Friday, October 24, 2008

Friday Blog - Music and Movies!

To some extent, I agree with Boo that if you have a good soundtrack, you have a good movie. But not always.

Take Honeysuckle Rose, for example. Willie Nelson, Dianne Cannon, and Amy Irving. Anyone reaching for the remote yet? While the movie itself, as I remember when I saw it in the theatre during my youth (Dad liked Willie, and quite honestly, so do I). Yeah, this is the one with "On the Road Again" on it. Some old dude named Jimmy who used to hang out at Dugan's Deli in Ames back when it was Dugan's Deli used to get shitty and sing this with Jack Gallup at their Sunday night open mics. Jack would always introduce this Jimmy character as a guy who co-wrote "On the Road Again" with Willie. I got the Honeysuckle Rose CD, and it doesn't give Jimmy co-writing credit for it, so who knows. I don't want to believe that Willie wouldn't give credit where it was due.

The soundtrack is great because it provides an example of how great country music can sound when it's live. Throw back a few Buds, and it's all good.

Valley Girl convinced me that 80s new wave wasn't just the "pop sounds of the decade." With tunes from The Plimsouls, Haircut 100, Sparks, Modern English, and Josie Cotton's covers, I realized that there was some really cool new wave out there.

Check out the sweet squares of Haircut 100 doing their big hit, "Love Plus 1".
The movie, "Laurel Canyon" was just okay (hey, TK, howsabout reviewing this movie on Pajiba?), but I really liked the soundtrack. Includes hits by Mercury Rev, and a version of this awesome Sparklehorse song:

Sometimes the movie is the soundtrack. I really like the whole background and all the great tunes in the movie "Gimme Shelter" which features the Rolling Stones. This movie sounds so fucking good on my home theater system.


I saw Good Will Hunting with my wife as sort of a first or second date. I actually think our first "official" date was a hockey game. But we saw this movie the same weekend. We went out and bought the soundtrack immediately. For the most part, it's a depressing soundtrack, with lots of Elliot Smith (but I'm guessing the Strong Sad contingent of readers for this blog will actually dig these) songs, but the two standout tunes are the cool "raggah" version of Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby" by Andru Donalds and the way they scored Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" to the fight scene:

I've loved this song ever since I was a kid, and it has a ton of personal meaning to me, but I really like how the violence of the movie contrasts with the slickness of the tune.

Another song that brings up a movie memory for me also includes a song Gerry Rafferty had a hand in as part of the band, Stealer's Wheel. Ladies and Gentlemen, Michael Madsen, a can of gas, an ear, and "Stuck in the Middle with You:" (WARNING! CONTAINS TORTURE! JOHN MCCAIN, PLEASE DO NOT WATCH!)

Happy Friday, everyone!

3 comments:

TK said...

As much as the Steelers Wheel track became over-played, that's still an amazing scene. Say what you will about Tarantino, but that motherfucker can assemble a soundtrack better than anyone.

My favorite track from Good Will Hunting is his use of Elliott Smith (rip, you dumb bastard) for the end shot of the car driving away.

Felicia said...

I LOVE VALLEY GIRL!!!!

Anonymous said...

I believe now that Jimmy was just blowing smoke ... a tall-talesman ...

I know no longer believe Jimmy co-wrote on the road again with W. Nelson.

Just for the record.

Jack M. Gallup