Clockwork Orange soundtrack
Hubert Sawyers III is a Detroit-area music blogger and champion for independent artists and music. His blog, FryinginVein, has been a source of discovery of great new music for several of us in the Icrontic community. We’re thrilled to have Hubert writing a guest post on IC Life!
On my personal blog, I like to highlight interesting displays of audio-visual combinations. I call them AVGs (Audio/Visual Gems), which tend to be music videos or some sort of art-house project set to cool music.
Today, I want to explore an area that I do not get to explore enough—the AVGs that are in my personal collection, namely movies. Back in my college days, I began to get into what I came to know as independent films. All I knew was that these movies were a bit more edgy and had a higher intellectual value than the movies I used to watch as a kid. As I got into these kind of films, I realized how important the music was to making a scene work. Upon that recognition, I have been a fan of original soundtracks ever since.
These are movies that made me want the soundtrack as I watched the movie for the first time. Another thing that is distinctive is that most of the music was completely new to me. As a vinyl record collector, I have quite a few movie soundtrack LPs in my collection, but usually the movies stink (ie, Superfly). My top 5 here are all in my personal movie collection as well (which I think says quite a lot about me.)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Anyway, legendary producer T Bone Burnett assembled a beastly collection of beautiful voices to record the songs specifically for the whimsical period piece by the Coen Brothers. This is one of the only records of this type you will find my collection, but I feel I can play all these songs without shame because every song is warm and perfect. It does not hurt that this is one of my favorite films in the Coen Brothers’ cache.
Waking Life soundtrack
Waking Life
This is another movie that is one of my all-time favorites. After watching the film the first time, I had this instant flashback of the string quartet that was in the beginning of the film. The epic sounds of the strings left an indelible impression on me. I eventually went to my local music store at the time—Flat, Black and Circular in East Lansing, MI—and bought the CD. I find myself longing for it during the spring and fall months.
Trainspotting
This movie and soundtrack was integral in shaping the independent taste of this longtime hip-hop listener. The onslaught of Brit pop, dance and ambient grooves were something I was not accustomed to. Heck, I was not used to seeing drug usage like that either. The combination of the two was eye-opening and when I found the soundtrack when I got to college I knew things had changed for me. Mind you, I am a drug-free kind of guy, but I was no longer blind to the facts, if you know what I mean. Oh yeah, I learned about the animal that was Iggy Pop thanks to this soundtrack, as well.
A Clockwork Orange
I saw this movie for the first time as a kid. It was around 3:00 AM. For some reason, whenever I was in front of a television at the wee hours, crazy movies like this would be on the TV and I would always watch them. When I got into record collecting, I was really into finding breaks used on hip-hop records. I knew one of the first records I really wanted to have was the soundtrack for this movie as it had been used on some Wu Tang records and a song by Cage called “Agent Orange,” which used the title music from the score. There was something about listening to classical tunes that utilized synthesizers that made me a happy camper—even the vocals were ran through vocoders!
The Big Lebowski/Pump Up The Volume (tie)
I really dig both of the soundtracks to these movies. They are both basically compilations of music by other artists. I do not believe any of the songs were specifically for the movie.
The official Pump Up The Volume soundtrack is missing some of the tunes that are actually featured in the cult classic, like a song by Leonard Cohen and one by Public Enemy, but the soundtrack does display a solid selection of quality tunes such as you might have heard on independent radio stations in the early ’90s.
The Big Lebowski is my favorite movie of all time. I had to have it on here, because I do love the soundtrack, but I feel I might be a bit biased. The Kenny Rogers & The First Edition song “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In)” blew a hole in my philosophical soul. I just did not see it coming during the dream sequence by The Dude. I specifically sought out the soundtrack just so I could play that song.
Honorable Mention(s):
Purple Rain (guilty pleasure—the movie is suspect, but I still love it. The music is awesome!)
Reservoir Dogs (excellent compilation of tunes)
Dazed and Confused (ditto)
Superfly (The music makes this “B-stands-for-Blaxploitation-movie” good. Curtis Mayfield at his finest.)
Beetlejuice (Another guilty pleasure—mostly original tunes, outside of the Harry Belafonte-sung calypso tunes. I really do love the movie too—one of my childhood faves.)
Awesome Soundtracks of Movies I’ve Never Seen
You Only Love Once (French film)
Trouble Man
Three Tough Guys / Tough Guys
Blackbelt Jones
All right, enough about what I like, what about you? What are your top 5 favorite movie soundtracks?
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