Wild in the Streets

Wild in the Streets is an absolutely essential piece of counter culture, anti-establishment fimmaking from the 60's.

Max Frost, pop music superstar, gets elected president when the voting age is lowered, through some trickery on Max and his cronies part, to 14.

Once elected Max decrees that all people over the age of 35 be kept in camps and supplied with a never ending supply of LSD.

Sounds groovy!!

Starring Christopher Jones, Hal Holbrook, Shelley Winters(hilarious as usual as Max's mother), and Richard Pryor, Wild in the Streets is essential cult fare.

The soundtrack, which I own on vinyl, has never been, as far as I know, released on CD. What a shame!! It is fantastic. From the title track to the hit single Shape of Things to Come to Sally Leroy to my favorite track Listen to the Music, Wild in the Streets is...three o's Grooovy!

Watch Shape of Things to Come:

Psychomania

I bought this scrumptuously wicked soundtrack at Amoeba Records on Sunset Boulevard around Christmas time in 2005.

The premise of the film is pure genius. Get this, a group of bikers learns the secret of returning from death, makes a pact, commits suicide, and sure enough, return to wreak havoc as the undead!

The music, composed by John Cameron, and played by the band Frog, is haunting, moody, funky, stark, with an acid-drenched wah wah. There is a hippie-ish folk ballad a la The Wicker Man, and there is even a recurring theme that rocks! It would find a home in any biker movie(Rebel Rousers, Wild Angels, you name it), let alone one that features zombies!

Far out and...you said it...groovy!

Check it out

Robbi, Tobbi, und das Fliewatüüt

I picked up this little gem back in the summer of '07 and it hasn't been far from my disc player ever since. This is the soundtrack to a German television show for kids about a boy(Tobbi), a robot(Robbi), and the Fliewatüüt(invented by Tobbi, built by Robbi), a vehicle that can fly, swim and drive.

Looking something like a Teutonic Rankin-Bass production, the two have adventures in the Fliewatüüt and solve difficult tasks.

All this fun is set to some dynamic music composed by Ingfried Hoffmann, Germany's top organist in the 70's. Many themes are reused so cleverly it took me many listens to realize they were the same.

It swings, it uplifts, it brings a tear to the eye, and oh yeah...it's groovy!

Listen!

Piero Piccioni

Of all the great Italian film composers, from Morricone to Nicolai, Alessandroni to Umiliani, Cipriani to Micalizzi, my favorite has to be Piero Piccioni. Equally at home and evocative in crime jazz, funky beats, sleazy rhythms, swinging lounge, or sweeping orchestral themes Piccioni's music never fails to groove.

Recommended listening:

Camille 2000

Colpo Rovente

I Giovani Tigri

Puppet on a Chain

any volume of the Easy Tempo series 

Listen!