Robinson”) but even in that area the same strictures apply songs-to-order are a drag.
Jones was able to write a superb score for Uptight! because the M.G.s are not a vocal group - though Booker’s vocal debut in the film was suspicious - and because his experience in the Stax studios prepared him for such an effort.) The results have been somewhat better in theme songs (Roger McGuinn’s “Child of the Universe,” Paul Simon’s “Mrs. Rock composers don’t work well on order and aren’t good at background music - when they try (John Sebastian on You’re a Big Boy Now or Harry Nillson on Skidoo!) their results are even more insipid than those of the pros. So few movies use rock correctly because the people that make movies, who are even more avaricious and ignorant than the people who sell records, lust after the extra profits of a soundtrack album, which means commissioning one composer, or group, to do a mostly instrumental score. In fact, Easy Rider is a double rarity - not only does it use rock successfully, it also treats the youth-dropout thing successfully. It would be difficult if not impossible to understand this subculture without intelligent reference to the music. Clearly, the spirit of rock - and now I am talking about the American variant that the English usually refer to it as “pop” is significant in this context - is not so much the culmination of a form as of a subculture. But neither could be described as a music head - Hopper, who took most of the responsibility for the music, doesn’t even collect records - and that is interesting, because Easy Rider is the only film I know that not only uses rock well - though that is rare enough - but also does justice to its spirit. Soon, John Kay of Steppenwolf is singing “The Pusher.”įonda and Hopper are rock fans and they are friendly with rock musicians. Cut to Fonda and Hopper on their motorcycles, winding away from the scene of their financial triumph as a familiar guitar line comes over the soundtrack. Apparently, his ears have taken over: the roar of the engines, which has always been present, suddenly seems oppressively loud, filling the theatre and, incredibly, even the screen, dominating the visuals in a Phil Spector apotheosis, an almost literal wall of sound. Then he tests the merchandise and seems to relax. Spector, looking freaky as ever in a huge Rolls - one reviewer commented that he looked very gangsterish - ducks every time a plane takes off. The scene takes place at a small airport and involves a silent transaction in which Spector buys an enormous quantity of dope from our two cycling heroes - some white powder that can be sniffed, probably cocaine. In the second scene of the Peter Fonda–Dennis Hopper film Easy Rider there is a cameo part for Phil Spector.
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