This is one of my favorite movies of all time. Unfortunately the excellent soundtrack was apparently never released. Does anybody know anything different on this? I actually mailed a letter to the composer in CA., but never received a reply.
shareIv'e never seen a soundtrack for sale. However if your'e a CCR fan you can get their 3 tracks on any one of a number of compilation CCR CD's available for sale.
The other '60's tracks (Spencer Davis Group, Jackie de Shannon etc) are available on compilation CD's also.
Not sure about "Golden Rocket".
Golden Rocket is by Hank Snow - and is available on 'Best Of ...'
I was told years ago the soundtrack was out for a while in the US, but never crossed the pond to the UK - where the film was released as 'Dog Soldiers'. Have been looking ever since ... but no joy!
I also love this movie. I saw it in its theater release, and I've never understood why it was not more of a success. But how can you refer to "the composer" when the songs used in the movie came from a number of composers? Do you mean the music production person who put it together?
I think the unsung hero of the sound on this movie is the person who put together the wonderfully subtle sound effects and background noise. I watched it recently with two fellow musicians who had never seen it, and they agreed with me that the use of sound (not just songs) is outstanding.
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Intrada has just released the soundtrack to this movie! It is limited to only 1200 copies so get yours now while they are still available. Here is the link.
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.5844/.f?category=-101
It looks like that's more the film score (theme music) rather than the soundtrack (rock songs that were used in the film). Of course, most everyone who loves rock 'n' roll already has the CCR and Spencer Davis songs, so that's more valuable. Does anyone know if it was it ever released on vinyl?
shareI remember seeing the film when it came out in 1978, and I would have bought the soundtrack album -- if one had existed. There were probably some legal problems with CCR music being licensed, I'm not sure.
shareYes, I suspect there were licensing issues with releasing a soundtrack with the CCR music. I wonder if that delayed the DVD release of this film also?
John Fogerty seems very controlling of the band's music, but of course he lost a lot of that control and has reminded us of that over the years. On the other hand, the CCR songs were widely available on the band's own releases.
This seems like a fairly early instance of a film being named after an unrelated rock song, but the two tie together nicely.
I know that the video release of Mean Streets was delayed somewhat because some expensive music by the Rolling Stone and Eric Clapton appeared in the film. In the 60's and 70's, musicians and record companies were casual about letting filmmakers use music, without realizing the long-term value of this music. I heard that Led Zeppelin charges a million dollars per song for filmmakers to use their music.
You would think a soundtrack to Who'll Stop the Rain would be available, but I'm guessing that Fantasy Records preferred to license out CCR songs to films but not to soundtrack LPs. I'm also guessing that Fantasy felt that Fogerty's songs appearing in a major film (and serving as a film title) would juice LP catalog sales.
Excellent point on "Mean Streets." Wasn't a lot of that music played in the background of the pool hall? It was sort of incidental to the film, but it was still very much there.
It was a very different scene in the '60s and '70s with music in films. I suspect the record companies were very glad to place their songs in movies for very little royalties, but in the '80s and beyond home video added a very complicated wrinkle. A lot of excellent films with terrific soundtracks still haven't made it to DVD ("Looking for Mr. Goodbar" is a great example), and others have been released with different music ("Heroes" with Henry Winkler omitted Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son" in the VHS release).
I've also heard about Led Zeppelin charging huge amounts to use their music in films, which is unfortunate because their music would be excellent in movies (though it stands fine on its own). There's a joke in "Wayne's World" where a guitarist in a music shop starts playing a riff, then the clerk scolds him and points to a sign that says "No 'Stairway to Heaven.' " It's pretty obvious that the riff is not from "Stairway to Heaven," but the filmmakers wanted to mention the song without paying the fees.
Interestingly, Led Zep allowed "Immigrant Song" to be used in "School of Rock" after director Richard Linklater and Jack Black begged them for the rights. Zep also allowed Cameron Crowe to use their music in his films because he was the rare journalist to write favorably about them in Rolling Stone. (As a side note, I'm surprised that so many writers were dissing Led Zep.) But those two exceptions are rare with Zep's music in films.
John Fogerty's relationship with Fantasy Records was very contentious, and he has so much spite, it's hard to get a detached perspective. He demonizes Saul Zaentz, but I wonder if CCR would have become as big as they did if not for Zaentz. I'm not taking anyone's side here because I haven't explored the issue, and frankly don't really want to because it's all very depressing. It's just unfortunate that these legal and personality issues distract from the music and keep the music out of the hands of people who want it. You'd think that writing and recording the music would be the hard part and that it would market itself once people hear it, but often selling it obliterates the creative process.
Apparently Linklater wanted to use Rock and Roll by Led Zep at the end of Dazed and Confused (gee, where did that title come from) but the rights were too expensive to secure. So he used Foghat's Slow Ride instead -- which actually worked better, because that song really does bring back 1976 for me. So Linklater couldn't afford Led Zep for his 70's nostalgia piece, just as George Lucas cound't afford Elvis Presley music for American Graffiti.
I was wondering why Looking for Mr. Goodbar isn't on DVD. There was a lot of disco in that film, I would think it would be easy to secure the rights. But who knows. It's a rather grim, hopeless, nihilistic film, so maybe Paramount doesn't think anyone wants to see it, despite Keaton's presence.
From what I've gathered, no other major rock artists signed with Fantasy because of what Fogerty went through. It also helps explain why rock artists in the 80's and 90's demanded huge advances. I've read horror stories about countless artists who feel like they were screwed out of royalties.
I think "Slow Ride" works perfectly for the ending of "Dazed and Confused." To me that embodies the spirit of '76 perfectly, along with Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" and Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town." (I remember falling on my face roller skating while those were playing at the rink.)
Led Zeppelin is an excellent and important band, but it seems that the more blue-collar groups like Aerosmith, Nazareth and Bad Company connected better with teenagers, at least where I grew up. My older brother had all the Zep albums, and they were exotic and mystifying to me then, but I absolutely love them now. Plus you had acts like Pink Floyd, Queen, Kiss, Bowie, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, the Stones, AC/DC, Ted Nugent, the Runaways, Cheap Trick and the Scorpions going strong. Plus there was a growing punk and New Wave movement, and disco was huge for those who were so inclined. What an insanely excellent time to be a teenager!
Supposedly the soundtrack is what's holding up the DVD release of "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," but I wonder at this point if Paramount just doesn't think it's worth it. Other than Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way," the film doesn't have huge songs like "Saturday Night Fever" had. It features important stars very early in their career like Diane Keaton (the year she won the Oscar for "Annie Hall"), Richard Gere and Tom Berenger, and it has perhaps the bleakest ending I have ever seen in a film. I'm holding on to my VHS basically forever.
And yes, Fantasy is pretty much known as The Label that Screwed John Fogerty. Other than disco singer Sylvester and jazz acts like Dave Brubeck, I can't name a single act on the label without Googling.
probably some legal issues. yep.
The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.-James Madison