Every Which Way But Loose - 1978

I just wanted to share a few words about one of my childhood comforts and another fond memory from my younger days growing up.  Like a lot of kids, I did love watching movies and sometimes were influenced by what your parents first introduced to you.  Well, I grew up on a wide-range of films, ranging from Disney Cartoons to Romantic flicks to Action to Horror, Musicals and the Western.  And I also had a few Hollywood heroes that I used to look up to.

Clint Eastwood was an early hero of mine, particularly from his Spaghetti Western films which I was brought up on and still love to this day.  Read my blog-post from before about how those films and its music has proven to be a huge influence and inspiration to me, still to this day.

However, it was one of Clint Eastwood's more uncharacteristic and perhaps less fondly remembered films that I want to talk about.  Every Which Way But Loose (1978) - where he plays a bare-knuckle fighting, truck-driving ladies-man named Philo Beddo.  Who also has a best-friend, drinking buddy and pet orangutan named Clyde.  Hammered by the "critics" - this not to be taken too serious fun film, for me, gets better with age.  Every time I watch it, right from the opening credits and Eddie Rabbit's feel-good theme song for the movie starts, I get this warm feeling, fond memories of my childhood - sticking on the old VHS where my dad had recorded both Every Which Way But Loose and it's 1980 sequel Any Which Way You Can on the same tape and I regularly watched both these films back to back.

Clint with co-star and love interest Sondra Locke, his then partner in real life.

I can't really explain properly and why it gives me such a feeling, maybe it just takes me back to my childhood in the 80s as a kid, when some things were just that little more simpler, without the stress and worries of being an adult, I don't know, but it is very comforting.  That's why films like Every Which Way But Loose and other childhood favourites will never grow old and always be special to me.

Another thing that was inspiring to me and that I always loved in films, was music.  This movie has a great, fun Country Western soundtrack and indeed a large chunk of both films featured the famous The Palomino Club - a music venue in North Hollywood, known as "Country Music's most important West coast club..." said the Los Angeles Times - and the club featured performers such as Johnny Cash, Buck Owens, Patsy Cline, Wille Nelson and Jerry Lee Lewis amongst others.  I always said that I would love to visit this place someday, but sadly, the club closed in 1995.  What is different about the music in this film, are that the lyrics are that little more tongue-in-cheek and fun (as opposed to other forms of Country Music), they always make you smile and you find yourself tapping your feet and humming along to them.  I still have the extremely rare original LP of the film's soundtrack and I proudly count it amongst some my most prized music possessions.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this wee trip down memory lane - do you have films or music that takes you back to your childhood?  Or gives you that feeling of warmth and comfort? Let me know.  Thanks again for reading and please keep an eye out for more blog posts very soon.

Ok, one more time:-

"While you're turnin me...

Every which way but loose
You turn me
Every which way but loose
Inside the fire's burnin me
In my mind you just keep turnin me
Every which way but loose
Baby there's no excuse
To turn me every which way but loose..."