What Scrabble-Rousers is: A word is chosen at random by blindly flipping the pages and finger-pointing a word/phrase (in this case “Burt Reynolds”) from a book also chosen at random (in this case The Andy Warhol Diaries edited by Pat Hackett).
Having grabbed The Andy Warhol Diaries from the shelf, today’s topic of Scrabble-Rousers had the topic range potential from AIDS and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Ardehir Zahedi and ZZ Top. And, so, Burt Reynolds related music it is.
Burt
Burt Reynolds is known to inspire a mustache here and there, but inspiring a legitimately good metal guitarist to pursue a life of mock metal? That’s the case with former Byzantine guitarist Skip Cromer, whose current project, The Burt Reynolds Death Metal Experience, is as much hilarious as it is good. And it only makes sense that Cromer has opened for Unknown Hinson.
Cromer’s own video introduction: “Classic vintage music video from 1987. This was Burt Reynolds Death Metal Experiment at its height in popularity.”
Scouring the Burt Reynolds catalog, the list of classic soundtracks and songs that played while the mustache danced for us is impossible to enumerate. This, however, is perhaps the most famous sound in cinematic history:
Burt helped bring disco back for a spell with his appearance as pornman Jack Horner in Boogie Nights. Unfortunately, the soundtrack (which was released in two parts) was nothing more than an expensive version of any other 70s compilation cheapo. The second release did feature Apollo 100’s only hit. The studio-based group recorded “Joy,” a re-arranged baroque-pop version of J.S. Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”
Smokey and the Bandit and Hooper both played conduit to the pioneering rock and roll of Bill Justis. Justis was an accomplished musician in his own right, but also arranged music for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records, including arrangements for Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.
“Raunchy” was Justis’ biggest hit:
Reynolds played Quint Asper on the TV show Gunsmoke in the early 60s, which actually began as a radio series. The Dodge City narrative of westward expansion gave way to two theme songs: one without lyrics composed by Rex Koury and one with lyrics written and sung by Tex Ritter, which was never played on either radio or television:
Traditional:
Tex Ritter:
Finally, Burt Reynolds himself performing a Silver Jews-like honky-tonk “Let’s Do Something Cheap and Superficial.”
From Smokey and the Bandit 2:
Heaven Is Loud 