Soundtracks for life, pt1: 60s-80s

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

1980s – crap films, great soundtracks

I so so so so so want this soundtrack on vinyl but it appears to be a bit of a rarity. If Hawk the Slayer teaches us one thing it is that the whip is a much under-utilised aid to trout fishing.

Japanese Cowboys

Regina Spektor was rather ace at the Hammersmith Apollo a couple of weeks ago. The higlight of the set was – predictably – the encore. She went through the favourites – Fidelity, Samson and The Calculation, but finished with a country song called Love, You’re a Whore. It was remarkable because of her Japanese violinist playing the fiddle like a bluegrass veteran. Reminded me a bit of the Ween song, Japanese Cowboy. By the way, the entire Ween album 12 Golden Country Greats is marvellous.

There was something about Mary

Patrick Swayze danced a bit, Keith Floyd was a pickled legend, but the news that Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary has died today aged 72 is really rather sad.

Yes, Puff the Magic Dragon was irritating, and the generally wholewheat demeanor of the band could be easily ridiculed, but there is something rather wonderfully innocent about P,P and M. Their covers of Dylan were particularly heartwarming. It really is difficult to sneer.

A little bit of all right

Following the last post on computer games soundtracks, a friend pointed me in the direction of the growing number of 8-bit remixes of songs. I particularly like In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, but then I would. Can find any ELP on 8-bit though.

This is the only way A-ha could possibly appeal.

Oh Brothers, Where Art Thou?

You are probably either Nikon or Canon, Mac or PC, Peter or Jordan. But in the 90s you were Amiga or Atari ST. I was steadfastly Amiga. The ST owners would always bang on about how the music professionals rated it for its brilliant recording and mixing software – not that I ever knew anyone who ever created anything more than a shitty looped dance track on it.

What both systems shared, however, was the genius of the Bitmap Brothers - a group of games developers from East London. Their classic games such as Xenon, Speedball, the incredible Speedball 2 and the Chaos Engine mixed smashing graphics (largely cartoony and metallic) with pretty good gameplay and amazing music for the time. For me, the title music and sound effects of Bitmap Brothers games are the enduring memory of my early teens. I should have been chasing girls and getting some Vitamin A into my body but what the heck.

Here are some of my favourites:

Starting with a classic, Xenon 2 was the sequel to the Brothers’ first release. Getting Bomb the Bass to provide the title music was a stroke of genius.

“Ice Cream, Ice Cream!” I wore my joystick out on this Speedball 2. Pure gameplaying genius.

John Foxx had left Ultravox when they were still good. He went on to create the excellent title music for this game Gods with Nation XII. I recently found more by Nation XII on Spotify – they are rather good.

If you want to actually play some of these games then I recommend the excellent WinUAE emulator. Just avoid Magic Pockets - it was rubbish and had an annoying, even more beepy version of Betty Boo’s Doin’ the Do as the titles. Yuk.

Now That’s What I Call What?

The nostalgic genius of TV Cream has provided yet another gem from our dim and distant pasts. I love their analysis of the first 20 Now albums so much that I have decided to raid all the local charity shops to buy the first 20 albums on vinyl.

Forgive my self-indulgence, but I can almost smell the warm leatherette and polyester seat covers of my parents’ Citroen CX as I pored over the sleeve notes to the early Now albums on family holidays. Preferred medium was the cassette (so convenient, so portable – it’s the future y’know). My old JVC ghettoblaster with detachable walkman was the dogs – it had orange foam headphones and everything.

Funny thing nostalgia; it has a habit of making shit things seem good. Even Paul McCartney’s jazzed up version of No More Lonely Nights on Now 4 seems artistically excusable.

But – as they say – nostaligia isn’t what it used to be (fnaar fnaar). Here is the track listing for the latest Now album. Now… wait for it… 73. God save us from da kidz reminiscing about Lady Gaga or Ironik (who hell he/it?) in 2035.

