All right, all right, all right. Before we get down to sparking a joint, please allow me to say a few words about the sequel to the greatest movie soundtrack ever made about the greatest movie ever made about the greatest year in human history—1976, America’s Bicentennial Year, and the year I graduated from high school!
I’m talking, of course, about Richard Linklater’s 1993 film Dazed and Confused, which is the perfect time capsule and uncannily captures the reality of being young and in high school in a small town in the middle of nowhere in the mid-Seventies. And its 1993 soundtrack, which is an almost-perfect time capsule of the era. Such a perfect time capsule that it spawned a sequel, that same year’s Even More Dazed and Confused, which compiled all of the songs from the motion picture not included on the first soundtrack.
First, a few reservations. It took years for me to figure out why neither soundtrack included anything by Led Zeppelin, which is unfortunate because one of the film’s high-water marks occurs when King of the Stoners, Slater, waxes rhapsodic about a one-hour Bonzo drum solo (“You couldn’t handle that shit on strong acid”). But I finally found out it wasn’t Linklater’s fault. He wanted to include “Rock and Roll,” but Robert Plant (the prick) nixed the deal. Linklater never forgave him.
Likewise, with Aerosmith, which is near tragic because the film ends with Pink, Slater, Simone, and Wooderson driving to Houston to buy tickets to see the band. Again, not Linklater’s fault. He tried but failed to include “Sweet Emotion” because of exorbitant licensing costs.
Other caveats—both Sweet’s “Fox on the Run” and The Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb” ring false. I was THERE, and nobody was listening to them. We weren’t hip enough! And where’s Bowie? “Rebel Rebel” would have made for the perfect replacement! And don’t try to tell me Roxy Music should have been included. Again, far too hip for kids like me. We’d never heard of them! And the only song by T. Rex we’d ever heard was “Bang a Gong.” And we didn’t like it!
What Linklater totally got right was not including any punk songs on the album. Punk didn’t happen in small-town America until the late seventies, at the earliest! And he wisely didn’t include anything by the Velvet Underground, because only two or three people, tops, where I came from had ever heard of them! You’ll also notice nobody in the film is in a band. It never occurred to small-town kids in 1976 that you could BE in a band, because to be in a band, you had to be a great musician like Keith Emerson!
Finally, Linklater did the film justice by not including a single song NOT IN EXISTENCE in 1976, despite the fact that there were songs out there that would have helped set the mood. Take Redd Kross’ “1976″ and “Elephant Flares.” They’d have fit the theme to a T, but they’d have been a mistake—you couldn’t hear “1976″ in 1976! Ditto Killdozer’s great covers of Seventies classics.
Even More Dazed and Confused isn’t the great soundtrack Dazed and Confused is, but that makes perfect sense—its songs were, by definition, not considered strong enough to be on the original. It’s still worth owning, mind you, because despite what I just said, some of its songs COULD have been on the original.
Opener “Free Ride” by the Edgar Winter Group is the perfect example. It was one of the coolest songs of the time, and why it’s languishing on the sequel while “Fox on the Run” is on its precursor is beyond me. Head East’s “Never Been Any Reason” is also an inspired choice—Head East may have only had one hit, but everybody I knew loved it. It could have been by REO Speedwagon, who were considered cool in 1976.
And the more I think about it, the film would have been improved by the inclusion of REO’s “Roll with the Changes.” Wait, the song didn’t even EXIST in 1976, but “Ridin’ the Storm Out” did! Or, and I’m just free associating now, the Raspberries’ “Go All the Way” would have been a great choice. Where the hell is “Go All the Way”?
“No More Mr. Nice Guy” is a companion to “School’s Out” on the original soundtrack, but I’d have sooner seen Linklater go with “I’m Eighteen” or its Love It to Death song mate “Long Way to Go,” which I consider the greatest song Alice Cooper ever recorded.
Steve Miller’s “Living in the USA” is a wonderful cut, even if it’s a bit antique—it would have been better if Linklater had gone with a song (the title track was pure stoner mysticism) from Miller’s massively successful 1976 LP Fly Like an Eagle. It was released in May, just in time for graduation!
