Tag: Music

“Zero hour”

LORELAI: So should it have been me?
RORY: Huh? Oops, sorry! Zero hour – I have to go. I’ll be right back. [leaves]

A possible allusion to Elton John’s 1972 song, “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Gonna Be a Long, Long Time)”, composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

It might seem a bit of a stretch, but the song begins:

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour 9 am

Rory packed Lane’s CD ready for the drop-off the night before, and it was originally timed for 9 am, before being changed to 10 am to accommodate the reverend’s handball. The song was inspired by the 1951 Ray Bradbury story, “Rocket Man” from The Illustrated Man, which seems on-brand for Rory, and science-fiction is constantly alluded to on the show. It was also one of the songs recorded by William Shatner on his spoken-word album, previously discussed. Rory planned to buy the album for Lorelai’s birthday.

“Rocket Man” was the lead single from Elton John’s album Honky Château. The song went to #2 in the UK, and #6 in the US, becoming one of Elton John’s biggest hits, and a staple at his concerts. John played the song at the 1998 launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Rolling Stone has it listed as one of the greatest songs of all time.

Note that Lorelai never receives an answer from Rory as to whether Lorelai and Christopher should be together.

Matthew Broderick, Ferris Bueller, Producers

RORY: Yeah. Oh, and later I pictured you marrying Matthew Broderick, and we lived in New York in this great apartment in the village and we would talk about his Ferris Bueller days.
LORELAI: Just think how easy Producers tickets would be to get.

Matthew Broderick (born 1962), actor who began his career in theatre in the 1980s, winning a Tony Award for his role in Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs. His first starring role in a hit film came in the 1983 WarGames, where he had the lead role as a teenage hacker.

Broderick had the lead role as the charming school truant in the 1986 teen comedy, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off [pictured]. Directed by John Hughes, the film is a joyful love letter to the city of Chicago, and about three teenagers seeking the best “day off” from school ever devised. It was the #10 film of 1986, and praised by critics. It is considered one of the greatest teen movies of all time.

The Producers is a musical with music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, adapted from Brooks’ 1967 film of the same name. It is about two theatrical producers who plan to get rich by fraudulently overselling interests in a Broadway flop. Their scheme becomes complicated when their play is an unexpected success. The Producers opened on Broadway in 2001 and closed in 2007. Lorelai is apparently having trouble getting tickets for the musical. It went on tour in the US in September 2002, arriving at the Bushnell Theatre in Hartford in August 2004, but Matthew Broderick was not in the touring version.

Rory imagines living in New York in the village with her mother and Matthew Broderick. In 1997, Broderick married actress Sarah Jessica Parker. They live in the West Village in New York City, suggesting that it was after this date that Rory fantasised about Matthew Broderick as her stepfather, so around the age of 14-15. (Broderick and Parker actually spend more time at their second home in Ireland).

Rory’s imaginary stepfathers include a man-child who lives in a fantasy world, and an actor famous for playing both a slacker and a scammer. Not very different from her real father, then …

Bruce Springsteen

LORELAI: What’s her music taste?
RORY: Big Bruce Springsteen fan. Seen him like twenty times.
LORELAI: Blue collar roots or is she just slumming?
RORY: Oh, her father owned a shoe store and her mom taught kindergarten.

Bruce Springsteen (born 1949), singer, songwriter, and musician. He has released twenty studio albums, many of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is one of the originators of the heartland rock style of music, combining mainstream rock musical style with narrative songs about working class American life.

During a career that has spanned five decades, Springsteen has become known for his poetic, socially conscious lyrics and energetic stage performances, sometimes lasting up to four hours in length. He is nicknamed “the Boss”.

Springsteen had a lengthy, top-grossing tour over 1999 and 2000, the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour. He played five concert dates in Boston in August 1999, giving Sherry several recent opportunities to see her favourite singer live. In 2002, Springsteen began his The Rising Tour, performing in Boston twice in October of that year. Sherry has probably already bought tickets.

“Cranking Metallica”

LORELAI: [The Volvo’s] also excellent for cranking Metallica.

RICHARD: Cranking Metallica? … If that’s some sort of drug reference, it isn’t funny.

Lorelai says that Christopher’s Volvo is excellent for “cranking” Metallica, meaning “listening to Metallica loudly on the stereo”. The car really does have a great stereo system, but Lorelai is teasing Christopher, because Metallica is her favourite band, not Christopher’s.

