Buried Treasure: Thelma & Louise - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1991)

A few years ago I wrote about Mark Knopfler's soundtrack to the movie Local Hero. It featured some of my all time favorite movie music and it just happened to accompany one of my all time favorite flicks. Back in 1983 I believed the situation was unique, but then the same thing happened again in 1991 with Thelma & Louise. Not only is Ridley Scott's picture another one of my most loved films it too has a soundtrack that moves me just as much as the film does. Because lightning struck twice I now firmly believe that great music and a great film will definitely complement each other.

The eleven track CD is a real mixture of styles. It offers blues from B.B. King (a fine performance of "Better Not Look Down)" some R & B from Martha Reeves (a soulful cover of Van Morrison's "Wild Nights"), and British invasion star Marianne Faithful delivered "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" with lyrics by Shel Silverstein. Country singer Kelly Willis belts out a tough sounding "Little Honey."

The late Chris Whitley contributed the hard country-rocker "Kick The Stones." Charlie Sexton, who is cut from the same cloth, was allowed two spots: first with "Badlands" a song with some great electric guitar riffage (Is that a word?) and the more country influenced "Tennessee Plates."

Film composer Hans Zimmer, who scored the original music for the movie, closes things out with the instrumental "Thunderbird," a tune that was a bonus track on the CD and not available on the cassette version that was released at the same time. Pete Haycock, former lead guitarist for Climax Blues Band, plays tuneful slide guitar on this piece that runs with the final credits.

It's great that Scott found space for artists who were not well known such as Whitley, Sexton, Toni Childs, and Grayson Hugh, but fittingly, the highlight of the CD is its opening track by a member of the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Glenn Frey's Part of Me, Part of You, is six minutes of acoustic rock featuring his wonderfully smooth voice. It's a very moving song because of it's relationship to the plot and the closeness the title characters shared right up to their very sad ending. This track, by the former Eagles' leader, won't mean as much to anyone who hasn't seen the film but, to those of us who grew to love these nice girls who suddenly turned into reluctant outlaws, the song is quite emotional. It's among the best songs Frey has ever written.

The only questionable track on the CD is a result of Faithful's quite troublesome vocals. Age has not been kind to her voice but Silverstein's song is a good one so its still worthy of a listen.

In addition to Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis the movie also featured Harvey Keitel in a supporting role and let's not forget Brad Pitt's small but extremely important appearance. Pitt's character sets up the crucial turning point in the film that has also been cited as the turning point in his career.

While Thelma & Louise was both critically acclaimed and a box office success it's music has been unjustly forgotten.

Comments

  1. Perplexio8:50 AM, June 30, 2011

    There are a handful of movies that have benefitted from great soundtracks: Almost Famous, Stand By Me, Forrest Gump, Mr. Holland's Opus, Cocktail, and Dirty Dancing all come to mind.

    With Cocktail I'd even argue the soundtrack has held up better over time than the movie itself did!

    There are certain directors who have a knack for choosing the perfect music for their films or who at least take the time and energy to carefully consider and choose the music. I'd say all directors do this to SOME extent some are just better at it than others. Ridley Scott and Cameron Crowe come to mind as directors that have a knack for finding the right music for their films.

    Then there are the director/composer combos that go together like peanut butter & jelly or mac & cheese... Cubby Broccoli & John Barry (the Bond Films), Steven Speilberg & John Williams (a list too long to even begin!) Sergio Leone & Ennio Morricone or more recently Giuseppe Tornoatore & Ennio Morricone, Robert Zemeckis & Alan Silvestri (in particular the Back to the Future trilogy).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lois Griffin5:23 PM, January 18, 2021

    I just watched the movie on TV for about for the fourth time and I thought: this has to be Mark Knopfler's licks. I watched the credits carefully but he got no direct credit; however, there was a credit for a studio in London and I knew it had to be him.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

WHAT'S HOT TODAY!

