#anyway. song machine = flop era

[lighthouse-system]

The fact that I could STILL grab a limited edition vinyl set of song machine, on Gorillaz’ site not eBay, in late 2023 speaks volumes about what we as a community agree on about song machine

[unicornery]

For my own amusement, I started tracking how the songs from the Billboard Hot 100 from this week in 1974 have been used in movie soundtracks. Feature Films only people! As you read, you will see the “gimmes” that made me think of the idea, but I’m putting this behind a cut because there ended up being so many which had a soundtrack match. As a reminder, you can follow along as I do the Hot 100 each week corresponding to which classic AT40 and VJ Big 40 get played on SiriusXM ‘70s on 7 and ‘80s on 8 respectively with my ever-changing Spotify playlist. 

100. “Beyond the Blue Horizon” - Lou Christie. This one is a cheat because when I looked it up on Spotify it showed up on the Rain Man soundtrack. The only song I could have told you off the top of my head was in Rain Main is the Belle Stars’ version of “Iko Iko.” Rain Man marked the first soundtrack appearance for Christie’s version. 

98. “The Air That I Breathe” - The Hollies. Very memorable appearance in The Virgin Suicides, which had the score done by, wait for it, French electronica duo Air. The song would go on to be heard in other movies. 

90. “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” - Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. The Paper Lace version appears in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Both acts topped the charts with the song on opposite sides of the pond: Paper Lace in the UK and Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods in the US. [Update: the BD&H version may be in "To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday"] 

87. “Hollywood Swinging” - Kool & the Gang. This oft-sampled track first appeared in a feature film in the 2005 Get Shorty sequel Be Cool. 

84. “La Grange” - ZZ Top. Armageddon first, followed by others. 

68. “Band on the Run” - Paul McCartney and Wings.  I didn’t search for this at first because I didn’t think there would be anything, but then Jet was on the chart at #27, so I did a twofer search on imdb. Jet has not been in any films (save “One Hand Clapping, a rockumentary on Paul, which I don’t count for purposes of this discussion) but “Band on the Run” appears in The Killing Fields, in a shocking scene that contrasts the light tone of the pop song with the horrors of the Khmer Rouge’s executions of Cambodian citizens. 

66. “For the Love of Money” - The O’Jays. Has been used many times, according to IMDb the first feature film use was the Richard Pryor roman a clef (if I’m using that right, I only know it from Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man) Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling. 

59. “Rock Around the Clock” - Bill Haley and his Comets. Notably used in Blackboard Jungle, the song is on this 1974 chart for its appearance in American Graffiti. 

55. “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” - Rick Derringer. First one that comes to mind is Dazed and Confused bc I had that soundtrack, but it has been in others.

49. “Love’s Theme” - the Love Unlimited Orchestra. The swirling strings of this song indicate that someone is indeed falling in love. That’s my way of saying, if you think you haven’t heard this, you have. Imdb has it in Mean Girls, among others. 

47. “The Way We Were” - Barbra Streisand. The titular song of the 1973 film The Way We Were, starring Barbra and Robert Redford. A little long, but worth a watch bc Barbra is amazing in it. At the 1974 Academy Awards, Marvin Hamslich won Best Original Song honors for this tune, and was awarded Best Original Dramatic Score for his other musical work on the film. I always think of Lisa Loopner’s big crush on him.  

44. “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” - Stevie Wonder. First feature film usage was the 1998 Eddie Murphy flop Holy Man, which surprised me as it’s such a good song, you’d think it would have been in something earlier. Notable given Eddie’s impression of Stevie Wonder he performed on SNL! 

42. “Rock On” - David Essex. Michael Damian’s cover (or remix as described by Patton Oswalt) was recorded for the 1989 2 Coreys classic Dream a Little Dream, and per imdb, David Essex’s original appears in the alternate-history comedy Dick, from 1999. 

37. “Oh Very Young” - Cat Stevens/Yusef Islam. Surprisingly, this sweet song appears in the gross-out bowling comedy Kingpin. 

36. “Jungle Boogie” - Kool & the Gang. This song may have been used in the most films and tv shows of any I’ve researched so far, but its first appearance was in Pulp Fiction. 

34. “The Payback - Part 1” - James Brown. First feature film appearance was in 1995′s Dead Presidents. A different James Brown track appears on the soundtrack for racist-ass Melly Gibson’s Payback from 1999. 

33. “Help Me” - Joni Mitchell.  Another why’d-it-take-ya-so-long shocker, this mellow tune first appeared in the 2018 sci-fi movie Kin, narrowly beating Welcome to Marwen from 2019. 

31. “The Entertainer” - Marvin Hamlisch. The title theme from the Redford/Newman team-up The Sting. Hamlisch won a record-tying third Academy Award in 1974 for Best Original Score for The Sting.  It seems at this time Best Original Score and Best Original Dramatic Score were separate categories. Hamlisch would win Grammys for both this and “The Way We Were,” eventually becoming an EGOT winner in 1995.

