Stupid Weird Shit from the 80s

That title right there was almost the name of this blog. Yikes.

I wasn’t going to post anything else this week but I found two soundtrack so batshit nuts crazy that I had to force myself to make time.

Sounds From True Stories – Music For Activities Freaks
I have a music/movie nerd confession to make…I’ve never seen True Stories. Yeah, I know it’s a great weird bizarre cult classic that every Talking Heads fans should see. It’s totally on my Netflix queue I swear! But so is The Stuff, Wild Zero and countless 70s European softcore porno movies and I’m only one man dammit! I own the album though and just yesterday I was lucky enough to find this ultra-rare companion soundtrack to the film which features all the non-Talking Heads tracks. There aren’t many songs on this record really, most of it is just incidential music, but hardcore David Byrne freaks should enjoy it (and fans of Muzak). It’s never been released on CD and goes for about 20 bucks on eBay. That one surprised me, I would have figured it’d be much higher, kind of like the next album…

Three O’Clock High – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Growing up as a socially arkward child with too much access to VHS tapes I saw this movie a lot growing up. I don’t remember much of it, but I do recall loving it. I probably liked it because the nebbish bookworm gets the girl and beats the shit out of the bully. Anyways, I grabbed this soundtrack a few days ago for nostalgia’s sake without even realizing it was by Tangerine Dream (for the most part, more on that in a bit). I went online to see how much this one was going for and holy shit! The prices are a little lower on eBay but you can still expect to shell out 20 to 30 bucks on this one. That is nucking futs! At first that blew my mind but after doing some research it started to make more sense.

Most of this soundtrack is by Tangerine Dream. If you rented a movie that was made in the 80s you’ve probably heard Tangerine Dream, since they did the scores to movies as diverse as Risky Business, Legend and Miracle Mile (GREAT movie btw). However, also contributing to the soundtrack is a dude by the name of Sylvester Levay. What Tangerine Dream was to movie soundtrack in the 80s Levay was to TV soundtracks because he is the man who brought us the theme to Airwolf (speaking of insane eBay auctions…). The combined force of Levay and TD is probably the reason why this puppy can be found on some sites for as much as 70 bucks.

They aren’t the only composers though. Someone named Jim Walker contributes the obligatory end credits song. I have no idea if he is the same Jim Walker who played drums in Public Image Ltd., I doubt it – although I am fairly certain it’s not Jimmy Walker. Rounding things out is Rick Moratta and David Tickle, who composed, produced and performed the final track on the album “Arrival”. I don’t know who Moratta is, but Tickle is a world-renowned producer, having worked with Prince, Adam and and Split Enz.

German ambient pioneers, 80s TV composers and the guy who produced Prince’s Parade all on one LP. I love the randomness of 80s cult soundtracks.

4 Responses to “Stupid Weird Shit from the 80s”

  1. Anonymous says:

    I prefer Stupid Weird Shit Of The 80’s over Lostturntable anytime….

    High School Musical 5 – The Burial Years anyone….

  2. jrd says:

    3 o’clock high was a great film! It was directed by Phil Joanou from Rattle and Hum fame…

  3. franknben says:

    I had the cassette of Three o’Clock High and wore it out in the high-tech auto-reverse deck… thanks for reminding me how great it is!

    Even with the ‘girl rock’ post, you are unquestionably metal.

  4. Anonymous says:

    if you like the true stories-album by the talking heads check out this one:

    http://jamesinbrasil.blogspot.com/2008/07/true-stories.html

    i’m totally in love with the pops staples version of “papa legba”

    thanks for the post – very nice!

Leave a Reply