VARIOUS – MUSIC FROM
THE MOTION PICTURE PULP FICTION (MCA)
After the raging
success of Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino was
the coolest being on earth. His first
movie was so explicit and challenging that you couldn’t even see it on video so
for my generation you either had to lie about your age and sneak into the
cinema or get somebody to obtain a pirate video for you (at the time there were
some pretty decent copies being copied off laserdisc). And with all the hype still hanging into the
air, prolonged by the floodgates of US independent movie being smashed open,
suddenly his second movie was about to drop.
Then a barely completed version of the film won big in Cannes
As with his first
movie, music was key to Tarantino’s second film. Dramatic moments were punctuated by the songs
surrounding it. And once more it wasn’t
a traditional film score, it was pop songs from a different era coupled with
obscure and amazing gems. In selection
you sensed these choices were often as important to a scene as the lines. For such effort Tarantino truly
earned/deserved his executive album producer credit.
In an interview
attached to a special edition of the soundtrack he states that the music for a
script/film is one of his earliest considerations when sitting down and
beginning the creative process. He
states that the music “triggers me into the personality of the piece” giving it
a rhythm. It is also during this
interview that he reveals that he originally wanted to use “My
Sharona” by The Knack for the sodomy scene.
There is something of
a surf rock vibe attached to the happenings on screen. The sweeping cool of a laidback guitar being
restrained perfectly fits into climate.
Serving up such sounds were unsung classic acts such as The Tornadoes, The Centurions, The Revels, The Lively Ones and Dick Dale.
When the record
dropped the world suddenly discovered the dizzying screaming charge of
“Misirlou” by Dick Dale. As the song
kicked off the movie, kicks off this album, for a short while it represented
the most exciting and driven thing in music.
Without warning the track was appearing everywhere: on television
advertisements, backing montages and storming from stereos that general would
never touch music such as this. And Dick
Dale was good value for it. As reward
for his efforts his career receive a huge shot in the arm with the most
hedonistic example being his
appearance on Later With
Jools Holland being surrounded by a crescent of monitors and amps. Around that time he also made a great
appearance on the old night time Mark and Lard show on Radio One
where he pretty much claimed to have invented all rock music ever and taught
Jimi Hendrix everything he knew. This
man alone could have had his own movie.
More in tune with Tarantino’s
previous
soundtrack Kool And The Gang soon
arrive with “Jungle Boogie” which is a painfully fun track that accompanies a
painful period. With that things remain
smooth as “Let’s Stay Together” by Al
Green enters the fray as it becomes evident that this time round he was
playing with a bigger budget when it came to the music. There’s not much more you can add in
description of these two songs, they were already perfect without the hip
context.
Another enormous track
arrives in the form of “Son Of A Preacher Man” by Dusty Springfield. Even in such seedy zones as the underworld
loving tracks like this still come through.
The use and
juxtaposition of “You Can Never Tell” by Chuck
Berry is genius. If you listen to
the words accompanied with what is occurring onscreen, it is just strange. The song itself is gorgeous, a wonderful/wondrous
description of a wedding coming with the blessing of the elders at a time when
such play is inappropriate.
And on that note
another big scene occurs with the Urge Overkill
cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl,
You’ll Be A Woman Soon” playing a bit part in scoring the moment. In the era of alternative rock this was as
close as Tarantino got to grunge rocking out to a lush take on a favourite
song.
One of the most
startling tracks on the album is the Maria McKee
“If Love Is A Dress (Hang Me In Rags)”.
After hit the upper ends of the charts with her commercial abortion
“Show Me Heaven” from Days Of
Thunder (ironic coming from a Tom Cruise movie considering Tarantino’s
interpretation of Top Gun in
Sleep With Me). This track however is quite a different
kettle of fish, it’s a song that seeps with sadness.
As with the Reservoir
Dogs soundtrack things go goofy towards the end and the hillbilly singalong
of “Flowers On The Wall” by The
Statler Brothers which sounds like a song straight from Hazzard County or Smokey And The Bandit
with the picking banjo sound. As Butch
takes strength from the song using it to score an attempt to maim things
suddenly become slightly more serious when you discover the act was the backing
vocal group for Johnny Cash.
Littered throughout
the album is an abundance of dialogue tracks from the movie. These were some of the most popular tracks on
the Reservoir
Dogs record and the inclusion of these moments were now what set soundtrack
albums aside from other compilations.
These soundbites serve as incentive.
It was always very cool to have Samuel L. Jackson
screaming verse from your stereo. It was
the hipster equivalent of finding God.
And a most explosive manner to close the album on.
As with the movie this
album was just cool, much larger than the sum of its parts. What a time to be alive.
I think I was given
this CD as Christmas
present.
Thesaurus moment:
modish.
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