It's Like Fighting Both Sides Of A Mirror

October 13, 2011 6:17 PM

Long before the disastrous musical Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, Marvel released the concept album Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero. The album featured everything from 70's rock to a doo-wop tribute to Gwen Stacey, a theatrical track about Doctor Octopus and the rousing title track and Count On Me . Rock Reflections of a Superhero has been recapped by comic bloggers like Chris Sims, Gone & Forgotten and Tales To Mildly Astonish.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn (12 comments total)

When I was a kid I listened to this album religiously on the back of the bus, trying to make myself feel better. I later spliced 'Nobody's Got A Crush On Peter' into a sound collage at college.

/Pathetic Geek Stories
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 6:26 PM on October 13, 2011

For a while there one of my favorite combos for mix CDs was "Narration" (track 5) leading into Ugress' "Spider Eyes." Good times.

"Square Boy" is another one of my favorites, and I sort of love to hate "Gwendolyn" as one of those songs that's so awful it's sublime. I am deeply pleased that the Amazon sample is of the, ahem, most memorable lyrics. "Doctor Octopus" has never done that much for me, alas -- a little too all over the place.
posted by bettafish at 6:42 PM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Doctor Octopus" has never done that much for me, alas -- a little too all over the place.

Just like the Doctor's arms, amirite?
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:47 PM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Glenn Beck liked it. So that's something.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:48 PM on October 13, 2011

“This is better than ‘Wicked’!”

This quote from Glen Beck is not the hilariously clunky attempt to use slang that I initially thought it was.
posted by straight at 6:55 PM on October 13, 2011

This is related but tangential, but I like to bring it up every chance I get: the gnarly prog rock album The Marvel World of Icarus. It's very weird, very 70's, but I like it for some reason. It's not sanctioned by Marvel, naturally, but it has decent production values and a guy that appreciates the Marvel universe of the 70's. You can listen to some of it on Myspace, including his Spiderman song, and it's on sale on Amazon.

This Spiderman album I have never heard of, but it's awesome for other reasons. At a mere $4.27, it's a perfect Super Saver Shipping option.

Keep in mind that my tastes in music is very suspect, as I also like the Christmas in the Stars.
posted by jabberjaw at 7:17 PM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

One of the things that the Spiderman: Turn off the Dark debacle/tragedies inspired was a "ripped from the headlines" Law and Order: Criminal Intent that featured a musical called "Icarus" that had a fatal accident with its stunts. The musical had a song written for it called "This is Hubris." Comedy gold.
posted by sweetkid at 7:52 PM on October 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

I mean.. call Turn Off the Dark a crappy musical, but any show that pulls in over a million a week is far from disastrous.
posted by ReeMonster at 8:03 PM on October 13, 2011

This is related but tangential, but I like to bring it up every chance I get: the gnarly prog rock album The Marvel World of Icarus. It's very weird, very 70's, but I like it for some reason. It's not sanctioned by Marvel, naturally, but it has decent production values and a guy that appreciates the Marvel universe of the 70's. You can listen to some of it on Myspace, including his Spiderman song, and it's on sale on Amazon.

I heard the 'Thor' track played on a local psychedelic show. Was awesome.

The best Marvel related song is Ego the Living Planet
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:26 PM on October 13, 2011

any show that pulls in over a million a week is far from disastrous.

It's disastrous because when you went to see it, dead actors would fall on you. They made me enraged because they would use understudies when actors got injured. You know, completely forgetting that understudies are for when your actors get sniffles, not when you put them in precarious situations that put them in the hospital. Not to mention being a young actor on Broadway, and feeling as though you will destroy your career if you say something. Every injury could have been avoided, it was outright negligence. No musical is worth that. No musical that does that is worth seeing. The union took WAY too long to get involved.

The rules are:
1 Keep people safe.
2 Don't damage anyone's property.
3 Put on a good show.

That thing should have been shut down, I don't give a shit that it's Spider-Man.

Anyway. It's not you Ree, it's them.

And on-topic. I own, Rock Reflections. It's a cute novelty.
posted by CarlRossi at 11:27 PM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

And on-topic. I own, Rock Reflections. It's a cute novelty.

I took the album very seriously as a kid. I wonder if I still would now. Probably.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 11:35 PM on October 13, 2011

Is that...Cat Stevens? Excuse me - Yusuf Spiderman.
posted by Mooseli at 2:13 AM on October 14, 2011