James Gunn’s most-loved punk song: “They’re my favourite band”
What do you think makes Superman director James Gunn cool? Is it that he co-wrote and directed 2014’s space-rock talking raccoon smash Guardians of the Galaxy? Is it that he managed to somehow successfully get un-cancelled? Is it that he was once married to Pam from The Office US?
Well, despite all of those things being true, they are not the ultimate reason why he’s cool—that has to do with music, as we shall come to shortly.
Before taking over the world of movie superheroes, Gunn was, in fact, originally a musician back in the day. As he once revealed on his Instagram account, between 1986 and 1989, he played in a variety of bands, including one named The Icons, with whom he would tour the Midwest of America, and who recently remastered and released the one album they recorded.
But he eventually decided that the life of a travelling lead vocalist wasn’t for him, and his love for movies was the priority. However, he did write songs for a couple of his first directorial efforts, namely Scooby Doo and Movie 43.
Where his joint love of music and movies really crossed over was on the soundtrack to the aforementioned Guardians of the Galaxy, the Chris Pratt-starring Marvel mega-hit that played an essential part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The OST, named The Awesome Mix Vol 1, is one of the biggest-selling soundtracks in movie history, featuring songs from the likes of David Bowie and Marvin Gaye.
Of course, the soundtrack compiled by Gunn was integral to the movie’s storyline, too, as Pratt’s character Star-Lord makes his way around the galaxy playing the tunes in question on his Walkman to keep himself reminded of Earth. Eventually, the soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 for some 11 weeks, going Platinum and cementing Gunn’s reputation as something of a cultural authority.
Gunn, in fact, chatted music recently with movie producer Liam Santa Cruz, and when asked what his go-to punk rock song was, he revealed, “It’s ‘Going Underground’ by The Jam”.
“They’re my favourite band, you know, recently, I went through all my liked songs on Spotify, the songs I had the most by, of any artist, was Paul Weller.”
James Gunn
Gunn’s love of the band that launched Weller into the mainstream in the UK is perhaps not surprising when you consider he was a music-obsessed teenager when The Jam put out their debut album In the City in 1977. Woking-born Weller took his love of R&B and The Who, and together with bandmates Bruce Foxton and the late Rick Buckler, turned it into a punky, angry animal that combined political and socio-economic commentary with massively memorable tunes.
At just 20, Weller rapidly became a songwriter of real repute and over the next couple of years the band released iconic singles over and over again, including ‘The Eton Rifles’, ‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’, and Gunn’s favourite, ‘Going Underground’, which became the band’s first UK number one in 1980.
Although the band split after a hit-laden, prolific five years in 1982, Weller went on to form another successful act, The Style Council, and then, from 1991 onwards, embarked on a solo career that has spanned more than 30 years and 17 albums.
Gunn still appreciates the former Jam frontman’s longevity, stating, “Paul Weller is putting out songs that are as good as when he was doing The Jam, like, every year. These other guys, for the most part, aren’t putting out the same high-quality music, but he’s got an album coming out every year that’s still as good as that early stuff.”
