Repurpose. A shiny new word used with abandon in this post. Maybe my vocabulary is lacking but it seems to me there has never been an adequate (and by that I mean laymen) term for what is meant by pastiche or homage, and then steathily repurpose enters the popular conscience and all is well in the world once again.
The following mixtape is all about the art of repurposing, taking songs which although to my knowledge have been overlooked in popular soundtracks nonetheless possess an allure of the cinematic about them and which live amongst us. These are the same old songs we hear playing in the background of a party or a department store, but all of sudden, situated within an overt cinematic context, something clicks and the songs become something else altogether: the ethereal expression of film-thought. Unconsciously many of my compilations uphold this unspoken lesson gleaned from the finest soundtracks of situating the familiar into new and sometimes unexpected contexts; not surprising since my earliest infatuation with music came about through my reverence for soundtracks. It was the Pulp Fictions and Natural Born Killers that I was drawn to more so than the score-laden soundtracks with their aural landscapes which evoke mood without the same sort of revelry of repurposing.
This playlist is my love letter to the soundtracks of pop cinema, the stand-alone masterpieces of Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, and Sophia Copolla, just to name a few. It takes a musical savant like a Quentin Tarantino or a Wes Anderson to provide that special fusion of old familiar sounds in new exciting contexts, side by side with symphonic vista-creating set-pieces of music which come to define the cinematic experiences they are a part of. It also takes a particular kind of music to play cinematically, and even more so, for it to be iconic. I admit there is a geek factor to this display of arcane knowledge in that a part of the joy of this sort of soundtrack comes from the clever deployment of the familiar (one of my favorite examples is ‘He Loves Me’, the Olive Oil croon song from Altman’s Popeye, that hit just the right note in the montage of Punch Drunk Love). Perhaps nobody is better at this then Tarantino whose films are all about repurposing popular culture, and his musical cues are no different. Think of ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ from the ear-slicing scene of Reservoir Dogs, or more recently, the rip-roaring riff that is played during one of the bloodiest scenes in Death Proof, ‘Hold Tight’ by The Who side project, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.
Some of my other favorites include: ‘Jessie’s Girl’ in Boogie Nights, ‘Mad World’ in Donnie Darko, The Kills track in Children of Men, Kath Bloom’s ‘Come Here’ in Before Sunrise, Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ in Trainspotting, Cowboy Junkies’ ‘Sweet Jane’ in Natural Born Killers, Dinosaur Jr.’s ‘Just Like Honey’ in Lost in Translation… and so many more.
So this is my very own Tarantinoesque mixtape. The challenge was to keep the ethos of obscure but solid ditties which possess the cinematic in their repurposing. It became necessary not to covet from pre-existing soundtracks and avoid the more obvious choices, to get to some sort of pure vision of sound as it manifests onscreen. Sometimes I was thinking about the opening music, other times, envisioned set-pieces; I would be interested to know what sort of films this soundtrack brings to mind. Quite by accident my playlist has taken on a two-part structure which evokes Kill Bill, and superficially the soundtrack as well, except in my version the first part remains loyal to a Western vision, the second part succumbing to a wistful delight in pop music.
I should add in closing that I am aware that two of the songs on this compilation were originally used on soundtracks, but I think those sources are so incredibly obscure that I can get away with this, and if you can tell me which ones and from where then you are truly a star. I owe my awareness of them entirely to the music blog, Fire in the Stereo .
Fade to black.
Side A
01 Destination – Nick Lavranos
02 God Bless the Ottoman Empire – A Hawk and a Handsaw
03 Don’t Even Sing About It – The Books
04 In the Human World – Jason Molina
05 One More Cup of Coffee – Bob Dylan
06 Goodbye, My Friend – Guido & Maurizio De Angelis
Side B
07 Mbube – Miriam Makeba
08 Dink’s Song – Bob Dylan
09 By Your Side – Cocorosie
10 Staring at the Sun (remix) – Tv On The Radio Vs Afrika Bambaataa
11 Psycho Killer – Bishop Allen
12 There is an End – Greenhornes
8 Comments
Perc has made her own cinematic playlist to join in on the fun. I look forward to listening to it on my way to work monday:
http://madpercolator.com/?p=852
I’ve got your list loaded, and the writing for the post is so totally solid, I now know pretty accurately what kind of list mine should be.
I should have my totally re-done list out and up this evening – you will want to get rid of the list that had originally been there.
I love that Dylan song – Dink’s Song. I don’t know it?! Where and when?
Coolness.
A salute from Boston!
I only know it from the documentary No Direction Home… which now that I think of it may disqualify it for this list… but I guess I can get by because it was not a fiction film.
Ok I forgot one of the great repruposes of 2007: Donovan’s ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’ in Zodiac… will not be able to listen to that song the same way again.
Sweet! May I also recommend… this
You missed the biggest one of all time – Singin’ In The Rain. But I guess you could argue that A Clockwork Orange isn’t really pop cinema… Either way, deserves mention.
ah but I am going for songs that seem to belong in a film soundtrack in a Tarantino way but which have not been used… Kbrick’s use of Singin in the Rain is a great exemplar of what I am striving for though
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[...] My previous list – attached with displays for some of the tracks, was more of a score. This list, this is more abstracted around the theme of a soundtrack, where director, composer and others sit around the table swapping track ideas. Unlike a score composition, which I feel serves to punctuate the words uttered in the dialogue or the themes as they recur, soundtrack songs serve to significantly elnogate ot truncate time for the sake of action, or sometimes even for the pure action of the extended tracking shot. Think of the song cranking up as the camera lingers over the face of one of the characters who’s just come to a major realization to convey the vastness of the particular moment. Think also of the montage – the tune playing over a pastiche of key mini-moments demonstrating progress over the course of a longer stretch of time. So the word “repurpose,” as used critically by Mr. Rot in his submission drove the point home about hot to approach this idea of a soundtrack. That and the mention of the oft-invoked Tarantino (heh, fanboys…) made me realize I needed to selectmy niche soundtrack-director. I couldn’t really settle into one, so I went with an amalgal – aome 75% is Coen Bros. with 25% Jeunet. I thought carefully over whether it was possible to track the new songs for my playlist with the ghost-factory narrative – I think I kind of can – the relationship part of it, anyhow. It has to be about the relationship – my favorite stylized sountracky directors focus very highly on characterization in favor of basic plot. Haneke is al about internal conflict, as was Mankiewicz, is Cuaron, Julie Taymor… So this soundtrack is associated with the score that is the previous list – instead of giving you a technical and descriptive paragraoh about the ‘moment’ each track represents, I give you one word, embodying as best as possible the progress made in the plot. This part is the score. Were I to make a movie, the original score would have to be composed by John Barry. In the same way that a Tarantino soundtrack sounds unmistakably like a Tarantino soundtrack, this is a Mad Percolator-sounding soundtrack. Hence, this soundtrack contains generous doses of tunes that live on the line between symphonic and electronic genres. Less attention was paid to the blending of tempo between tracks, as presumably there are scenes and dialogue interrupting the tracks. The usual attention was paid to the key of each song, and relating the melodic themes of each track. THE PREVIOUS LIST (1) Elbow – Station Approach (2) Richard Davis – Others (3) Amon Tobin – Slowly (4) Basement Jaxx – Rendez-vu (5) Automato – Focus (6) Wagon Christ – I’m Singing (7) Feist – Lonely Lonely (Frisbee’d Mix) (8) Joanna Newsom – Bridges & Balloons Remix (9) VAST - Touched (10) The Vines – Autumn Shade Part II (11) Noir Desir – Le vent nous portera (12) lemon.jelly – Kneel Before Your God [...]
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