A Tale of Two "How Do I Live"s
June 26, 2017 9:59 AM Subscribe
Entertainment Weekly reports that the studio felt Rimes’s version lacked the emotional weight needed for the film. One more time, in case you glossed over that: The song lacked the emotional weight needed for a film about Nicolas Cage fighting convicts on an airplane...Jason Gallagher uses The Ringer's Good Bad Movies Week to tell us about that time that the Grammys nominated two versions of the same song for the same award in "Remembering the 'Con Air' Soundtrack War".
That's just...fucked up, man.
I'll never watch Con Air without thinking of this. But I may never watch Con Air again. So there's that.
posted by nubs at 10:08 AM on June 26, 2017
I'll never watch Con Air without thinking of this. But I may never watch Con Air again. So there's that.
posted by nubs at 10:08 AM on June 26, 2017
I had no recollection of this.
What they did to that poor kid.... truly, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench."
posted by wenestvedt at 10:35 AM on June 26, 2017
What they did to that poor kid.... truly, “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench."
posted by wenestvedt at 10:35 AM on June 26, 2017
I had no recollection of this.
Yeah, I could sing the Rimes version of the song note for note, and it never even occurred to me that the Con Air version is different. Is it just that the Grammys are very irrelevant?
posted by muddgirl at 12:08 PM on June 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I could sing the Rimes version of the song note for note, and it never even occurred to me that the Con Air version is different. Is it just that the Grammys are very irrelevant?
posted by muddgirl at 12:08 PM on June 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
One thing that keeps surprising me is how many people have seen Con Air.
posted by bongo_x at 12:26 PM on June 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by bongo_x at 12:26 PM on June 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
My whole take on this functionally boils down to....
BWAAHAHAHAHAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH!
[wipes eyes]
posted by Samizdata at 12:29 PM on June 26, 2017
BWAAHAHAHAHAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH!
[wipes eyes]
posted by Samizdata at 12:29 PM on June 26, 2017
Wow. Trisha Yearwood's eyerolling acceptance speech seems exceptionally ungracious considering Leann Rimes was fifteen years old.
posted by mama casserole at 12:30 PM on June 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by mama casserole at 12:30 PM on June 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
One thing that keeps surprising me is how many people have seen Con Air.
Look, get past Nic Cage and you've got: John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo, John Cusack, Colm Meaney, Ving Rhames...
That's a pretty solid lineup for an action flick.
posted by nubs at 12:52 PM on June 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Look, get past Nic Cage and you've got: John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo, John Cusack, Colm Meaney, Ving Rhames...
That's a pretty solid lineup for an action flick.
posted by nubs at 12:52 PM on June 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Plus, there's that whole "Con Air is a major element of Homestuck, one of the biggest things to happen in web fandom in the last ten years," which is what we have to thank for stuff like yet another version of this song.
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 12:59 PM on June 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 12:59 PM on June 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
The song is a blatant ripoff of (probably Mariah Carey's cover of) Badfinger's codependency anthem "Without You," with the suicidal threat mostly sanded off.
I specifically remember vetoing Con Air in the cinema lobby with the line, "Why would I want to watch a movie about blowdryers?" The joke was 100% worth the sacrifice of not seeing it.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:14 PM on June 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
I specifically remember vetoing Con Air in the cinema lobby with the line, "Why would I want to watch a movie about blowdryers?" The joke was 100% worth the sacrifice of not seeing it.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:14 PM on June 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't listen to country, but I remember the Yearwood version because Con Air has a special place in the awesome bad films corner of my heart. I had no idea Rimes had her own version, but I don't like it, because holy god her country voice is way more grating to my ears than most country voices. And I didn't really watch award shows back then (and mostly still don't) to know about this, but GODDAMN that is savage.
posted by numaner at 1:29 PM on June 26, 2017
posted by numaner at 1:29 PM on June 26, 2017
The song is a blatant ripoff of (probably Mariah Carey's cover of) Badfinger's codependency anthem "Without You," with the suicidal threat mostly sanded off.
I never knew that was a cover! WHAT!
posted by numaner at 1:35 PM on June 26, 2017
I never knew that was a cover! WHAT!
posted by numaner at 1:35 PM on June 26, 2017
and that she actually covered Harry Nilson's version! And he covered it because he thought he could do better once he realized it wasn't the Beatles singing the original when he heard it at a party.
posted by numaner at 1:42 PM on June 26, 2017
posted by numaner at 1:42 PM on June 26, 2017
The only version of which I was aware was LeAnn's, unfortunately, due to the hideously synthetic white-party house remix that was inescapable in gay clubs in early '98. God, house music went through a dark period back then...
posted by mykescipark at 1:43 PM on June 26, 2017
posted by mykescipark at 1:43 PM on June 26, 2017
I specifically remember vetoing Con Air in the cinema lobby with the line, "Why would I want to watch a movie about blowdryers?"
I was, and am still, convinced that is 100% the reason this movie was made, the play on words. I'm pretty sure the pitch included the phrase "get it?"
posted by bongo_x at 2:17 PM on June 26, 2017
I was, and am still, convinced that is 100% the reason this movie was made, the play on words. I'm pretty sure the pitch included the phrase "get it?"
posted by bongo_x at 2:17 PM on June 26, 2017
Oh my God it's a pun on air conditioning! AIRCON. I LITERALLY JUST GOT THE PUN. Twenty years and I JUST GOT IT.
Um. Carry on. Don't mind me.
posted by meronym at 2:30 PM on June 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
Um. Carry on. Don't mind me.
posted by meronym at 2:30 PM on June 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
> I specifically remember vetoing Con Air in the cinema lobby with the line, "Why would I want to watch a movie about blowdryers?"
