Throwback Tracks -- October 26, 2017
David R. Smith
You know what's awesome? Getting a whole layout for this week's Throwback Tracks, embedding all the songs, finding all the websites to link to the artists, finding the right photo... basically doing everything except the writeups of each song, and then thinking "I should save now to ensure I don't lose anything" only to find your webhost has decided "you're not logged in" so I lose everything. Everything. It's frustrating because at no time did I ever sign out while writing this article. Mrrf. I'm kind of hating life right now.
So that's fun.
/deep breath
Okay. It could be worse. Just mild frustrations about wasting an hour working on this. But in the grand scheme of things, things could be worse. So here we are.
Soundtrack songs!
I should note, that these aren't necessarily the first songs one might think of when they think about the movies with which they're attached. For example, Miami Sound Machine is not the first artist one thinks about when they think about Top Gun. But in the past month and a half, there's been a bit of a dearth of women on our list, so I'm trying to right that wrong today.
Also, because of what I was going through last week, and because it was an all Hip Throwback Tracks, I'm tacking on two more songs this week to make the Playlist that (theoretically) comes out next week has a few extra songs. So it should be up to 17, not 15. It's not much, but enough.
The Guys From do not hold the rights to any of these songs, it is more our hope to expose our readers to new (*cough*) and different retro music, or re-expose them to things they may have forgotten about.
At the top of each section, will be the song name, followed by the artists' name linked to their website (if possible...which is totally hit and miss with oldies), so you can fall down the rabbit hole, finding and supporting what you dig.
Fooled Around and Fell In Love - Elvin Bishop
The movie scene? If you don't know it, you're missing out, but it's from Guardians of the Galaxy. It's such a charming song and a great scene!
A friend of mine posted this song on his Facebook. So I listened to it and it made me happy. Naturally, it was the impetus for me starting this list.
I don't think I was overly familiar with this song prior to the movie coming out. Now, I literally could have just done an entire GotG soundtrack as my list, because it might be the greatest soundtrack ever. But that seemed like cheating. I felt like I should diversify. Hence the other songs on this list.
Jungle Boogie - Kool and the Gang
The scene? Well it's the second half of the opening credits from Pulp Fiction. I do believe it bleeds into Act 1, Scene 1 as well but it's hard to hear. Regardless, it's a great song. I was going to use Miserlou but I have another TBT theme in mind for that song. It IS on my radar, though, trust me.
While Kool and the Gang could generally be considered disco, this song is way more funky. And it's why I like it so much. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I love funk music, but I certainly have an appreciation of it. It's been so influential in many other genres of music, that it has to get the credit it deserves. The best part of this song is that it doesn't have a lot of lyrics; it's mostly just a band jamming. Every now and then you hear the lead singer say "you got the boogie" or something akin to that and that's all it needs. It's just horns and bass and awesomeness.
Hot Summer Nights - Miami Sound Machine
The movie? Top Gun. The scene? Couldn't tell you. Apparently my limited research doesn't let me find that information.
Earlier when I was talking about Guardians being one of the best soundtracks of all time, I wasn't necessarily hyperbolizing. I do believe it's up there. But you know what else is? Top Gun. This is a very, very dated soundtrack. While GotG and Forrest Gump are too, this soundtrack had a lot of songs specifically written for it, whereas the other movies took songs that were popular in the time. So it seems as those soundtracks hold up better than this one does.
That said; I still have a massive soft spot for this song. I was driving with some family members recently and my cousin put this album on. Beginning to end, I was singing along with it (as best I could) and was so happy. While the movie is good, I think the soundtrack might actually be better.
Golden Brown - The Stranglers
The movie scene? One of the best moments in Snatch. Although, one could argue it's all excellent moments because the movie is so bloody great. Guy Ritchie did a lot of things well when he directed his first few major hits. One of the things is he used music so, so well to help the mood of the scene. This one is no different.
This is a terrible name for a band, but they have a great sound. To be honest, it's likely the only song of theirs that I know. And that's okay. I'm fine with it because it's a great song.
There was another song I wanted to use from this soundtrack as well, but could only have one, and I love this scene so much. Maybe I'll do another one of these "highlights from soundtracks" lists and we can get the other one I want on there. It's a gooder too...
I've Got To Use My Imagination - Gladys Knight and the Pips
The scene? The running montage in Forrest Gump. If you're looking for the specific moment, it comes in around 3:16. But really, you should just watch this entire scene because it's great. Just like the rest of the movie...
There's something so classic about this song. When I think about Gladys Knight, I always feel like she's got that doo-wop sound that the rest of those Motown artists had. But then you hear this song and it's so intense! It's just got such a slow build as the instruments get more and more in your face. And then she kicks in with her velvety voice and you just can't help but love this song.
The Forrest Gump soundtrack has 2 CDs (and the movie has roughly 14 more songs that were used but never featured on the soundtrack) so picking only one song from it was tough. But I felt like this was a good time to get some more female representation and who better than Gladys Knight, amIright?
Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry
Oh come on! You don't know what this is from?? Back to the Future, friends! Great, great scene!
This song is so, so, so good. So good. That opening guitar lick might be one of the best (and I would consider it underrated) of all time. It sets the tempo, it sets the mood and you just know that you're going to have a good time.
Now... when Marty McFly gets into the solo of the song, it kind of goes off the rails. But when Chuck plays this song? Hello! Good times had by all. This is another one of those songs where I defy you to listen to it and have a bad day. Go on. Try. And then report back to me.
Nowhere to Run - Martha and the Vandellas
The scene? The tail end of Adrian Cronauer's time at Radio Saigon in Good Morning, Vietnam. He announces it in the clip there, but you never see the actual song part. But it doesn't matter, because you get to watch more Robin Williams brilliance.
I worked on a show called Love Train that was all soul music and modern type soul. While I had already seen Good Morning Vietnam (several times) and had listened to the soundtrack (several dozen times,) I was still extremely happy that this song was featured in it. It's so good. Musically, it's very well done, but what I love most is the backup vocals. I don't know what it is about them that I like so, but they have just the perfect amount of fill to the rest of the song.
PLUS! Who doesn't love a song that features a tambourine the entire time? It's ever present in this song.
It's a simple song, but even typing this little descriptor, I can't help but dance, sing along and bob my head. And really, isn't that all we need in music, sometimes?
Okay. It's been a whole month and I haven't done the September playlist. I'm the worst. If you've been desperate for it, I'm sorry. But I'm starting to get back on a schedule where I can prep these TBT lists earlier, which means maybe I might have more time to work on playlists too. I'll see what I can do about getting both September's and October's up a week today. Promise.
But hey, if you need more musical love, check out all the other ones:
August 2017 TBT Playlist (and the August Spotify list), July 2017 TBT Playlist (and the July Spotify List), June 2017 TBT Playlist (and the June Spotify List), May 2017 TBT Playlist, April 2017 TBT Playlist, March 2017 TBT Playlist , February 2017 TBT Playlist
2016
Throwback Playlist for Dec 16/Jan 17, October 2016 Throwback Playlist, September 2016 Throwback Playlist, August 2016 Throwback Playlist, July 2016 Throwback Playlist, June 2016 Throwback Playlist, May 2016 Throwback Playlist, April 2016 Throwback Playlist
-D (@davidronn)