Wanna know what they are?
Because he has triskaidekaphobia, he wrote this a week ago.
And he loves to watch... Disco roller skating!
Read that again if you have to - two big bombs were dropped. There are a few movies that feature roller skating in a big way: Skatetown USA, Roller Boogie, Xanadu and today's featured film, Roll Bounce from 2005, which surely ranks as the best of them all, both in terms of watchability and soundtrackedness.
The film itself is a nostalgia trip back to the Chicago area in 1978. [HERC was in the vicinity at that time, a few hours away.] The story is decent, the casting is really good - as in Meagan "Mmmm Mmmm" Good - and the overall movie is very well done. Highly recommended. There are even rumors of a sequel. Rock Skate, anyone?
 | |
| amazon.com |
The music, though, puts the film in the rare company of the other films featured on Friday Hideaway Film Fest. It is well-chosen, used beautifully within the context of the movie and contains a few lesser-used tracks as far as soundtracks go. The film does break a commandment of HERC's movie soundtracks: Thou shalt not mix contemporary covers with classic originals - either go one way or the other. The originals are so good in Roll Bounce, that sin is forgiven not forgotten.
"Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll" by Vaughan Mason & Crew is THE disco roller skating anthem. That pumping bass and those handclaps are easy to roll and bounce along to. Another somewhat similar sounding song (albeit with a less pumping bassline) is Patrick Hernandez's "Born To Be Alive", the first song played in Skatetown USA (which was Patrick Swayze's very first film) immediately after the opening credits and the embarrassingly horrible theme song by Dave Mason.
Another song used to great effect in Roll Bounce is Bill Withers singing "Lovely Day". The video above is eye candy and the song is remixed but the original vibe remains intact. (Great job, Full Phatt.) The song was later covered in a dance/rap style by S.O.U.L S.Y.S.T.E.M on The Bodyguard soundtrack.
The were Bee Gees were in the midst of their world domination in 1978 and Samantha Sang, a friend of the brothers, was the beneficiary of this Brothers Gibb-penned slow jam, later covered by Destiny's Child. HERC chose this video for it's superior sound quality - it's obvious someone took the time to dub over the original vocals.
Nile Rogers (guitar) and Bernard Edwards (bass) were also dominating the charts in 1978 - in their own band (Chic) and writing, playing and producing others acts like Sister Sledge and Norma Jean Wright. "He's The Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge is featured (along with Chic's "Le Freak") on the Roll Bounce soundtrack. Producers Poke & Tone sampled this song twenty years later for Will Smith's hit, "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It".
KC & the Sunshine Band's "I'm Your Boogie Man" is an irresistible dance ditty and is the group's fourth of five #1 songs. The b-side to this single was the lesser hit "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" and both songs come from their strongest original album, 1976's Part 3, which also contained the #1 "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" and the #2 "Keep It Comin' Love". In fact all 8 tracks on the original album can be found on singles and the non-album b-side to "Shake Your Booty" was "Boogie Shoes" which was featured on the monster selling Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. "I'm Your Boogie Man" was later covered by White Zombie for The Crow: City Of Angels soundtrack.
There are TWO Spotify playlists below - the first one is HERC's Mix of the Roll Bounce soundtrack and the second was inspired by HERC's own skating rink memories of 1976-1978.
TIP: Remember, if you like two or more playlists, you can combine them into one even better playlist: create a New Playlist by clicking on +New Playlist and name it. Select any song in an existing playlist, hit Ctrl+A to select all tracks and simply drag them onto the New Playlist you created earlier. Repeat as necessary. Then delete, add and rearrange tracks to your personal liking.
TIP: Press Ctrl+Shift+N to create a Playlist Folder, then name it. Click and hold on any playlist to drag them onto/into that folder. Selecting the Playlist Folder will give you a "master playlist" of all the songs contained within the playlists in that folder - simply press Play to begin listening to all of them. However, if there are any exact duplicates - same song, artist and album - Spotify will only list the song once. Clicking on a Playlist Folder will open it to reveal the playlists contained within. You can even create Playlist Folders within Playlist Folders.
There are TWO Spotify playlists below - the first one is HERC's Mix of the Roll Bounce soundtrack and the second was inspired by HERC's own skating rink memories of 1976-1978.
TIP: Remember, if you like two or more playlists, you can combine them into one even better playlist: create a New Playlist by clicking on +New Playlist and name it. Select any song in an existing playlist, hit Ctrl+A to select all tracks and simply drag them onto the New Playlist you created earlier. Repeat as necessary. Then delete, add and rearrange tracks to your personal liking.
TIP: Press Ctrl+Shift+N to create a Playlist Folder, then name it. Click and hold on any playlist to drag them onto/into that folder. Selecting the Playlist Folder will give you a "master playlist" of all the songs contained within the playlists in that folder - simply press Play to begin listening to all of them. However, if there are any exact duplicates - same song, artist and album - Spotify will only list the song once. Clicking on a Playlist Folder will open it to reveal the playlists contained within. You can even create Playlist Folders within Playlist Folders.
I wanna see it!
ReplyDelete