1967–Mike

Albums

1. Jimi Hendrix Experience–Are You Experienced? We’ve heard these songs a million times on FM radio, right? But rarely, if ever, have I pulled out the album and listened to it start to finish. I’ve played “Axis–Bold as Love” a heck of a lot more throughout my life since purchasing it on 8 track in 7th grade, and it holds a special place in my heart for that reason alone. That may be why listening to “Are You Experienced?” again this month took my breath away. It is so familiar, yet listening to it in its entirety, so new. Youtube doesn’t do this justice. Spotify version sounds pretty damn good. Did I really, some time back, manage to post a list of guitar solos without including one from this album? Shoot me.
2. The Velvet Underground & Nico. Every song, maybe especially “Heroin.”
3. Love–Forever Changes.
4. The Doors. I remember when it was not cool to like this album. Imagine that. The least heralded songs–Back Door Man (one of my top B1 tracks of all time, I think I might have mentioned before), Crystal Ship, Alabama Song–are just as good as the well-recognized greats like “Break on Through” (what a first track!), etc. Tim noted Densmore’s drumming a few months ago. Check “Touch Me” again. It always surprised me how little they were able to accomplish after Morrison’s passing, such a great band.
5. The Kinks–Something Else by the Kinks. So many great songs.
6. The Beatles–Magical Mystery Tour. It might actually be “Flying” that pushes this over the edge of greatness for me. Weird, huh?
7. Aretha Franklin–Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. Includes several of the great songs of this or any year, including the title track, the vocals rapturous (is that a word?) and the band, well christ, every element is just perfection: the organ, piano, bass, drums, the backing vocals, the guitar. The fucking horns!
8. Pink Floyd–Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I swear this music we listen to, it generates its own electricity. It could solve the world’s energy crisis, couldn’t it? Astronomy Domine; proof.
9. Pete La Roca–Turkish Women at the Bath. The biggest surprise for me this month. This was re-released in 1973 as the Chick Corea “Bliss” album, which is what I have but had never listened to before this month. John Gilmour and Corea do shine here, but La Roca wrote many of these songs, all spell-binding and beautiful. Start with the title track, but also check out “Bliss” and all the rest, available on Spotify along with his other brilliant album, “Basra” (released in ’65). What a find.
10. Sun Ra–We Travel the Spaceways. Feels a little bit strange to select this as a top ten album from 1967, in spite of the fact that it consists of recordings from the late 50’s. But as this is a go-to album from one of my favorite artists of all-time, and I don’t think I’ve had an opportunity to sing his praises yet on this space, I couldn’t resist including it. Some Ra fans will find this to lack some of the experimentation or freedom of his later work, but elements of that can still be found here, alongside several of his greatest melodies, such as Tapestry for an Asteroid.

I’ll try to get to a song listing soon. Here’s a list of the top 50 albums I own from 1967.

1967 – Brent

1967

This one was difficult with a lot of choice (especially American garage/psych) didn’t make the cut along with some heavy hitters (Dylan, Doors, Who). I did cheat by separating the Jazz.

ALBUMS

1)  Easter Everywhere – 13^th Floor Elevators

Slip Inside This House –  “Bedoin tribes ascending, From the egg into the flower” and “somewhere between 10 minutes and an infinity…” later “There is no season when you are grown, You are always risen from the seeds you’ve sown” as Danny Galindo’s bass surges into the red and Stacy Sutherland’s tone is so damned sweet in the refrain it seems the Elevators have broken through to the other side indeed. Roky’s intonation/inflection/cadence/soul of Tommy Hall’s lyrics are freaking mesmerizing slipping in front, behind, and pass through the Elevator’s monster groove constantly pushing forward, pushing further, pushing in (out?).  Easter Everywhere swims so deep in the psychedelia others on this list seem like mere pretenders.

2)  Axis: Bold As Love – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – One Rainy Wish, Bold As Love.

3)  Forever Changes – Love

– Once upon a time I referred to Forever Changes as “Solid”. Mike corrected me…” no it’s fragile”. True…Very True.

4) Something Else By The Kinks – The Kinks

– Tim covered this pretty well…omitted highlighting Waterloo Sunset…beautiful…a favorite.

