Book yer own fckin Grand Ole Opry

Precocious
Originally uploaded by tohoscope.

They spooled COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER on TCM last night. I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid, and it's still pretty good. CMD is a rags-to-riches movie or fan-to-fame-to-fall-from-grace and back again, and I love that kind of movie. CMD is a biographical flick about The First Lady of Country Music, Loretta Lynn. So as a bonus we get some damn good music from Loretta and Ernest Tub and Patsy Cline. And I've realized that this is the punkest movie I've ever seen, short of REPO MAN.

Why? Lemme explain. As much as this is a movie about Loretta Lynn, it's as much about her husband Doolittle Lynn. The first reel of the movie is about Doolittle and Loretta meeting and getting married and is all set up for the second reel. The second reel is the heart of the movie, at least for me.

The second act is pure DIY punk ethos on Doolittle's part. Instead of buying Loretta a wedding ring Doolittle gives her a guitar. Loretty learns to play the guitar. So Doolittle takes her to a Honky Tonk where he convinces the house band to let Loretta play. Soon Loretta writes her first song. So Doolittle takes her to a small recording studio and has Loretta recorded. And like something straight outta BOOK YER OWN FCKIN LIFE Doolittle makes his own 8 by 10 glossy of Loretta and is staying up all night typing up press releases and mailing 45's to country radio stations everywhere. And then Doolittle takes Loretta from radio station to radio station getting her on the air and getting the 45 played.

All this do-it-yourself promotion gets Loretta to number 14 on charts. And when Doolittle finds out that Loretta's got a hit the first thing he does is drive her to The Grand Ole Opry. And it's a Cinderella moment when Ernest Tubs introduces Loretta on the Opry. And it's punk as fck.

It's all up and down and uphill from there. We go from Loretta meeting Patsy Cline (in a wonderful scene where Loretta is taken to Patsy's hospital room and has a great fangirl moment while Patsy Cline sits in a hospital bed with two black eyes, her head wrapped in gauze and sipping beer through a straw.) to Loretta's big hair and satin lace dresses period to her mental breakdown on stage and back again. Roll the credits. If only Loretta had flared out in a fury of self destruction it'd be the perfect ending. As it is, it's still a pretty damn good movie.

And punk as fck.