best movie soundtracks?

[zombie no.one]

of course maximum overdrive counts! Who Made Who is a classic, so are the other 2 instrumentals ACDC did for the film: Chase The Ace, and "D.T." (does anyone know what D.T stands for?...could it be "Demented Technology", considering the film plot...probably not).

[peter johnson]

And speaking of "Who . . " --
     Everyone here see "Quadrophenia"?  Oddly enough, not a lot of Who music in the film, but a very effective film ABOUT music and culture nonetheless -- Sting plays a hotel bellboy & hero to the Mods in the film.  There's a scene in a public bath where 2 hoodlums, one a Mod and one a Rocker, start singing at each other -- one singing Peter Townsend, the other Gene Vincent.  Not a soundtrack moment, really, but a good use of music in film nonetheless --
     And yes, both Cat People and Curse Of are very wonderful films -- Cat People was one of the first films to use the "displaced sound" effect that's so common today noone notices:  A girl starts to scream in one scene which very rapidly cuts to the next scene so that the scream becomes the sound of the squealing brakes of a bus.  You've seen in a thousand times, but it was innovative as all get-out when Cat did it -- Curse Of has it's own great "sound" moments as well, but is more of a nightmare than Cat People, and in many ways is an example of a sequel being better than its precursor.
peter theremin

[LilCerberus]

I always liked the soundtrack to the TV series The Mokees.

And let's not forget the works of Henry Mancini.

[RCMerchant]

I remember seeing a movie called FEAR NO EVIL, about a teen who is,in reality the Anti-Christ,which makes good use of the Sex Pistols "Anarchy in the UK". A kid has got the Ramones blasting out of his car stereo at one point,too. A good movie-at one point the devil kid zaps tits onto the school tough guy,plus a graveyard full of living dead! For an encore,he kills everyone while theyre putting on a performance of the Passion play! WILD!

[LilCerberus]

In an earlier post, I mentioned wanting to learn the lyrics to Deep Throat. So, last night I found the soundtrack on amazon.

As I was going through the sample tracks, something occured to me; Does anybody else remember the days before midi-synths, when soundtracks required a little effort, even for z-grade movies with no budget?

[loyal1]

The Big Labowski, oh I forgot about that one!  Great soundtrack and such a great movie.  It's one of my pics on myspace.  I love that line...."Hell, I can get you a toe by 3:00...with nail polish."

[RCMerchant]

I remember a real dumb softcore porn movie called CHATTERBOX,where this chick's hoochie could talk(and sing).And the songs were written by...Neil Sedka!? It was a VERY BAD movie.When the name stars are Prof.Irwin Corey and that gay guy who tosses glittery confetti around,you know your in trouble.

[ulthar]

Some not mentioned so far:

In the spirit of ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, "musical" type films you'd expect to have good soundtracks:
THE WALL
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
THIS IS SPINAL TAP
HEAVY METAL
KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK (a friend of mine was in the audience at the concert filming)

also liked the music Fastway did for TRICK OR TREAT.

ones off the top of my head for which the music really fit the films, without being obtrusive:
HAMBURGER HILL (Philip Glass)
DAS BOOT (Klaus Doldinger)
THE THING (Ennio Morricone; he's been mentioned in general, but I wanted to plug this one specifically)

[RCMerchant]

GOBLIN-Awesome ! I Especially like the opening for DEEP RED.
LOVEDOLLS SUPERSTARS! I have the soundtrack to this movie on tape,but have never seen the movie itself.It has BLACK FLAG,the DEAD KENNEDYS,REDD KROSS,and a whole lotta other good jams! Its a sequel to DESPARATE TEENAGE LOVEDOLLS>Has anyone here seen either of these movies?

[Yaddo 42]

lilcerberus, if you like the music from the Monkees TV show, have you seen their film "Head"? I have the soundtrack, it's a mixed bag of good and blah songs, dialogue bits, and old-style sound montages mixing songs and dialogue bits ("coordinated" by Jack Nicholson!) But the CD includes a few alternate versions of the songs, the live version of "Circle Sky" (always wanted to hear a punk version of that song) used in the film and Nesmith doing the vocals for "Daddy's Song" among others, and even a truly bizarre and off-putting radio ad for the film. I love the film but no wonder people stayed away in droves when it was released.

RCMerchant, the confetti tossing gay guy sounds like Rip Taylor. Hard to believe that guy made a whole career in show biz in movies, TV, and audience warmups for show tapings off of so little of an act.

[peter johnson]

Ah, "Head" -- Victor Mature as Big Victor, and Frank Zappa leading a live bull by the nose . . .
What other films have that, I ask you?
Jack Nicholson does a walkon as the film's director, in a scene where Micky Dolenz gets shot full of arrows --
Put me down as someone who loves this film -- with reservations:  I hate some of the musical production numbers, particularly the Davey Jones one where the visuals keep switching from black to white, etc. -- a very weak song --  But overall a very psychotic film with mostly good music.
peter zappa/nezsmith tork

[zombie no.one]

peter johnson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>But overall a
> very psychotic film with mostly good music.


...psychadelic??...maybe its psychotic as well, Ive only seen a clip where one of them is playing football in a bunker, or something like that.

another soundtrack I like is Poetic Justice (1993). not a great film, but a great soundtrack. best cut - Naughty By Nature - "Poor Man's Poety"

[peter johnson]

Oh, most definitely I meant "psychotic", as in "detatched from reality" -- it's also a psychedelic film, but really Mentally Ill on so many levels ==
peter johnson/wakka jawaka

[RCMerchant]

Theres a NEW movie coming out called AMERICAN HARDCORE,(I found it on its MYSPACE page) with bands and interviews of BLACK FLAG,the MISFITS, the BAD BRAINS,the CIRCLE JERKS,AGNOSTIC FRONT,DRI, TSOL,the GERMS,FEAR,MDC,DEAD KENNEDYS,and soooo many more! I believe it premires tonight in NYC,and it looks to be kick ass! Takes me back to my outta control punk years in the mid 80's...( I'm glad I was young enuff to live through it!)

[Yaddo 42]

"Daddy's Song" is the black and white fancy visual production number with Davy and Toni Basil dancing. I like the song since it's a Harry Nilsson tune and probably the cutest tune about a man abandoning his family I can think of. The alternate take on the soundtrack has Nesmith's vocals instead but processed to sound like they are from a vintage (1920s or 30s) recording. The tune works a little better that way. But I can see why it was a Jones song in the film, it fit with his Broadway Pop style and each one of the group wanted to showcase themselves in a part of the film as they skewered their image. So Davy in a dance number and that riff on the film "Golden Boy"  where he winds up fighting Sonny Liston.

I like the film's parts better than the whole, plus I love that a manufactured pop group would try to reinvent themselves by thumbing their noses at their core audience with a movie greenlighted to capitalize on their own loathed image, and produced by folks (Rafelson, Schneider, and Nicholson) who wanted to gleefully destroy the group so they could move on to bigger things. It's a mess but a likeable one. Music groups still make (often pretentious and overly) ambitious films but the pedigre, goals, and end product make this one stand out for me.