OK. I’m a sucker for goofy musical comedy. The goofier the better. A larger than I’d like to admit part of my record collection is taken up by it. I have the full “Weird Al” Yankovic catalog. I’ve got stuff from Bob Rivers, Travis Shredd, Pinkard and Bowden, Tim Minchin and several others, including, of course, the almighty Tenacious D.
I just stumbled across this song by the Axis of Awesome earlier this week, only a week or so after I was grousing about “Game of Thrones” on a piece about Metallica’s self-titled album. It was absolutely perfect, and I’ve probably listened to it a dozen times over the last few days. I can relate, really relate. I don’t know how many times I’ve been cornered by people who want to tell me about HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” which of course, I knew all about long before they did. For the record, I like the series and think it’s, for the most part, well done, but I certainly understand the rage that singer Jordan Raskopoulos puts into the song.
The song begins with a lifted Rage Against the Machine riff as the video shows Raskopoulos at a party with another person telling him about the show. After a while, he screams out “I READ THE FUCKING BOOKS!” From there, he proceeds into a profanity-laced tirade against Hollywood and people who only know its version of things. He puts into words things that I’ve thought numerous times — like waiting (impatiently) six years for “A Dance with Dragons” while the show’s fans jump on the bandwagon, or the point when he screams “winter has been coming for 16 fucking years.”
It’s nice to know that I’m not the only guy out there who feels that little pang when Hollywood jumps on one of my favorite things and opens it to a much wider audience.
Of course, included in the rant are some very good and very true observations about the fact that people these days do tend to substitute CGI and Hollywood actors for their imaginations. I’ve had fans of the show tell me they’d love to read the book, but they’re intimidated by a 1,000-plus page novel. I live for those, when they’re good. In this, I have to agree with Raskopoulos again, “Hollywood cannot match the power of imagination.”
The video for the song provides its own hilarity. I particularly like guitarist Lee Naimo’s turn as Daenerys Targaryen, which left me rolling with laughter at the end, when he gives his version of the now famous “Where are my dragons?” (And for the record that’s her name, not Khaleesi, which is her title. It’s a point of great annoyance for me when talking to people about the show).
The rest of the Aussie act’s material I find humorous, but there was nothing that connected as personally with me as “Rage of Thrones.” But for expressing my feelings nearly perfectly, I thank them.
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