I know this is a minor detail, but this is Edgar Wright. Come on. When Baby and Debora are talking at the diner, he tells her about the song based on her name, but he calls the artist Trex instead of T. Rex, as corrected by Debora. Is there any symbolism or hint of a subplot here? Maybe he has dyslexia or trouble reading...? Is this ever hinted at anywhere else? Thanks.
2 Answers
No. I suspect you're overthinking this.
Baby just isn't aware of the proper way of saying the band's name.
After all, the band dissolved 30 years (when Bolan passed) before the movie timeframe. Baby wasn't even born.
Apparently Edgar Wright mentions in the DVD commentary that..
A studio rep asked him to cut the line where Baby refers to the band T-Rex as Trex because they didn’t want him to seem dumb. He refused as it reads endearing not dumb.
answered May 14, 2018 at 20:05
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Oh well. I thought I noticed something ground-breaking. Clearly not the case. Thanks a lot!– iha99May 14, 2018 at 20:07
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1To me it didn't read as endearing but very strange and hard to explain other than everyone involved in the movie being ignorant of how many songs by bands other than T. Rex mention "T. Rex" in the lyrics. It's hard to imagine someone being a fan of T. Rex without having heard "You Better You Bet" or "All The Young Dudes". So anyone listening to T. Rex would have a hard time justifying not knowing how to say the same. Also, every single album cover seems to have either a prominent period or dash after the T. I think the studio rep was correct. May 15, 2018 at 13:34
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1@ToddWilcox But that's the point, he's not a T-Rex fan, he's a somewhat isolated kid who uses music as something to disappear into. The impression I got was that he buys second-hand iPods and listens to whatever's on them, as a quick, cheap way to get another few hundred hours of listening material. He gets to know and like individual songs very well (because he's listening every waking hour) but he'll know nothing about some bands beyond the name he reads on the ipod list. Oct 30, 2018 at 12:16
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1Also, when songs are ripped from CDs -- or, downloaded from Napster -- into the iPods that Baby has gotten or stolen, the meta data may well be wrongly describing the artist name as "Trex". Mar 19, 2019 at 3:22
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@ToddWilcox I have heard "You Better You Bet", and I never noticed that they mentioned T. Rex, and even if I had, I wouldn't have realized they were referring to the band. If someone thinks "T. Rex" is pronounced "Trex", then why, when hearing some song say "Tee Rex", think they were talking about T. Rex? Jul 12, 2021 at 18:43
I know this is very old but I was considering it recently whilst watching. My thought is that baby prides himself on his range of music knowledge, and this is a way for the plot to show that Deborah is also really into music, so much so that she knows the correct pronunciation of the name. May be wrong but that's how i see it, because after this point they both spend their time enjoying music together etc its a little nod to the fact she isn't some ditsy waitress, she is actually knowledgeable about music, the one thing baby values more than anything. Again, may be over thinking but my inner Edgar Wright says this is the reason
