Motion Picture Soundtrack (Another Rip List)

I usually get my meme on via Alex, but today Ian provides the latest variant list-making framework.

The rules:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. DON'T LIE! That's not cool!

Opening Credits: "Transfiguration #1" - M. Ward.
A quiet opener, maybe like the slow move through the swamp in The Muppet Movie. Kermit could do the "sitting Muppet nod dance" to this quite easily. But then Dom DeLuise comes in and it all goes sour.

Waking Up: "Rich Girl" - Hall & Oates.
Great eighties montage song. You could see Ferris Bueller mirror primping to this, working in a nice peg-pant spin. Would work well with the themes of money and happiness in that movie as well. Hmmm.

First Day Of School: "Artificial Heart" - Yo La Tengo.
A sort of generic post-punky YLT song with lyrics from poet Ernest Noyes Brookings of Duplex Planet zine fame. Striking resemblance to "Warsaw" by Joy Division. I guess it would be okay for the cool kid's arrival in a Zach Braff version of Footloose. And yes that is damning with faint praise.

Falling In Love: "Pop, Popcorn Children" - Eldridge Holmes.
Great falling in love song! Who doesn't fall for someone who can shake it? Plus, you can't help but smile and be happy hearing this as James Brown doing "Dancing In The Street."

Fight Song: "I Hold No Grudge" - Joy & The Hit Kids.
From a Krautrock sampler put together somewhere on the net (I'm sorry, but I don't remember where), this is a Moog-driven psychedelic take on an early sixties girl-group style song. Not great for a fight, but works as an "aftermath of a win by the underdog" sequence. You know, fixing the collar, hands running back to straighten the mussed up hair kind of thing.

Breaking Up: "Goody Two Shoes" - Adam Ant.
Got to show your cards, amiright? Untraditional - it sure ain't sad, but could be an interesting take if the focus is on the dumper v. the dumpee. No scat jokes, please.

Prom: "Joy Of Sound" - The Make-Up.
Born to hand jive, baby! We got clapping, grooves, and if you could get Ian Svenonious and co. to actually be the prom band in your movie, this scene would be classic.

Life: "Requiem For O.M.M.2" - Of Montreal.
Like Ian I don't really get this category, but it is a great "looking back at better times" song. So, I guess that works...

Mental Breakdown: "Count Five or Six" - Cornelius.
Ha! I'm not cheating people. The energy and repetitive vocals here are perfect - just counting, with some orientation directives. Your mind goes out with a harmonic feedback squeal. Fitting.

Flashback: "Aquarium" - Robyn Hitchcock.
As if I could play a dozen tracks without him popping up. Looking back and not understanding makes this a good flashback song. Not a happy one, not with these lyrics: "Everything revolves around the sun/You know I'm gonna miss you when I'm gone."

Getting Back Together: "Little Nut Tree" - The Melodians.
All about seeing true love in front of the little nut tree, and thanking the Lord for it. Kinda weak for this category - it is a "love at first sight" song. That rocksteady swing though - still magic.

Wedding: "Flying" - The Beatles.
Pretty melody, wonderful McCartney bass line. Stately, could be a good "walk down the aisle" song, as long as you get there before the flute part at the end (Yuck!). Not a wedding reception song.

Birth Of A Child: "Runnin' Wild" - Django Reinhardt & co.
People give birth in Woody Allen films, so why not? That chugging Gypsy swing could be matched nicely with those shots of laborious breathing - "hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, arrr!"

Final Battle: "The Bed's Too Big Without You (Mono version)" - The Police.
The menace in the introduction is palpable. Shame that Mary J. used it to no great effect a few years back. Wish it was slightly further into dub, though this mono version does compress and limit Sting's voice in interesting ways. Let's see - maybe cutting from eye to eye, no movement beyond a blink like in The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. I'm trying to make it work.

Death Scene: "Charlotte Anne" - Julian Cope.
Fragile, but a bright one, like a melting icicle. The lyrics are darker than the music, so it might work for a happy passing, a redemptive sacrifice. Man, that spoken bit is a little too Spinal Tap. But then, Julian seems to be Nigel in some ways.

Funeral Song: "Tiny Steps" - Elvis Costello & The Attractions.
Someone isn't happy with the mourners and wants to point fingers or something. Doesn't work in the least.

End Credits: "Maggie's Farm (live at Newport)" - Bob Dylan & his co-conspirators.
Dylan goes electric and drives the people out of the aisles. What's done is done, and Pete Seeger and his apocryphal ax can't change it. Go home, it's over.