[kj] Johnny Depp/Dave Vanian

[B. Oliver Sheppard]

I agree, overall.

This skit with King Buzzo trying to buy a house with the influence he'd 
had on multi-million dollar-making artists came at a time when Nirvana 
and L7 were both in the Top 20 and seemed to regularly wear Melvins 
t-shirts on national TV, or name-drop the band in interviews. Nirvana's 
famous SNL show had them wearing a Melvins shirt, even, IIRC. It was 
enough in those days for Nirvana to simply wear a band's shirt (Flipper) 
on TV to prompt that band to either reform or suddenly get press 
attention/back catalogue reprints they'd never had before.

Also, I'd like to be clear the whole point I brought this up was: 1) 
Damn, look how much Johnny Depp looks like Dave Vanian in this new film; 
2) I looked into it further, and thought, 'Wow, this is really weird; 
here's a side by side comparison.' Given Depp routinely borrows others' 
personae, it's hard to dismiss this as coincidence; 3) If that is so, 
wouldn't it be nice if Vanian got credited or even some residuals, given 
that The Damned have influenced bands that went on to make a lot more 
$$$ than them? And then I showed one hypothetical way it could be done, 
though I agreed Vanian was too modest to probably do any such thing 
anyway. (They didn't seem to care about the "Life Goes On" and "Eightes" 
similarities, after all, unlike a certain other band, who cared about a 
song's similarity.)

Of course, on this list that became "BWAHAHA! YOU THINK DAVE VANIAN 
SHOULD SUE JOHNNY DEPP BECAUSE HE HAS A STREAK IN HIS HAIR? OMG LOLOLOL!!"


-Oliver




Alexander Smith wrote:

> Come now -- The influence of the Melvins is in absolutely no way 

> comparable to the influence of the Damned.

>

> Alex in NYC

>

> On Nov 13, 2007, at 2:39 PM, B. Oliver Sheppard wrote:

>

>> Another hugely influential band have been The Melvins. That influence 

>> hasn't translated into money.

>>

>> To wit: There was an old show on MTV where King Buzzo of The Melvins 

>> took around a suitcase full of newspaper clippings of bands like 

>> Nirvana who name checked them as being really influential. He asked 

>> realtors to give him a tour of a mansion he was thinking of buying, 

>> stating he was a well-known music star. At the end of the house tour, 

>> Buzzo declared, "I'll buy it!" The realtor looked excited. Buzzo 

>> opened his suitcase of newspaper/magazine clippings, and said, "Here 

>> -- I'd like to pay you with my musical influence on people!"

>>

>> The joke was, yeah, he apparently was influential to a lot of 

>> good-selling bands, but had little money to show for it, so he was 

>> going to see if he could cash in his cred for the house. The realtor 

>> was not amused. I thought it was hilarious.

>>

>> -Oliver

>>

>>

>> Alexander Smith wrote:

>>>

>>> The Damned have already well earned their place in the annals of 

>>> rock history, let alone the pantheon of Punk Rock greats (first 

>>> British Punk band to issue an album). Their influence is massive, 

>>> and they're constantly name-checked in otherwise foreign quarters -- 

>>> in the latest issue of MOJO, Jimmy Page admits to being blown away 

>>> by the Damned. Sting continually cites "New Rose" as an all-time 

>>> fave and Nick Mason of the `Floyd even produced their second album. 

>>> If it's one thing the Damned haven't really been, it's ignored.

>>>

>>> I could be completely wrong, but I really doubt that Dave gives a 

>>> fuck about his look being appropriated. And I can't think of a 

>>> single working musician -- save possibly Sioux, and she's well over 

>>> it -- who'd want to take credit for the Goth aesthetic.

>>>

>>> Alex in NYC

>>>

>>>

>>

>

>