Tag: Music

From Red to Blue

This 1996 song by English alternative folk singer Billy Bragg plays in the background while Henry and Lane slow dance, and Rory sits in another room to read, where she witnesses Tristan and Summer have another fight.

From Red to Blue is the first track from Bragg’s album William Bloke. It’s another song about a relationship break up, but this time between two friends. Although the “red” and “blue” in the song describe British political parties, they might indicate on the show that Rory’s focus from sublimated anger is turning to sadness.

Everyday I Write the Book

This 1983 romantic pop song written by British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello plays in the background while Rory watches Tristan watch Summer with some sympathy for his plight; it’s the song that Henry first asks Lane to dance to, promising it will be a “short one” (the song is just under 4 minutes long).

The song is from the Elvis Costello and The Attractions album Punch the Clock, and was their first hit single in the US, getting to #33. It was slightly higher in the UK at #28. One of the most popular of Costello’s songs, it has several times been included on “best of” compilation albums.

The song, which is about a break up, compares the stages of a relationship with chapters in a book, a synonym that Rory would surely understand and approve of.

Madame Curie and Jennifer Lopez

PARIS: Yeah well, I doubt highly that Madam Curie was voted most likely to dress like Jennifer Lopez.

Marie Curie, born Maria Skłodowska (1867-1934) [pictured] was a Polish-born French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel prize, the first person and only woman to win it twice, and the only person to win it in two different sciences. The Curie family, including Marie, her husband Pierre, daughter Irène Joliot-Curie, son-in-law Frédéric Joliot-Curie, and son-in-law Henri Labouisse, has won more Nobel Prizes than any other family. She was the first woman to become a Professor at the University of Paris, and the first woman to be entombed at The Panthéon in Paris on her own merits.

Jennifer Lopez (born 1969) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and fashion designer. She began her career in 1991 as a dancer on television before branching into acting in 1993 (although she’d made her film debut as a teenager in a low-budget film). Her first starring role was in Selena (1997); she went on to star in other films in the 1990s, becoming the highest-paid Latina actress in Hollywood. She ventured into the music industry in 1999, with her debut album On the 6, which had two Top Ten singles. In January 2001, a few weeks before the events of this episode, she brought out her second album, J.Lo, around the same time as the release of her romantic comedy, The Wedding Planner, becoming the first woman to have a #1 album and #1 film in the same week.

We learn here that Paris’ ambition is to work in medical research toward the better understanding and treatment of cancer. It apparently doesn’t work out that way. Oddly enough, Liza Weil, who plays Paris, would later play a character who dies from cancer on medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.

Ms. Jackson

This 2000 song by alternative hip-hop duo OutKast begins playing in the background when we first see Tristan and Summer arguing; Summer identifies it as a “good song” before starting to dance to it.

Ms Jackson is a single from OutKast’s album Stankonia, which went to #1 in the charts and on the hip-hop charts. It won a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, and is regarded as one of the best songs of the 2000s.

The song is about the difficulties of breakups, and the animosity that a woman’s mother often has for her daughter’s ex-boyfriend. It’s a hint of the anger that Lorelai feels toward Dean, although she hasn’t expressed it for fear of upsetting Rory.

Where It’s At

This song by Beck is playing in the background when Rory and Lane arrive at Madeline’s party and continues throughout the introductions to Madeline and Louise.

Where It’s At is from Beck’s acclaimed 1996 album Odelay, although he performed the song in concert earlier, including at Lollapalooza in 1995. The song went to #61 in the charts and #5 in the alternative music charts, earning Beck a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, while the music video won Best Male Video at the MTV Awards. The song uses samples from various sources, including one from a sex education album for teenagers – rather apt for Louise and Madeline’s later actions.

The cool alternative music at the party suggests they hired the same (rather implausible) DJ from the Chilton Winter Formal.

Small World Ride

LUKE: Oh God, he’s [Dean’s] got a nerve. I mean, what does he think, he’s gonna do better than Rory? Is he crazy? Jeez. Alright, well forget it, okay. Good riddance, adios, bienvenidos, hasta la vista.
LORELAI: Could we get off the Small World ride and start cooking please?

It’s a Small World is a ride at the Fantasyland section of Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and other Walt Disney theme parks and resorts. The ride consists of travelling in small boats through a tunnel, watching animatronic dolls in national costumes of countries around the world, all singing the song, It’s a Small World After All, each in their native languages.

It’s a Small World After All was written by Robert and Richard Sherman, previously mentioned. It is said to be the most-performed and most-translated piece of music in the world, having been played more than 50 million times.

Luke says, “Goodbye, welcome, see you later”, in Spanish, for no very obvious reason. Apparently when he’s upset he babbles in Spanish.

Footloose

RORY: Some people like getting up early.
LORELAI: You lie.
RORY: No, they do it voluntarily …
LORELAI: Ha! Jump back!
RORY: Excuse me?
LORELAI: Kevin Bacon, Footloose, reaction to the no dancing in town rule is revealed to him by Chris Penn, brother to Sean, sage to all.

Footloose is a 1984 musical film directed by Herbert Ross, and starring Kevin Bacon as a Chicago teenager who moves to a small town and discovers it has banned dancing and rock music. In the film, his character says, “Jump back!” when his new friend in town, played by Chris Penn, explains to him about the no dancing rule. (Chris Penn, who died in 2006, was a brother of actor Sean Penn, but I don’t know how he was a “sage to all”).

Footloose was the #7 film of 1984. Despite mixed reviews, it is generally held to be cheesy good fun, and has been turned into a stage musical, and had a remake in 2011.

Lorelai jokingly compares her shock at learning that some people get up early, even on Saturday mornings, to the shock Kevin Bacon’s character feels at discovering that an entire town has banned dancing.