Posts tagged Soundtrack

Giannis Spanos - Iliovasilema

Iliovasilema, Greek for ‘bass guitar lessons’* tells the story of 4 Greco-Roman wrestlers, who meet as children in a charming fishing village, and over carafes of white wine and olives forge a bond, swearing to save the village’s rec center from this really mean land developer by competing against each other in the only arena they know: the arena. Honor binds them together - but will defending it tear them apart? Find out when I do some actual research!

As it turns out, “Iliovasilema” is from Spanos’ score to the 1971 film “Ekeino to kalokairi”, which according to the handy Greek-To-English guide written on this stolen placemat from Mr. Souvlaki’s Family Pork Hut translates to “Ekeino to kaolkairi”. My best guess is that Ekeino is a person, and it seems that kaolkairi is a place, and this movie is about a person going to a place. Hey, what am I, a treasure-hunting university professor specializing in dead languages?

Moving on - for the completist, here’s a clip from the film. In this scene, a presumably drowned woman is massaged sensually, (SPOLER ALERT) while a girl builds sand castles. Greco-necro then puts on his sunglasses, and cut to dramatic voiceover. I think YouTube commenter purplevoxeater said it best when they quipped “Να ήταν κακός οιωνός η ταινία; Κάπως έτσι έμελλε να φύγει από την ζωή η Έλενα”. Amen, purplevoxeater.

*Actually Greek for sunset, but man, whoever this unibrowed chap is plucking the ol’ 4 string, he’s amazing.

Billy Green - The Death of Doctor Death

If you’re like me, the only thing you enjoy more than autoharp is lots of autoharp. I have good news, dear denizens of the digital ditty dispenser - Christmas just came earlier than your father at a steam bath. Here to autohump all of our hear-holes is The Death of Doctor Death by Billy Green, from the OST to 1969’s Stone.  

Before composing the score for Stone, Billy Green was best known as the guitarist of the Doug Parkinson-focused band Doug Parkinson in Focus. After composing the score for Stone, Billy was still best known for his work with Doug Parkinson In Focus, which is understandable after you see the trailer for Stone. Basically your standard Satanist Aussie Vietnam Vet Biker Whodunnit, Stone appears to have been shot on a waterlogged super-8 by a subnormal with cataracts.

Sample dialog: ‘They live in a fortress, by the sea… Vietnam veterans.. with their own style of life.’ (Cut to naked splash fight).
Highlights of the trailer: Pinball machine getting shot by crossbow; tits.

Besides winning the Deadly Death: Little Deaths 2010 Award (‘The Deadie’) for most use of the word death in its title, this vignette, presumably from Dr. Death’s death scene, nicely blends biker-crank psychedelia with the drama of classic spaghetti western soundtracks. May all our death scenes involve so much autoharp and crossbow.

Kalyanji Anandji - Dharmatma Theme Music

Sitting here with a belly full of vindaloo, and the news that our man Arjun will be coming up for a special visit from NYC, what better time than now to drop this theme music from the 1975 Hindi film Dharmatma. The soundtrack was composed by Kalyanji Anandji, whose name comes from first names of the two Gujarati brothers that made up the duo, Kalyanji Virji Shah and Anandji Virji Shah. These dudes would essentially compete in the same musical arena, as well as partake in the odd dust-up (blow), as house favourite(s) Shankar Jaikishan. As young men the two brothers would learn music from a teacher who could not afford to pay their fathers bills - by which I mean, free lessons… which is pretty sweet. In the end that would prove to be a fair trade; as seemed to be the way they rolled in the Bollywood scene back in the day, Kalyanji Anandji would work as musicians on more than 400 films - which is about as full as my stomach is right now on a scale of 1 to 100. Nighty night.

Piero Piccioni - Endless Love

Not enduring, not abiding, not sustaining, but endless. It sounds almost like a threat more than a promise, if you ask me. Less a quilt pulled up to your chin than it is a plastic bag pulled over your head.

One might say of Piero Piccioni that he was the Italian Henry Manicini, were it not for the fact that Henry Manicini is the Italian Henry Mancini, despite being born in Cleveland’s Little Italy. Let me try that again. Piero Piccioni is the not-Little Italian Henry Manicini. Piero began his career as a lawyer playing music on the side, and went on to become one of Italy’s most prolific soundtrack composers, with by varying accounts, 200 to 300 scores to his credit, including this gem, from the soundtrack to ‘Colpo Rovente’, Endless Love. Or as I like to call it, Fleeting Pheremone-induced Insanity. Now if you’ll excuse me I have some frowning to do.

Not sure I would take this man’s advice on affairs on the heart. Endless Love? More like Endless Lunch amirite?!?

Cabaret (Original Soundtrack) - Tomorrow Belongs To Me

“Tomorrow Belongs To Me” is a song written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, taken from both the 1966 Broadway production and 1972 film Cabaret. Trying to research anything about this song is a bit of a challenge, as the internet takes you down a slippery slope towards some shitty, lameass skinhead band called Skrewdriver who seem to have made this song one of their own… but eff them.

In the film, this is the only song sung outside of the cabaret setting and was written in traditional German style, sung by the Nazi youth in the movie in an effort to stir up patriotism for zee “Fahzahland” (Fun fact: song sung in a beer garden, I love those things..) “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” has often been mistaken for a genuine Nazi anthem (hi Skrewdriver) and has led to the songwriters being accused of anti-Semitism — a hilarious accusation seeing as the song writers are in fact Jewish.

