Movies where a musician plays a thinly veiled version of themself

e.g.
8 Mile - Eminem
One Trick Pony - Paul Simon
The Jazz Singer - Neil Diamond

Songwriter - Willie Nelson

richard hell in smithereens

Prince - "Purple Rain"/"Under the Cherry Moon"/"Graffiti Bridge"

Jagger in "Performance"?

dudes from mudhoney/pearl jam/etc. playing thinly veiled versions of their pre-fame selves in singles

Paul McCartney in "Give My Regards To Broad Street". At least apparently (nobody ever saw that film, after all)

dudes from clash and sex pistols in ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous stains

The Yardbirds in "Blowup" play a cross between themselves and The Who

50 Cent, Get Rich or Die Tryin'

richard hell chris noth in smithereens

Bowie, The Man Who Fell to Earth. Playing a freaky alien genius can't have been too much of a stretch for him.

George Strait in Pure Country
Willie Nelson in Honeysuckle Rose

Willie Nelson and Pops Staples in Wag the Dog

Toby Keith sorta in Broken Bridges

Ludacris in Hustle & Flow

Bob Dylan, Masked & Anonymous ...

Tricky in The Fifth Element

Geir, I think Macca actually played himself in "Give My Regards..."

And I did see it -- didn't the plot involve some stupid stolen master tapes or something?

Yes, Geir is wrong (compose yourselves, I know it's unprecedented) on two counts here: I've seen it too, and Macca, Ringo and Linda all play themselves.

Lords of the New Church as The Blender Children in "Tapeheads"
Fishbone as Ranchbone in "Tapeheads"
Aerosmith as the :: snicker::: Future Villain Band in "Sgt. Pepper's Lonelly Hearts Club Band"
Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Paul Simonon and Ray Winstone as The Professionals in "Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains"

I remember the Jim Carroll Band in James Spader's "Tuff Turf," but I can't remember if they played themselves or not. Anyone?

Sonny Bono played a rocker on an episode of "The Love Boat" clearly modeled after Alice Cooper/Kiss called "Deacon Dark." His two songs were "Smash It" and "Step, Step, Step on Toads." I promise you I am not making this up.

Michael DesBarres of..... was it Photograph?...and also Chequered Past and live, touring incarnation of The Power Station played the lead singer of Scum of the Earth on an episode of "WKRP in Cinncinatti"

Labyrinth - David Bowie

Weren't members of Pearl Jam part of a fictional grunge band in Singles?

Some dudes aren't reading before posting huh

Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock.

Vanilla Ice in Cool as Ice.

lolz @ thinly veiled Bowie in Labrynth
http://www.astrolog.org/labyrnth/still/l4.gif

which one is iggy

The complete filmography of Snoop Doggy Dogg

James Taylor as an enigmatic drag racer in Two Lane Blacktop.

kickass movie btw

The actual Steve Jones/Paul Cook band known as The Professionals put out a mighty good album called I Didn't See It Comming

Sonny Bono played a rocker on an episode of "The Love Boat" clearly modeled after Alice Cooper/Kiss called "Deacon Dark." His two songs were "Smash It" and "Step, Step, Step on Toads." I promise you I am not making this up.

Tom Petty as the leader of a post-apocalyptic settlment in The Postman.

http://images.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz_images/tv2/movies/wk34_postman_c_three.jpg

Michael Hutchence in Dogs in Space

Yo La Tengo as the Velvet Underground in I Shot Andy Warhol

Devo in Human Highway. Though maybe that's not thinly veiled. Are they just playing themselves?

Nice, sometimes I wonder if I hallucinated this. He falls in love with a blind woman, I think? Or maybe she was deaf. Sometimes I have "Smash It" going through my head, which is amazing since I saw this episode once like 25 years ago.

Likewise. Something like....

Smash it, bash it, hit it on the corner and mash it...

Am I right?

Et voila...

http://www.skylighters.org/amanoutoftime/sbdeacondark.jpg

...looking disarminglly like King Diamond.

Off to YouTube...

But yeah, that's the lyric I remember, though I feel like the 2nd line at some point is "crumple it up and trash it." Wonder of Sonny wrote that one.

Here before Morbius and Alfred to post Dean Martin as a Las Vegas lounge singer named Dino in Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid.

dudes from clash and sex pistols in ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous stains

― congratulations (n/a), Monday, May 4, 2009 6:02 PM

Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Paul Simonon and Ray Winstone as The Professionals in "Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains"

― Alex in NYC, Monday, May 4, 2009 7:40 PM

The actual Steve Jones/Paul Cook band known as The Professionals put out a mighty good album called I Didn't See It Comming

― bendy, Monday, May 4, 2009 8:51 PM

Danny Elfman as Satan in "Forbidden Zone."

Paul Williams as a blond orangutan in Battle for the Planet of the Apes.

I never miss an opportunity to post this clip of Bob Dylan in Hearts Of Fire, although he seems to be playing a thinly veiled version of someone else I can't quite place :

Paul Williams as a blond orangutan in Battle for the Planet of the Apes.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Nick Cave in Wings of Desire?

