Pcinemadelic (Part Two)
Both these movies cunningly exploited a combination of sex and hippie culture, with mixed success. Candy had an A-list cast (Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau ... Ringo Starr ...) edgy script (Buck Henry, from Terry Southern's novel), and made a shitload of money so it could lose it already. This is Tinseltown, Jack. Not much celebrated among the #metoos, its IMDB plot keywords are telling: naive girl, female nudity, attempted rape, breasts, female rear nudity. It's the soundtrack which concerns us here, though, and it's a doozy.
The Big Names are The Byrds (really just Roger McGuinn) and Steppenwolf, but it's Dave Grusin who spikes the Kool-Aid. In addition to co-writing the lovely Child Of The Universe with McByrd, he froths up a very superior psychedelic cocktail of mind-expanding mood music. It's not campy, corny, or clichéd - this is the real McCoy, written and produced by a real musician taking the whole thing seriously for a change.
3 In The Attic is something else, man. Let's list those IMDB plot keywords: female rapist, female on male rape, female rapes male ... you get the picture. You'd think that this controversial and womyn-empowering stance would attract the #metoos, but I'm guessing not much. It was AIP's highest-grossing movie of the decade, in spite of - perhaps because of - its undemanding and grateful C-list cast. The soundtrack is surprising - whoever got Chad And Jeremy on board should get a retroactive bonus. This was their Left Coast psych period, when they were recording Of Cabbages And Kings and The Ark; 3 In The Attic completes a nice trilogy. There's even a side-long suite - all thirteen minutes of it - modestly titled Background Music, which shows beaucoups of composing and arranging chops.
Both these quality items are from '68, the Golden Year of Things Like This.
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And both contain a little bit of sitar as all good soundtracks from 1968 should.
ReplyDeleteNice one!
ReplyDeleteBoth of these are very good, the Candy OST particularly so. The Blu-Ray reissue of Candy popped up at my local library a few months back; it's a very bad movie. One of the bonus features was a (somewhat) recent interview with Buck Henry in which he acknowledged that he could have written a better screenplay.
ReplyDeleteI saw 3 In The Attic when it was new, so my memories of that are more fragmentary.
Nice pairing!
Candy is a mess of a movie - worse, it's boring. That's the problem with most of these movies. Camp entertainment only gets you so far when a good story and engagement with a protagonist are both missing. The soundtracks, though, which were intended as a little frosting on the revenue cake, stand up much better. The generic formula of rinse and repeat the title song among a few short instrumentals has a weird appeal.
ReplyDeleteOST already featured at th' Foam: Head, Barbarella, Psych-Out, and The People Next Door. More coming up.
As always, thanks for the comments.
Thanks for these.
ReplyDeleteHello Pardner,
ReplyDeleteI hope that this letter finds you in good spirits. Typin' of good spirits, the Miss's wanted me to remind you that your bar tab is always on the house here at the Double X ranch. And typin' of high spirits, you think you still got that Candy soundtrack on hand? If you do, I'd sure like to hear those fine Moog and sitar workouts again.
Your pal,
Billy Gates (of the Double X ranch)
Candy: https://workupload.com/file/2BUrtf6wjSJ
DeletePardner,
ReplyDeleteI'll keep it short an' sweet - the Miss's and I have been in the whisky. But the Candy soundtrack is complimenting the evening sky. And I'm not ashamed to admit, that song by the Byrds never fails to bring a tear to my eye. Thank you again, you bring yourself a folding chair and come visit us at the ol' homestead, anytime.
Yours,
Billy Gates (of the Double X ranch)
You're welcome, Billy-Bob! Always good to hear from someone in the U.K.!
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