Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

One rarely hears much about the actor [tag]Harry Dean Stanton[/tag] these days. A shame. His career reached its peak during the mid-1980s with his roles as the prodigal red cap-wearing brother in [tag]Paris, Texas[/tag] and the one of the titular characters (and ?character? is an understatement: each of his scenes was an explosion waiting to happen and always did) in [tag]Repo Man[/tag]. Stanton was able to achieve a clearly-defined balance and display of acting skill with both characters, the brother?s yin and the repo man?s yang, that seemed to elude most of his contemporaries during the above-mentioned decade. His was not the featured role in either film, merely the one a viewer would always remember.

Both films featured music that mirrored Stanton?s approach to his characters: thoughtful, nuanced, well-performed, fun.

Paris, Texas begins with a breathtaking shot of a mountain range somewhere in Mexico?s version of the middle of nowhere. Just as one is remembering to exhale while mentally processing this image, the music begins: a four-note refrain on slide guitar that is as deep as the blues gets and in its own way is as powerful an introduction as the first four notes of Beethoven?s Fifth Symphony. The slide guitarist and composer of the music is Ry Cooder. He had been responsible for the incidental music for another film taking place in Mexico and Texas, 1982?s, The Border. All of that movie?s great music (outstanding contributions from Cooder, John Hiatt, Freddy Fender, and Sam ?the Sham? Samudio, among others) pales in comparison to those four eerie notes.

Most of the selections on the soundtrack recording are variations on the four-note opening theme. The arrangements are ambient and minimal. Cooder is assisted by fellow musicians David Lindley and Jim Dickinson for the instrumental work, while Stanton sings a heart-wrenching version of the traditional ?Cancion Mixteca.? It is simply beautiful, just like everything on this collection of music. For years after the release of this film, Stanton sang this song during Cooder?s live perfomances, and even wore the red cap during each gig.

I do not remember Stanton doing any singing in Repo Man. He was too busy smashing car headlights with a baseball bat and making wisecracks to Emilio Estevez about the repo man?s code. The groups who provided the music on the soundtrack are a Who?s Who of the Los Angeles underground rock scene during the early 1980s: Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, the Circle Jerks, the Plugz, Burning Sensations, Fear. And, of course, the media-anointed ?godfather of punk,? Iggy Pop doing the title song, five minutes and eleven seconds of what rock and roll is supposed to sound like.

Every song on this CD is the sonic equivalent of Stanton?s character, the kind of guy who would make rock?s wild men from Jerry Lee Lewis to Pete Doherty look passive. Black Flag?s ?TV Party? is both hilarious and a checklist of the period?s popular television programs. The chorus of ?We?ve got nothing better to do/Than watch TV and have a couple of brews? continues to this day as the motto for all couch potatoes. ?Institutionalized? by Suicidal Tendencies received airplay on radio and MTV at the time of the film?s release and probably made the PepsiCo corporate office meetings interesting per the song?s references to its narrator wanting a Pepsi and subsequent accusations of ?You?re on drugs!? from his parents. The Plugz? version of ?Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man),? like ?Cancion Mixteca? from ?Paris, Texas,? required no knowledge of Spanish to get the song?s message. Both songs were visceral for any listener in any language.

The last time I remember seeing a feature article regarding Harry Dean Stanton, other than a passing reference to his gigs with Ry Cooder, was in an East Bay Express column by Gina Arnold sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s. She had written about his work as Hazel Motes in ?Wise Blood? (another great film and an even greater novel by Flannery O?Connor) and how much he represented rock and roll in it. Unfortunately Stanton played ?the blind preacher? in that film and Brad Dourif played Hazel. Harry Dean?s was not the featured role in the film, merely the one a viewer would always remember. Let the record be set straight. No thanks are necessary, Gina.

[tags]cd review[/tags]