5)  Absolutley Free – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention

– I’m sure Bob will poetically gush over this so I’ll leave it to him. Why Don’tcha Do Me Right, Brown Shoes Don’t Make It, Invocation & Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin.

6)  Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles.

– Perhaps should be higher…my apologies to the Beatles fanatics.

7)  Safe as Milk – Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band – Zig Zag Wanderer, Electricity.

8)  There Are But Four Small Faces – Small Faces

– Only a hint or rather a whisper of groove left on my Lp a good reminder to purchase a new copy…I’ll throw in with Marriott et all any day! Tin Soldier, Itchycoo Park.

9) The Velvet Underground & Nico

– Long ago I was drawn to Venus In Furs & The Black Angel’s Death Song. Nowadays it’s There She Goes Again & Sunday Morning. Still LOVE it all.

10) Piper At The Gates Of Dawn – Pink Floyd – See Emily Play, Interstellar Overdrive.

SONGS

1)  Heroes & Villians – Beach Boys

2)  All Is Loneliness – Big Brother & The Holding Company

– I’m not sure things get much heavier than this riff Big Bother throw down…unless Janis Joplin were to bleed her soul all over the top…wait that’s exactly what she does. With a bit more feedback and volume this makes most current riff monsters Pharoah Overlord seem tame.

3)  Mr.Soul/Expecting To Fly – Buffalo Springfield

4)  Real Crazy Apartment – Winston’s Fumbs

– Jimmy Winston made his claim to fame as a short lived keyboardist for the Small Faces but this burner’s organ is driven by (again) short lived Yes member Tony Kaye. Silly lyrics (furniture…whooo!) but what they hey?

5) My Obsession – Rolling Stones

– Muddy, bloody sound, rolling organ & bass lines, and Jagger’s slow drawl!

6) 2000 Light Years From Home/2000 Man – Rolling Stones

7)  Love Makes Sweet Music /Feelin’, Reelin’ Squeallin’– Soft Machine

– First salvo from the Softs. How great is Ayers on the second track?

8) Too Much Lovin’ – Joe Battan

– Bataan gets me dancing everytime! Unfortunately I’m positive I’m not doing the Bugaloo…push push!

9)  Action Woman/The Mummy – The Litter

– The Mummy could be run of the mill fuzz-surf but it contains the greatest 10 seconds of garage guitar (:50-1:00).

10) War or Hands Of Time – The Master’s Apprentices

11)  I Could Be So Good To You – Don & The Goodtimes

– By 1967 Don & The Goodtimes had mellowed from Northwest rave-ups like The Witch or Turn On. I still love the bubble Gum flavor here…infectious!

JAZZ

1)  In Greenwich Village – Albert Ayler – Truth Is Marching In, Our Prayer.

2)  Song For – Joseph Jarman (Little Fox Run).

3)  Old/Quartet – Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble – Tatas-Matoes.

4)  Om – John Coltrane.

5) For Adolphe Sax – Peter Brotzmann Trio.

6)  Eastern Man Alone – Charles Tyler – Cha-Lacy’s Out East, Man Alone.

7)  Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy/Angels & Demons At Play – The Sun Ra Arkestra – Adventure/Equation, Plutonian Nights.

8)  Conquistador! – Cecil Taylor.

9)  Three For Shepp – Marion Brown – The Shadow Knows.

10)  AMMusic – AMM – Later During A Flaming Riviera, After Rapidly Circling The Plaza.

11) The Inflated Tear – Rashaan Roland Kirk

– Some of the above have questionable release dates (Om/Conquistador/Ra). My apologies if they are wrong…let me know…I have others waiting.

John’s ’67

1967: This was a stellar year for chamber pop, soul singles and the release of two of my most favorite jazz records.

Songs:

The Raelets – “It’s Almost Here” Hell yes. Ray Charles backup singers stepping out. I love this. It might be my favorite record on my jukebox. Never released on CD or LP, but I’m happy to play this A-side on loop. Amazing.

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” This is my wife Sue and my song. Or at least one of them. Perfect vocals. Perfect arrangement.