30. “Eres Tú” - Mocedades. This Spanish Eurovision entry notably appears in the buddy comedy Tommy Boy when Chris Farley and David Spade’s characters sing along with the radio. 

28. “Midnight at the Oasis” - Maria Muldaur. Catherine O’Hara and Fred Willard perform their own rendition in the Christopher Guest film Waiting for Guffman. That should be all you need, but imdb has the first film appearance for the song as 1995′s Falcon and the Snowman. 

24. “Let it Ride” - Bachman-Turner Overdrive. This lesser-known but not less great BTO jam has appeared in a handful of films, the first being Ash Wednesday, starring Elijah Wood and directed by Edward Burns and not Garry Marshall. Note: it does not seem to be in the Richard Dreyfuss gambling movie Let It Ride, a classic VHS cover of my youth. 

18. “Mockingbird” - James Taylor and Carly Simon. Memorably performed by Harry and Lloyd in the dog van in Dumb and Dumber, later joined by a Latinx family on guitar and vocals.  Before that, Beverly D’Angelo and Chevy Chase’s characters also sang it on their road trip in National Lampoon’s Vacation. I couldn’t find an instance where James and Carly’s version played in a movie but I am sayin’ there’s a chance. That it could be someday. 

16. “Tubular Bells” - Mike Oldfield. This instrumental is best known for being the theme to The Exorcist, but I was surprised to learn from the Wiki entry that it was not written for the film. Tubular Bells or something that’s meant to sound like it has been in a ton of other things, generally uncredited. Of note: Mike Oldfield would go on to do the score for The Killing Fields. 

14. “Seasons in the Sun” - Terry Jacks. Now here is the type of song that ‘70s haters point to as an example of the whiny wuss rock that they feel over-dominated the era. It’s not one of my favorites but I appreciate it for how weird it is. I suppose being translated into English from a French/Belgian poem will do that to ya. Before I did my search, I imagined I would find it in a Farrelly Brothers movie or two, possibly the Anchorman sequel. However, the only feature film match I found was the 2002 indie flick Cherish, a movie I have never seen despite being confronted by the cover many times at rental places over the years. Before today, when I watched the trailer, I would have told you it starred Jennifer Love Hewitt and was about “a band trying to make it.” It turns out I am thinking of the 1999 film The Suburbans. Anyway Cherish seems aggressively indie and very of-its-time in a way that makes me want to watch it. 

13. “Dancing Machine” - The Jackson 5. The song appears in the Blaxploitation spoof I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, as well as the movie of Starsky & Hutch.

11. “Lookin’ For A Love” - Bobby Womack. This was in the movie of The Ladies Man starring Tim Meadows as his SNL character Leon Phelps. I almost skipped this one but I’m glad I didn’t because Tim Meadows rules.

8. “The Loco-Motion” - Grand Funk Railroad (the single and album it was on are credited to Grand Funk). We have our second song from the Kirsten Dunst/Michelle Williams movie Dick. Since that was satirizing Nixon and Watergate, well done to the filmmakers for including these 1974 hits!  It appeared in one earlier film, My Girl 2. 

5. “Come and Get Your Love” - Redbone. Known to modern listeners for appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy. [Sidebar: if you can find a way to listen to the With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus episode T.G.I.G.O.T.G.OST (Thank God It’s the Guardians of the Galaxy Original Soundtrack) with Sean Clements and Hayes Davenport, do it!] The song first appeared in Dance Me Outside, a Canadian film about First Nations youth, which is a cool parallel with Redbone being composed of Native American musicians. “Come and Get Your Love” is also in Dick! 

4. “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” - Gladys Knight & the Pips. Another SNL feature pops up on our list, 1994′s It’s Pat: The Movie. 

3. “Hooked on a Feeling” - Blue Swede. ALSO known to modern listeners as being from the GOTG, but possibly only in the trailer? I’m fuzzy. The song ALSO also appears in Dick, and its first feature film appearance was Reservoir Dogs. 

2. “Bennie and the Jets” - Elton John. You know it, you love it, you cackle at the gag in Mystery Team. IMDb has this song down as first appearing in the low budget feature Aloha, Bobby and Rose, from 1975. It is ALSO in My Girl 2, with proper credit for Sir Elton. 

1. “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” - MFSB featuring The Three Degrees. IMDb says this appeared in the Al Pacino film Carlito’s Way, and I have no reason to doubt them because it means we are done! Thanks for readin’ and rockin’ along. 

[s-o-n-de-r]

A Rush of Blood to the Head: Sensuality and Substance in LIGHTS’ ‘Skin & Earth’ Era

Ruts and stagnation can be difficult to avoid for musicians as their careers progress if interest dwindles, labels lockdown, or plain old boredom enters the process, and you’ll hear it. 

You can flop, or you can go all out. For Canadian synth-pop trailblazer Lights Bokan (often stylized LIGHTS), she went all out.

Skin & Earth, the latest by the Timmins, Ontario native, doesn’t exist just as a music album. It’s also been given another life: Lights not only recorded the music but wrote and illustrated an entire comic series to go with it. She’s dabbled in the comic (and animation) world back in her early days with Audio Quest: A Captain Lights Adventure, but this is an all-in sort of endeavor.

