Soundtrack Saturday

Throughout 2024 I ran a series every Saturday called V.A. Saturday, a celebration of the various artists compilation album. I could probably keep this going but felt it was time for a change so am shifting the Saturday slot to an appreciation of soundtrack albums, the records/ CDs released to accompany films. There's a difference between soundtracks and original scores which I will probably skirt the line of, and maybe at times the old V.A. Saturday might return. 

When I was a kid, I'm talking twelve/ thirteen, I was really into soundtracks. I was a big fan of cinema and the early 80s were a good time to be into films. Soundtrack albums were tied in to the cinematic releases, and were often if truth be told a bit of a let down. What sounded epic and exciting over the cinema speakers and complemented by the visuals could easily sound less so at home. But there were enough really good soundtrack releases that stood on their own two feet and it was a habit that lasted through the 80s, vinyl OSTs and soundtracks a big part of my fledgling record collection. In 1981 I bought the Raiders Of The Lost Ark soundtrack, my first soundtrack album, with John Williams' orchestral theme played by the London Symphony Orchestra often on the Dansette turntable. I was a slightly quirky child at this age. The same year, '81 (I was eleven), I was invited to a fancy dress party and went as Lawrence of Arabia. Everyone else was far more plugged in to popular culture for their fancy dress. The Raiders soundtrack didn't survive the years- I've no idea what happened to it. 

The following year Blade Runner came out. I was a big Harrison Ford fan and had an interest in film noir (early evening BBC2 often showed black and white films from the 1940s). The cinema up the road from us in Withington, the Scala (later Cine City, now a Tesco) had a liberal attitude to age certificates and admission and twelve year old me got in to see Blade Runner despite looking )and being) too young. Blade Runner is a very different kettle of androids compared to Raiders Of The Lost Ark or Star Wars- dark, ambiguous, dystopian. I loved it and love it still, whatever cut or version you're watching. I had no problem with the studio added voice over (and don't still) or the vaguely happier ending the studio tacked on to Ridley Scott's film. 

The soundtrack too planted deep roots in me, Vangelis' synthesisers and timpani, his wide screen electronics, jazz saxophone and film noir influences, all very memorable and  striking. Not that anyone could buy the soundtrack- it was unavailable until 1994 and then released in a strange version that included recordings not even used in the film.  

Vangelis' equipment list for the recording of the soundtrack is a synth lovers dream- various Rolands including the Jupiter 4, Yamahas, a Fender Rhodes. He supplemented them with traditional percussion instruments and when the various versions of the soundtrack were released, snippets of dialogue from the film were included, not least the famous Rutger Hauer Tears In Rain monologue. Blade Runner is a masterpiece, a perfect vinyl soundtrack album, twelve tracks of early 80s synth music, enormously influential, futuristic, moving, powerful, evocative, romantic and haunting, and a narrative in its own right. 

Blade Runner (Main Titles)

Tales Of The Future

Blade Runner (End Titles)

Tears In Rain

Finally See What It Means To Be Living

I bought Eliza a copy of Fast Car by Tracy Chapman on 7" for Christmas. I've been buying her bits of vinyl since she was young, a small and eclectic record collection taking shape. It's a song which has crossed the generations, partly due to the strength of  original and partly due to two recent covers of it (a country cover by Luke Combs and a dance version by Jonas Blue- we'll skip past both today). Fast Car came out in April 1988, the self- titled album released the day before. Two months later Tracy Chapman stepped out on stage at Wembley Stadium and performed Fast Car to an international audience at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday concert organised by Jerry Dammers, the Anti- Apartheid and the ANC. Chapman hadn't expected to be thrust onto the stage so suddenly having already sung her three scheduled songs- Stevie Wonder was supposed to go on but his floppy disc failed and he panicked. Tracy was quickly shoved centre stage with just her guitar and a microphone. Fast Car was the song she sang.

Fast Car

Universal and unflashy folk pop, lyrics about a working class woman and dreams of escape from a dead end existence, the fast car being the ticket outta there. Tracy's narrator is at the bottom, living in a homeless shelter. 'Leave tonight or live and die this way'. It struck a chord worldwide and sold millions. 

I'm really partial to this reggae cover by Foxy Brown from October 1989- digital reggae, clattering drum machine riddim and lyrics as true in Jamaica as anywhere. 

Fast Car

Eliza's a fan of this one as well...

Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution

The poor people's revolution Tracy was talkin' 'bout in 1989 hasn't come to fruition yet. There's still time I guess but 2025 doesn't look promising from a socio- economic/ political point of view. 

From 24 In 25

Here's a few releases from late 2024 to kickstart 2025- late to me in 2024 that is, not late in the year releases, but things that either I only just caught up with or for whatever reason didn't write about earlier last year. Two of them came via Flightpath excursions. The first is Reunion by Quiet Village, a record Dan played at The Golden Lion and which caught my ear (along with one he played from 1969 but we'll come back to that at another time). 

