Ruckus From The Movies: Come And Dance With The Dead, Baby!

Time to revive another series gone dormant. In this case, the long break was almost normal, as I had planned out the first three volumes, but nothing beyond that. So, with this fourth volume, we go in a bit of a different direction. After having featured three veteran hard rock acts, Dance With The Dead are a different proposition. About three years ago or so I had a little summer fling with the music subgenre they call synthwave. And I stumbled onto Tony Kim and Justin Pointer a.k.a. Dance With The Dead. These two childhood friends love two thing: 80s music and horror movies. From these two loves was born Dance With The Dead, whose original songs are mainly horror-themes pastiches of mid-80s synth and AOR rock, with a dash of heavy metal, including big synth riffs (usually by Pointer) and even bigger guitar riffs (usually by Kim). Their proper compositions are fn, if sometimes a little redundant, but they would occasionally remix known rock songs and film themes. Remixing is almost an understantement, as they would add tons of additional instrumentation.  

For this volume of Ruckus At The Movies, the focus of the compilation has changed a tiny bit, from songs that were featured in movies to (note the subtle title change) songs that come from movie soundtracks or were used in movies . John Carpenter's theme from "Assault On Precinct 13" and Carles Bernstein's theme from "a Nightmare On Elm Street" are total classics and so close to what the synthwave sound wants to capture (especially Carpenter's synth scores, obviously), that Dance With The Dead's re-imaginings don't have to go very far. And yet they do, as Kim adds some monster guitar solos that obviously aren't in the originals. 

Maybe these weirdos loving another weirdo explains their cover of Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road", that was written for National Lampoon's Holiday. Then we have a cover of Luniz' hip hop classic "I Got 5 On It", that was used so effectively to spooky effect in Jordan Peele's Us. Now, while Us wasn't perfect - and neither were Get Out or Nope - it sure was a big, bold swing and in today's almost entirely I.P.-driven climate in Hollywood that is an achievement by itself. "Paint It Black" has of course been used in more than half a dozen movies, scoring the end credits of Full Metal Jacket and The Devil's Advocate and most recently featured in The Rock's flop comic book adaptation Black Adam. And finally, these two synthwave pranksters end proceedings with their take on the Theme from Gremlins. 

So, in order to appreciate today's modest One Buck Record - more of an Ep than a full-length album - you would need to have an appreciation for big chunky'n'cheesy 80s production. If you do, I guarantee a good time with some Ruckus At From The Movies...

Alice Cooper + Hollywood...yup, that works...

Oof, our little Ruckus At The Movies series has been laying dormant for a while, but comes back in 2025 with a bang! Unlike our former participants and noise merchants providing a ruckus at the movies, Vincent Fournier a.k.a. Alice Cooper actually had a bunch of ties to the movie world other than the occasional soundtrack contribution. Given his ample theatrics during his legendary stage shows it seemed only natural that Fournier would also step onto the silver screen. 

The first time I have seen him as an actor was in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, where he was the leader of the homicidal homeless surrounding the church where, uh, the devil is hiding in an oversized lava lamp. Kindasorta. It's actually a pretty good movie that has tons of great Carpenter traits. Title song "Prince of Darkness" is of course featured here. The other Cooper track I distinctly remember is "I Am The Future" from The Class Of 1984, also a great track that set the tone for the film to follow. The Class Of 1984 is deeply silly in some respects - but was also terribly prescient about the rise of violence in high schools and in society in general. 

Hey man, you got some spare change?...or a couple of spare organs to give..?

The tracks of this compilation are split between tracks he submitted for movies - sometimes  commissioned - and tracks for films in which he was acting and thus a logical contributor to the film's soundtrack. This of course means that the films Cooper provided music for include some real howlers and oddities, including Monster Dog and 1974's almost completely forgotten Flash Fearless. Two tracks apiece come from those, erm, classics. One film isn't a howler in the technical sense, but still regularly shows up on 'Worst of..'-lists, and that is the misbegotten musical adaptation of Sgt. Pepper's, for which Cooper worked with the Bee Gees (!) on "Because". Like the film, it's an interesting curio, but probably better enjoyed as an abstract concept rather than the musical material itself. 

One track doesn't come from a movie, but was obviously intended for one. Cooper wrote "The Man With The Golden Gun" for the James Bond movie of the same name, yet it's unclear whether that was 'on spec' or whether any of the Bond people really approached him. You have to appreciate how Cooper clearly wanted to use  some of the dynamics of a Bond theme song, including use of brass. It probably wasn't in any serious consideration, but it's an admirable effort and probably better than Lulu's final version anyway, yet you can see why Cooper's reputation in the mainstream might have the Broccolis shying away from him.

"Uh, sorry to have bothered you, sir, I think I'll stop hitching and take the greyhound...uh, right now..."

He was commissioned to write a title song for Friday The 13th VI - Jason Lives!, though, and delivered. "He's Back (The Man In The Mask)" is featured twice here, both as a demo and the final track in the movie version - both are quite enjoyable and surprisingly good. Kind of like the movie it came from, easily the best fifth sequel to a horror film series - there admittedly aren't that many contenders - but also a genuinely worthwhile slasher with witty, ironic underpinnings. There is also a new version of "Under My Wheels", recorded with 3/5 of Guns'n'Roses for Penelope Spheeris' doc The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II - The Metal Years. 

Cooper's music for film is a bit like the man, or rather the character he plays: a little hoary, a little obvious, but a whole lot of fun. So join Mr. Fournier while he is causing another ruckus at the movies...

 

Blue Öyster Cult cause a ruckus...as they damn well should...

