Search found 1 match: Jimmy Page

Searched query: jimmy page

by djross
Sat Feb 04, 2017 6:35 am
Forum: Full Reviews
Topic: Bad Lieutenant (1992)
Replies: 0
Views: 1193

Bad Lieutenant (1992)

It is necessary to keep in mind, when watching Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant today, that any version you see now is most likely butchered.

The original theatrical version contained extensive use of a song by Schoolly D entitled "Signifying Rapper", which plays in many scenes, to great effect. The song contains a sample of a Led Zeppelin song, "Kashmir", and, five years after the song was released, and because he did not wish to have his music associated with such an immoral movie, Jimmy Page brought a lawsuit for copyright infringement against Schoolly D, the outcome of which cost the rapper a great deal of money and required Ferrara to remove the song from all versions of Bad Lieutenant.

Jimmy Page, of course, is himself a plagiarist.

Here's a portion of an interview where Ferrara discusses the episode:

    O: I was disappointed when the Led Zeppelin sample from "Kashmir" had to be lifted from Schoolly D's song "Signifying Rapper" for Bad Lieutenant.

    AF: Oh, yeah. I'll strangle that cocksucker Jimmy Page. As if every fucking lick that guy ever played didn't come off a Robert Johnson album. "Signifying Rapper" was out for five years, and there wasn't a problem. Then the film had already been out for two years and they start bitching about it. And these pricks, when their attorneys are on the job, our guys are afraid to come out of their office. You're not gonna fight their fucking warriors, you know what I mean? Can you imagine, this was down at a federal court in New York, with a 70-year-old judge, and they're playing Schoolly D and Led Zeppelin to the guy? It cost Schoolly like $50,000. It was a nightmare. And meanwhile, "Signifying Rapper" is 50 million times better than "Kashmir" ever thought of being. And then, this prick [Page] turns around with Puff Daddy and redoes it for the Godzilla soundtrack. Here's Puff Daddy, where every other song this boy sang was King Of New York this and King Of New York that. And I would never even fucking think of suing these guys. Why sue? You should be happy that somebody is paying homage to your work.

    O: And Bad Lieutenant was hardly even a blip on the cultural radar.

    AF: Exactly. And it ruined the movie. I was so pissed off, I said, "All right, fuck this." We could have changed it and put other music in those spots, but I said, "Fuck this, we ain't putting nothing in." This is one of those decisions you end up regretting.

Unfortunately, Ferrara is right: the removal of the song ruins the movie. I'm glad I saw it twice in theatres in the 1990s, but it rankles that this great film, which also stands as testament to the artistry of writer and performer Zoë Lund (deceased), and as testament to Lund herself, has been eviscerated thanks to the financial and legal power wielded by a narrow-minded bully.

The Puff Daddy song from Godzilla (1998) mentioned by Ferrara is called "Come With Me", and is indeed similar to "Signifying Rapper", but worse.

What would be great is if someone who owns the laserdisc version that still includes "Signifying Rapper" uploaded it to YouTube, or created a torrent, or did some other equivalent thing of that nature.