Otis Redding – “Try a Little Tenderness” One of the greatest builds ever. So good.

Jackie Wilson – “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher” Jackie was trying to keep up with Mowtown at this point. And at least on this cut, he got there and then some. Amazing vocal.

The Rolling Stones – “She Smiled Sweetly” My favorite Stones cut. No guitars… Great production.

James Carr – “Dark End of the Street” Deep soul.

The Kinks – “Waterloo Sunset” Jon Brion calls this the greatest song ever written. I’m not in that camp, but it is a great song and definitely one of my favorites by this era of the Kinks.

Scott Walker – “Montague Terrace (In Blue)” Cool orchestrations. The only Scott Walker I like. The drums kick ass on this. And Bowie, especially later Bowie, owes quite a bit to this man in terms of singing style.

Chris Clark – “From Head to Toe” A great blue-eyed soul singer on Motown. Who knew? This isn’t necessarily her best recorded song (there was a lot of great stuff in the Motown vaults that only surfaced in the past decade or two), but it was her biggest hit. And it has a great percussion break.

The Association – Never My Love” Great song and arrangement. I wish it had a bit more edge, but it makes up for it with the awesome tremolo guitar tone. This one just barely nudged out The Turtles “Happy Together” for this list. I figured they covered some similar ground.

Albums:

The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: I remember first hearing this record at the age of 13 or so and thinking how modern and fresh it sounded. I’ve been an immense Beatles fan ever since. Ringo sounds amazing as usual on this record. I love the guitar tones. John and Paul’s writing is also great, but the productions really shine. No one has done a pop record better since. A Day In The Life, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Good Morning Good Morning

Bee Gees – First: If you are not intimately familiar with the first 5 Bee Gee’s US records, then you are really missing out. Great sadness, great songs and great productions. This first record owes more to the Beatles than any of their others, but the brothers were already dialing in on their own sound. There’s not a bad song on this record, and even the weakest compositions are immensely interesting. I Close My Eyes, New York Mining Disaster 1941, Holiday, To Love Somebody

Gary Burton – A Genine Tong Funeral: Arguably Carla Bley’s best compositions with her mini jazz orchestra and Burton’s Quartet. The arrangements and writing are just sick. Beautiful, sad and humorous. Great features from Burton on vibes and Larry Coryell on guitar, though this is not about soloists. It’s about a complete musical statement. If you are not familiar with this record, you are in for a treat. Listen to these samples all the way through. Settle in for a journey. Some Dirge/Morning Part 2, Opening/Shovel/The Survivors/Grave Train

Rahsaan Roland Kirk – The Inflated Tear: Another breathtakingly record with humor, sadness and beauty. This is a special album full of amazing performances. Inflated Tear, The Black and Crazy Blues, A Laugh For Rory

The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour: A collection of songs rather than an album per say, but what a great collection of songs it is. I am the Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane

The Left Banke – Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballarina: Boy, that album title would suggest this is a throwaway album released just capitalize on the success of those two title tracks. Not true. A bit of a poor man’s Zombies, but the writing is smart, the arrangements are lush and the singing is great. Impressive that it actually predates Odessey and Oracle by a year. Walk Away Renee, Shadows Breaking Over My Head, Let Go of You Girl

The Beach Boys – Smiley Smile: What a weird little record. Had Smile come out this year, it would have been the number one record on this list. As it stands, this record is really cool in its abstractness. Despite containing some of my least favorite renditions of my most favorite Beach Boys songs (re-recordings of songs that should have been on Smile), it still has many gems, full of great melodies, arrangements and humor. And I love how dry the record is in production style compared to Brian’s attempts to mimic Spector’s wall of sound. There’s nothing quite like this record. With Me Tonight, Heroes and Villains, Fall Breaks and Back to Winter

Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You: Aretha’s coming out party. Great song after great song. And the singer’s pretty good, too. I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Do Right Woman Do Right Man, Respect