Unlike our first group of musical hooligans causing a ruckus at the movies, Blue Öyster Cult weren't quite as busy or involved in providing music for movies. The one huge exception is of course their signature tune "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" which has shown up - credited or uncredited - in about three dozen different films and tv shows. So obviously the Ruckus At The Movies: Blue Öyster Cult edition opens with "Reaper". But since everybody already has (or bloody well should have) that one, I decided to include the re-recording the band did for Cult Classics, an album directly inspired by the public's renewed interest in the band after "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was so effectively used in the opening of the 1994 The Stand mini-series. Which, incidentally, was also my first brush with BÖC. 

But the band's other film adventures were more modest in nature and sometimes not entirely successful. They were for example asked to provide some songs for the movie Teachers in 1984, which the band dutifully did, writing three relatively Neanderthal-ian shool-themed songs, rhyming rebel with devil etc. I guess they were the knuckleheads of their class. Anyway, somehow the deal fell through and BÖC weren't featured on the soundtrack that had, among others 38 Special, ZZ Top and...uh...Joe Cocker (?!). The three demos the band recorded for Teachers are of course featured here.and, as said, they're pretty good in a 'dumb but fun' way. Probably about as good as the BÖC were gonna be in 1984 - and the fact that they are only demos probably worked out for the best, as they escape the hideous overproduction of The Revolution By Night and Club Ninja. 

This was, in many ways, the second time the band had invested time, money and effort writing and producing music for a film that then...turned out differently. They had written a couple of songs with the hopes of seeing them included in Heavy Metal - The Film, but none of the specifically prepared songs were picked. Instead, the producers chose "Veteran Of The Psychic Wars", a superb sci-fi song. The rest of the songs landed on Fire Of Unknown Origin and form a sort of mini-album within the album. I included the one most obviously made for Heavy Metal: "Vengeance (The Pact)", which recounts the adventures of one of the main stories of the film, Taarna, which is probably and ironically what got it axed in the first place. Oh, also: it is absolutely kick-ass, one of the best of the Cult from the 80s, when the pickings began to get slimmer. 

And finally, there is the BÖC's one time where they were completely in control of a film's music. Unfortunately it was for a complete turd of a film, a cheap Charles Band sc-fi flick called Bad Channels. Fortunately, the band provided not only two heavy metal song to the soundtrack, but also the entire score. Unfortunately, it was almost all incidental music, broken up into often very short bits and thus not a particularly good listen. Fortunately, the One Buck Guy is not gonna let that pass, so I picked what I thought were the best moment of the score and edited them into three suites extravagantly called "Bad Channels Suite". These should be much more satisfying listens.  

So, it was time to get some BÖC on this here blog, and why not with a listen to them causing a ruckus at the movies...

Ruckus At The Movies: Cheap Trick

You know what's been missing around here lately? Some good ol' fashioned rock'n'roll, that's what! Amid my love for all things Americana, I sometimes forget to mix in something a little more...crunchy. Et voilà, a new series to remedy that (I know, throw it on the pile...). So, what's Ruckus At The Movies? It'll be a bunch of compilations of harder rock acts and the music they contributed to movie soundtracks. And what better band to start off shenanigans than that ultracrunchy quartet from Rockford, Illinois - the one and only Cheap Trick. 

Cheap Trick are the ultimate smart dumb rock'n'roll band. They also seem to be perpetually underrated. No one ever seems to go "Hey, those Cheap Trick fellas were pretty damn good, right?". Or: "That Rick Nielsen sure knew how to write some deceptively clever seemingly dumb songs". Or: "Boy, that Robin Zander really was quite a singer, wasn't he?". All of these things go without saying, but the fact that Cheap Trick were seen as a dumb rock'n'roll band seems to have prevented them from having some cred with the cool crowd. Other than...uh, Billy Corgan, where are the rock'n'roll stars singing the praises of the Trick? 

Arguably, most of the tracks on this compilation come from when the band was on a bit of a downswing, meaning from the early 80s on. Trying to find a sympathetic producer after having separated from Tom Werman, as well as a hit record, the Trick went from George Martin to Roy Thomas Baker to Todd Rundgren to Jack Douglas to Tony Platt, the latter messing up the band's sound on Standing On The Edge and especially The Doctor. The Richie Zito-produced Lap Of Luxury brought them their only no. 1 hit, power ballad "The Flame" before follow-up Busted, well, busted whatever commercial standing they had.

                                           The dreamboats and, uh, the other guys

All the while Cheap Trick maintained income and visibility by placing songs on soundtracks, from genre exercises like Heavy Metal and Rock And Rule (for which they recorded three songs, both outtakes are also included) to mainstream fare like Caddyshack II (for which they recorded a stomping cover of "Money (That's What I Want)") or the forgotten Brendan Fraser-comedy Encino Man (for which they recorded an even more rowdy - and heavy - cover of "Wild Thing"). I also threw in two solo tracks by Robin Zander, big AOR ballads for the Sly Stallone-vehicle Over The Top and the Kurt Russel-Mel Gibson joint Tequila Sunrise. The latter features Ann Wilson.  

One of my favorite Trick tracks from this comp is a pure "gun for hire"-work. Harold Faltermeyer, who worked on the scores and songs for Top Gun got them to perform "Mighty Wings" which is also prominently featured in the film. And yet the single missed the charts completely, whereas even Loverboy's soppy "Heaven In Your Eyes" made it all the way to no. 12. Oh well. Opener "Everything Works If You Let It" (from Roadie) and "Up The Creek" from the movie of the same title (which the band incidentally hates and describes as possibly their worst song) at least scraped into the Top 50. 

But hey, charts, shmarts, right?! If you wanted some big dumb fun rock'n'roll on your movie soundtrack, you should call Cheap Trick and they would get the job done. The 17 tracks featured here are the proof. So, hang up your brain for a while, get warmed up for some air guitar and let's cause some ruckus at the movies...