Speaking of music, one of those dreaded
yet masochisticly compelling Rolling Stone lists popped up the other
day, this time covering the top 25 soundtracks of all time. In
fairness, it wasn't as heinous as I was expecting, but there were
some glaring omissions, to say the least. Music and film are like
peanut butter and chocolate. The combination, when done well, is
luscious and kinetic.
Since part of the reason I write in the
first place is some strange moral compulsion to right the cultural
wrongs of the world, I figured I would contribute my own personal
list of superb soundtracks. The key difference with this list, other
than being naturally quality, is that I refuse to put anything in
numeric order. How art hits you can be really mercurial, all
depending on your mood, the position of the moon, how the postman
looked at you, etc etc. So with all of that in mind, here's just a
taste of some of my favorite movie music!
“Repo Man.” Alex Cox's cult film,
in a lot of circles, is almost better regarded for its soundtrack
than the film itself. (Though don't get me wrong, the film is great.
How could anything with Harry Dean Stanton, Fox Harris and Zander
Schloss be bad?) Staring off with the mean title track by Iggy Pop,
the rest of the album is a like a paen to early 80's West Coast punk,
including such titans as The Circle Jerks, The Plugz (God love Tito
Larriva!), Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies and Fear.
Speaking of punk rock soundtracks, I
would be remiss to not mention either “Return of the Living Dead”
or “The Great Rock and Roll Swindle.” The former was actually my
early introduction to bands like The Cramps and The Flesheaters. That
alone is terrific, but it also features the indomitable The Damned,
45 Grave and an early incarnation of synth-outfit SSQ, which later on
morphed into the solo career of Stacey Swain aka Stacey Q. It's a
great soundtrack for one of the most fun and well-made non-Romero
zombie films.
“The Great Rock & Roll Swindle,”
a film whose origins begin with being the aborted Russ Meyer project
“Who Killed Bambi?” ended up being one fascinating mess of a
music film. There are moments of greatness within the film, with some
of the the highlights being Steve Jones romping in a neon bed with a
half-naked lovely in gold undies to “Lonely Boy,” only to have
coitus interruptus via a talking dog (!), the tribal-disco fusion
band, The Black Arabs, doing a “Stars on 45” type medley of the
Pistols hits and, of course, Sid Vicious beautifully butchering the
old standard “My Way.” The latter has become particularly iconic
and a great example of how one can really deconstruct something old,
hence making it new. Especially when it is the musical equivalent of
using a ball peen hammer and some crazy glue. Which is never, ever a
bad thing!
Of course, Tenpole Tudor's "Who Killed Bambi?" does have a huge place in my heart.
One of the most striking soundtracks to
have emerged in the last thirty years is absolutely Mitchell Froom's
work for Stephen Sayadian's post-nuclear masterpiece, “Cafe Flesh.”
Released as “The Key of Cool,” Froom's score, much like the
images and story it is accompanying, are not easily forgotten. It's
jazzy, infernal and is in dire need of being back in print. One of my
dreams is for not only “Key of Cool” to get a nice, new
re-release, but for “Cafe Flesh” itself to get the loving, uncut
and remastered treatment it so desperately deserves.
The soundtrack for Richard Elfman's
“Forbidden Zone” was an absolute staple of my latter high school
years. While I loathed high school, this film and soundtrack both
were one of the balms that got me through. At the time, I had only
seen the film once, renting a severely out-of-print copy from the
long defunct Hauser Video, but it was love at first site and sound.
It is a great insect-in-the-amber document of the Mystic Knights of
the Oingo Boingo, right before they became less Cab Calloway and more
New Wave as Oingo Boingo. Anyone who loves black & white film,
expressionism, old music, nudity, dancing frogs, Susan Tyrell, Herve
Villechaize, the Kipper Kids, my beloved Joe Spinell and Danny Elfman
dressed up as ole scratch himself the way that I do, must pick this
up.
Absolutely one of the most underrated
films and soundtracks ever has to be Bob Rafelson's “Head.”
Better known as the one film the Monkees ever did, “Head” is one
of the most exquisitely edited, subversive, dark humored rock films
ever. It initially flopped, with one of the biggest factors being
their fans expecting something just like the TV show: cute, zany and
fairly safe. Instead, they got the ole “the money's in, we're made
of tin” soft shoe, Vietnam war footage and Timothy Carey at his
most intense and out-of-bounds. (Okay, what am I saying? Carey was
always that magnificent!) The music matches the proceedings inch by
inch, with the absolute highlight being the haunting “The Porpoise Song.”
Some honorable mentions that I will
write about at a later date include:
“Shock Treatment”
“Urgh! A Music War”
“Christiane F.”
“Bram Stoker's Dracula” (Not
counting the Annie Lenox song. The score itself is gorgeous and much
better than Coppola's muddled effort.)
Anything Italian between the late 50's
and mid 80's
Anything with the names Les Baxter or
Angelo Badalamenti attached.
There's obviously way more, but
consider this piece to be a little bit of a taste of the proper. Now
as a bonus, here are two of my favorite songs from a movie.
The first is Mort Garson's theme from
Larry Hagman's “Son of Blob.” I have no idea how the film is, but
I do know that this song is a little slice of esoteric heaven to my
ears. I never need happy pills as long as I have access to this
delight. Also, Mort Garson was a genius whose library is itching to
be rediscovered.
The second is from the original “In
the Heat of the Night.” Featuring the uber-fantastic Anthony James,
“Owl on the Prowl” is like a hillbilly version of Sam the Sham's
“Little Red Riding Hood.” In other words, awesome. (Also, this is
for a friend of mine, whose taste surpasses even my own.)
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I’ve been enjoying the heck out of these Round-Ups, especially for the music and films they've been leading me to discover—and I love this post! Those are some superb soundtracks, and that clip with Anthony James is fantastic. Glad to see appreciation for Wojciech Kilar’s film score for “Bram Stoker's Dracula”. I used to own it on cassette and would also skip over Lenox’s song.
ReplyDeleteI’m very grateful to have Mitchell Froom's music for a movie I suspect I’m going to value much more on my second viewing; and I was definitely impressed by “Café Flesh” when I saw it just a few months ago.
The biggest reward for me on here would have to be that clip with Edward Tudor-Pole (Tenpole Tudor) in a film I haven't seen in over 20 years. That was long before I had developed an appreciation for him—and I'm only referring to his screen presence. I have to now catch up with his music. I've loved him in films such as “Walker”, “Sid and Nancy” (“This is a respectable hotel, madam.”) and most of all “Straight to Hell”. For years, my best friend and I mistook his line “Rusty Zimmerman” (his character’s name in StH) for “Rest easy, my man”.
I have not yet had the pleasure of watching Bob Rafelson's “Head” nor have I listened to the soundtrack, but I’m going to rectify that as soon as possible. Need to also find a copy of “Christiane F”. … I’m ashamed to admit that I have “Urgh! A Music War” on DVD and it’s been in my “To See” stack for months.
That’s interesting that you mention loathing high school. I felt very much the same. In fact, I had nightmares about still being there up until my early 20s. I certainly don’t miss those years.