Rise

If I ever needed a boxing entrance song, it would be "Rise" by "The Cult."  They have a lot of great songs, but I really dig that one.  For those who are unfamiliar with it, check this out:

You can easily see why I love this song.  But sometimes songs have odd memories attached to them.  And as much as I love this song, it has a strange odd memory that comes to me whenever I hear it.

The year was 2003.  Chad Michael Murray was the hunk of the WB with parts on Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, and Dawson's Creek.  Here's his IMDB page:  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0614877/?ref_=tt_cl_t1

Seriously, the guy could do no wrong.  So the WB decided to reboot the Lone Ranger with a TV movie.  If the movie did well, then they would start a series the next year.  Never heard of it?  Well, check this out:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323100/?ref_=nv_sr_3  In a weird bit of TV trivia, The Lone Ranger was the WB's first made for TV movie.

So what's the problem with all this?  Well, it's hard to find clips from the show, but here's the one I can find.  It will show you what happens when you take an old Western, and then add WB teen drama to it.

The truth is, the movie turned out awful.  It was just mind numbing trying to figure out where they were going with it.  The part that I remember about it, and the part that this blog entry is about has to do with a training montage.  That's right, in the movie the Lone Ranger becomes who he is by training with Tonto.  Since they only had so much time in movie to do stuff, they condensed the Lone Ranger's training into a (not kidding) Rocky style montage.

And the music over top of that training montage?  I'm not sure.  The soundtrack isn't listed on the IMDB.  So here I am watching this.  Tonto and the Lone Ranger are running around, riding horses, shooting bows/arrows, and pistols, and just going training montage crazy to some sort of strange rap song.  Here's the montage starting at the 1:30 mark:

 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3efgk_chad-michael-murray-in-the-lone-ran_shortfilms&start=88

Frankly, it's one of those things you don't tend to forget.  The funniest part was that it looked like their outfits were a cross between new Western wear and clothes from, "The Gap."  I just couldn't take it seriously.  And that's probably one reason that it's stuck in my head all these years. 

After some searching it seems I have found a battle scene from the movie that features, "Rise."  Head to the 9:00 minute mark.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3efmf_chad-michael-murray-in-the-lone-ran_shortfilms&start=534

And then it continues in this:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3efpl_chad-michael-murray-in-the-lone-ran_shortfilms&start=1

Say, how do you like that kick at the 1:07 minute mark?  Yeah, I'd break both my legs if I did that.

So as I sit here years later, I can only think of this terrible Lone Ranger movie every single time I hear "Rise" by "The Cult."  It's kind of weird what the brain will do.  I can only think of Homer Simpson telling his brain to shut up, or he was going to send more alcohol it's way to shut it up.  That's how I feel about my brain every time I hear this song.