Is this little blonde dude old enough to be in a beer garden?

Riz Ortolani - Seven Blood Stained Orchids

Riz Ortolani is yet another Italian film composer, whose impressive list of works includes ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, and as if you need to know what else he worked on after that. This track is the title theme from Umberto Lenzi’s 1972 film ‘Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso’ (Seven Blood Stained Orchids). The orchid is often considered symbolic of female sexuality, which I tried to explain to the judge at my indecency hearing but my words were drowned out by the horrified sobbing of the florist, or as they kept calling her ‘The Plaintiff’. At any rate, if the orchid is symbolic of female sexuality, I can only guess that the titular (heh) seven bloodstained orchids of this song refer to either an orgy of violence or some sort of menstrual cult. If neither of these ideas are central to the plot of ‘Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso’, then I may have just stumbled across my next million-dollar screenplay idea (tentative titles: Axe Wound / Cockpocalypse) which, *spoiler alert* involves 2 devil-may-care music fans who discover while dispatching a sorority house of hormone-crazed hot zombies all synced up with the lunar cycle that perhaps we’re not all so different after all. It’s sexy, it’s dangerous, and for comic relief there’s a golden retriever who is simply incredible at croquet. It’s got a little something for everyone. Rated H for Holy Frijoles That Man’s Jawline Is Striking!

John Sebastian - Welcome Back

It’s hard to believe now, but in a time where you either copped your media live over the air, in the theatre or at the store, it wasn’t an uncommon thing for TV theme songs to get ample amounts of radio play, and to even chart - ‘Welcome Back’ hit #1 in 1976, for example. Content was almost a controlled substance before we could carry it with us, consume it in any number of ways and pull it from the ether on a whim, and when those simple folks of 1976 heard something they liked on TV, and wanted to hear in on the radio as well. It’s almost cute. Television show theme songs rarely enjoy much more than ironic recognition nowadays, in these topsy-turvy times of facsimile copying machines and 10 speed bicycles, but believe it or not, ‘Believe It Or Not’ (Mike Post’s theme to ‘The Greatest American Hero’) hit #1 on the Billboard charts, for example. Nowadays, the only time you’ll hear the theme from a television show outside of its prescribed and rigorously enforced media laneway is when I hum the theme from Law and Order as I de-pants, which I understand is basically an ear-roofie for the ladies.

John Sebastian has enjoyed a great career, penned a wealth of tracks so memorable that they’re basically rock’n’roll canon, and also played Woodstock completely shitfucked and claims to not even remember it (points for that, pal!), and I hate to besmirch his legacy by choosing to showcase some song he wrote for TV instead of his many memorable hunks of harmony, but hey, it’s not my fault he wrote this easily digestible nugget of pop that clocks in at a mere 58 seconds. It’s like the tequila shot of songs.

An interesting bit of trivia - it is said that ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ was originally entitled ‘Kotter’, and that it was John’s use of the term ‘Welcome Back’ in the theme song inspired the name change of the series itself. I’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome Deadly Death co-conspirator Ley “Bunny” La Ley Taylor back to Canada despite his best efforts over the last 30 days. Godbless and godspeed.

‘Eyyy! Mustache rides, two bucks!’

Alain Goraguer - Deshominisation (I)

Imagine, if you will, that in 1969 Algiers, shadowy figures slipped a hit of acid into Steve McQueen’s tumbler of bourbon, and he embarked on a vision quest following a tufted lynx voiced by Pink Floyd’s Rick Wright, and woke up wearing a snakeskin headband and covered in goat’s blood. Not really related to this song, but pretty cool, eh? Imagination is like a movie, but inside your head!

‘Deshominisation’ comes from the soundtrack to the 1973 French sci-fi classic ‘La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet)’ - a thoroughly surreal and tripped-out film about a race of enormous blue alien creatures who capture humans and use them as pets… or worse. The film itself has gone on to become quite a cult classic since its release, and the soundtrack was a highly sought-after rarity before its re-release in 1996. The songs are laid-back, smooth yet slightly menacing, and Goraguer deserves credit for not needing a whiny synthesizer lead to indicate the fact that this is sci-fi - whereas I suspect many other composers for science fiction cinema were hired in the following fashion:

Film Director: “We want the score to use inorganic sounds to subtly suggest man’s disconnection from humanity and the alienation of technological progress.”

French Guy: “This, the machines, does the sounds like WWWWEEEEEEEIR-WOOOOO-WWEEEEEPRBBBLT”.

Film Director: “You’re hired.”

Alain Goraguer did compose other minor scores, but is best known for his work as an arranger for Serge Gainsbourg, who frankly is getting way too much airtime here and is now under strict embargo until further notice.

Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra - Bolero on the Moon Rocks

This gem served as incidental music for the short-lived German sci-fi series ‘Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion’, or amongst those who know, ‘Raumpatrouille Orion’. The series, more or less a Kraut take on Star Trek, told the story of Captain Cliff McLane, who as commander of the Orion, battled an alien race known as the “Frogs”, while awakening the ire of the world government back on Earth - so more or less, it’s a retelling of WWII, but in a future of shiny pantsuits and possibly, poop (unconfirmed). Despite only lasting seven episodes, ‘Rampatrouille Orion’ went on to inspire 145 novels, and serve as fodder for intense arguments and high-powered girl kryptonite for a generation of pimply youths in the Rhineland.