Niki N. Phaser

You can always count on Cameron Crowe when it comes to soundtracks. The man is a living encyclopedia of music. I bet he counts years in albums (like many of us do). Even though one of his characters, Jeff Bebe from Almost Famous, thinks popular music is usually the best music, you will find that Crowe’s selections for his movies are educationally eclectic. Maybe in time, each of his movies will find its soundtrack reviewed here, but I’ll start with my favourite: Vanilla Sky. And Vanilla Sky starts with Crowe’s favourite band at the time of shooting the movie: Radiohead. Everything in Its Right Place was chosen both for its unnatural sound and the line “Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon”, which the director thought suited the bitter and the sweet dichotomy expressed throughout the film. Radiohead are even mentioned, right before Tom Cruise and Jason Lee nearly have a car crash. They aren’t the only alt legends present on this OST. REM provide sounds for two very different moods. First you have the start-the-week-in-a-good-mood tune All the Right Friends and the very sad hymn to isolation Sweetness Follows, which begins with the suggestive lyrics: “Readying to bury your father and your mother, What did you think when you lost another ?”. The slick bass opening from Jeff Buckley’s Last Goodbye is also used to great effect. Buckley and his untimely death are also referenced in another Crowe movie, Elizabethtown.

I wasn’t joking when I said Crowe’s choices are eclectic. There’s a lot of art dance music on Vanilla Sky and not just in the club scene. Looper contributes with two songs, Leftfield’s Afrika Shox (check this video, it’s wicked) adds a lot to the aforementioned scene. Still, the classics aren’t missing either – Chemical Brothers, Where Do I Begin.

And speaking of classics, Crowe pays his tribute to the names of his teen years, like Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan (even though his visual contribution is more pivotal), The Beach Boys, The Monkees and a title track by Paul McCartney. Peter Gabriel, who provided the love theme for one of Crowe’s most legendary scenes (John Cusack and his boombox from Say Anything) makes a comeback with Solsbury Hill, and it’s a successful one. From the 80′s we also get a hidden treasure, Freur’s Doot Doot, but I’ll dedicate an entire article to this track, for the Ignored-Gold section. Soon. Joan Osborne’s 90′s hit One of Us is hummed by Tom Cruise while his anesthesia kicks in. (It makes you wonder: what would you sing while your anesthesia kicks in ?). Your indie needs are quenched by Spiritualized, Sigur Ros and Red House Painters, while Crowe and his wife Nancy Wilson write the pretty good I Fall Apart, performed by Cameron Diaz. In fact, Nancy Wilson’s score, based on an acoustic theme, is not to be taken lightly either.

I’ve listened to this soundtrack as an album only after seeing the movie, but if someone would give it a go before, it will probably make the movie seem even more intriguing that its teaser trailer did, back in 2001.

LISTEN TO Sweetness Follows BY R.E.M. LISTEN TO Ladies and Gentleman… BY SPIRITUALIZED

LISTEN TO Solsbury Hill BY PETER GABRIEL LISTEN TO Mondo ’77 BY LOOPER

Spanish band Amphetamine Discharge are not an easy band to find, in every sense of the word. Like most people who have heard the combination of these two words, I first encountered this band while watching Abre Los Ojos and I guess, in a way, I should be grateful to Alejandro Amenabar for making this band and this song, Glamour, known to me, as well as for inspiring Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky. The heavy-phasered bass that opens Glamour will instantly make you wonder “what famous band that is not one of my favourites did this song ?”. It’s a song that will make you jump, not pogo-like, but more in a jump-wait-jump tempo. Glamour is rock, no doubt about it, but it’s the bassline that leads the song, not the guitars, even though there is well-done guitar solo for the bridge. Aurora López Moreno’s vocals will also bring you in an art-punk mood, her voice being quite Kim Gordon-esque in some parts. I will not go into the lyrics, because they aren’t too intelligible, but this is one of the cases where the music will make you forget the words. Just remember that on an album (the Abre Los Ojos soundtrack), where this song is joined by the likes of Massive Attack and Sneaker Pimps, Amphetamine Discharge’s Glamour rules. Totally.

LISTEN TO THE SONG HERE

Cameron Crowe (source:www.gawker.com)

But, not to be rude, I will refresh your memory: Cameron Crowe is one of the most influential movie directors of our times. He is responsible for Jerry Maguire, Say Anything, Vanilla Sky, Almost Famous, Singles and Elizabethtown, so far and he is currently working on a new comedy with Reese Whiterspoon and Ben Stiller. He also wrote the novel and the screenplay Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In his younger days, he used to write for Rolling Stones, just like the character from Almost Famous. He received numerous awards, but I am not the one to pay much attention to such trivial matters, as the Oscars…

What makes Cameron Crowe an idol for me… Well, he did everything I like and is still doing it, successfully. He wrote about music and even composed some songs with his wife, Nancy Wilson, the guitar chick from Heart. He wrote a novel and also a book based on his interviews with Billy Wilder, which is his hero. He did all these great movies which spawned memorable characters, like Spicoli and Lloyd Dobler, memorable lines like Show me the money and classic images like John Cusack holding the stereo above his head…

So, music, literature and film, the best things in life… Cameron Crowe did it all (and with a vengeance). I don’t think I will DO all of these things, but at least, now I will write about them… even literature… I might just review a Chuck Palahniuk novel from time to time, who knows… Keep phasing on…