Creators of all stripes know that the most cliché question an interviewer can ask—and often the most difficult one to answer—is "Where do you get your ideas?" Inspiration is a nebulous thing, difficult to describe and more difficult to precisely quantify. Unless, of course, it comes from a single event, object or individual. Tribute songs to real-life people abound in pop music, though most—from Sufjan Stevens' "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," off his new Illinois, to Barenaked Ladies' "Brian Wilson" to Weezer's "Buddy Holly"—simply use a famous or infamous figure as a tool for self-reflection. But some tribute songs are less complicated; sometimes, musicians get as starstruck as anyone else, and unsurprisingly, they choose to express their fascination or fandom in song. Here, The A.V. Club breaks down some of the many tribute songs aimed at film stars and film personalities.
Da Vinci's Notebook, "Heather Graham" (available on Brontosaurus)
Representative lyric: "Turn your back on Austin Powers / Happiness will soon be ours / Rollergirl, I need you near me / The TV's on, why can't you hear me? / Heather Graham... she's so pretty."
Does it portray the subject accurately? Probably not. This is a comic song written from the point of view of an obsessed and deeply deluded fan, not a real-world portrait. Also, a relatively small subsection of the populace is likely to know whether Graham, as the lyrics suggest, actually "tastes like cotton candy."
Flattering or creepy? Creepy, but in an entirely self-aware and humorous way. That is, presuming the lyricist is just joking around about graciously accepting a life of stalking the actress in lieu of hot sex with her.
King Missile, "Martin Scorsese" (available on Happy Hour)
Representative lyric: "He makes the best fucking films / If I ever meet him, I'm gonna grab his fuckin' neck and just shake him / And say 'Thank you, thank you for makin' such excellent fuckin' movies!'"
Does it portray the subject accurately? Yes. Scorsese does indeed make the best fucking films.
Flattering or creepy? Extremely creepy. More a rant than a song, "Martin Scorsese" mostly revolves around the enthusiastic violence that singer John S. Hall would like to perpetrate on Scorsese to show his appreciation for the director's work. From such fandom comes restraining orders.
Christine Lavin, "Harrison Ford" (available on Getting In Touch With My Inner Bitch)
Representative lyric: "The only living movie star I've ever adored... Takes all my concentration not to fall on the floor / At the feet of that fabulous mega-movie star / Harrison Ford."
Does it portray the subject accurately? Sort of. Lavin's cheery folk song documents an actual accidental meeting with Ford, who apparently smiled at her and sent her a detailed telepathic order to keep moving and not spoil his quiet evening. While her fannish description of Ford as "just a regular guy / Okay, with better brawn and brains and bones" seems perfectly accurate, few other singers have commented on his psychic powers.
Flattering or creepy? Flattering and kind, respecting Ford's humanity and right to privacy while simultaneously ecstatically drooling over him. This is a much sweeter tribute than Lavin's "Prince Charles," an even more tongue-in-cheek 1981 tribute declaring her heartbreak over Charles leaving the singles market. ("Oh, maybe you got panicky, thinking you were losing your looks / Well confidentially, Chuck, you got no looks to lose...")
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