I can't find where it was now, but I'm sure I read something in the last year or so about the circumstances under which Neil Young recorded his contributions to this soundtrack, which are the main original works on it. He realised the film studio had way more money than sense, so he specified that he would only do it if they would pay for a full 70-piece orchestra to be recorded with him out in Hawaii. He then said that he and the orchestra "worked really hard in the studio, from about 11am until noon each day", then they went to the beach and spent the studio's money there. As I say, I can't find the source, so, to avoid a libel case, I'd better say that this may just be an invention of my faulty memory. But that's the image I think of when I hear Neil's tracks on this record.
Of course, I just bought this to be completist. I can't remember where or when. The cover (still shrink-wrapped, so in mint condition) has a little clip taken out of it. I heard somewhere what that means (promo copy? remaindered?), but I've forgotten.
It seems you can't buy this any more, and since one of the other 'original' tracks is Bill Murray singing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds — which now can be seen as a precursor to him singing Roxy Music in Lost in Translation.
I saw the film in Cambridge shortly after it came out. It was based around Hunter S. Thompson, in case you didn't already know. I don't think it was very good. Certainly not as good as its trailer. They should have left more of the dialogue excerpts from the film on the soundtrack, as Quentin Tarrantino later made fashionable.
The trailer for the film made fantastic use of Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, which is included on the record. Happy 65th Birthday, Bob! I remember celebrating your 45th with Ben in his room in Old Lodge (watching Don't Look Back on BBC2)… it won't be long until we're 45 now.
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