November 1, 2005
Soundtracks of Our Lives
Posted by Amanda Rose at November 1, 2005 12:25 AMIt's a happy coincidence that Stacy mentioned her love for the Garden State soundtrack in the post below, 'cos that's my chosen topic today. I was at the pictures (en Americano = "movies") last week watching the surprisingly good romcom Must Love Dogs, and thought the CD would be worth checking out. It's like your five easy listening, but not bland, music groups in the one place. Tip: Soundtracks like this are very good for reassuring acquaintances, party guests and random callers that you have demographically-appropriate tastes in music. Complete bollocks of course in my case, but bung on Songs From and Inspired By My Best Friend's Wedding and you may just fool some of the people some of the time.
A few of my soundtrack highlights. Forgive me, I stray a little from the strict Americana here, but it all comes back to the same qualities in the end.
The Horse Whisperer This is solid gold from beginning to end. It's hard to pick a standout but I'm tempted to say Me and The Eagle, one of Steve Earle's most memorable songs. Soft Place to Fall grabbed me the first time around, nothing I've heard of Allison Moorer since has come close but I'm seeing her and the hubby in a week or two so I'll hold reappraisal til then. Back in 1998, it was the first I'd heard of the Flatlanders, and this complete unknown, Gillian Welch. It was either my first exposure to Lucinda Williams too, or an extremely early encounter. Either way, a personal landmark.
Some soundtracks have greatness thrust upon them by their expert use as part of the cinematic whole (see Scorsese, Martin below). On the other hand, I haven't even seen The Horse Whisperer, and indeed some of the songs on the CD are not even in the movie. Just like a really superior mix tape to me.
Northern Exposure Vol I and II If only for sending Iris DeMent crashing through by featuring Our Town in the final episode, Northern Exposure would be musically special. Apart from introducing me to Iris, I'm also grateful to it for featuring Daniel Lanois's Jolie Louise. I got the album it's on, Arcadie, and it's still one of my favourites. The rest of the albums are not-too-obvious classic rock and soul, plus some French and Native American/Canadian influenced tracks which are just irresistable. If I danced, they would be great for that. But I don't. Still, I can't resist tapping unobtrusively along.
The Sopranos Vol I and II This is also an impressive one for putting on in mixed company, but for a more hip crowd. Since David Chase is the common denominator between NE and The Sopranos, he might get the credit for the exceptional quality and bredth in both shows. If I choose one, its Vol II for being a double CD, not including Gotta Serve Somebody and the two stand outs which rather changed my thinking on the artists involved: The Stones' Thru and Thru (Keith: I was pissed out of my brain when I wrote that) and Nils Lofgren's mysterious and spine tingling Black Books. Country content in the form of Our Own Kasey Chambers and Shaver, great music in just about each and every track. Oh yeah, and how could I almost forget: Dylan crooning -- in Italian, if you don't mind --- an old Deano number, Return to Me.
Martin Scorsese in general It's a small step sideways from the Sopranos to The Great American Director who always hits the spot with his musical choices. Not just the music docos like The Last Waltz or No Direction Home either. Scorsese the consumate filmmaker and Marty the music nerd have always complented each other pefectly. Think the famous long tracking scene which opens Goodfellas or oh, millions of others. This is a good round up. Seems Marty's country appreciation doesn't extend too far past The Band, but nobody's perfect.
A Mighty Wind Almost as bad as that talentless hack Eastwood beating out Marty at the Oscars this year, was in 2004 when some Lord of the Rings Annie Lennox yawn fest trumped "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" by Mitch and Mickey (the truly divine Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara). The LOTR song was slapped over the final credits to shift units, the MW song was a crucial part of the whole emotional narrative. Wickedly funny songs which achieve the near-impossible: successful, subtle (and not so subtle) parody which is also just damn good music. A joke, yes, but not a novelty.
Care to share yours?
'OH Brother Where Art Thou?'- who can't love The Soggy Bottom Boys doing "Man of Constant Sorrows", and the man with the deepest voice Ralph Stanley "O Death" plus Gillian and co being beautiful.
"loved up and turned into a horney toad"
'Orlando'- apart from the fact i want all the costumes, the music is loverly. Dancing on the ice to the "Pavanne", changing sex, rescuing and snogging Billy Zane, and Jimmy Somerville as a gold cherub singing "Coming"
'Green Card'- haven't listened to this in ages but i remember liking it alot.
