How cool is film music?
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So far as soundtracks go I suppose I could be called a purist. I like the full orchestral sweeping scores of a John Williams, a Jerry Goldsmith or a James Horner. John Barry or Danny Elfman. Even the studio hacks that racked up scores of scores during the forties, like the estimable Max Steiner, produced more coherent work than that terrible time during the 80’s and 90’s when film music seemed to consist of cobbled together pop records, jammed onto a film by the mega corporations that were releasing it so that they could sell more of their own artists’ product. Think of any film with the words Molly and Ringwald in the cast list.
Not all of these soundtracks were appalling, of course; some worked quite well in their hybrid way. Take Ghostbusters. The doyenne of composers Elmer Bernstein mixed up with pop tracks that actually – yes I admit it – I still like. The Bus Boys’ Cleanin’ up the Town and Mick Smiley’s Magic for two.
But before all of this corporate interference there was a brief time when some of the hippest musicians whose work graced the charts regularly were involved in a tiny corner, a ghetto of the soundtrack world. That low rent, made on the run genre known as – Blaxploitation. What music was woven from such poor cloth!
I present for you three examples.
The obvious: the late, great Isaac Hayes’ Shaft. From the man who showed that soul music was more than just three minute singles and turned it into an album experience. Listen to the original soundtrack. The title music is not the same as the single version we hear on the radio; it is the actual recording from the film. Most of the music in the film is laid back like Bumpy’s Lament or Cafe Reggio’s, more jazz than soul. Not what you’d expect in an action movie. Then there’s the upbeat funk of Be Yourself, the not quite elevator music of A Friend’s Place and the piano bar Bumpy’s Blues. This album is a great record by Hayes, forget the fact that it’s a soundtrack, it’s just marvellous.
The cult: Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly. Starting with the cautionary, downbeat Little Child Runnin’ Wild, continuing with the funky brilliance of Pusherman and the guitar driven Freddie’s Dead you have to listen to the two disk release for this soundtrack. With extended versions, radio spots by the man himself and demo versions of tracks this is a must own. Listen to the extended Junkie Chase which, in the film, accompanies Ron O’Neal chasing in cuban heels down guys who attempted to rip him off through the ruined back alleys of a bankrupt city. The music is like a poem of flares, pimp hats and freezing winters. How the hell they ran in those shoes is still a mystery to me.
Finally, the depressing one. Not the music, but the film is the most bleak creation on film not directed by Ingmar Bergman. Across 110th Street is a combination of the wonderful vocal talents of Bobby Womack and Peace and the funk of J.J. Johnson and his Orchestra on the instrumental pieces. It is pure 70’s, hardcore, New York soul. If you can bare it, watch the film, if you can’t then just listen to the soundtrack which on the best version has snatches of dialogue between the tracks.
If only they could produce film music this good and this cool now.
Or maybe they do. What do you think?
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Soundtrack Seek
“that terrible time during the 80’s and 90’s when film music seemed to consist of cobbled together pop records, jammed onto a film by the mega corporations that were releasing it so that they could sell more of their own artists’ product.”
Interesting. So many film these days are ruined emotionally, just to plug bland, middle-road American pop music or British/American copy cat Coldplay castrated wimpy s**t that no one will remember five minutes from now. Often it has NOTHING at all to do with the scene and ruins what would be good moments or makes bad ones even worse.
Two recent examples of inappropriate soundtracks absolutely obliterating the film-watching experience were:
CHAOS THEORY
THE INVISIBLE
Saw these only weeks apart — so many like it. YUK!!!!
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