Antonio Carlos Jobim – Wave: There were some great light bossa nova records that came out this year (Astrud’s “Look to the Rainbow” and “Domingo” by Caetano Veloso & Gal Costa both narrowly missed the cut to make this list). Some may consider this easy listening or the birth of elevator music. But the songs are great, and the arrangements are smart. It is also effective in capturing a time and a place. That place is Brazil and the time is the late 60’s. It’s an album full of compositions by Jobim, thus its inclusion on this list was a no-brainer. Antigua, Wave

The Creation – We Are The Paintermen: Okay, not really my favorite record. But the first cuts on this album are so great I had to include it. Plus it makes for a great palette cleanser coming off the Jobim. Making Time, Cool Jerk

Tim’s ’67

Cheers, Bob – that was torture! Holy crap – 1967 iwas hard! Listening through the longlist was a hell of a lot of fun though!  I decided to leave out some obvious choices, though they constitute some of my favourite artists and album of all time: The Doors, Cream, Rolling Stones, Love, Jimi Hendrix Experience. Anyway – here’s my picks.

Songs

1. Young Girl Blues (Donovan) – oh yeah – Donovan was doing this shit in the 60s.
2. What Am I Doing Hanging Round (The Monkees) – 67 was a prolific year for the Monkees, notably seeing the a push for country-rock from Mike Nesmith. Though not one his compositions, its a great one. Note the other Monkees miming to a song they’d never heard before.
3. Invisible Tears (Charles Manson) – okay – I’ll get it if you don’t want to listen to this stuff, but he’s a surprisingly good singer-songwriter. All his demos from ’67 are really interesting: This Is The Night Life, Swamp Girl, Maiden with The Green Eyes,
4. Macarthur Park (Richard Harris) – yep, Dumbledore singing a 7 minute Jimmy Webb song with a psychedelic wig-out in the middle. Considered a bit of a joke/novelty-song – I always thought it was kinda James-Bond and awesome.
5. So Nice (Summer Samba) (Astrud Gilberto) – Hubby João wasn’t impressed when his German/Brazilian wife was recruited to sing on one of his albums when no-one else was available – but her smooth, pitchy voice is the epitome of 60s easy listening. Adore Astrud! This is the English-language version.
6. Bientôt Tu L’Oublieras (Jacqueline Taïeb) – Very much in the style of Serge Gainsbourg’s french-girly-pop, the exquisite Jacqueline Taïeb kicks out the jams.
7. My White Bicycle (Tomorrow) – most psychedelic one-hit-wonder ever? Just the most psychedelic song ever.
8. Guitar Man (Elvis Presley) – random song from the aging hip-shaker, but one that he clearly loved singing (which was rare at this point!) Kickstarted the ’68 Come Back Special.
9. The First Cut Is The Deepest  (P.P. Arnold) – American singer signed to UK label Immediate Records and had a huge hit with this Cat Stevens penned song. Stevens released his original version the same year, along with Mersey nutjobs Koobas, but it was P.P’s version that everyone fell in love with. No doubt – what a honey!
10. Mile High Swinger (a) (Alan Hawshaw) – in the late 60s there were a handful of British composers that cut some of the funkiest jams imaginable for the KPM commercial music library. This is one of my favourites from KPM1012, which features Moog synthesizer on every track. You’ve heard Alan Hawkshaw before – about a billion times!