New Belle and Sebastian Single

RORY: Lane, this is flat out stalking.
LANE: Look, I don’t have much time. I’ve already used up my five minutes of phone time so this is totally illicit, but I have to talk to you. There’s a new Belle and Sebastian single coming out today.

Belle and Sebastian, Scottish indie pop group formed in Glasgow in 1994 by Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David. After the limited release of their 1996 album Tigermilk , they recruited other musicians and singers. The band took their name from a short story Murdoch had written inspired by the television adaptation of the French novel Belle et Sébastien about a six-year-old boy and his dog.

Their 1996 album If You’re Feeling Sinister is widely considered the band’s masterpiece, while their 2000 album Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant brought mainstream success in the UK.

In fact, Belle and Sebastian didn’t release any new singles in 2002, although they brought out an album called Storytelling in June, the soundtrack to the 2001 film of the same name. Their most recent single was “I’m Waking Up to Us”, an EP put out on November 26 2001. It went to #39 in the UK and #22 in Scotland. It was #4 on the UK indie charts. I can only think this is the single Lane is referring to.

The song is about the break up of a relationship and the realisation that it would never have worked, which would fit in with Lane’s mood. Some of the lyrics include:

You know I love you here’s the irony
You’re going to walk away intact
I think you never liked me anyway …

I think I’m waking up to us
We’re a disaster
You don’t want to know me

Willie Nelson

RORY: I talk normally.
PARIS: For the average Willie Nelson roadie, yes, but not for a winning debate team member.

Willie Nelson (born 1933), country music singer, actor, and activist. He gained critical success with his 1973 album Shotgun Willie, then both critical and commercial success with his follow up albums in 1975 and 1978, making him one of the best known country music stars, and a leading figure in the outlaw country subgenre.

He’s appeared in more than 30 films, co-authored several books, and been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalisation of marijuana. I think it is the activism for marijuana that Paris is thinking of – as if all his roadies will be stoned and speaking in stereotypical “stoner” voices.

“Don’t forget me in my solitude”

LANE: Don’t forget me in my solitude.
RORY: Never.

A possible reference to (In My) Solitude, a 1934 song by Duke Ellington, with lyrics by Eddie DeLange and Irving Mills. It is considered a jazz standard. Ellington’s second version of the song went to #2 on the charts of 1934. Covered at least 28 times in the 1930s and ’40s, it was recorded several times by Billie Holiday; one of her renditions was chosen for the 2021 Grammy Hall of Fame.

Some of the lyrics seem to describe Lane’s emotional state very well, perhaps even providing a disturbing insight into her present thoughts:

I sit in my chair
I’m filled with despair
There’s no one could be so sad
With gloom everywhere
I sit and I stare
I know that I’ll soon go mad

Melba Toast

MRS. KIM: Lane, come down for your snack!
LANE: It’s tea and melba toast time, gotta go.

Melba toast is dry, crisp, thinly sliced toast which has been grilled twice, often served with soup or salad, or topped with pate. It is named after Australian opera star Dame Nellie Melba, born Helen Mitchell (1861-1931), and thought to date to 1897, when the singer was very ill, and this thin toast became the staple of her diet. The toast was created for her by French chef Auguste Escoffier. You can buy them in boxes, just like crackers.

Lane’s snack is therefore very dry and uninteresting, just a cut above dry bread and water.

Reader’s Digest World Famous Polka CD

LANE: Okay, I’m dying for news. Give me some headlines.
RORY: Oh, well, I’ve got a debate coming up. And, um, Dean’s been working extra hours lately saving up for a new motorcycle, so I hardly see him. Mom and I haven’t done laundry in three weeks, but I have taken to jumping into the gigantic pile of dirty clothes while we play our Reader’s Digest World Famous Polka CD that we got used for ninety-nine cents.

I wasn’t able to find a World Famous Polka CD released by Reader’s Digest, but I did find Polka Party with Myron Floren on his accordion, released on CD in 1991 by Reader’s Digest. It’s possible that “world famous polka” is simply the sarcastic way that that Rory refers to it – “our world famous polka CD”. Otherwise it’s simply fictional.

Among the snippets from her life that Rory tells Lane is that she has hardly seen Dean since the Bid-on-a-Basket Fundraiser, almost a week ago. Conveniently, he has started working extra hours to save up for a new motorcycle, just after they got into a fight. I think we can assume they aren’t on the best of terms at the moment.