AOTW #23 - Pulp Fiction
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 1:09AM | RyanSilb
Soundtracks can be funny thing. Too often these days they are compilations of songs by “now” artists featuring an exclusive single or two “inspired by” the film and not actually even in the movie. These movies are made to be blockbusters, and blockbusters they are. These movies also tend to have scores, which are sidelined in sales by the soundtrack, but are actually in the movie! (I’m looking at you Transformers).
On the other end of the scale, you have the auteur filmmakers who ignore a score altogether and focus on finding already existing songs to fill both the ‘score’ and the diegetic music. Two such auteurs are Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic, The Royal Tennenbaums) and Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill). I’ve been listening to Tarantino’s soundtracks a lot lately because of Inglourious Basterds (review).
The first soundtrack I ever got of his was Pulp Fiction. I’d always been pretty good at picking up on score cues, but Pulp Fiction was one of the first movies where I picked up on the songs in the movie the first time through. Perhaps most importantly, it made me fall in love with surf rock, which is a genre I seem to immerse myself in whenever the spring starts to give way to summer, when the sun just seems brighter, the sky bluer, and fuels the urge to just keep driving ‘til I hit the beach.
The soundtrack opens with a clip of the first scene of the movie, and then launches into the Dick Dale and His Del-Tones version of “Miserlou,” which plays over the opening credits of the movie. Based on a traditional Greek song, Dick Dale heard “Miserlou” often in his Lebanese-Americans parents’ acts in ethnic nightclubs. It is a signature tune of the surf rock genre, billowing guitar chords over pounding drums, creating a driving rock beat.
The next music track is Kool & The Gang’s “Jungle Boogie,” which plays through Vincent and Jules’ radio. A classic funk song featuring a soaring horn feature repeated at various points in the song, the song is also notable for its deep, spoken word refrain. It was a nightclub staple after its 1973 release, and is exemplary of pre-disco Kool & the Gang.
From funk we move to R&B with Al Green’s classic “Let’s Stay Together,” one of his signature tunes. It’s one of the all-time great love songs, and definitely in my “Top Five Side One Track One” list. Green’s voice is so smooth here, and I honestly just don’t know how anyone could dislike this song.
Back to surf rock with “Bustin’ Surfboards” by the Tornadoes, which was the first big instrumental surf rock hit. Besides having that laid back California sound, the song is perhaps most notable for incorporating a recording of the ocean from beginning to the end of the song. Besides announcing the arrival of surf rock as an up-and-coming subgenre, it serves to add a natural rhythm section to the sound, supplementing the drums and bass. More importantly, this literal surf sound brings the image of the beach and waves to the mind of the listener.
Then we head to “Lonesome Town,” Ricky Nelson’s 1958 top ten hit. It’s a solemn, soulful reflection on lost love. In the movie, it plays in the background of Vincent and Mia’s conversation at Jack Rabbit Slim’s. Nelson’s rockabilly croon rolls out over his quiet guitar playing as he wistfully tells about a place “where lovers go/to cry their troubles away,” a place where hopeless romantic congregate. It’s haunting, yet heartfelt, and is easily a song I never would have discovered if not for Tarantino.
A single guitar and an R&B beat announce Dusty Springfield’s 1968 hit “Son of a Preacher Man,” which is easily my favorite song on the soundtrack. Originally offered to Aretha Franklin (who turned it down), Dusty’s voice is sweet all over this track, and merges perfectly with the relatively simple R&B arrangement, which serves to place emphases on Dusty’s voice and the emotions relayed in the lyrics. Awesome.
Another surf rock instrumental follows, coming from Buce Willis’ character’s storyline. “Bullwinkle Part II” by The Centurians is a dark, jazzy number, with a lone saxophone playing most of the melody. What’s really cool about it on this soundtrack is how well the growl of Zed’s chopper blends into opening bass line of the song.
Fittingly, the soundtrack’s entry from classic ‘50’s rock ‘n’ roll is from the scene at Jack Rabbit Slim’s nostalgia café. I’m a sucker for a catchy Chuck Berry song, and “You Never Can Tell” is no exception. A really fun piano line forms the foundation for this song, and the saxophone provides the flair that makes thing song pop.
“Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” as covered by Urge Overkill, was the single from the soundtrack. It’s one of my favorite Neil Diamond songs, and to be honest, I don’t like the Urge Overkill quite as much, even though it’s a pretty much a straight cover, I don’t know really know why. It may be Nash Kato’s vocals, or it may be the way the instruments were mixed.
“If Love is a Red Dress” is my least favorite song on the album, except for the whistling, which is rad. The third surf rock instrumental is up next, The Revels’ Commanche. It’s a mildly threatening song made so by the roaring sax playing.
That’s followed by The Statler Brothers’ “Flowers on the Wall,” a humorous account of a man’s isolated life and his daily activities such as, "Counting flowers on the wall/that don't bother me at all/playing solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one/smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo." Just a fun song all around, and Bruce Willis even quoted it in Die Hard With a Vengence.
The final song on the track is The Lively Ones’ “Surf Rider,” and also features prominently in the last sequence in the diner, in which Vincent and Jules leave following the events at the beginning of the film. It’s a song that just screams “cool,” quite the opposite of the characters’ appearance at the time, but shows they have not lost their Fonzie status. Great guitar licks and more of that laid back drumming style wraps up the music on the album.
Interspersed with all this music are snippets of Tarantino’s other signature, dialogue. While it’s kind of neat, I think my preference would be to drop it all together, but there’s not enough of it to be really annoying, and the dialogue selections are all fairly excellent to boot.
If you like the movie, you should have the soundtrack. Both are some of my all-time favorites in their respective categories, and for good reason.
[iTunes]
[Amazon mp3]
Album of the Week appears every Wednesday at Knowhere. Each week Ryan discusses an album in context of influence, artistic merit, and whatever else seems slightly relevant.
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