Quiet Village are from London, a duo who play a cocktail of future jazz, downtempo, ambient/ Balearic and funk/ soul. Reunion is very much in the future jazz camp, with a rattling 6/8 rhythm, piano and a hard edge- then a sax comes in and drifts over the top into infinity. Sun Ra, Carl Craig, Clyde Stubblefield. Retro- futuristic sci jazz? Whatever labels we're using, it's rather beautiful. Available digitally at Bandcamp.

Also from the Flightpath Estate DJs record boxes is Dyslexia Sound Source by Autumns, and an album recommended by both Martin and Mark- tight percussive dub shot through with experimental post punk. The ten track album is superb from start to finish. The track I'm posting here is for the title as well as for the music, Interpretive Dance Is A Scam, no nonsense, no fat, heavy duty dubwise sounds. Dyslexia Sound Source can be found here. 

Finally, Flightpath connected but one step removed, Mark's brother Carl lives in Australia and a couple of days ago sent me a link to an album by a band called Aircooled. Eat The Gold is six songs long, a fusing of krauty/ cosmische and spiky indie rock from a three piece from St. Leonards made up of drummer Justin Welch (formerly of Elastica and The Mary Chain), Katherine Wallinger (The Wedding Present, Viv Albertine), Oliver Cherer (Miki Berenyi's Trio) and Riz Maslen (FSOL). It's all good but today the eight minute sweeping West German majesty of Star Rider is the one that really hits the spot. The full album is at Bandcamp.

Fifteen

Happy New Year! 

This blog is fifteen years old today. Bagging Area was born with a whimper on 1st January 2010, with the intention of seeing if I could do it for a year and no real plan for what I was going to write about. Here we are a decade and a half later with 5, 939 posts under my belt, over 18, 700 comments from people from near and far many of whom are now actual friends in virtual and/ or real life, and over 4, 666, 787 page views (at the time of writing). I didn't expect it to be as central to my life as it has become and can't really conceive how I could do without it. Micro- blogging and social media have their place, sharing music and with the capacity to make similar connections, but there's something about long form blogging, the process of writing, that sets it apart. I'm sure it's an outdated form of internet expression in an age of Tik Tok and Instagram Reels but it works for me and many others. The comments, the connections and the conversation, are really what make it so thank you to everyone who reads and leaves comments here (or when I share posts on Facebook). There's more of the same to come in 2025- apart from a list of artists/ songs on a notepad next to the computer and a few ideas for Saturday and Sunday posts I've no real plans beyond the next few posts, but something always comes up. 

To celebrate Bagging Area's fifteenth birthday here are a trio of fifteens in song and a poster. Andy Warhol famously said that, 'in the future, everyone will be world- famous for fifteen minutes'. And he didn't even know about YouTube at that point. Two of the songs here (I think) are inspired by or refer to that quote. The first is by Johnny Boy, a Liverpool boy- girl duo from the mid- 00s who released a legendary 7" single, You Are The Generation Who Bought More Shoes (And You Get What You Deserve), a 60s girl group inspired song that was a proper music blog song, shared countless times all over the place. Their sole album included this...

15 Minutes

Thundering drums, squealing guitars, hand shaking percussion, more multi- tracked girl group vocals, an 00s feel (think The Go- Team et al).

Ride's second re- union album was 2019's This Is Not A Safe Place, an album that drew from Jean- Michel Basquiat, Sonic Youth, and post- punk, all undercut by some squally electronics. Fifteen Minutes is three minutes fourteen seconds of indie rock with some kiss off lyrics about someone who's had their fifteen minutes and who has been bitten by karmic retribution, the song interrupted by bursts of  Goo- esque dirty guitar 

Fifteen Minutes

Thirdly, a fairly obscure Joe Strummer song, the B-side to the Island Hopping single from 1989. 15th Brigade (Viva La Quince Brigada) is a song from the Spanish Civil War, Joe singing in Spanish. There's a song of the same name written by Christy Moore, a tribute to the Irishmen who fought in the war against fascism in Spain in the International Brigades, Irish socialists who were also know as the Connolly Column. As far as I can tell the two songs aren't the same song. 

15th Brigade

And finally, a Factory records fifteen. In true Factory style the catalogue number Fac 15 wasn't given to a record but to a poster and an event (just as Fac 1 had been a poster). Fac 15 advertised the outdoor gig held jointly between Factory and Liverpool's Zoo Records, the two independent labels meeting half way in Leigh. I cycle through Leigh quite often- the idea that the cream of 1979's post punk bands played in a field there is always faintly ludicrous and totally brilliant, as is the poster's advice about how the post- punk youth of Manchester and Liverpool should get there. In terms of value for me it's second to none. It was however very poorly attended- the other bands on the line up watching whoever was on stage often comprised half of the total watching crowd. Accounts from the few who attended report that Joy Division were breathtaking.