Albums

1. Chelsea Girl (Nico) – I get it if people don’t like her voice – but this is a mesmerizing album from a very very weird lady. Considering what other people were putting out in ’67 – this is really out-there.
2. Gorilla (The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) – this lot started out doing songs on a kids TV show and were a huge influence on Monty Python. This, their debut album contains a lot of their best material, notably Big Shot, The Intro and The Outro, but the whole album will give you a chuckle. Perhaps the least interesting track is entitled ‘Death Cab For Cutie’.
3. Something Else by (The Kinks) – an amazing year for this band – hugely overshadowed by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, this album was overlooked as a bunch of singles. Check out the gorgeous Autumn Almanac, the ultra-influential David Watts, ultra-trippy Lazy Old Sun as well as Dave Davies awesome Love Me Til The Sun Shines (BBC Session), and Death Of A Clown. Fuck Sgt. Pepper. I’ll take this.
4. Scott (Scott Walker) – like Nico, Scott Walker is hard to get into. This, his debut, is filled with dramatic orchestral dirges and booming croons courtesy of Jacques Brel.
5. Younger Than Yesterday (The Byrds) – another knock-out from the Byrds. Highlights are My Back Pages, Chris Hilman’s shit-kicking country on Time Between, and the chilling Crosby composition Everybody’s been burned.
6. Smile/Smiley Smile/Wild Honey (The Beach Boys) – If they’d got their shit together these abortive albums could have been one classic one. Smile/Smiley Smile produced the incredible Heroes & Villains and Good Vibrations, but Carl earns his beans belting out Wild Honey and Darlin’. Way too ahead of their time, and full of acid.
7. Mr Fantasy (Traffic) – Order a pint in a Cambridge pub and within minutes some old fart will be telling you how he was briefly a member of Steve Winwood’s seminal supergroup. Try to ignore them and enjoy this brilliant and underrated album.
8. Andy Warhol (The Velvet Underground & Nico) – I mean, is anything as good as Sunday Morning? Yes – I’ll be Your Mirror.
9. Clambake (Elvis Presley) – its hard to explain to non Elvis fans, but his worst crap is almost as enjoyable as his best work – Clambake is not the bottom of the barrel, but it is bobbing around in the dregs. You can tell he’s not prepared to do more than one take of songs like ‘Confidence’. But the title track is awesome – love the lyric “Life’scan be a ball and I’ll just ball away my life”. Naughty Elvis! Contact me if you’re interested in my compliation ‘Elvis – Total Shit’.
10. Small Faces (The Small Faces) – second studio album from Marriott & Co. Itchycoo Park to me is the quintessential 60s pop song. More taut mod-soul pops up in the form of Get Yourself Together and the awesome Tin Soldier (with PP Arnold in this video!)  They also released their debut in the States ’67 including the awesome Whatcha Gonna Do About It and the epic All of Nothing.

The Vomit 50 by The Ex

I know we like to keep things positive here, but this is too funny not to share!

http://www.theex.nl/pukebox.html

March Recommendation

Finished watching the HBO mini series “The Jinx” last night.  Worth checking out for a variety of reasons; avoid the spoilers if you can.

Anyway, this song that played on the closing credits of episode 5 isn’t available anywhere yet (other than youtube), but I’m digging it.  Enjoy.

Tim’s Soundtracks

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark Soundtrack (John Williams) – I’m loathe to include anything by the schmaltzmeister himself, but this just had to be my #1. The title march is too cheesy to appreciate, but the subtle underscores are gorgeous, ‘The Map Room: Dawn’ theme is majestic and terrifying and the Tchaikovsky-esque ‘Marion’s Theme’ is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time.
2. Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds (Michael Nyman) Composed for Peter Greenaway’s ‘The Draughtsman’s Contract’ (1982). Apparently this is a minimalist re-imagining of a prelude in Purcell’s opera King Arthur. To me this sounds like punk baroque.
3. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou Soundtrack (Various Artists) – Wes Anderson’s best to date. Devo, Scott Walker, The Zombies and Bowie used to stunning effect, plus Seu Jorge’s amazing Portuguese translations of Bowie songs. Then there’s Sven Libaek (apparently recommended to Anderson by actor Noah Taylor) and Mothersbaugh’s amazing Casio-esque compositions. But the crowning glory is surely the pirate/gunfight sequence, with no natural sound, just ‘Seach & Destroy’ by Iggy & The Stooges. Sublime. Oh shit, and Sigur Ros’ ‘Staralfur’ is just devastating. Its almost too good.
4. The Hunger Soundtrack (Various Artists) – losing points for not including Bauhaus’ ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ (performed live at the beginning of the film) and ‘Fun Time’ by Iggy Pop, this soundtrack is still excellent. Howard Blake directed this soundtrack, working with director Tony Scott to orchestrate Michel Rubini and Denny Jaeger’s chilling electronic score around Scott’s sublime classical selections: Schubert’s ‘Piano Trio in E Flat’, Allegri’s ‘Miserere’, Bach’s ‘Praeludium from Partita for solo cello in G major’, as well as Delibes (NSFW – Lesbian Sex Scene!)’ ‘Flower Duet’ from ‘Lakme’ which is possibly my favourite piece of music of all time.
5. Taxi Driver (Theme) – Bernard Hermann – Just stunning – massive and perfectly poised. A surprising and classy choice by Scorcese, who had previously invented the ‘cool song soundtrack’ with Mean Streets (1973).
6. A Clockwork Orange Soundtrack (Various Artists) – Kubrick is often described as a musical director – it would take a few session of the Ludovico treatment to disassociate the music used in his films with his intense imagery. Wendy Carlos ‘Title Music’ is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the movie.
7. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Soundtrack (John Barry) It doesn’t get much more Bond than this! The title theme was notably re-recorded for Pixar’s ‘The Incredibles’ soundtrack in which is does a fine job.
8. Dune Main Title (from Dune Soundtrack by Toto) – the Dune OST loses points for not including Brian Eno’s ‘Prophecy Theme’, but Toto do an admirable job making ambient soundtracky noise for this epic movie.
9. Jailbreak/Fratelli Car Chase (Goonies Soundtrack – Dave Grusin) – this is pretty much the soundtrack to my life.
10. Playground Love (The Virgin Suicides Soundtrack – Air) – Brent called it with this soundtrack! This is probably my favourite Air song. The rest of the soundtrack is great too – especially ‘The Word ‘Hurricane’.
11. Back On The Air (The Abyss Soundtrack – Alan Silvestri) – overall Silvestri’s soundtrack is pretty dull, but the movement from Back On The Air gives me chills every time. Lush.
12. The Hero (Flash Gordon Soundtrack – Queen) – I wish they’d recorded this as a full song – it’s among my favourite Queen efforts and an incredible Freddie vocal. ‘Battle Theme’ from the soundtrack is a variation with immense axe-mangling from Brian May.

