Being a child of the ’70s, one of my more guilty pleasures is
\nlistening to some of the music that I heard on stations like WLS-AM
\nwhen I was just a child. No, I’m not pulling out leisure suits from
\nmy closet and putting on disco records; my wife has told me that
\nwould be grounds for an instant divorce. Instead, I like hearing
\nsongs that just seem to take me back to when I was about four or
\nfive, with the only cares I had including where I had left my teddy
\nbear. (Oh, wait, that reminds me…)<\/p>\n
So when I’m given the opportunity to review an album like the
\nsoundtrack for the movie
\nDick<\/i>, chances are I’ll trip over the ottoman to get my
\ngreasy hands around it. Granted, such an album can provide some bad
\nmemories as well, such as not being able to get certain songs out
\nof my head (more on that later), but this particular collection has
\njoy that you won’t find on any of those CDs you’ll see peddled on
\nlate-night TV.<\/p>\n
First, the traditional disclaimer: No, I haven’t seen the movie
\nyet. At the time I’m writing this review, the movie had just
\nopened. But to be honest, I don’t think one needs to see the movie
\nto place where certain songs fit with the action; this isn’t like a
\nDisney movie. However, it’s easy to enjoy this disc for what it is
\n– a wonderful collection of music from the first half of the decade
\n– without knowing what’s happening in the movie.<\/p>\n
Only one new song is included on
\nDick<\/i> – Sixpence None The Richer’s cover of Abba’s “Dancing
\nQueen”. Leigh Nash’s vocals seem to fit the music perfectly, and
\nthis band (who are still riding high thanks to their hit “Kiss Me”)
\nis an unlikely, but perfect, choice to tackle one of the songs that
\ndefined the decade. Listen to this one once, and you’ll be
\nsurprised how close to the bone this cover is to the original.<\/p>\n
This disc contains a lot of music that you might not recognize
\nby name, but the instant you hear the song, you’ll say, “Aah,
\nthat’s what that song is!” I would have been hard-pressed to
\ndescribe songs like George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby” or Love
\nUnlimited Orchestra’s “Love’s Theme” prior to listening to
\nDick<\/i>; once I heard the songs, the floodgates opened, and a
\nsmile crossed my face. (“Love’s Theme” is still a great song.) And
\nwhile the technology is far outdated, there’s still something
\nmagical about hearing the Moog synthesizer on Hot Butter’s
\n“Popcorn”. (Somewhere in the Pierce Memorial Archives, there’s a
\nwhole album from Hot Butter that I occasionally put on to scare the
\ncat.)<\/p>\n
From the Jackson 5 (“ABC”) to Grand Funk Railroad (“The
\nLoco-Motion”), from Jean Knight (“Mr. Big Stuff” – a song recently
\nbrought back to the limelight thanks to Burger King) to Elton John
\n(“Crocodile Rock” – sorry, not one of my all-time favorites by
\nhim),
\nDick<\/i> almost acts as a soundtrack for the early part of the
\n’70s, not just a comedy about the fall of former President Richard
\nNixon. If you survived this decade intact, chances are this disc
\nwill be a major trip down memory lane.<\/p>\n
All that said, there are one or two miscues on this one – and
\nI’ll freely admit they’re all matters of personal taste. I do
\nwonder why Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut” was chosen; this is a quirky
\nlittle tune that you really have to be in the mood to hear. This
\ntime around, I happened to think it was okay; the next time I
\nlisten to this disc, I might be diving for the “forward” button on
\nthe CD player. And I hope I never have to hear Blue Swede’s version
\nof “Hooked On A Feeling” (damn you,
\nAlly McBeal<\/i>) again in my lifetime. It’s bad enough we have
\nB.J. Thomas’s version still circling this planet, even worse that
\nol’ “Ooga-Chugga” is still a cult hit.<\/p>\n
When you’re in the mood for something severely retro,
\nDick<\/i> is an excellent choice to slap into the CD player and
\ngroove out to. With one or two exceptions, this disc is proof that
\nthe ’70s as a whole didn’t suck nearly as bad as we’ve been
\ntold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5729],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39372","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soundtrack","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39372"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}