BLOW UP - Herbie Hancock, The Yardbirds - "História de Um Fotógrafo" (1966)

Well, it seems like the mid-week blues have kind of turned Wednesday into Spy Thriller Mystery Killer-Diller Chiller nite lately, not exactly monsters, but I've been diggin' it, and I hope you have too! Tonight is no exception, cause when you want to talk about rock music in a 60's movie you have to talk about "Blowup!"

SOUNDCLIP NOT AVAILABLE

David Hemmings is Thomas, The Photographer!!

The statuesque Veruschka von Lehndorff, a real original supermodel plays herself!! When she modeled, she was just known only by her first name, Veruschka!!

So if for some strange reason, you don't know about this film, Thomas is shooting some fotos in a park, and Vanessa Redgrave as Jane, gets all hot and bothered over it, so he figures out something isn't right because she's rabid about getting the pictures from him, so he starts blowing them up, bigger and bigger until he starts seeing details like that gun in the bushes!

Director Michelangelo Antonioni had some funny vision as Thomas walks under this outcropping in his flat, and just barely clears it without bumping his head!!

These two frisky little birds, Jane Birkin in the back and Gillian Hills in front, pursue Thomas, and Director Antonioni uses them to full advantage!! Jane was billed solely as "The Blonde" and Gillian was billed as "The Brunette!" Hot!

Just seeing The Yardbirds with Keith Relf, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck in it, was then, and is now, well worth the price of admission, and the rest of the movie is pretty damn entertaining too. And you get all that without even mentioning that the meat of the soundtrack was written by a young man in his first major film outing, and still going by the name Herbert, an amazing musician who has gone from Miles to Rock-it and beyond, Mr. Herbie Hancock!! Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a line up!!!!

Pretty funny set-up, as Thomas moves through the crowd to the throbbing beat of "Stroll On", and I couldn't, and I sure you won't be able to, not tap your foot or something, and yet the whole crowd is completely stoic, and never even twitches a muscle!!

Oh, did I say never? I meant never, like not until Jeff Beck smashes his guitar, and then, and only then, does the crowd go absolutely freakin' wild after he throws the broken neck into the crowd, and like a blushing bridesmaid at a wedding party catching the bride's corsage, Thomas ends up with the broken neck, and runs out into the night with the crowd pursuing him, and when he finally gets away, he just drops it on the sidewalk like a piece of garbage, and walks away!! What a statement!!! What a movie!!