If you were around in 1984, you surely were aware of the smash hit sci-fi comedy, GHOSTBUSTERS. The Bill Murray/Dan Aykroyd/Harold Ramis ensemble vehicle,  was the second biggest grossing movie of 1984 (right behind BEVERLY HILLS COP), and with cereals, action figures, a best selling soundtrack, etc., the Ivan Reitman directed blockbuster was a true phenomenon.

During the same flashy ‘80s era, another comic phenomenon was making a splash in the funny pages, and a series of successful books. That would be Garfield, the orange tabby cat that loves lasagna, hates Mondays, and makes his owner’s life a living hell. Created by cartoonist Jim Davis, Garfield made his newspaper debut in the strip, Jon (named after the cat’s owner), in 1976, but became kind of a big deal in 1978, when the cartoon went into national syndication.

In 1980, Garfield made his television debut in a Special entitled The Fantastic Funnies. In the fat feline’s segment, actor Scott Beach provided his voice. Following that, actor/writer/voice actor Lorenzo Music voiced Garfield for a series of specials, video games, ads, etc. 

It was just as well as Garfield’s cartoon adventures were loved by viewers throughout the ‘80s. But after the huge hit that was GHOSTBUSTERS, an animated series based on the film was rushed into production, and who did the producers look to fill the shoes of Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman? Garfield’s Lorenzo Music, that’s who!

Years later, in 2004, GARFIELD: THE MOVIE, a big budget revamp was released to ginormous box office. Music passed away in 2001, so Garfield’s voice was taken over by, you guessed it, Murray. Despite the background, I doubt Murray referred to Music’s work, as he seems like an actor who has no interest in character research.

Murray later revealed that he took the GARFIELD gig, which included a sequel, GARFIELD: A TALE OF TWO KITTIES, because he thought that the first film was written by Joel Coen, of the Coen brothers, but it turned out to be Joel Cohen, who was quite a different style of scribe. Although he participated in the sequel, Murray expressed regret of doing the films. This was summed up in his cameo in ZOMBIELAND in which he was asked while dying if he had any regrets. “Well, maybe Garfield.” 

While there hasn’t been a third GARFIELD to complete the trilogy, in the ZOMBIELAND sequel, Murray puts in another cameo in a flashback in which he is doing promotion for the fictional third entry entitled GARFIELD: FLABBY TABBY. That way Murray can have his cake and eat it too.

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I love the original, and was anxious to see the new material, but the problem was that nobody wanted to go with me. I even had a friend say, “You’re going to see APOCALYPSE NOW on your Birthday?!!?” I called a woman I had dated a few times, but she sounded hungover and wasn’t up to going to see the film. I didn’t tell her it was my Birthday as I thought it might come off as a manipulative way to guilt her into joining me so I said something like “Okay, see you soon,” and accepted that I was going alone to the bloody picture show. (Years later she told me that I should’ve told her it was my Birthday, but que será, será)

I went to see the movie at the Carolina Theatre in downtown Chapel Hill, with a small audience of 20 people or so. It was my first time seeing APOCALYPSE NOW on the big screen, and I enjoyed the hypnotic spell it conjured, the swirling sound mix, and the intense performances by Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall, and Larry Fishburne (that’s right, Lawrence went by Larry back then).

Now, this Vietnam helicopter encounter doesn’t have anything to do with 9/11, but I still wanted to begin with it as it was what kicked off my week. That experience alone would’ve been pretty memorable, especially as it happened on my Birthday, but it was obviously overshadowed a couple of days later.

 

The next day, September 10th, I was working at Borders in the evening. Many of the kids (20somethings mostly) I worked with would often watch The Simpsons in the break room during their dinner breaks. The episode (The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson, S9E1) that night featured Homer dealing with his car being illegally parked at the bottom of the World Trade Center. That’s right. One of the jokes in this scenario was that Homer needed to go to the bathroom, but the tower he went to had a “Out of order – please use next tower” (I know, as if there aren’t a zillion restrooms at the WTC).

Less than a day later, this episode of The Simpsons was yanked out of syndication, and didn’t air for years after. It joined a lot of TV shows, movies, and songs that were temporarily banned for obvious reasons.

 

But let’s get to the tragic day itself. I was scheduled to work at 10am on the 11^th, and I didn’t watch any news, or listen to any radio on my way to work. September 11 was only supposed to be the release date of Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft (Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was originally scheduled to come out that day too but that’s another story). So I listened to Dylan’s latest (I had an advance copy) right up to my parking in the Borders lot.