Slower Than Slow: 16 RPM Records

Image
Have you ever heard of a long forgotten vinyl format, the 16 2/3 RPM record? They were half the speed of the 33 1/3 RPM albums that were the traditional standard for recorded music. Most record players in the 1950s and 1960s came with a speed setting to play these long forgotten discs that were considered novelties even during the years they were available. Because most, but not all, 16s had big holes and were 7" in diameter many of them were mistaken for 45 RPMs and at that size the speed allowed for up to 20 minutes of playing time per side. However, there was no true standard size and they were also manufactured to be 9, 10, or 12 inches in diameter, and these larger records played even longer. Just like the other speeds and formats 16s could be played one record at a time or stacked on a changer for continuous play. Radio stations often used the discs for pre-recorded radio shows containing interviews, dramas, and documentaries. More frequen
Read more

Howlin' Wolf - The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions (1971)

Image
Many blues purists site a lack of authenticity as a reason to dismiss an artist's work but I refuse to participate in such snobbery. If performed well a hybrid arrangement adds unique freshness to an old piece of music. The fact that the great blues singer, composer, and guitarist Chester Burnett (a.k.a Howlin' Wolf ) flew to London in 1970 to record with a few of the hottest British Invasion all-stars of the day - most of them heavily influenced by the blues - shouldn't make the music any less compelling. The participants on The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions include Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Steve Winwood on piano and organ, and three men with Rolling Stones connections: bassist Bill Wyman, drummer Charlie Watts, and pre-worldwide fame Stones' pianist,  Ian Stewart .  Hubert Sumlin - Wolf's devoted longtime sideman - provided rhythm guitar throughout these sessions. Even Ringo Starr proved he could play the blues on one track, "I A
Read more

Last Albums: James Taylor - American Standard (2020)

Image
In 2022 I wrote a blog post on The Rolling Stones' Blue & Lonesome as part of Bloggerhythms' Last Albums series. Then Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and their friends ruined the whole thing by by releasing Hackneyed Diamonds two years ago. Despite that, I'm taking my chances that 76 year old James Taylor won't let me down too and release another album, even though that might not be such a bad thing. In 2020, Taylor released a set of tunes from the Great American Songbook, and it's a good one.  American Standard is a fourteen track record of cover tunes from the man who is often credited with jump-starting the entire 70s singer-songwriter movement. Taylor is no stranger to covers. Even though he's a songwriter of great importance he's recorded many singles written by others, most notably, Carole King's "You've Got A Friend," his only Billboard #1 hit from very early in his career. He also charted with "How
Read more

New Earth Farmers - The Sky From The Underground (2024)

Image
On New Earth Farmers'  website  composer, singer, guitarist and keyboard player Paul Knowles tells us that he and composer, vocalist, and guitarist Nicole Storto never stick to one style when writing music. He says that " the song drives the treatment and genre of each track ." Their lyrics are the primary concern in an era when they  "often take a backseat to style, fashion, materialism, and hipness ." Because their emphasis is on composition you need to spend some time with The Farmers' new album,  The Sky From The Underground ,   to fully absorb their work. Trust me, it'll be worth your while. Knowles and Storto display their love of topical songwriting with "War Inside Our Hearts," a track he said is inspired by the greatest of all punk bands, The Clash. "You say your way is better than another. That’s how our minds are torn apart." "Frequency" tackles the devastatingly sad subjec
Read more

Why Do 45 RPM Records Have Big Holes?

Image
Today we're going to find out why 45 RPM records have much larger holes than 78s and 33s. Believe it or not I often wondered about this burning question when I was collecting hundreds of these little seven inch gems back the 1960s. According to several websites, including Answerbag , the reason for the large hole used by 45s was simple. It was difficult for the old 78s, with their smaller holes, to find their way onto jukebox spindles. The large hole effectively eliminated that problem. Strangely, seven inch 45s were often pressed with the smaller holes used for LPs in many countries outside the United States, especially in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Overseas the inserts (commonly know as spiders) were manufactured into the large holes at the factories but they could be punched out if desired. The Beatles' British single of "Love Me Do," pictured here, is a typical example. Why were the spiders built into English 45s? I was unable to fi
Read more