Be very afraid folkies

Subject: Be very afraid folkies
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 01:33 PM

I just heard Eugene Levy interviewed on the radio. He was saying that the crew who did "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best In Show" have a new movie coming out about, you guessed it, Folk Music. He said that he thinks it's their funniest yet.

Spinal Tap Unplugged?

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Wesley S
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 01:35 PM

Perhaps they've been reading our posts to gather material.

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 01:41 PM

Uh oh

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 01:47 PM

Good... we need the publicity...

,-)

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: breezy
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 02:04 PM

that'll send the ratings plummeting

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 02:26 PM

"Best in show" doesn't seem to have hurt the doggy shows.

I wonder if they'll have the sense to centre it round a virtual folk community called the Dogfish?

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: jimmyt
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 03:14 PM

Waiting for Guffman is a show that is so accurate regarding "community theater". I have been doing theater for the last 12 years, and I will have to tell you, I sat down and watched the show after a rehersal, with a bunch of actors, and it was hilarious. We knew each and every character equilivant in our local community! I feel quite sure it hasn't hurt theater! Should be a good tongue-in-cheek about the folk community!

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 03:35 AM

Yes, but which folk community? Ours? or Theirs?

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: JedMarum
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 08:38 AM

I hope they do it. We are a diverse and funny lot, I'd love to see what these fokls do to us!!!

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Willie-O
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 08:50 AM

I expect they'll blame it on Canada.

Hope so, anyway.

W-O

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 09:16 AM

They are Ruthless satirists. I'm sure that many of us will cringe seeing it, but I'm sure we'll recognize a lot of the characters.

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Amos
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 10:40 AM

Anyone got the name of this show? Is it a movie? Or a sit-com? :>) When?

A

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: DougR
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 11:21 AM

It's a movie, and I can't wait to see it.

DougR

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Amergin
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 11:29 AM

from one site...

Spinal Tap Turn It Down to -1 for Folk Sequel

Trade in leather pants and spandex for "Puff the Magic Dragon" and corduroy Michael A. Cavagnaro reports: Those lucky so-and-sos who saw Spinal Tap on their brief tour last summer may have been privy to the beginnings of the next Christopher Guest mockumentary project. As an opening group, the Folksmen probably seemed a bit of a mismatch to Tap's Satanic metal onslaught, and for good reason. Group members Mark Shubb, Alan Barrows, and Jerry Palter get on stage and do the normal folk music things, with sets consisting of quiet, sometimes melancholy songs, traditional ballads, and the general spreading of goodwill. Having formed in the 60s during "The Great Folk Music Scare," the Folksmen scored a minor Top 70 hit in 1962 called "Old Joe's Place," but have been fairly silent ever since. Unfortunately, it seems, their brand of "eclectified folk" was "too popular to be purist, and too purist to be popular."

Plans are now in effect for a feature film about the Folksmen, with Guest and Eugene Levy (Best of Show) writing the script and Michael McKean and Harry Shearer joining on the musical performance end of things. The movie will reportedly focus on the three aforementioned musicians reuniting in Carnegie Hall for a tribute concert after all these years. Hilarity will, as a matter of consequence, ensue, as the antics of folkies Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Peter, Paul & Mary, the Kingston Trio and Fairport Convention are sure to be skewered by the Tap team. Hopefully, Levy will have spare time to appear in the film as well, what with his Greg the Bunny duties and all.

from the spinal tap site:

Tap Taps Folksmen to Open Concerts

Spinal Tap has chosen The Folksmen -- veterans of The Great Folk Music Scare of the 1960s -- to open the show on this summer's concert tour. CLICK HERE FOR OPENING NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS AND CONCERT REVIEWS!

Who are the Folksmen? According to Chip Rowe's A TO ZED guide, they're an

..."aging folk band reminiscent of the Kingston Trio that was scheduled to open for Spinal Tap during the 1992 Royal Albert Hall show. Instead, they played a nearby Tube stop for change because roadies feared the energetic heavy metal crowd would tear them to pieces. Four years later ... the group signed a four-month lease on a 1994 Chrysler minivan in anticipation of Tap's never-realized 1996 Third World Tour.

Rumor had it the trio might put out a CD. From the Web: "Perhaps best known, if at all, for their 1962 Top 70 hit 'Old Joe's Place,' the Folksmen have earned a lasting place in folk music history as the group too popular to be purist and too purist to be popular." Jerry Palter, Alan Barrows and Mark Shubb met as freshmen at Ohio Wesleyan and over the next 26 months played and sang their own brand of 'eclectified folk' music.

Recently reunited after more than two decades, they are again becoming a popular late addition to folk festivals within a day's auto travel of their homes."

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 11:38 AM

I still remember seeing This is Spinal Tap with my then-sweetie in college, and later when we were talking about what was funny, I thought all the drummers dying (especially the You can't dust for vomit line) was pretty hysterical, and Sweetie answered Oh, I didn't believe that part - at which point I realized that the whole thing had been perceived as real! Now, THAT was funny!