CD1

01. Lady Gaga – Poker Face
02. Cascada – Evacuate The Dancefloor
03. David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland – When Love Takes Over
04. Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone
05. La Roux – In For The Kill
06. Tinchy Stryder feat. N-Dubz  - Number 1
07. A R Rahman & The Pussycat Dolls feat. Nicole Scherzinger – Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)
08. Chipmunk feat. Emeli Sande – Diamond Rings
09. Lily Allen – Not Fair
10. Pixie Lott – Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)
11. P!nk – Please Don’t Leave Me
12. The Veronicas – Untouched
13. Katy Perry – Waking Up In Vegas
14. Girls Aloud – Untouchable
15. Agnes – Release Me
16. Freemasons feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer)            
17. Alesha Dixon – Let’s Get Excited
18. The Saturdays – Work
19. Take That – Up All Night
20. Britney Spears – If U Seek Amy
21. Jordin Sparks – Battlefield
22. Shontelle feat. Akon – Stuck With Each Other

CD2

01. Beyoncé – Halo
02. Daniel Merriweather – Red
03. Keri Hilson feat. Kanye West & Ne-Yo – Knock You Down
04. Ciara feat. Justin Timberlake – Love Sex Magic
05. The Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow
06. Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em feat. Sammie – Kiss Me Thru The Phone
07. Akon feat. Kardinal Offishall & Colby O’Donis – Beautiful
08. Flo Rida feat. Wynter – Sugar
09. Ironik feat. Chipmunk & Elton John – Tiny Dancer (Hold Me Closer)
10. Pitbull – I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)
11. Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden – Bonkers
12. The Prodigy – Warrior’s Dance
13. 3OH!3 – Don’t Trust Me
14. Kasabian – Fire
15. Florence + The Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
16. Noisettes – Never Forget You
17. Little Boots – New In Town
18. James Morrison – Please Don’t Stop The Rain
19. Paolo Nutini – Candy
20. Empire Of The Sun – We Are The People
21. Deadmau5 & Kaskade – I Remember
22. Chicane – Poppiholla

Guardianfest

Latitude was really rather splendid. Despite the tedium of the Pet Shop Boys, the dirge of Thom Yorke and tweeness of Camera Obscura, the family Moonbolt had a cracking time. Highlights would have to be Squeeze who sounded immense, Regina Spektor who charmed all and sundry, and Grace Jones (resplendent in her lunacy as always).

The kids had a cracker as well – as with all good middle-class festivals there was an array of childrens’ areas hosting storytelling sessions, ‘chill out’ areas run by the local church and cafes serving hummus and carrot sticks.

And, despite initial fears, the festival wierdos were mostly charming. You can also view some other snaps of the festival through the Flickr stream to your right – if you can be at all bothered at all at all. 

The grebos, the crusties and the goths…

 

I’m sure, dear reader(s), that you will be delighted to know that the kids have got hold of my laptop and I’m now missing a ’d’ key. While improvising by pressing very hard where the ‘d’ (there we go again) was, it does mean that my preferred post about Dave Dee and Dandelion Records will have to wait.

Instead, it seems appropriate at this time of scattered showers and school holidays to take the rugrats (8, 5 and 1) to a music festival. A couple of years ago me and Mrs me and two small boys braved the wholewheat Welsh goodness of the Green Man Festival. Yes it rained, yes we ate falafel, yes the kids went feral while we watched Gruff Rhys and Stephen (not Tintin anymore) Duffy. But all in all it were a laugh – even if Joanna Newsome did take herself far too seriously.

And so we are going to go through it again, but this time it is Latitude in Suffolk. The tent is bought (of course we won’t find out it’s missing a peg until we are there), we have colour-coordinated ear defenders and head torches  for the bairns (mandatory for the middle classes) and this year I’m going to remember to pitch camp as far away from the main stage as possible. 

The music line up looks pretty good as well – especially for grumpy old music snobs who think guitar bands started to go downhill after the Sonics.

However, the thing that worries me slightly is the presence of a ‘poetry arena’. This signifies two things:

First, that under the auspices of the festival being ‘family friendly’, we’ll feel compelled to immerse the kids in some terrible live rendition of the Gruffalo enacted by a kooky acting group from Bedford.

Second, with such kookiness often comes other paraphernalia associated with the festival scene – loons wailing their own compositions about Gaia; hippies offering to check your chakras or write your tree name on a grain of brown rice;  people who play nose flutes; mock goths who have just finished their A-levels; the ’smell to get well’ brigade. 

I know I should be more tolerant, but I hate running the gauntlet of all these mud-encrusted weirdos everytime I want to go to see a band or buy a beer.

Then again, the organic veg-box-buying / Cath Kidston-frequenting /people-carrier-driving  brigade which I have come to represent are probably just as irritating for everyone else.

At least our kids aren’t called Caledonia, Titicaca and Om.

Amen, Bruv

Yes it’s an old video, but still one of the best explanations of the origins of drum and bass. Watch. Enjoy. Learn. Love.