Even though there's a jolly defiance about this song there's also an underlying melancholy aspect which just grows and grows the further in time we go.
The further in time we go the more the song by the live band and the song on the juke box in The Breakup Song become this actual song.
More sounds from the adult radio world from before I was a teenager.
I never knew what Joe was ever specifically on about in his songs. I still don't. All I knew was he was searchin' for something and possibly not always coming up with right answers. It felt like there was something taboo about his disconcerting perceptions, maybe even more so today in the post-liberal era.
Maybe I'm giving him too much credit perhaps he's just a self serious po-faced c*** who probably deserved a punch in the face. I mean...
I always thought David Essex did like three singles then died in some kind of tragic motorcycle accident. But he's got over twenty five albums and was in Eastenders a few years back.
The funny thing is he released eleven singles before releasing his first single Rock On in 1973 when I wasn't even two years old yet. So Gonna Make You A Star was his fourth proper single and some say shoulda been his last. Gonna Make You A Star is unusually produced glam almost yacht rock with synth breaks straight out of a BBC sports theme. Very strange, very emotional and very affective. Jolly good then.
Speaking of Cliff on Kenny Everett. Here he is doin' an old wave into new wave sophisticated sub Steely Dan jam. 80s Saxophone break included. Possibly Cliffford's finest moment. The sound of the radio back then all seemed so adult... it also seemed like there were a lot of songs about where people lived, who lived next door and who had moved away...
Surprisingly convincing slow burning raunchy r&b from our wholesome Clifford. Brilliant funky arrangement from Mike Leander oozing sophisticated sleaze.
*Sure my dad had old school 1950s Cliff singles but he will always be the really normal for a pop star guy with the cheese-y American teeth from The Kenny Everette Show for me.
Has there ever been a more threatening love song? Coz I Luv You is a controlled detonation of a tune where Slade really pile on the tension with that persistent menacing throb, the unsettling mayhem of those electronic handclaps, insane violin and underlying stompiness as Noddy gets whipped into a maelstrom all in the name of love or perhaps lust.
Morricone rarely rocks out in a jock-rock manner. He might have some twangin' guitars on the spaghetti western soundtracks or have some wah-wah and fuzz infected psychedelic freak-outs on his giallo scores but here the finale is almost a conventional anthemic hard rock lead break. Anyway it's not just about the rockin' last 30 seconds, this track, which I assume is some kind of edited suite, has got all sorts of disparate elements going on - the atmospheric tension of the strings and horns, the haunting harpsichord, an array of swirling sinister bass, ominous drums, disorientating jazz noir lulls and that aforementioned bombastic rock out. A symphonic crime funk masterpiece.
The entire original 1983 vinyl edition of this top ranking Morricone soundtrack. Funnily enough the rock guitar version of Cop Killer is not on here. It's only on the reissue cd from 2002. Some Morricone soundtracks are hard to sit through from go to woah as they are often repetitious variations on a theme. This record however works well as a home listening LP.
The coolest theme tune to a movie ever. Double retro of the mid 60s then this vibe was revived in the mid 90s with all the great trip-hop, lounge and downtempo gear. I have a vague recollection of a trip-hop act sampling this maybe, am I right?
That's not a guitar or a harpsichord no this one's all about the sound of that mysterious cimbalom, a Hungarian hammered dulcimer, giving this sparse spy jazz a sophisticated Euro touch. The moody vibes, creepy flutes and lonesome distant ghost of a trumpet combined with the menacing mellow melody of the cimbalom perfectly evoke a shadowy cold war atmosphere.
Hardcore going into the darkside but not becoming overtly jungle-y. Bangin atmospheric techno more than anything. Fucking relentless and goes hard with the parapsychological sonics into the transmutating darkness. Totally plugged in to an inescapable visceral force.
Fitting creepy end title theme from the regional 70s horror cult movie set in the isolated small desert town of Hillsboro, where deadly accidents are rife, children are disappearing and the elderly residents just might be a coven of satanists. Fits right along side of similarly themed cult flicks of the same era Lets Scare Jessica To Death and Messiah Of Evil but not quite as legendary.
Oh wait... just discovered the ever reliable Fish Man on youtube has put together a nine minute suite of music from the film... pretty eerie and pretty freaky...
Jaime Mendoza-Nava seems to be another one of these composers who are so under appreciated they're barely recognised at all yet he is a serious composer with an extensive body of work from the sacred to the profane working with The Bolivian National Orchestra and Madrid Symphony Orchestra to scoring soundtracks for Westerns, B-Movies and even Disney cartoons.
