In the Mood

In the Mood


In Peter Seller's most famous role,
he played Inspector Jacues Clouseau,

The bumbling French detective
whose speech was strangely accented

And shit-your-pants hilarious.
But according to various

Sources, Sellers began to speak
so eccentrically

Only after he'd thrown a tantrum,
insulted the director, stormed

Off the set, and checked into a Paris hotel,
where he, while giving the front desk hell,

Heard a bellhop's outrageous accent
and thought, "Clouseau must speak
with a French accent

Like this man's." But half the movie
had already been shot. "Ah, don't worry,"

Said Blake Edwards, the director.
"It's so damn funny that the audience
won't even notice that Clouseau's accent
changes from scene to scene. And it some
people do notice the change in accent, then
they'll probably think that's even more
funny." Ah, Peter Sellers was a strange,
cruel, and hilarious man. Did you know
Sellers requested that Glenn Miller's
"In the Mood" be played at his funeral?
Isn't that a funny choice for a death song?
But do you know what's even more funny?
Sellers hated the song.

He had been a drummer in a pub band and
"In the Mood" was the most common request.
How many times must one play a song before
one begins to hate it? Does Robert Plant
internally weep and wail whenever he hears
the first bar of "Stairway to Heaven"?
Can you imagine Plant's interior dialogue?

"There's a lady (fuck her) who's sure all that
glitters is (fuck gold) and she's buying a
(fuck stairway) to (fuck Heaven)."

I have a friend, a Jewish singer-songwriter,
who has a devastating but ultimately redemptive
song about his adventure with a white supremacist
taxi driver. The song used to be a staple of
his shows, but he stopped playing it
years ago.

"I knew it was time to retire the song," he said,
"when I was playing it one night and I realized
I was thinking more about returning my rental
car than about the subject of the song."

Do you think Glenn Miller ever grew
exhausted by "In the Mood"?

Robert Plant is so exhausted by Led Zepplin,
that he recently recorded a bluegrass album
with Alison Kraus. Yes, Robert Plant, the
King of Crotch Rock, is now a bluegrass star.

And speaking of Led Zepplin, I find it
interesting that one of the hardest rock
bands of all time also has a song called
"In the Mood", which is a rather soft
love song, and could very well be the first
power ballad. And wouldn't you love to have
been at Peter Seller's funeral when his
mourners heard the first bars of
Glenn Miller's "In the Mood"?

Hilarious and twisted
after his death, Sellers knew
that his more casual friends
would likely sing along

But that his lovers and best
friends would laugh at the old tune.
It was a strange musical tribute,
a posthumous bop,

and Seller's last chance to get
a laugh. Thing is, "In the Mood"
is truly a wonderful classic,
and Sellers was wrong

To hate it, though I suspect
he wanted to kill the room
with irony. In control,
from the Average Beyond,

Sellers knew that his request
of a joyous, upbeat tune,
when played at a funeral,
would cause more grief
than a song meant to cause grief.

How blessed are
the humorous and cruel!
But this odd memorial
for Sellers also belongs

To Glenn Miller, trombonist
and big band leader, who grew up
in Nebraska, started school
in Boulder, didn't stay long,

Then moved to New York instead,
and wrote a string of hit tunes.
Miller was a commercial
success, but his structured songs

Were often less than respected
by Jazz Critics. "In the Mood",
however, is a special
work of art, one of those songs

That best defines an artist
and his era. This review
of Miller's life is formal,
I know, and perhaps too long,

but I was trying to write a quiet,
murmuring interlude before I called
in the horn section and blasted you
with Glenn Miller's obituary. On December
15, 1944, while traveling to perform for
soldiers in France, Miller was presumed
dead when his airplane disappeared
somewhere over the English Channel. It
was one of those wartime mysteries.
What happened to Glenn Miller's airplane?
Well, it is now believed that the British
Royal Air Force pilots, short on fuel
and struggling to make it back to base,
dropped bombs to lighten their load.
One or more of those bombs hit Glenn
Miller's airplane and sent it spiraling
into the water.

When Peter Sellers requested
that Glenn Miller's "In the Mood"
be played at his funeral,
he knew it would be an odd

Choice, the last comic gesture.
The genius Seller's knew
that Miller's death was unusual--
so bitter, brutal, and wrong--

But it was also slapstick,
pratfall, spit take, and sick trick.
So bring in the clowns and arsonists
and let them be the church choir.

So stack high the trombones and sheet
music and let that be the funeral pyre.
And let us give praise to the ironic
God who created Friendly Fire.


Sherman Alexie

from his book FACE.