Brent’s Favorite Soundtracks

Soundtracks

1) Wicker Man – Paul Giovanni (Fire Leap, Maypole Song, Searching For Rowan)

2) Susperia – Goblin (Live)

3) Purple Rain – Prince

4) Twin Peaks – Angelo Badalamenti

5) Delicatessen – Carlos D’Alessio (Delicatessen, Delicatesseen Duo, and this)

6) Lost In Translation – Various (Kevin Shields)

7) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – Various (Mark Mothersbaugh)

8) The Virgin Suicides – Air

9) Blow up – Herbie Hancock

10) The Exorcist II – Ennio Morricone (Pazuzu, Magic & Ecstasy)

– Other Morricone would be higher on my list but Mike covered that pretty well!

Mike’s Favorite Soundtracks

1. The Mission (Morricone) — Excerpt, Morricone conducts the Mission main theme. Goosebumps. Every time.
2. For a Few Dollars More (Morricone) — Final duel
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Morricone) — The Story of a Soldier
4. The Pink Panther (Mancini) — theme
5. Contempt (Delerue) — Theme de Camille
6. One Never Knows: No Sun in Venice (Modern Jazz Quartet) — theme, The Golden Striker
7. A Clockwork Orange (Wendy Carlos, V/A) — intro
8. The Point (Nilsson) — Thanks for the reminder John. I’d link to the entire movie, but I actually much prefer the soundtrack album and that’s not available on youtube.
9. Purple Rain (Prince)
10. Once Upon a Time in the West (Morricone) — Final duel. Thought seriously about only listing Morricone soundtracks, because my personal top ten favorite soundtracks might be all his.
11. O Lucky Man! (Alan Price) — OK, I’m cheating and adding just this one.

John’s Film Music

Somehow most of my favorite soundtracks are from many of my most favorite films. Is it the great music that helps make the movie? Or further evidence of the director’s great taste? Or am I just easily swayed to enjoy things associated with art I already like? I’ll assume it’s one of the first two.

