I watched the Big Chill on Film 4 last night, which turned out to be a portent of what was to come today, as the snow is back with a bloody vengeance this morning. Anyway, when the film was released on video all those years ago, I loved it. Watching it again last night I realised that it was very much of it's time and hadn't dated very well at all. After a while the characters began to really irritate me, even the ones that in the past I had been sympathetic towards, Nick, played by William Hurt and in the end I just found myself bored by these comfortable, middle class Americans whinge about themselves. I don't think that It will be a film that I will be returning to anytime soon.
One thing which has not changed with the passage of time is my love of the soundtrack which is full of great late 60's/ early 70's tunes. I remember around 1985/86 when I first saw the film, hunting high and low for the soundtrack and not being able to find it anywhere, eventually after a good 6 months or so searching I got hold of a copy only to find that 2 of the best track used in the film, You Can't Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones and The Weight by the Band were not even on the soundtrack.
Hearing the tracks in the film last night, got me thinking of how easy it would be for me today to get hold of them. All it would take would be a Google search to find out all the tracks used in the film and then about an hour's worth of searching and downloading and I would have the complete soundtrack, whereas back then it was either seek out the soundtrack album or make up a tape by visiting all of your friends whose parents had good record collections and recording from them. Somehow I don't think that there is the same satisfaction in hunting down tracks these days as it is all too easy. Yes it was incredibly frustrating not being able to just get the tunes but the pay off when you were eventually successful was worth it, I think. Plus you had the physical record which to me is the thing.
Here are two of my favourites from the film.
Smokey Robinson And The Miracles - I Second That Emotion
The Band - The Weight
5 comments:
I was thinking something similar the other day. Whether it's through more legal sources or searching out somebody who has uploaded it somewhere, it's never been easier to get hold of pretty much every type of music, and some pretty obscure stuff is out there.
My 14 year old self would have loved it, but I do miss that old habit of going into any record shop that I come across just incase they had that obscure band that you never bought at the time in stock.
Do yo think that this ubiquity has devalued music Simon? Not for the geeks like us but for younger people, surely it can't mean as much if it is so easily accessable.
I miss that rush you get when you eventually track something down. It's not the same just winning it on ebay.
I think I am repeating myself here.
Me thinx it's mainly an old man's occupation now, record hunting...well apart from me, i'm still young :-) Even if the young 'uns DJ, it's mp3's or cd. The value of music has become almost non-existent, d/l the latest album, don't like it, simply delete it...
In a way i'm glad, those days of paying 20quid a Cd, when i was starting my strange obsession, feck 'em they've had enough of my money over the years. What i buy now is mainly all 2nd hand, very rare it's brand new.
Getting something from ebay that you've been after for years still has an element of the old record shop hunting for me. Ebay is the biggest second hand record shop in the world. It's not the same as rifling through the racks, but I don't get the time to do that as much anymore.
I'm not too keen on downloading stuff but I buy loads on ebay and amazon. It hasn't stopped me physically going out and buying vinyl (I find it impossible to walk past a record shop) - it just means that throughout the month I get home and find a well packaged lp or cd leaning against my flat door - that's a buzz too.
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