5 Songs on Soundtracks to Forgettable Movies
This week's songs are from Tom Petty, Hayden, De La Soul & Teenage Fanclub, Love Spit Love, and Tom Waits
I had a number of soundtracks to not-very-good movies when I was a young CD collector. The 1990s were a wild time for movies and music alike. New voices were flooded with opportunities in both mediums. Conglomerates had movie studios and record labels, and in an attempt to hit some unknowable, moving target to hit the cultural jackpot, they made sure their movies with maybe one recognizable actor had a soundtrack with maybe one recognizable band, and another covering one recognizable song. Some movies had a single artist providing the bulk of the material that was an introduction to under-the-radar musicians. Or an artist had some songs left over from an album, labels would throw it onto a soundtrack for a movie that needed a little juice—corporate synergy at its best. This is how you get something like “Soul to Squeeze” on the Coneheads soundtrack. Other films fully absorbed a given city’s music scene, and hit just as that scene was peaking (Singles, Swingers, Go), pinned themselves to a given alternative culture (Hackers, Reality Bites, Mallrats, The Cable Guy), or embraced a single-genre mindset (Baseketball, The Saint, The Crow, Bullworth). The Singles soundtrack is culturally relevant as a collection of B-sides from grunge acts, who happened to leave some really great songs off of their really great albums that were suddenly selling like crazy.
As a consumer, if a soundtrack had two songs you liked on it, and/or you recognized the names of a few other artists, it was a great bang-for-your-buck play, maybe you find some hidden gems. The Crow soundtrack introduced me to the Jesus and Mary Chain, and got me into Joy Division via Nine Inch Nails’ perfect cover of “Dead Souls.” Batman Forever has PJ Harvey, The Flaming Lips, Sunny Day Real Estate, Nick Cave. Dead Man on Campus has a solid “Golden Years” cover, Blur, Soul Coughing, and introduced me to Jonathan Fire*Eater.
Hopefully it hasn’t taken you this long to notice that most of the movies I’ve mentioned so far aren’t good, assuming you even remember them at all. Great movies with a great soundtrack are a fluke. Trainspotting, Friday, Rushmore, Pulp Fiction, Clueless, Good Will Hunting, Magnolia, The Commitments. I would say it’s lightning striking, but what it actually is is very talented people with a defined point-of-view getting exactly what they want. Which almost never happens.
Here are 5 songs from good soundtracks to unmemorable movies, and I’m sticking to songs released specifically for the movie.
“Mickey: Why are you getting so upset, Dad? You don't even believe in God.
Mr. Fitzpatrick: That doesn't mean I'm going to stop being a good Catholic.”
- She’s the One, Ed Burns (1995)
Tom Petty - “Walls (Circus)”
Tom Petty wanted to release Wildflowers as a double album and was talked out of it. So he found himself with a Greatest Hits album selling well on the back of the bonus single “Last Dance With Mary Jane,” a masterpiece, and a heap of release-ready music with nowhere to go. Enter Ed Burns, who had a “Sundance Hit” back when that actually meant something, even if that “something” was a modest return on an exceptionally low budget. His second feature cast Jennifer Aniston after the first season of Friends and a post-The Mask/pre-Something About Mary Cameron Diaz. She’s The One is episodic and not anything I would say is good, but it is very watchable. And thanks to Petty’s Wallflowers leftovers, and covers of Lucinda Williams and Beck songs, it’s got a very good soundtrack.
“Walls” is my favorite Petty song. It’s got a big sing-along chorus, an electric 12-string guitar solo, Benmont Tench bringing the circus in with his organ work, and Lindsey Buckingham and Carl Wilson on backing vocals. The lyrics deal in contrasting aphorisms that amount to The Dude-like stoicism. The sentiment of “Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks” is the same as “Strikes and gutters; ups and downs.” It’s one of those simple songs that sounds easy, but is actually hard to come by. What really sells the whole thing is just how much damn fun it sounds like they’re having playing it on the recording. There’s a strange power in acknowledging the lows when you’re basking in the sunshine—respecting the impermanence.
For a long time I thought of it as a hidden gem. Then I was at a Bright Eyes show in the late aughts, who included a cover of it in their set. I promptly freaked out (to the confusion of many), but a few other people in the crowd were just as excited. It was like being in a secret club. Since Tom Petty’s passing in 2017, I hear it out in the world a lot more frequently, and that’s a wonderful thing. Apparently Petty himself kind of dismissed the soundtrack, in part because of where he was at in his personal life when he was making it. Also since his passing, his estate has repackaged Wallflowers into a deluxe reissue that reinstated songs he intended to have on the original double album, and sets aside the rest.
“Tommy: Hey Bill, did you ever kill anybody?
Bill: What kinda asshole question izzat?
Tommy: I mean, in Korea.
Bill: What ‘career?’”
- Trees Lounge, Steve Buscemi (1996)
Hayden - “Trees Lounge”
Who doesn’t love Steve Buscemi? The 90s indie movie climate was booming so big that even Steve Buscemi could write, direct, and star in a movie with no discernible plot. The movie plays out like a few strung-together short stories about interconnected outer-borough characters. A lot of the cast would end up appearing in The Sopranos, and from what I’ve gathered in some research, Sopranos creator David Chase hired the casting directors of this film because he was such a fan. But this isn’t a mobbed-up movie by any means; it’s an amusing, charming not-quite-comedy/not-quite-drama.