All I remember about it is the bit with Roy Harper and Carol White in the bath. I think he plays a feckless, irresponsible, self-centred rock star in it.

Tom Waits in Down By Law.

Paul Williams as a blond orangutan in Battle for the Planet of the Apes.

Paul Williams as Swan in "Phantom of the Paradise"

Elton John in "Tommy"

Woody Allen. In everything.

Iggy Pop in the Crow II, sort of?

Iggy Pop in "Cry Baby"

Ulver - Hannah Montana The Movie

http://www.impawards.com/1976/posters/star_is_born.jpg

The Harder They Cone - Jimmy Cliff

argh, Come

(but you knew that)

Horsemouth et al in Rockers

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/9546/disorderlies27e05f62jy7.jpg

Doug Sahm as motormouthed pothead roots-rocker "Rex" in Cisco Pike See Also Kris Kristofferson as the title character laconic singer-songwriter/reluctant dope dealer.

^ Good one

That episode of Columbo with Johnny Cash

James Taylor as an enigmatic drag racer in Two Lane Blacktop.

Don't forget Dennis Wilson as the zen stoner mechanic.

Gavin Friday (Virgin Prunes) in Breakfast on Pluto, as the ageing singer in a glam rock band touring around Ireland, especially in a scene where he's performing that's quite reminiscent of the Prunes

Chantal Goya as a knocked up ye-ye girl in Masculin féminin.

Placebo as Bowie/Bolan copyists in "Velvet Goldmine"

http://covers.hitflip.de/item/17/57/36/7/1757367_lg.jpg

"A rock band moves into a farmhouse in a little village. They are eyed suspiciously by the citizens of the village. It finally comes to a killing in "self-defense" ("Notwehr" is he German word for self-defense). The most amazing thing about this movie is the acting of the rock band "Guru Guru", most notably Mani Neumeier. His character is absolutely believable. Of course he only plays himself, but it is stunning nevertheless. And the music the guys play is superb. Good acting from Günther Lamprecht too, as always. I only wish they would rerun this on TV. The first time I saw it already was a rerun; I was only 8 years old when it was first shown."

Spirit as basically themselves in Model Shop

Ice Cube in Ghosts on Mars

tom waits in DRACULA LOL

Tom Waits in Candy Mountain

Iggy Pop in Dead Man

Michael DesBarres of..... was it Photograph?...and also Chequered Past and live, touring incarnation of The Power Station played the lead singer of Scum of the Earth on an episode of "WKRP in Cinncinatti"

He also played a Keith Richards-esque rocker on an ep of Just Shoot Me!

The actual Steve Jones/Paul Cook band known as The Professionals put out a mighty good album called I Didn't See It Comming
Since I just watched this over the weekend I feel compelled to write that the band was called THE LOOTERS (Their song was called "Join the Professionals" or "you're a professional" or "The Profeessionals" or some shit)

ROCKERS to thread.

Phil Spector as a rich guy buying drugs in Easy Rider.

Nick Cave as Freak Storm in Johnny Suede

By the way, the Professionals, or the Looters, to thread. You know, that Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols band from that Stains movie.

groundhog day thread

That Deacon Dark photo may quite possibly be the greatest thing ever.

was just coming in to post the Spector one..

Dwight Yoakam in Crank... and surprisingly many more films (at least I was surprised)

Billy Ray Cyrus in Bait Shop

Richard Hell in Blank Generation

Olivia Newton John in Xanadu

Steve Vai in Crossroads

Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers in "Dead Man"

Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer.

Los Lobos as a Mariachi band in La Bamba
ZZ Top as "The Town Band" in Back to The Future III

Chet Baker in Urlatori alla sbarra (that Italian movie they keep going back to in Let's Get Lost)

Weren't members of Pearl Jam part of a fictional grunge band in Singles?

Yes, and here are several weird things about this:

1. The fictional band was called "Citizen Dick," which Wikipedia tells me is a play on the Seattle band Citizen Sane, but it always just messed with me because it made me think about Citizen Fish.

2. Their main song was "Touch Me I'm Dick," which was just "Touch Me I'm Sick."

3. Wikipedia also tells me that the parts were filmed when Pearl Jam was still called "Mookie Blaylock."

4. Wikipedia also tell me that, umm, okay:

During the making of the film Ament produced a list of song titles for the fictional band, Citizen Dick. Chris Cornell took it as a challenge to write songs for the film using those titles, and "Spoonman" was one of them. An early acoustic version of the song was created and can be heard in the background during a scene of the film.

haha yeah i remember reading that too, and that "Seasons" from the soundtrack was one of those titles he turned into a song. i'm betting that set of songs is better than any album Cornell has made post-Soundgarden.

Devo in Human Highway.

Ian Dury in Judge Dredd.

Iggy Pop in Hardware.

90s cyberpunk lolz within.

Jaz Coleman in "The Year of the Devil"

Jagger in Freejack - "'ere, I knew I jus' 'ad ta watch yer long enough 'an yew'd make a mistake!"