Watched 'Performance' on DVD last night, for only the second time after watching it with Ady and a four pack of John Smiths sometime around 1985.
What a demented film...the first half is a fairly straightforward London gangster schtick, followed by Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg floating around in their pants eating mushrooms and messing with James Fox's head. The soundtrack is brilliant, I have always loved 'Memo From Turner', a great lost Stones single with some brilliant Ry Cooder guitar, but I couldn't remember the sequence when it turns up in the film.
So...I got to thinking about my top 10 favourite film soundtracks, which I guess rather predictably are almost identical to my top 10 films, but maybe that tells us something about what I look for in a good movie..
1. Paris Texas - Ry Cooder. I didn't realise this until yesterday, but the soundtrack to Performance features a rudimentary version of 'Dark Was the Night', which Cooder later used as the musical thread for the Paris Texas OST, much copied ever since.
2. Mo Better Blues - Brandford Marsalis. Not a great film, but some splendid music...most Spike Lee movies have terrific music, Do The Right Thing coming a very close second to this.
3. Repo Man - Black Flag, Iggy Pop, The Plugz, Circle Jerks. A perfect marriage of sound and vision!
4. The Big Lebowski - various. Features a tremendous latin version of Hotel California, and should be renowned for giving unfashionable mid period Bob Dylan some much needed exposure via The Man In Me.
5. The Last Picture Show - old time country. Helped me to see the light, where Hank Williams was concerned.
6. The Blues Brothers - all sorts, but especially John Lee Hooker. Worth it for the Hooker track alone, but some great stuff from Sam and Dave and Aretha too.
7. Withnail and I. If only for the Hendrix-accompanied driving home sequence...'I'm making time...!'
8. Manhatten / A Clockwork Orange / 2001 a Space Oddysey - the music for these films had obviously been written way before they were directed, but it's hard to imagine Woody / Alex / Hal 9000 with different accompaniment.
9. Eraserhead - only joking. the soundtrack is one of the scariest things about it...
10. The Wicker Man - 'on that tree there was a branch, and on that branch there was a twig...' etc...
11. This Is Spinal Tap. My favourite track? Hard to say...but 'Sex Farm' has a sensitive lyric...'hosing down your barn door....don't you see my silo risin' high?'
7 comments:
Unsurprisingly, you've nicked 3 of mine (Withnail, Paris and the Blues Brothers).
And there have been some very good recent soundtracks, including Garden State and Marie Antoinette.
But I will add (kicking off with two in Portuguese - arty bastard):
1) The Life Aquatic. The film's shit. But the soundtrack is brilliant.
2) City of God. The film is far from shit, the soundtrack is anything but.
3) Assault on Precinct 13. I was wandering around Virgin last week muttering dum de de de dum. Wishing that the silent assassins would arrive.
4) Zidane. Haven't seen the film, but a lovely Mogwai album.
5) Something About Mary. Jonathan Richmond's soundtrack sets this apart from every other 90's gross out movie.
6) Out of Sight. Yes, it stars George Clooney and J Lo. But a good Soderbergh film, and a really great soundtrack.
7) Pump up the Volume. I looked around for this for ages. Shame that it was released when it wasn't fashionable to put dialogue onto soundtrack CD's.
8) Magnolia. Aimee Mann & Supertramp!!!
9) Purple Rain. Who cares about the film, when it accompanied Prince's best album?
10) Grizzly Man. Every bit as good as Paris Texas; one of Thommo's best recent efforts.
...now I think it's time to listen to Edge of Darkness and dream of Joanne Whalley.
....Crap; how did I forget "Stand By Me"? A fantastic (and succinct) soundtrack.
Stand By Me is a good call, along with Garden State (THe Shins) and Pump Up The Volume (though the Leonard Cohen track isn't on the CD soundtrack). Magnolia also excellent, in fact I must listen to more Aimee Mann.
Started Jim watching Grizzly Man on Saturday, the Thompson soundtrack is great, quite uncharacteristic in style, and asks the question why he hasn't done more soundtrack work
Another great recent soundtrack is Broken Flowers, especially the Ethiopian Jazz of Mulatu Astatke.
btw - I know the Withnail soundtrack is long deleted, and hard to track down. But I do have the original score (was included in the 20th anniversary box) - with a bit of work in itunes, it's simple enough to add the other tracks. Want a copy?
yes that would be great, thanks. I have it on vinyl, but it has dodgy live versions of the Hendrix tracks, and there's no Al Bowlly.
And I agree with you re. Broken Flowers, I loved the opening song, by the Greenhornes.
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