When HERC saw Dazed & Confused at the theater in 1993, there were three other people in the audience: Mrs. HERC and two giggly "enthusiasts". Thankfully, after it was released on home video (VHS, several different DVD versions and editions - including the Criterion Collection pictured below - and now blu-ray), it continues to find its audience and can rightfully claim to be a "cult classic".
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The film's events all take place in one day in 1976, the last day of school, much like the similarly themed American Graffiti and Can't Hardly Wait. Teenage recreational proclivities aside, it's a fairly universal theme we all face in our lives: last day of school, now what? The film treads the middle ground between the comedy of That 70s Show and the over the top drama of Over The Edge, another favorite of HERC's.
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Dazed and Confused features a cast of thousands hundreds unheralded actors and actresses who have mostly gone on to bigger and sometimes better things, Richard Linklater's semiautobiographical film actually provoked a defamation lawsuit (eventually dismissed) from classmates who shared the surnames of three lead characters. The film is a good-natured, anti-authority time capsule and HERC recommends it without reservation. One of the film's taglines is "See It With A Bud." <snicker> If you don't have the 109 minutes to watch it, here's a 2 minute quickie:
The film's soundtrack is dense and like Graffiti, music is heard in virtually every scene. Linklater has said in interviews that he actually wanted even more music in the movie but was restricted by budgetary concerns (reportedly, a sixth of the film's budget went towards music licensing) and the difficulty in procurring rights: despite Jimmy Page's okeydoke, Robert Plant vetoed the inclusion of Led Zeppelin's "Rock & Roll" as the film's final song.
Two separate soundtrack discs were released: Dazed and Confused along with the film in September 1993 and Even More Dazed and Confused in October 1994. Noticeably absent from either disc is Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" which is featured prominently in the movie.
"Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" Rick Derringer
"Slow Ride" Foghat
"School's Out" Alice Cooper
"Jim Dandy" Black Oak Arkansas
"Tush" ZZ Top
"Love Hurts" Nazareth
"Stranglehold" Ted Nugent
"Cherry Bomb" The Runaways
"Fox on the Run" Sweet
"Low Rider" War
"Tuesday's Gone" Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Highway Star" Deep Purple
"Rock and Roll All Nite" KISS
"Paranoid" Black Sabbath
"Free Ride" Edgar Winter Group
"No More Mr. Nice Guy" Alice Cooper
"Livin' in the USA" The Steve Miller Band
"Never Been Any Reason" Head East
"Why Can't We Be Friends?" War
"Summer Breeze" Seals and Crofts
"Right Place, Wrong Time" Dr. John
"Balinese" ZZ Top
"Lord Have Mercy On My Soul" Black Oak Arkansas
"I Just Want to Make Love to You" Foghat
"Show Me the Way" Peter Frampton
"Do You Feel Like We Do" Peter Frampton
For today's playlist, HERC has gathered all that Spotify had to offer (no early Sabbath or Steve Miller yet) and, after back-to-back viewings of the movie, arranged the tracks in the order they appear in the film. There are "bonus" tracks allegedly used in deleted scenes or songs that could not be licensed for inclusion on the film's soundtrack. Luckily for us, there is Spotify!
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