Episode 28: Movie Soundtracks of the 70s
SHOW NOTES
Movies serve many purposes. They can offer an escape from reality, they can re-imagine real events, they can create new worlds, they can reflect the world we are in, they can give us the hero’s journey. Movies in the 70s did all of those things. What makes them even more important to the decade, though, is that movie music was allowed to go along for the ride. Soundtracks got better as soundtracks became more intentional. In this episode, Amy examines some of the iconic 70s soundtracks and discusses what these soundtracks can tell us about life in the 70s.
PLAYLIST
Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head by B.J. Thomas (1970)
Freddie’s Dead by Curtis Mayfield (1972)
The Harder They Come by Jimmy Cliff (1972)
You Should be Dancing by the Bee Gees (1976)
Star Wars (Main Title) by John Williams (1977)
FM by Steely Dan (1978)
Lookin’ for Love by Johnny Lee (1980)
SOURCES
Aletti, Vince. “Trouble Man/M.P.G.” Rolling Stone. March 1, 1973.
Arar, Yardena. “City Slickers Slipped Into ‘Cowboy’ Album.” The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA). July 6, 1980.
Denisoff, R. Serge and William D. Romanowski. Risky Business. Oxfordshire, UK: Taylor & Francis. 2017.
Donat, Bob. “Super Fly.” Rolling Stone. November 9, 1972.
Glover, Tony. “Rainbow Bridge.” Rolling Stone. December 9, 1971.
Hillburn, Robert. “Mayfield Looks at Drug Scene in ‘Fly’” Los Angeles Times. September 12, 1972.
infusion26. “The Bee Gees You Should Be Dancing—Bass Cover.” YouTube. October 12, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaOLCWYXDpY
Lee, Michael. “The Hero’s Journey Breakdown: Star Wars.” The Script Lab. October 11, 2019. https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/12309-the-heros-journey-breakdown-star-wars/
Liebenson, Donald. “Remembering Butch Cassidy’s Controversial Smash Hit, ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.’ Vanity Fair. September 25, 2019. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/09/raindrops-keep-fallin-on-my-head-history
Paxman, Bob. “40 Years Later: Celebrating the ‘Urban Cowboy’ Soundtrack.” Sounds Like Nashville. August 3, 2020. https://www.soundslikenashville.com/news/40-years-later-urban-cowboy-soundtrack/
“Robert Redford Interview.” YouTube. January 18, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2N_n8GjSng
Rose, Frank. “How Can You Mend a Broken Group? The Bee Gees Did It with Disco.” Rolling Stone. July 14, 1977.
Ross, Alex. “Listening to Star Wars.” The New Yorker. January 1, 2016. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/listening-to-star-wars
Rudis, Al. “Movie Soundtracks Better than Ever.” The Atlanta Constitution. August 4, 1973.
Smith, Mychal Denzel. “Curtis Mayfield: Super Fly.” Pitchfork. June 17, 2018.
Spencer, Kristopher. Film and Television Scores, 1950 - 1979. McFarland Incorporated Publishers. E-book. 2014.
Teusch, Judy. “Soundtracks.” The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, IN). June 22, 1969
Risky Business: Rock in Film.
Zaleski, Annie. “The Urban Cowboy Soundtrack: All the Songs, Ranked.” The Boot. July 24, 2020. https://theboot.com/urban-cowboy-soundtrack-songs/