 

When I walked in to the store, one of my co-workers asked if I had heard the news. After nodding no, the guy (I think whose name is Chris) told me what happened. I didn’t believe him. I thought he had been watching an action movie like TRUE LIES on a monitor in the video section. But it wasn’t long before I realized he was serious. I was now one of millions that was shocked by this attack and couldn’t wrap our minds around.

 

A good deal of the morning dealt with finding out if all the people who worked at a Borders at the bottom of one of the towers were safe. Before this, I didn’t even know there was a Borders there. Happily, all of the staff had gotten out in time. I don’t remember much about the rest of the day except that the store closed early, and I went to my brother’s house, which wasn’t far away in Raleigh.

The rest of the week felt incredibly surreal. It’s a cliché, but it really did feel like time had stopped. Like many, I was scared of another attack. I kept worrying that we wouldn’t get out of 2001 alive. I listened to the Dylan album a lot, which was oddly one of his most comical works, but it did have the line “Sky full of fire, pain pourin’ down.” I also played the hell out of a bootleg copy of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,” which had a number of lines that felt like they had been written for the occasion, particularly “Tall buildings shake, voices escape singing sad, sad songs.” Of course, neither of these albums were based on 9/11 as they had been conceived way before the date.

 

So these are things I think of every year at this time. It’s very difficult to believe it was 20 years ago as I bet most can relate. But no matter how long ago it is, when looking back at those tragic times, it will never not seem surreal.

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These places being so close meant that customers could walk back and forth to compare prices on records. Sometimes Record Bar’s prices were just a bit lower than Schoolkids to compete. I can’t remember which store I bought the Bond soundtrack at, I think it was Schoolkids, but I do recall my bus ride home where I devoured the album art and anxiously waited to get home and listen to it. The record was one of the few 007 records to have a gatefold, and it was definitely a beaut.

LIVE AND LET DIE was Roger Moore’s first film as Bond, and while many think he never lived up to Sean Connery’s iconic interpretation of the part, Moore did have something his predecessor didn’t have: a big ass rock theme song delivered by a former Beatle, no less. Paul McCartney, along with his longtime Beatles producer, George Martin, and his band, Wings, were recruited to contribute the song while McCartney was working on the Red Rose Speedway album.

Although I had heard the song before, it was exciting to put the vinyl on the turn table, putting the needle in the groove, and listening to the tune come alive. It begins as a somber piano ballad with McCartney telling us that he “used to say ‘live and let live’,” and anyone can tell what’s next as he declares the title sentiment and the tune goes into orchestral overdrive with Wings inserting their bombastic beats into the thrilling chaos. 

While the song had much chart success, and received a Oscar nomination (it lost to Barbara Streisand’s “The Way We Were,” there was one element that was largely criticized. That was the fact that the lyrics contained a grammatical error. The line “But in this ever-changing world in which we live in,” has been considered ungrammatical and redundant, because of that extra “in,” and maybe the whole “in which we live in” phrase.

But many including the song’s composer maintain that the lyric is “in which we’re living,” as McCartney told the Washington Post in 2009: “I think it’s ‘in which we’re living’ - ‘In this ever changing world….’ It’s funny. There’s too many ‘ins.’ I’m not sure. I’d have to have actually look. I don’t think about the lyric when I sing it. I think it’s ‘in which we’re living.’” That’s fine, but it doesn’t sound that to me.

As for the rest of the LIVE AND LET DIE soundtrack, the flavor of the film’s New Orleans settings are established by Harold A. “Duke” Dejan & The Olympia Brass Band’s rendition of the funeral dirge that abruptly becomes the rejoiceful rave-up, “New Second Line.”

Then we’re into the first of five tracks on Side One written and composed by Martin, “Bond Meets Solitaire.” These selections are mildly enjoyable as incidental suspense music, but are a bit samey sounding as they provide the customary instrumental variations on the title song, mixed with Bond theme progressions. The most interesting of these tracks may be “Baron Samedi’s Dance of Death,” with its Herb Albert style horns, and fast tempo arrangements. Following that is a similar yet lazier “San Monique.” Seems like Martin was really cinematically spreading his wings here.

Side Two kicks off with one of two versions of Martin composition, “Fillet of Soul.” The first is labeled “New Orleans,” and it morphs into an alternate version of “Live and Let Die,” a silky yet spooky rendition by actress/singer BJ Arnau (Arnau put out a single of her take).