Videodrone #20: Tom Courtenay

Videodrone is a weekly(ish) feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Tom Courtenay (1995)

When you think of a band that is emblematic of the term "indie rock," you can't go wrong with Yo La Tengo. Formed in Hoboken, NJ, in 1984, the group (currently comprised of singer-guitarist Ira Kaplan, drummer-singer Georgia Hubley and bassist James McNew) remains an under-the-commercial-radar stalwart that is consistently releasing excellent albums. 

In 1995, Yo La Tengo released its seventh album, Electr-O-Pura, on Matador to positive critical reviews. The band's sound was varied, ranging from quiet pop numbers to raging noise-rock epics, with often obscure lyrical references. In the middle ground of that range was the first single from Electr-O-Pura, "Tom Courtenay." The song doesn't mention the British actor by name (who was the star of films like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Billy Liar and Doctor Zhivago), although it does mention Julie Christie, who co-starred in two movies with Courtenay. 

Filled with guitar squalls and catchy backing vocals, the song seems to be sung from the POV of a junkie obsessed with Courtenay and pop culture.

For the video of the song, director Phil Morrison (who directed videos for Superchunk and Juliana Hatfield before directing the movies Junebug, Perfect Partner and All is Bright) came up with the idea of focusing on an altogether different idea: YLT are offered the unenviable chance to open for the reunited Beatles, and Kaplan dreams of what it would be like. Morrison reached out to Courtenay, who was in NYC at the time performing in a play, to play a role in the video, but he turned it down (see the behind-the-scenes video from 2020 in which Morrison and the band talk about the making of the video).

Kaplan's reverie shifts to black-and-white as the band decides what to wear at the show, which was filmed at the Mercury Lounge in NYC. McNew decides to wear a cape and insists on bringing his cat Lovely Rita. The band shows up at the venue hoping to meet the Beatles but are told they're too busy, but brings in Marshall Crenshaw, who appeared in Beatlemania, instead. Crenshaw proceeds to dig into the band's food spread as they go out to the slaughter. A young Tom Scharpling (who went on to host The Best Show on WFMU in 2000 and is still doing it all these years later) plays DJ Big Andy Rigg from WHYP, 98.8, The Hype, and introduces "Yo La Tango" to the crowd as "a band that you're probably gonna like." Other members of the NYC indie rock scene make cameos in the video.

YLT launches into its originals, much to the dismay of the crowd as the guy at the merch table keeps knocking down the prices to their t-shirts. It's not working, until Ira has an idea and the group launches into "Twist and Shout" and the crowd gets into it. Cut back to the promoter asking Kaplan if he's accepting the offer, and Kaplan asks him to hold on while he continues to dream.

I first heard "Tom Courtenay" a few years later on the What's Up, Matador? compilation, which also came as a VHS tape that was a faux children's show hosted by NYC TV personality Bill Boggs in front of a live studio audience of children at a New Jersey elementary school (see below). It features appearances from Matador artists include Kaplan, Liz Phair and others as well as several videos from Matador bands (but not "Tom Courtenay").

"Tom Courtenay" is the lead track on the CD compilation and it still holds up. The Beatles never reunited and YLT is still doing their thing, which I suppose is the way it should be.