Sunday, June 2, 2013

Musical Interlude: Bad To The Bone (1982)

In the early 80's, you just couldn't go a day without hearing George Thorogood's classic "Bad To The Bone". A delicious mix of blues and hard rock that is still popular enough to warrant airplay 31 years later.

What I don't get is the concept portion of the following video. Concert footage aside, George is playing a marathon game of pool with no less than Bo Diddley, a music legend in his own right. I'm guessing the pool scenes are Thorogood's way of saluting the 1960 film, "The Hustler", with Paul Newman & Jackie Gleason, which begat a sequel, "The Color of Money" (Newman & Tom Cruise) that came out four years after "Bone" was released as a single. Neighborhood kids are gathered outside the pool room, quietly cheering on George. I guess these kids didn't know Bo.

A few years later, the producers of the "Problem Child" movies used "Bone" as the theme for Junior (Michael Oliver) in a number of scenes. Sorry, but being "Bad to the Bone" doesn't fit a juvenile.

Uploaded by EMI's VEVO channel:

2 comments:

magicdog said...

The tune was also used in "Married With Children" whenever Al Bundy was getting serious about something.

The crowd would roar whenever it played!

I didn't realize it was released in '82, as I'd heard it constantly on local radio stations all through the decade.

Truly a timeless recording.

It still sounds, Buh Buh Buh BAD!

hobbyfan said...

It's currently on VH1 Classic On Demand (check your cable system for availability), which is why I decided to post it.

After 30 years, I still don't get the whole point behind the kids in the video......