The actor who ruined a rock classic, according to Jack Black
There aren’t many figures in Hollywood who are as genuine a rock and roll fan as Jack Black is.
He might not be as much of a rock and roll god as he might imply when he jams with Tenacious D, but even when he only has an acoustic guitar to work with, you can tell that he has the same kind of drive to be a rock and roll star as every one of his idols was when they were first cutting their teeth. He definitely found his calling on screen most of the time, but although he could find some great tunes out in the wild, he also knew what a song sounded like when it was being put out of its misery.
Then again, it’s not like Black has ever tried to work outside of the realm of hard rock, either. He definitely worships at the altar of bands like Led Zeppelin, but if you listen to the harmonies on a lot of ‘The D’s songs, there are pieces that are more indebted to what Simon and Garfunkel would have sung in their prime than anything remotely heavy metal.
That even applies to when he tried his hand at straight pop songs. Sure, his version of Britney Spears’s ‘Baby One More Time’ is one of the most goofy songs that he has ever made, but the fact that he actually manages to deliver a decent vocal performance shows that he still has a lot more love for the song than playing everything as a straight gimmick. But not everyone seems to get the joke when they try their hand at a classic.
After all, there are always going to be people like William Shatner out there willing to desecrate any song that they come across. Admittedly, ‘Captain Kirk’ isn’t exactly trying to compete with the originals when he’s making his own records, but whereas someone like Tom Waits can speak-sing his way through songs, hearing Shatner do the same thing with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with a full band behind him just becomes comedic with his more animated performance.
To his credit, though, Shatner is trying. He’s not hitting any notes, and you’d have to be persuaded more than a few times that he’s actually doing a decent job, but you can’t say that he isn’t giving 110% in pursuit of his batshit insane idea. And when you look at what Jack Nicholson was doing in The Who’s theatrical release of Tommy, he’s not exactly showing the same amount of effort.
And while Black had an intense love for The Who from the time he was a kid, he did remember that Nicholsons’ performance was among the worst that he had ever heard, saying, “When I was ten years old, I fell in love with The Who. I saw the film Tommy on cable television and despite Jack Nicholson’s heinous rendition of ‘Go to the Mirror!’, I was deeply moved by the music and the story. I wasn’t deaf, dumb or blind but I could relate to Tommy. I too wanted to be seen, felt and healed. And no other band had the courage or sensitivity to write those kinds of emotionally raw songs.
Nicholson’s performance wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world, but when he’s put next to people who actually know what they’re doing, it doesn’t really work. A lot of his performance focuses on letting him be the ‘Jack’ persona that everyone knows, but for a song that was as heartfelt and catchy on the original album, this was so far below what everyone expected, especially for a film where Tina Turner plays the Acid Queen and Elton John delivers a killer version of ‘Pinball Wizard’.
‘The D’s version might be a bit more faithful to what the band had wanted out of the song, but even if their version has only acoustic guitars and Black going off for a few minutes, it works a lot better than what Nicholson was going for. That was an actor trying to shoehorn himself into rock and roll history, and Black’s version is a rock and roll fanboy paying tribute to one of the greatest bands to walk the Earth.