I remember seeing the trailer for Con Air before something else, and it was loud. Like, even for an action movie trailer, unusually, punishingly loud. And at the very end of this extremely loud two minutes and thirty seconds there was a half-second long shot (at 2:25) of one of the characters hanging out of the cockpit of an airplane, which had apparently crashed and was on fire and sliding rapidly towards the camera. Also, he was screaming, which made it the absolute loudest moment of this trailer that was SO SO LOUD. When the trailer ended and there was a few seconds of silence before the next trailer or the feature began, a ripple of nervous laughter ran through the audience.
Anyway, sure enough my stupid friends and stupid me went to see it and I thought it was a pretty good bad movie, but a few years ago I re-watched it and it's vile...full of racist, sexist jokes and you can imagine how the transvestite character is handled. And there's an extended bit where Steve Buscemi's serial killer character escapes and happens across a little girl throwing a tea party for her dolls and at first it's played for frights ("Will he kill her?") and then for laughs ("lol jk no of course not, look he's sitting down and having tea with the girl and her dolls, isn't that a laugh riot???") and it's just the worst, cheapest sort of cinematic manipulation of the audience. So, yeah...Con Air. I'll always fondly remember that weird laughter after the trailer, though.
Holy shit, Dave Chappelle was in Con Air? No wonder he hates Hollywood so much.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:25 PM on June 26, 2017
I remember seeing the trailer for Con Air before something else, and it was loud. Like, even for an action movie trailer, unusually, punishingly loud. And at the very end of this extremely loud two minutes and thirty seconds there was a half-second long shot (at 2:25) of one of the characters hanging out of the cockpit of an airplane, which had apparently crashed and was on fire and sliding rapidly towards the camera. Also, he was screaming, which made it the absolute loudest moment of this trailer that was SO SO LOUD. When the trailer ended and there was a few seconds of silence before the next trailer or the feature began, a ripple of nervous laughter ran through the audience.
Anyway, sure enough my stupid friends and stupid me went to see it and I thought it was a pretty good bad movie, but a few years ago I re-watched it and it's vile...full of racist, sexist jokes and you can imagine how the transvestite character is handled. And there's an extended bit where Steve Buscemi's serial killer character escapes and happens across a little girl throwing a tea party for her dolls and at first it's played for frights ("Will he kill her?") and then for laughs ("lol jk no of course not, look he's sitting down and having tea with the girl and her dolls, isn't that a laugh riot???") and it's just the worst, cheapest sort of cinematic manipulation of the audience. So, yeah...Con Air. I'll always fondly remember that weird laughter after the trailer, though.
Holy shit, Dave Chappelle was in Con Air? No wonder he hates Hollywood so much.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:25 PM on June 26, 2017
A couple of months ago I re-watched Con Air on Netflix by myself one evening while my wife was working a late shift. It was even dumber than I remembered. But at the end, when 'How Do I Live?' played while Nicholas Cage's daughter took the scorched toy rabbit and overcame her fear and shyness to hug her dad who she was meeting for the first time, I proper cried.
A few points in my defence:
1) I hadn't had much sleep;
2) I'm getting old - my wife and I are just aging out of the window where our parents wonder if we'll ever have kids (we won't);
3) I have unresolved absent-father issues;
4) Dianne Warren's songwriting is like catnip to me;
5) He went through a lot to get that rabbit to her, you guys
6) I didn't have to tell this story, so don't you dare judge me!
posted by Soulfather at 3:53 PM on June 26, 2017 [11 favorites]
A few points in my defence:
1) I hadn't had much sleep;
2) I'm getting old - my wife and I are just aging out of the window where our parents wonder if we'll ever have kids (we won't);
3) I have unresolved absent-father issues;
4) Dianne Warren's songwriting is like catnip to me;
5) He went through a lot to get that rabbit to her, you guys
6) I didn't have to tell this story, so don't you dare judge me!
posted by Soulfather at 3:53 PM on June 26, 2017 [11 favorites]
A couple of months ago I re-watched Con Air on Netflix by myself
Which is how I imagine 99% of people saw it.
posted by bongo_x at 4:26 PM on June 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Which is how I imagine 99% of people saw it.
posted by bongo_x at 4:26 PM on June 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
The Trisha Yearwood version of the song is so much better than LeeAnn Rimes'. But I will admit that I am a huge TY fan and in my opinion any version of any song is better if TY is singing it.
posted by pjsky at 6:45 PM on June 26, 2017
posted by pjsky at 6:45 PM on June 26, 2017
SPOILER ALERT
Are we talking about Con Air in general? Because I saw it in the theater and came out of it with the most amazing conclusion that it ended with the perfect setup for a sequel about a child molester who got away. I will never forget what Hollywood put into my brain here.
posted by rhizome at 12:47 AM on June 27, 2017
Are we talking about Con Air in general? Because I saw it in the theater and came out of it with the most amazing conclusion that it ended with the perfect setup for a sequel about a child molester who got away. I will never forget what Hollywood put into my brain here.
posted by rhizome at 12:47 AM on June 27, 2017
Now this song is going to be in my head all day...
In the newspaper article pictured, there's a throwaway reference to the 'Butterfly Kisses' wars... colour me intrigued!
posted by Ziggy500 at 2:05 AM on June 28, 2017
In the newspaper article pictured, there's a throwaway reference to the 'Butterfly Kisses' wars... colour me intrigued!
posted by Ziggy500 at 2:05 AM on June 28, 2017
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posted by supercrayon at 10:02 AM on June 26, 2017