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Amos
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 11:39 AM

Very funny! But I do think someone ought to tip Christopher Guest off to the resource he is missing in the Mudcat archives. Spaw's 9,967 posts alone would give him enough material for six films!

A

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Kim C
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 12:02 PM

Spinal Tap is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I absolutely LOVE Christopher Guest. I can really see Michael McKean in a little v-neck sweater singing Kumbaya. :-D

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: open mike
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 12:11 PM

and harry schearer--he is the voice of several of the Simpsons' characters, and has a hilarious radio show of his own each week: Le Show-which is syndicated on many stations..it might be found on www.leshow.com not sure-i'll check that out...oh yeah i think it is harryschearer.com

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 12:16 PM

I am a huge fan of Guest and Levy!! BIS and Guff man are just hilarious. The characters are only slightly overdrawn and you like them because you think they are real. Guest has a kind of "core group" who I'm sure will be in this one and if it's like the others, although the movie is outlined by Levy and Guest, it will not be scripted. Almost all of the dialogue in any scene is ad libbed by the actors themselves (all have a deep background in improv) as the characters which they have developed. That's what makes them so believable.

Can't wait for this one. I hear it centers on several 60's folk acts now.

And Amos, I have over 17,000 posts, not 9000.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 12:59 PM

Can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this!

Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman, and Best In Show are three of the most brilliant films I've ever seen. The satire is absolutely wicked....and naturally the folks BEING satirized haven't a clue what it's all about.

Oh man.....satirizing us folkies! This I am going to enjoy big time....I've been waiting all my life for a movie that makes fun of ME personally (in a general sort of way) and this may be it!

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: open mike
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 01:05 PM

http://www.harryshearer.com/ here is how to find Le Show, and other harry shearer info...

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 04:53 PM

Is it possible that the person signing in as Guest was really Christopher Guest?

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 05:20 PM

This should be absolutely GREAT!!! I can hardly wait. I hope G.W. postpones the 3rd World War long enough that it will be aired. I wonder how they will handle the Dylan-loving folkies versus the Dylan-hating folkies controversy?

Expect a lot of very serious and patently stupid sermonizing in this one...and girls with very long straight hair and soulful, if slightly blank, eyes.

- LH

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: jimmyt
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 05:39 PM

Little Hawk, are you suggesting that there is a correlation between folk music and fine straight hair? VERY INTERESTING!

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 07:00 PM

Yeah, there is. Then there's the wild mop of wavy/curly hair type, like me. Blame Dylan for that archetype.

- LH

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 07:27 PM

If that stuff about The Folksmen is the way that film is shaping up, it sounds rather as if they've missed the plot. Gone for the soggy end.

What I'd like to see would be something more like "Withnail and I" crossed with "Oh Brother Where Art Thou".

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 07:27 PM

Some may know Mark Shubb of the Folksmen as the inventor of Shubb capos... I can't wait to see this film!

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: John Hardly
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 07:32 PM

I would pay money...er

I can't wait too.

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Amergin
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 07:49 PM

i would let some one else pay for my ticket to see this....

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: BK
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 09:56 PM

I'll rent it when it quits the theatres.

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: jimmyt
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 10:31 PM

When is this due to be in "selected Cities" near me?

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Art Thieme
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 10:47 PM

That's not funny ;-)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Jim Krause
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 10:50 PM

Could it possibly be as good as "That Thing You Do"? Now that was a very well done movie satirizing '60s rock/pop groups. I think I'd like to see this new movie.
Jim

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 01:10 AM

EBarnacle...well, I don't know if "Guest" is really Christopher Guest, but I've long suspected that the person signing in as "Amos" is really Wally Amos. Ever notice how he never seems to lose his cookie?

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 10:57 AM

I've stood next to Little Hawk, and despite what he says, he has a long white fringe of hair hanging down to his shoulders. The rest of his head is completely bald (and very shiny!). He is about 5'2" tall, and weighs close to three hundred pounds. In other words he is a typical Folkie. I, on the other hand, closely resemble John Barrymore.

Rick

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:35 PM

What the hell...!

All right, Rick, you have committed gross libel here. Your description sounds very much like the typical folkie, but utterly unlike me.

John Barrymore? Wha...

I'm going to look him up on google and draw comparisons.

Okay, I looked it up. Wow, lookit them flashing eyes...

Rick, I think you need a session with Herr Liebenscheiss right away...

- LH

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 12:49 PM

Rick, so why are you being portrayed in the movie by Anna Nicole Smith?

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 04:39 PM

There are a couple of actors who do look like Rick, but I can't remember their names at the moment... They usually portray minor mafia hoods or sleazy businessmen engaging in stock frauds...that type of thing.

- LH

Subject: RE: Be very afraid folkies
From: MAG
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 04:05 AM

So, what's the deal? I know Spinal Tap was made up for the movie, but was this an actual band that has regrouped and been sucked in to the ST phenomenon? or is the name a sort of conglomeration of the Four Freshmen, the Highway men, et. al.?