The Debut of the New Weekly Feature B-Sides is Cop Rockin’
Steve Barton
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Are you ready for something new? Are you ready to rock? Then get ready for the first edition of the new weekend movie music video feature I’m calling B-SIDES. For this premiere installment I’ll be bringing you a musical double feature from two different films with three things in common: part 2’s from 1990 with “cop” in the title.
So what exactly is B-SIDES all about? Once a week I’ll present to you a music video featuring a song from a motion picture, preferably of the b-movie persuasion. Some will be horror related, others will not, and some will just be horrifying in the sense you cannot believe someone actually recorded such a song. In some cases, as with more high profile soundtracks, the song will be presented in the form of the actual music video that aired on MTV. For more obscure offerings, the video might be fan-made or merely a scene taken from the film in question during which the song played. Some you’ll be familiar with, some will be quite obscure, some will make you either want to immediately rewatch the movie or go in search of an MP3 of the song so you can listen to it on your iPod all day, and some will make you wonder why God cursed you with the ability to hear.
From here out every weekend you’ll get a new movie song to refresh your memories and/or blow your mind. But for B-SIDES‘ illustrious debut I’m serving up a double dose of cop rock (and rap) from two films that shot up the silver screen in 1990 and were the first sequels in their respective franchises.
First up, the Eighties may have been over but the grunge movement hadn’t begun yet, and that meant there was still a little more time for Hollywood types to pepper their sci-fi action movies with hair metal jingles. Such was the case when the San Francisco metal band Babylon A.D. loaned one of the songs from their debut album to “old Detroit” so that the future of law enforcement’s youthful villain could have a defiant anthem. From one of the most profound disappointments of my youth, Robocop 2, comes “The Kid Goes Wild” by Babylon A.D.
Below you’ll find the actual music video (minus the climactic obscenity-filled Sam Kinison rant featured in the unedited version of the song) that mixes scenes from the sequel with a non-Peter Weller Robocop walking around the music video set searching for the film’s teen bad guy (actor Gabriel Damon) while shooting everyone he happens upon that is not a member of Babylon A.D. I don’t know why Robo doesn’t shoot the band members since they’re so obviously in on whatever crime has gone down. Why else would they be performing in a warehouse full of wanted criminals?
The second half of this cop double feature is a song that has tragically never been officially released in any format. The only place you’ll find this awesomely silly rap is in the closing credits of Maniac Cop 2. Matt Cordell returned from the dead to get revenge against the law enforcement agencies that set him up, and while everyone else may have had the right to remain silent forever, Jay Chattaway couldn’t keep his mouth shut and just had to rap his heart out about horrordom’s king of police brutality.
Someone was kind enough to rip the rap from the Maniac Cop 2 end credits and splice together a music video using scenes from all three Maniac Cop flicks. That person is a great, great man. You’ll forget all about the Fat Boys finding time for Freddy once you’ve heard the “Maniac Cop Rap”.
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Categorized:B-Sides