It’s familiar territory for her long-time fans, though. Those who have stuck with her over the years have come to expect her to push creative boundaries, or at least keep things interesting. Some of those ventures include stripping away her electronics to make gentle acoustic versions of her albums, selling original paintings, or religiously making vlogs and doing livestreams. But even as far her records go, you won’t get bored transitioning from one to the other. Each has its own character, from the dreamy soundscapes of The Listening to the cold adventuring spirit of Siberia to the pep of Little Machines. Even her acoustic albums have different structure and depth from one another. If there was ever a musician that you wouldn’t expect to get stale, it’s Lights. When you hear her voice, there’s no mistaking her for anyone else out there.

This is the case for Skin & Earth as well. Even disregarding the whole other world that the comic series brings in, Skin & Earth is another distinct chapter in her discography. Skin & Earth is a totally different Lights – sexy and groovy and unapologetic. Literally, too, as she emulates the aesthetic of her comic’s main character En, most notably with scorching, fire-red hair. But it’s also just enough like previous albums that you’re not going to be totally alienated. This is a line she has always toed well.

The album eschews the baked-in dance and synth elements of Little Machines for drum-and-bass pop, songs with r’n’b rhythm and trap beats and vocal flow we haven’t really heard from Lights before. This isn’t to say that classic Lights elements aren’t there (“Giants”), but there’s a definite theme to Skin & Earth. In fact, some of the songs that embrace this new direction the most are the best on the album. “Kicks” is the catchiest, “Skydiving” is titillating and adventurous, and “We Were Here” is wispy and mysterious, a song for late-night drives. But Lights is no one-trick-pony. Skin & Earth features some innovative meanderings, notably the emotional and gentle “Morphine,” the sludgy “Savage” (featuring drumming from Twenty One Pilots’ Joshua Dun), and the big closing anthem in “Almost Had Me,” perhaps her strongest album ender yet. Skin & Earth wears its best qualities on its sleeve.  “Morphine” and “Moonshine” are clearly not songs about substance use, but rather, intoxication is the messages’ medium. “Skydiving” may or may not be about sex, but it easily could be. The primal, tactile nature of the album’s title feeds directly into both its musical composition and lyrical content.

Lights’ personal re-invention, from the scorching red hair to her new musical direction, commands the mythology of this album. Many artists conveniently stumble into re-defining themselves for new record cycles; Lights has done so genuinely and with more authority than others by bringing her fictional avatar to life. Again, it’s an all-in approach. In fact, so much about Lights’ aura on and off stage defines and tints her career. Her motherhood (she has one child, Rocket), her feminism, and her creative independence may not always have a direct, one-to-one translation to her music, but it impacts how you view and understand her music.

This is why her live sets are so attention-grabbing. There are few musicians who catch your eyes and ears like she does – perhaps Tycho, with their immersive analog synths and invigorating visuals, or Twenty One Pilots with their frantic passion, but it’s a short list. Somewhere between campy over-indulgence and apathetic boredom sits a sweet spot for live performances, and Lights is part of the 10 percent or so in that sweet spot. Awash in vivid red, purple, and blue lighting, she played a range of songs from Skin & Earth and Little Machines, while alternating Siberia’s “Flux and Flow” every other night. On this tour opening for PVRIS, you won’t find many deep cuts or acoustic sessions or anything from The Listening era, which is unfortunate because those deeper paths through her catalog are the true Lights experience, usually relegated to headlining slots. In fact, the idea of her opening for PVRIS really shows the craze that band has cultivated and tapped into, even when Lights was halfway through her career when PVRIS started playing shows.

Her contrast with the moody and dark electro-rock band might seem counter-intuitive, but the juxtaposition is actually what separated her and made her distinct, especially with the aforementioned brawn of the new songs. Many of her songs are meant to groove to, and groove to them she does. She actually gets away from her keyboard and roams the stage more frequently than she has in the past – a good step for a show that is primarily carried by the strength of her unmistakable singing voice.

It did feel strange only getting a relatively small section of her discography after having experienced years of buildup from early tours packed with songs such as “River” or “My Boots,” but that’s the way these things go. Skin & Earth deserved the majority of her set list anyway, not just because it’s her brand-new record, but because it lives on such a larger scale through the comics.

The staggered release of the comic book issues (a few came out before the album, and a few are still due to be released) helps keep attention and interest alive in a way that’s useful and entertaining for the instant-stream, now-now-now music world. New issues give people a reason to go back to the album even after digesting it. But it will be interesting to see where the whole Skin & Earth package, from all comic issues to the album to the effervescent artist herself, is in another six months or so. In the meantime, there are still a few dates left to her tour with PVRIS where you can experience that whole package.

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Article and photos by sonder editor Andrew Friedgen. Like this? Sonder is an independent music, travel and photography publication at sonderlife.com. Give us a follow here or at our Twitter, Instagram or Facebook if you like this!

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