MovieChat Forums > Licorice Pizza (2021) Discussion > The Music in Licorice Pizza(SPOILERS)

The Music in Licorice Pizza(SPOILERS)

posted 2 years ago by ecarle (14979)
4 replies | jump to latest

Licorice Pizza seems to be set in 1972 and 1973. "1973" is announced at the end when the two leads meet beneath a marquee for "Live and Let Die." They watch President Nixon give his one (but not only?) speech about the Arab oil embargo, which leads to the long gas lines in the movie -- that happened in late 1973 and early 1974, so maybe the movie is playing with time a bit to fit things together.

In any event, director Paul Thomas Anderson(PTA) had a whole lotta Top Ten tunes to choose from in 1972-1974. In an interview, he even noted that he looked over radio music charts to pick his songs for the movie.

Bottom line: PTA elected NOT to use a lot of the most famous material from those years. He didn't go for such obvious items as Take It Easy, Tumbling Dice, Maggie May, Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree, You're So Vain, etc.

Now Maggie May was from 1971...but that's OK in a movie set in 1973 in the main. No, the 1971 song that PTA used was the soulful and yearning love song "Lisa Listen To Me." By Blood Sweat and Tears -- who had much BIGGER hits in Spinning Wheel, And When I Die, and You've Made Me So Very Happy.

That's how it goes with PTA's music choices -- lesser known hits from well known artists. There's a Sonny and Cher song...but not their most famous. There's a Doors song...but not THEIR most famous.

There's one "wrong gaffe song" -- Stumblin' In (on the jet ride back east.) Which is from 1978 and long after the events of the movie. But I suppose PTA knew that and either just wanted to test us or felt the song "fit."

Chuck Berry's 1972 live novelty hit "My Ding A Ling" plays on the car radio as our kids discuss waterbeds as a place to have sex...but only for an awkward embarrassing moment. Near the end at the pinball parlor, a pretty big hit (James Gang's Walk Away/Seems to Me) had that "Golden Oldies feeling."

And "Lisa Listen To Me" reprises at the end and proves quite right for the cilmactic decisions made by our two friend/lovers.

But I think at the end of the day, its one song at the beginning of Licorice Pizza , and one song at the end(over the end credits) that "get the emotional job done" in making Licorice Pizza a meaningful movie and a potential classic.

At the beginning: "July Tree" , by Nina Simone. A lilting and beautiful song that opens with "true love seed in the autumn ground" and details how over time, a tree of love grows to fruition. The song is DEEPLY about love, and so as Gary and Alana begin their bantering courtship , we KNOW something more meaningful is beginning here.

And all the way at the END, when the final decision is made and the end credits come on , we get a song from Taj Mahal called "Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day" -- very exhilarating and upbeat, with the title basically saying "seize your love today, tomorrow may not be your day."

Those two songs -- neither of which are familiar to me, and I was around back then -- start Licorice Pizza perfectly and end Licorice Pizza perfectly and I can only wonder...

...just how many damn songs did PTA have to sample before choosing THOSE two perfect wonders?

His decision making here on the songs is the mark of a very good, maybe great, director.

[–] NotASpeckOfCereal (302) 2 years ago

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I was noting the same things and basically thought it was PTA making his own personal choices, and also seemingly picking songs for their lyrical meanings relative to the store rather than known hits of the times.

I was around back then--in High School in early/mid '70s LA and having been a patron at the Licorice Pizza stores--but a lot of the cuts played here were not known to me.

---
Same here, I was roughly that age in those years and a key number of these songs were either unknown to me or like this: I vaguely remember them, but not as big hits. (Lisa Listen To Me, for instance. Maybe even Peace Frog among Doors songs.)

I got a great comparison a few nights ago watching the comedy "Dick" on streaming. This 1999 movie is set in Washington DC in the 1973/1974 time of Watergate -- roughly the Licorice Pizza period. Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst play two teenage girls who help bring down Nixon.

The movie was OK -- far more broad and mainstream in its approach than Licorice Pizza -- but the 70's soundtrack was one where I knew EVERY song , in a big way, from contact radio airplay and my owned records. Here's some of the "Dick" playlist:

ABC...Jackson Five
Rock Your Baby
Brother Louie
Coconut by Harry Nilsson
Lady Marmalade
Hooked on a Feeling
Baby I'm a Want You(Bread)
I Honestly Love You(Olivia Newton John -- THAT song was in Jaws when the boy got ate at the beach)
Mr. Big Stuff
Crocodile Rock (Elton John -- HAD to have an EJ song)
Rock On (the trippy haunting anthem of MY 1974)
Come and Get Your Love
You're So Vain (Carly Simon...everywhere all the time from 72 on)

Now those songs in "Dick" brought my youth back in a big way, and it was thus a pleasurable movie to watch/listen to.

But something tells me that there was no way PTA was going to tie THOSE songs to the artful and profound 70's universe of Licorice Pizza.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

If he had this film in his head well before principle production started, he was likely listening to music for many weeks to months, at the home, in the car, etc. I like how he takes this on himself--other directors would farm it out and give only final yeas or nays to certain selections.

--

PTA gave an interview for Licorice Pizza where he did something I think "art film" writer-directors do all the time: he answered like he just did "the normal things" to get his soundtrack, but the movie proves otherwise. He said he checked Top 50 charts of the time, etc. See, PTA wasn't alive for most of the 70s, so he had to "study" to find the right songs.

And he pretty much rejected all the songs(and types of songs) that are found in "Dick."

The results make Licorice Pizza very different and special in its soundtrack.

Example:

When I saw Licorice Pizza the first time, I remember being delighted and entertained by the initial long sequence in which Gary pitches Alana on a date. She keeps resisting -- but she never walks away. Its a great romantic scene.

But something about it FELT even better to me. The emotional resonance of it.

On second viewing, I found that the song "July Tree" by Nina Simone is what made it even more special still. PTA allows us to hear the first lines "True love seeds in the autumn breeze" (love will bloom) and then leaves the song UNDER the dialogue until at the very last moments of the scene -- Alana walking away from Gary, SMILING. Then PTA brings up the very sweet and pretty final notes of "July Tree." We have been "put on the side of this love affair" from the get-go. The dialogue. The acting. The shimmering sunny cinematography...but also... a very little known song("July Tree.")

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Note in passing: Between pop/rock songs, Jonny Greenwood has n instrumental theme that is quite quiet, delicate and sweet...it accompanies the scene where Gary asks Alana for her phone number, and launches the climactic run by Alana from the Joel Wachs scene ...to Gary.

Note in passing: the long camera take following Gary into the "Teen Fair" (where Herman Munster and other surprises await) is some sort of weird, exotic music (by Greenwood, or another source?) which again shows the artfulness of this film.