“Summer Breeze” is a great soft rock inclusion, although I can’t help but wish Linklater had also included Sammy John’s “Chevy Van,” which captured every teen male’s fantasy of driving a cool van and getting laid. Or Gary Wright’s “Dream Weaver,” which was astral plane music for kids who didn’t know astral planes from airplanes!
I’m delighted Linklater included Black Oak Arkansas’ “Lord Have Mercy on My Soul,” if only because it proves Linklater is that rarest of all souls—someone who loves BOA as much as I do. It’s a great song choice even if (because?) it’s one truly weird song—a hardscrabble hillbilly rocker over which Jim Dandy Mangrum proves he’s the greatest singer ever because he can’t sing, prefaced by a surreal monologue in which Jim Dandy explains he attains divine wisdom during a walk through the Halls of Karma, not sure if he’s taken LSD or not. Classic.
But after that, things go downhill. Dr. John’s “Right Place Wrong Time” is a vintage swamp voodoo boogie, but nobody I knew cared—he was too exotic for our tastes. War’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends” is an okay song, but sadly inferior to “Low Rider,” which appeared on the first soundtrack.
And what is ZZ Top’s “Balinese” doing there? I don’t even remember hearing the song, and it’s not one fiftieth as good as “Tush,” which appears on the first soundtrack. Now “La Grange” would have been a brilliant choice! Dazed and Confused takes place in Texas, after all!
Foghat’s “Slow Ride” is one of the most important (and best) songs on the Dazed and Confused soundtrack, but “I Just Want to Make Love to You” is second-rate in comparison. I can think of dozens of better songs with both of my ears tied behind my back.
As for the two Peter Frampton tracks that close the soundtrack, I can only ask WHY? Frampton was one of THEE most important rockers of 1976, a true social phenomenon, and I would argue that “Show Me the Way” should have been on the first soundtrack. But the version of “Do You Feel Like We Do” from Frampton Comes Alive!? The one that features Frampton playing a talking guitar? It has comedic (and time capsule) value, but the soundtrack would have been better served by including somebody and something else.
Like, just to toss some off from the top of my head, Heart’s “Magic Man”! Something by Styx! Or (Randall) Pink Floyd! Queen’s “Keep Yourself Alive” or “Killer Queen”! Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town”! Something, anything, by Elton John (“Philadelphia Freedom” is all about 1776 AND 1976)! And where’s AC/DC? Bachman-Turner Overdrive? Or Uriah Heep’s “Easy Livin’”! Perfect choice! And (dark horse, but still) the Ozark Mountain Daredevils’ “If You Want to Get to Heaven”!
And “Don’t Fear the Reaper”! Wait, it wasn’t released until July! Pink hadn’t even heard it yet! Ditto Al Stewart’s “Year of the Cat,” which wouldn’t see the light of day until October! And Cheap Trick’s “Surrender,” which wouldn’t change the world until June 1978!
One of the movie’s best moments occurs when Cynthia says, “I call it the ‘every other decade’ theory. The ’50s were boring. The ’60s rocked. The ’70s, my god, they obviously suck. So maybe the ’80s will be like, radical. I figure we’ll be in our twenties, and hey, it can’t get any worse.” Growing up always sucks, and it goes without saying that high school always sucks, but boy, how wrong poor Cynthia was. The Eighties were tragically awful, unless you were a hardcore kid. Cynthia didn’t know it, but she was living in a veritable rock Golden Age. But maybe that’s just the 1976 me talking.
I’ll forever be grateful to Richard Linklater for making the perfect movie about my coming of age, and for accompanying it with an album that was the soundtrack of my coming of age. Unfortunately, its sequel seems like a poorly thought-out counterpart and is an inferior product, and the sad thing is, it didn’t have to be.
Why it doesn’t even have “Band on the Run” or “Born to Run” or “Running with the Pack” or “Take the Money and Run” on it. Talk about your also-rans.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B-
