”
And of course “at the BOTTOM of the ocean!”
And nominated for most obscure Tom waits reference, is Joel, during a skit from “fire maidens from outer space”, claims that the “universal twinscrew controller” can “turn you into a nine-year-old Hindu boy and get rid of your wife” . That’s from a song called step right up off of his small change album.
I’m guessing that Kevin Murphy is the Tom Waits fan in the group…
How’s about …THE FUZZTONES: Ward 81
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htjrlGMnsJY
No Rush, but an oldie-but-goodie from the Night Flight show!
Thanks! …so, is there yet a third Joel/Black Sabbath-Iron Man reference?
‘Cause while I remember that tinfoil JiffyPop skit, I was thinking the ‘other’ Iron Man reference occurred while riffing (then again, I could be mistaken)
saw this last night on tv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYcv6odWfTM
i wonder if they already know of the Daktari Stool.
Any mention of the B-52’s “Rock Lobster” being referenced in Teenagers from Outer Space and Horror of Party Beach?
#110,
Don’t forget Jeneane’s … Eddie Veddar. ” How inconspicuous can you be with a Kaiser helmet on, I think he is cute, oh Whitney.”
Was Not Was! There! I made a meaningless pop culture reference!
It’s not rock, but in one episode Joel starts singing Nitzer Ebb’s “Join in the chant”.
Pod People- “Whoa, it’s the Iron Maiden dude”
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank- “Appearing tonight- Slayer!”
Yes, I enjoy heavy metal. Wanna fight?
“Kansas was right, we really are just dust in the wind” Laserblast immediately came to mind.
“We will, we will rock you!” Hercules vs. Moon Men (so corny but hilarious)
“They woke up the Oak Ridge Boys!” Space Mutiny for some reason my friend laughed really hard at this one
Nice to see a couple other Gary Numan fans here. I actually sent a Numan mixtape to the fan club address after Pod People aired, so that they knew he had recorded more than just “Cars”. I’ve always wondered if anyone there ever listened to it.
#138
Nice to know I’m not the only Slayer fan here. You probably actually like Rammstein too.
I grew up a Moody Blues fan,(yes,I’m not ashamed to admit it). When Servo cracks,”me in white satin”, as the knight trots by in The Undead, I crack up every time. In fact, the Brains referenced the Moodies several times.
From “Final Sacrifice”:
As Rowsdower starts his truck and turns on the radio, Mike exclaims:
“Crank the Molly Hatchet and let’s ROLL!”
Good catch!
“When Brian Eno ruled Chicago…”, and “The Night Chicago Died” in The Beginning of the End.
#138
Did you catch the reference to Norwegian Black Metal in the Rifftrack for Highlander? A movie that had some totally unrealistic elements. Namely that it took place in a world where the only music in existence was performed by Queen.
at #64 (me)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd-DtkOr_Pk
the first skit is the paladin routine.
could never do that skit ever today.
In Werewolf there’s a reference to “Heard it in a love song” by the Marshall Tucker Band. One of the bots sings “…can’t be wrong” as Joe and the long-haired guy deal with their wahrvulf-turning friend.
In an episode I can’t remember, during a host segment Servo describes something as “Starless and bible black”. Sure, this could be a Dylan Thomas reference. But as a huge King Crimson fan I choose to believe that it’s a reference to the 1974 album of the same name, or to the song “Starless” from their next album, “Red”.
In the Making Of MST3K special that aired on the SciFi channel, you will note that Patrick Brantseg is wearing a Gary Numan T-Shirt.
Nice riff about Loki looking like Gary Numan in The Avengers.