In honor of the opening today of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I present two musical tributes to a pair of characters from the book/movie/re-make.
First up is Veruca Salt. She’s probably the most vivid child character in the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: “Daddy, I want a Golden Ticket!” Small wonder that she provided the inspiration for the band Veruca Salt. Here, they sing a love song to a set of blinds — you know, blinds — thus proving that you can write a song about anything.
And then there’s Mike Teevee, who probably seemed a little over-the-top when the book was first published in 1964 and now seems pretty average. In this case, we’ll get a little McLuhan-esque and metacritical. Steinski (aka Steve Stein) is the Godfather of the cut-and-paste method of audio construction. His track “It’s Up to You” was about the Gulf War — no, no, the other one, the one that didn’t drag on for years — and, in this mix, also about media coverage of the conflict. By the way, the main bassline was sampled from The Chambers Brothers song “Let’s Get Funky,” which had earlier been used by A Tribe Called Quest in “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo”.
UPDATE: Damn, baby! An interview with Steinski! (via Poplicks)
Veruca Slate – Number One Blind — BUY
Steinski & Mass Media – It’s Up to You (Television Mix) — BUY