Following on from a Twitter flurry with the Fenland Gent a while back, I’ve been mostly listening to soundtracks. The aim: to find my favourite, naturally.
After not-so-extensive research, I’ve plumped for a few that cover a variety of musical styles, from the 1960s to the 1980s. The 90s to Noughties will follow eventually, but we’ll be avoiding Tarantino and his oh-so predictable hotch potch of bubblegum.
First up it’s the 60s camp pop of Bob Crewe’s Barbarella soundtrack. I first watched this film on Betamax with my Dad and remember dancing about to the ski ride tune, as well as being petrified by the killer dolls. The opening credits seem to stick in my mind for some reason.
Another Betamax favourite, next up is John Barry’s excellent Zulu score - which is full of tension and menace. The only problem with this soundtrack is the complete lack of the Zulu chanting from the film. Instead, Barry decided to include his own Euro-pop recreation of what Zulu music should sound like. Toss. Here’s the classic Zulu chant vs Men of Harlech preceding the final battle (“‘They’ve got a very good bass section, mind, but no top tenors, that’s for sure”)
Moving on a decade, the early 70s were pretty rubbish musically (IMHO), but Blaxploitation soundtracks -starting with 1971’s immense Shaft (fnaar fnaar) – were brilliant. There’s a pretty good and very cheap 3 CD compilation of Blaxploitation music on the MC label – worth a tenner of anyone’s money. OK, it’s not Blaxploitation in the strictest sense, but The Harder They Come sountrack is a great, reggae-infused example. It was also a key factor in this white, middle class Norfolk boy finding life outside of heavy metal and crap dance.
Rock and Roll High School, the Ramones’ comedy flick brings the 70s to a close. I have to admit, I’ve never seen the film all the way through, but the soundtrack is excellent – not just because of the Ramones, but also because of the use of Eno’s Music for Films album. I was introduced to Eno by a keyboardist friend years ago and this collection of incidental music for real and imaginary films remains my firm favourite. Sheer minimalist ambient brilliance (and very useful if you are have trouble sleeping, I’ve found).
Probably time to bring this ramble to a close, so I’ll sum up the 80s with three choices. Conan the Barbarian remains my favouritist ever soundtrack. The score is humungous – Basil Poledouris must have used an entire symphony orchestra to get the brass sound. A bit like Holst and Orff in places, but amazingly good.
Second up is Francis Monkham’s Long Good Friday soundtrack. Brilliant 80s synth really captured the era (much like the opening of The Equalizer). Shame about Bob Hoskins trying to sing white reggae in the middle of the album.
This is the end scene of the film so don’t watch if you haven’t seen the film already. A very young Pierce Brosnan in the passenger seat. “The Mafia? I’ve shit ‘em!”
Bratpack schmatpack, the last choice from the 80s comes from Christophe Lambert’s French art-house film Subway. The Eric Serra compositions are very French and very Serra – lots of slappy base, cheesy vocals and overblown emotion, but I love it!
That’s Serra himself on bass. Jean Reno’s moustache is a wonder.
I realise I have missed out Morricone completely, but he’s probably worth a post on his own. Fenland Gent cites the opening of The Battle of Algiers as one of his best. And he’s probably right.
Most of the soundtracks I’ve mentioned are compiled on this collaborative Spotify playlist. Sadly The Long Good Friday is deleted and very hard to get hold of. I have it on CD if anyone wants a copy. Please add in any other soundtracks you recommend.
TTFN






















