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| The Corrupter |
The Manfred Mann’s Earth Band did the movie world a great service. Every single time someone’s about to be corrupted, whether by drugs, sex, alcohol, or some other vice I don’t have enough imagination to come up with, this song plays. I mean this is like the cue to “Boy, things are about to get heavy”. Here are a few pieces of dialogue that sort of introduce the song, with the corrupter and the innocent:
Corrupter: Hey, do you party?
Innocent: What’s that mean?
Corrupter: How’d you like to earn $150,000 in one night?
Innocent: What do I have to do?
Corrupter: You want to get out of here?
Innocent: Yes, show me how.
Corrupter: Have you ever ground up a human corpse into a sausage?
Innocent: No.
Corrupter: Is this your first time?
Innocent: Yes.
Corrupter: Can you feel your face?
Innocent: No.
Corrupter: Go towards the light.
Innocent: But I’m blinded by it.
Somehow the song just screams depravity. I can’t imagine something wholesome occurring on screen as this screams at me (the song always feels slightly louder than it should be). This is probably one of the few songs that can serve as a punch line. Its over-the-top appeal is obvious.
Even as the song progress beyond its glistening beginning, into more spaced-out sounds halfway through the song, it continues its depraved feel. Perhaps a montage of a strung-out loser might appear. Or you can see our innocent from the beginning descend into night-long orgies, a world of crime, or take your pick.
This song solidified the idea of a musical cue. Now we have TV shows like “CSI: Miami” which turns the music cue into something of a cliché. Good shows, excellent shows like “Arrested Development” used a various amount of cues to get a point across, whether it was situational or a flashback. So it isn’t simply a cheap trick, it is something that becomes deeply engrained, up to the point where we almost expect it. Even the flashback chime noise has become standard for so many cartoons and sitcoms.
Now though we know who to thank. These progressive rock pioneers, who forever changed the way we look at the light. Each time I hear someone complain about the light, this song comes in. It isn’t even a good karaoke song, it takes too long. Yet somehow you’ve heard it, scanning through radio stations or shopping at a supermarket.
You were blinded by the light.