Posted by: cozalcoatl at October 31, 2005 11:19 PMThe Chieftains sound track on "Grey Fox" caught the mood just right.
Posted by: Jim Pipkin at October 31, 2005 11:30 PMD'oh! I completely forgot to include the other reason I thought about this this week: I watched The Big Easy. Chock full of gumbo goodness, that soundtrack.
Posted by: Amanda at November 1, 2005 1:05 AMSome old school soundtracks that go down easy, especially for parties:
* Pretty In Pink
* The Breakfast Club
* 16 Candles ("If You Were Here" by the Thompson Twins, yes!)
* The Lost Boys (Echo & the Bunnymen, the Smiths, and classic INXS, etc)
Some Americana ones you left out:
* O Brother (of course!)
* Cold Mountain (couldn't bear to watch the movie, but the book was pretty good, and the soundtrack awesome; I love that one of my favorite bands the Reeltime Travelers are on it, as well as Jack White trying hard to do Americana)
* Songcatcher (good Lord that Gillian & Dave Rawlings song, "Wind and the Rain" is haunting! beautiful stuff! Emmylou's "Barbara Allen" is required)
* The Big Lebowski (Bob Dylan, pyschedelic Kenny Rogers, and Townes Van Zandt covering the Rolling Stones, plus the Gyspsy Kings covering the Eagles! put together by T Bone Burnett, the ex-producer of Gillian and the music producer for O Brother) ("vwere is ze money lebowski?")
God I know there's more... but that'll have to do for now.
Posted by: larry at November 1, 2005 9:23 AM"The Triplets of Belleville" - you might have heard the Oscar-nominated title song (or maybe not) but the entire soundtrack is delightful. The standout track is the 'Triplets of Belleville' performing in a swanky nightclub playing only a wire fridge shelf, a newspaper, a vacuum cleaner and a bicyle wheel.
Posted by: Margaret at November 1, 2005 9:24 AMAh The Lost Boys!! I used to be able to quote that film from beginning to end. Had the soundtrack on LP, played to death. The Two Coreys. All your other noms are great, I restricted myself to albums that were particularly significant to me for one reason or other otherwise I'd have gone on all day too.
Still getting around to see Songcatcher, is the film actually any good? I've heard mixed things. I know its based on a Sharyn McCrumb book and I like her Appalachian stuff.
Posted by: Amanda at November 1, 2005 2:06 PMTwo directors who always put out great soundtracks are Wes Anderson and the Coen brothers (can I count the Coen brothers as one?). Mr. Anderson not only picks music that works exquisitely with his movies, but he always manages to put out an album that gives you something new or surprising (my personal fave is "Rushmore"). And same goes for the Coen brothers, especially in the past half decade. They should win some special award for "O Brother" alone -- they really managed to touch on some zeitgeist there. That soundtrack just blew up -- maybe not surprising in general for a movie, but it's pretty damn big for an arthouse movie that features non-mainstream music.
I don't know whether to include Tarantino in there. The soundtracks for "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction" were fabulous and included some great music (Maria McKee!), but I think the rest of his soundtracks have fallen short. I think he got a little too caught up in himself after that.
And you cannot beat the "High Fidelity" soundtrack. I love it. I'd love it even if it didn't have a song called "Lo Boob Oscillator" on it. But that definitely adds to the love.
Posted by: Sharon at November 1, 2005 2:13 PMSongcatcher is a terrible movie. Really dreadful. It's boring and paternalistic and doesn't know what the hell it wants to be about, or how it wants to portray anyone. A couple of cameos, by Iris Dement and Taj Majal, are interesting to listen to but embarrassing to watch. They look as though nobody told them they were going to be in front of a camera.
Though I've only listened to it twice, I'll recommend the soundtrack to PBS's "The Appalachians" miniseries. The miniseries itself is a must-see. Some hair-raising, unforgettable material of Johnny and Rosanne Cash singing stuff like Banks of the Ohio together, just months, maybe weeks, before he died. Also cool footage from John Cohen's film of Roscoe Holcomb, The High Lonesome Sound.
Posted by: Boney at November 2, 2005 7:10 PMMan, I've been after Netflix for MONTHS to get that Appalachians mini-series! I want to see it soooo bad. You guys pester them for me, too, will you?
http://www.netflix.com/Help?id=5145
Posted by: Stacy at November 2, 2005 8:27 PM
