Here's How Much Of A Soundtrack Lunatic I Am!

Monday is about movies. And sometimes TV. Today, I buy lots of soundtracks to movies. And sometimes to TV.

My biggest musical passion might be jazz. But then, I love soul music too. I am not quite a hip-hop head, but I do dig into it pretty deep from time to time. I was raised on good blues, and I have an appreciation for a lot of genres, and as I get older I’m really learning to embrace the cheese. And craving much more metal in my diet (to offset the microplastics?) But there’s no question that across most of the last five years my biggest musical passion has been movie soundtracks. And that’s both instrumental score, and soundtrack compilations filled with classic needle-drops from the good (High Fidelity), the bad (Muriel’s Wedding) and the ugly (Priscilla Queen of the Desert).

I’ve told you plenty of times, I know, across Monday substacks (movies) sometimes and Friday (music) ones more often — about this love of soundtracks, and/or individual great scores or soundtracks. I’ve filled you in on how it wasn’t just some quirky lockdown pastime (although starting an actual CD collection all over again might have been). The music of cinema has been in my ears and a big part of the experience of what’s in front of my eyeballs since my grandfather took me to Battletruck and Tarzan and whatever else he wanted to see while minding me…

But I thought today I could show you just how loony it has got recently. My motto remains: It’s okay, if it’s not hurting anyone. Anything, and everthing can be okay if it’s not hurting anyone…

Because it’s one thing to be close to owning most of the John Carpenter scores on vinyl (which I do) and to have a couple of dozen fantastic Morricone scores on LP (as if there’s any other kind). And again, I do. I have dozens of Morricone CDs and nearly as many on vinyl as well. And no double-ups, apart from The Mission, which is genuinely so beautiful as to be required listening in every room really.

But the score for Mrs Henderson Presents?

It’s unlikely I’ll even watch this film — and okay, George Fenton’s music for the BBC Blue Planet series was stirring and beautiful, and he’s made music for Dangerous Liasons and The Fisher King and Groundhog Day, among many others. But still, what am I doing with this, right? I am no George Fenton completist. There is no George Fenton completist. Even Mrs George Fenton, happily married for 52 years, hasn’t fucking listened to Mrs Henderson Presents. At least, not as an album. She was dragged to the premiere under duress and when asked by the press for her thoughts on an exiting Red Carpet she simply said, “Shit!”.

The music of Nashville Season 1, Volume 1

Nashville not only boasts an acting turn by the always brilliant Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights, White Lotus, um the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street…) but she sings all through it also, and is on the soundtrack. But I’ve never seen Nashville. It runs for 28 seasons, and each season has 17 different soundtracks. Every winter I think about how I’m going to binge-watch Nashville as my happy trash. But then, I remember I haven’t even seen Empire. And I owe Taraji P. Henson my time. I should see her “Cookie” in action. I really should. My white guilt kicks in at the thought that I’m’a binge Nashville before Empire. It’s bad enough I now own a soundtrack CD of Nashville (one of a 476 volume set; quick math!) I currently don’t own the Empire soundtrack. So I should at least fix that first.

I’m not actually that big on “Superhero” films, I’ve seen a few I guess, but I never try to. That didn’t stop me from buying 16 Superhero Themes.

Hilariously, this includes Batdance, from the 1989 version of Batman, the Prince song from his soundtrack where he basically just imagines his own movie where he is Batman. Less hilariously, this CD teases that it’s by The Allen Toussaint Orchestra. But this is not some funky, New Orleans “Neville Brothers” styled gumbo of soundtrack fare. As you might hope when seeing the name Allen Toussaint. Nope. This ain’t that.

Grumpier Old Men was the less funny sequel to the one-joke Grumpy Old Men, which just made TV’s The Odd Couple reappear as the geriatric old farts they’d become. It was watchable because of the chemistry and star power of the leads. And I have seen both Grumpy and Grumpier, and I might have actually liked them. And Grumpier Old Men, in my mind, is the one with the best single line-reading in it, a silly old joke about something that might swallow you whole. And then Lemmon replies, “Swallow my WHAT?” Good times! Great gag. Anyway, none of this means that I had to buy the soundtrack to Grumpier Old Men.

But, this is the world we are living in. And, actually, the Grumpier Old Men soundtrack is a bit like owning the When Harry Met Sally or You’ve Got Mail soundtracks. You might totally not want to admit to it, nor hang the cover in a frame, but there’s no need to hang your head in shame with songs like Hit The Road Jack and S’Wonderful included; with artists like Louis Armstrong, Harry Belafonte, Louis Jordan, Johnny Cash, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin and the Dell Vikings on there. This one might be the gem I was looking for eh!

As with George Fenton, Alexandre Desplat is a very dependable score-composer. And, sure, The King’s Speech was a watchable-enough film. Did it tell the truth? Do such films ever? Do I need to see it again? FUCK NO. Do I need the music from it?

I could say no. But we knew where this was going. I ain’t mad that I grabbed this. It’s no Thomas Newman (The Shawshank Redemption) or Rachel Portman (The Joy Luck Club) but it is Alexandre Desplat. And he’s pretty blood good most of the time (The Shape of Water, The French Dispatch, Godzilla, Isle of Dogs). In fact, even when the film is shit, he usually isn’t.

And…well…you get it…

These are all just part of who I am now, and just some of the CDs I bought this weekend to add to my bonkers soundtrack collection.

GOSH!