Most of the soundtrack is doo-wop. But Paul Hayden Desser, aka Hayden, plays a title song over the end credits. 90s alternative rock radio fans might recognize his “Bad As They Seem,” which toes the line of singer/songwriter and “nu-metal acoustic”—primarily due to the tuned-down guitars. In Desser’s account of how it came about, the label putting the soundtrack out told Buscemi to get him to write a song based on the industry buzz around him. Desser watched the movie, lifted a few lines from the script, and wrote the song. Buscemi loved it, and they’ve since collaborated on other projects. “Trees Lounge” has a deep low-end bass, heavy drums, and a slow, slightly angsty, melody. It sounds like it could be recorded under water and also a bit like Dinosaur Jr. Like the movie, it is so authentically of-its-time that it feels kind of special in hindsight.
“An evening on the town... A heavy gridlock... One very wrong turn.”
- Judgement Night (1993) Tagline
De La Soul & Teenage Fanclub - “Fallin'“
Judgment Night is such a forgettable movie that it was famously filmed in and around Chicago’s infamous Cabrini Green housing project during its lowest point, and was a fixture of WGN Action Theater and Weekend Theater, and my babysitter at the time made a big deal about it coming out because her friends had worked on it or were extras or something, and yet…I haven’t seen it. One description of the movie as “Adventures in Babysitting for dudes,” and by the looks of it, that sounds pretty spot-on. Both also filmed in Chicago.
The soundtrack was a concept in and of itself: bring rock musicians and rappers together to collaborate on songs. Rap and rock? Together? Very 90s. Collaborations include Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill, Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill, Dinosaur Jr. and Del Tha Funky Homosapien, etc. As much chatter as there is about this being one of the “good soundtracks to a bad movie,” which maybe it seemed like it at the time, but idea (and the music) aged like milk. The one track I will vouch for is De La Soul & Teenage Fanclub’s “Fallin’”. You would be hard pressed to find a better opening line than this:
“Hey yo kiiiids! Remember when I used to be dope?”
The song samples Tom Petty’s “Free Falling,” and more than anything it sounds like a great De La Soul track with Teenage Fanclub taking a back seat, which is exactly what happened. De La Soul visited them in a studio in Manchester and they fumbled their way into giving them a beat to build from. It’s a good lesson in collaboration: if you’re working with a collage artist, give them raw materials and get out of the way. Like the Petty song it’s sampling from, it’s got an easy vibe to it that can unwind the listener and brings a little sunshine.
Grandpa: Superman isn't brave.
Angus: Did you take your pills this morning?
Grandpa: You don't understand. He's smart, handsome, even decent. But he's not brave. No, listen to me. Superman is indestructible, and you can't be brave if you're indestructible. It's people like you and your mother. People who are different, and can be crushed and know it. Yet they keep on going out there every time.
- Angus, Patrick Read Johnson (1995)
Love Spit Love - “Am I Wrong?”
I used to watch a VHS copy of Angus so much, my brother would make fun of me. It’s the one about the fat kid, with an American Pie bit-player is his only friend, and he’s in love with the girl from Jurassic Park, and the guy from Dawson’s Creek is the bully and also her boyfriend. George C. Scott is his grandfather, and Kathy Bates is his mom. It’s all very “movie of the week,” but I loved the soundtrack, which includes Green Day’s best song (“J.A.R.”), Weezer (“You Gave Your Love To Me Softly”), Mazzy Star (“Fade Into You”), Goo Goo Dolls while they were still Replacements-adjacent power pop (“Ain’t That Unusual”), and Peter Gabriel (“Washing of the Water”); I think this is what made it so watchable.
If I remember correctly, the movie opens with a marching band on a football field playing along to “Am I Wrong?” by Love Spit Love, singer Richard Butler’s follow-up band to Psychedelic Furs. For an early-90s song by a fixture of the 80s New Wave, it’s surprisingly earnest, and isn’t trying to fit in with the grunge/alternative sound of the moment. Of course it is—but so is the movie. Aside from the ill-advised reach for the high note in the last 20 seconds or so, it’s sold by Butler’s distinct, textured voice. Is it a little bit melodramatic? Love Spit Love would also snag a more iconic contender for this entry a year later, covering “How Soon Is Now?” for The Craft, which I think improves upon the original.
"The staggering tale of one man's relentless pursuit of imperfection". - Big Bad Love (2001) tagline
Tom Waits - “Long Way Home”
Tom Waits’ “Long Way Home” is probably THE song I would point anyone to who says they don’t like Tom Waits, or anyone who complains about his voice. Yes, it’s weathered like a catcher’s mitt, but that’s all part of it. The gravel-and-cigarettes texture makes you believe he’s someone who’s pushed the limits, made every mistake, embraced every vice that’s crossed his path; the soulful croon behind it, matched with the light shuffle in the beat makes you believe he’s truly in love with the person he’s singing this to. Norah Jones covered “Long Way Home” in 2004 on the follow-up to her blockbuster debut album. Waits and his wife/co-writer Kathleen Brennan sent Jones the song as a demo, and Jones’ version was released first. Waits’ version was in the little-seen film Big Bad Love in 2001, but wasn’t released until it was included on Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards.
Jones’ version is pretty faithful to the original, and the spirit and soul of the song are intact. The invitation in the refrain— “Come with me. We can take the long way home”—from Jones it sounds a bit like she wants to wander off through a field in the dark, or maybe take the scenic route. From Waits, it’s less of an invitation and more of an apology-in-advance. His long way home isn’t counted in minutes. Both are romantic, but there’s a sorrow in Waits’ version that deepens the feeling in the song. With his voice it sounds like it’s from a lived experience that can’t be faked, and therein lies the artistry.
Full playlists of songs featured in 5 Songs:
Also, I feel that “Till I Hear it From You” by Gin Blossoms off the Empire Records soundtrack should be in the conversation as well.
Spot on selections with Angus and She’s the One!