Tuesday, September 21, 2004:

When Good Songs Happen to Bad Soundtracks

Supple -- Stayin' Alive
This song is from the film Hurricane Streets, an independent film that won a couple of awards at Sundance in 1997. I thought the film was overearnest and strained, and the bit towards the end struck me as fake and manipulative, but I guess I'm in the minority on that one. Anyway I bought the soundtrack because a couple of the tracks piqued my interest, but having it on CD hasn't changed anything: there are a few good songs, a lot of mediocre songs, and one that's damned annoying.

And then there's this: Supple covering the Bee Gees. This isn't the effete high-pitched version you're used to: the band scraps the guitar in favor of a cello; the percussion is low-key; the singing is earthy and suave. It's how Bono might sing if he were tough like Bogart and smooth like Cary Grant. But, you know, with a better singing voice.

The song is affable enough, fun, oddly compelling. Yet it's not on Supple's studio release; it's stuck in Bad Soundtrack purgatory, waiting for some beneficent studio head to come along and pray it out.
[Amazon.com ] Used copies from 1¢. Don't miss the reviews. They make funny.

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