Soundtrack Albums:

Bernard Hermann – North by Northwest: Hermann is the greatest, and I love every note of this instrumental soundtrack from Hitchcock’s greatest film. “Opening Titles”

Mark Mothersbaugh & Various – The Royal Tennenbaums: A lot of my favorite soundtracks feature celestes. This is just the best of them. As usual, Anderson pulls a great many known and unknown catalog titles, from the likes of The Stones, Dylan, The Velvet Underground, John Lennon, Nico, Ravel, The Clash, Paul Simon, Elliott Smith and Nick Drake, to supplement the perfectly magical original score from Mark Mothersbaugh. “Some Highlights” and my first introduction to the wonderful “Emitt Rhodes”

Jon Brion – I Heart Huckabees: Though a rarity on this list in that it is not one of my favorite films, what I love about this soundtrack is that Jon Brion took “pop” songs and made incidental music out of them, and then made pop songs out of other incidental music that he wrote.  Examples can be heard here: “Cubes” & “Over Our Heads.”  All of the are collected together on this soundtrack, even the “pop” or vocal versions, most of which did not actually appear in the film.  This makes for a great and totally unique collected work, and probably the closest thing to a sophomore solo release that we’ll ever see from Jon Brion the singer/songwriter.  “Get What It’s About” “Knock Yourself Out”

Michael Kamen – Brazil: Kamen took a theme from the song used as the muse for the film’s title and made it his own.  Quirky and amazing, just like the film.  “Central Services”

Aimee Mann, Jon Brion & Various – Magnolia: This was my first post-Til-Tuesday introduction to Aimee Mann, and this period of her work has been deeply influential in my own solo work.  It was also my first experience with Jon Brion and a film scorer.  A lot to love about this.  Opening, over Aimee Mann’s Jon-Brion-produced-cover of Harry Nilsson’s “One,” Aimee’s “Save Me” & Jon Brion’s “Theme”

Michel LeGrand – The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: Heartbreaking.  Sung throughout and in French.  Don’t judge a book by its cover; this is one of the greatest pieces of cinema ever.  Do yourself a favor if you’ve never seen it, and give it a watch ASAP.  Also, if you’ve never seen it, you should probably skip the second link. “Trailer” “Closing”

Various – 2001: This score is the only one on this list that elusively uses preexisting music, but it’s such an amazing and definitive collection of works that is used so purposefully with the accompanying visuals.  “Intermission” “Lux Aeterna”

Harry Nilsson – The Point: Perhaps Nilsson’s greatest collection of songs. “Think About Your Troubles” “Me and My Arrow”

David Bowie – Labyrinth: There’s probably some nostalgia here, but I am a pretty big fan of Bowie’s songs here.  Disappointingly, the release soundtrack does not contain the definitive versions featured in the film.  “Opening” “Magic Dance”

Jon Brion & Various – Eternal Sunshine: I was going to try to limit my inclusion of Jon Brion on this list, but I couldn’t.  Magnolia is great because of the pairing of Aimee Mann’s songs, and I Heart Huckabees features some great pop work by Jon.  But this is actually my favorite cinematic score by Mr. Brion.  Not to mention that the Beck song played over the end credits is an all-time favorite of mine, recorded exclusively for this film.  “Theme” “Everbody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” “Strings That Tie To You” “Mr. Blue Sky Trailer”

Soundtrack Songs:

Jon Brion w/ Deanne Storey – “Little Person” from Synecdoche NY: This film should have been great, from the cast to the score and the writer/director.  Sadly, it was not.  But this song is just perfect.  Maybe my favorite love song of all time.  The Carpenters-esque bridge 2:14 is noteworthy.  “Life is precious… every minute.  And more precious with you in it.  Let’s have some fun.”

Elliott Smith – “Miss Misery” from Good Will Hunting: Like many, I discovered Elliott through this soundtrack and this song.  Still one of his heartbreaking best.

Burt Bacharach & Dusty Springfield – “The Look of Love” from Casino Royale: Awful movie.  Amazing song.

James Murphy – “Please Don’t Follow Me” from Greenburg: Hell yeah.

Seu Jorge – “Life on Mars?” from The Life Aquatic: My ears were reopened upon hearing this.

Honorable Mentions:

• Jon Brion – Punch Drunk Love: Another great one, but I had too much Brion on this list already.
• Mark Mothersbaugh & Various – Just as good as any other collaboration between Anderson and Mothersbaugh, with a decidedly British invasion vibe.