At Last

If your life were a movie, what would its soundtrack be like? What songs, instrumental pieces, and other sound effects would be featured on the official soundtrack album?

Hit it, Etta: “And life is like a song…”.

My god, what a difficult assignment. Soundtrack music isn’t the same as, say, choosing a playlist.

But let me play this one straight-up. I’ll use the ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ Soundtrack as a model. Because it’s an iconic movie, it had a good soundtrack, and it reflected its time. So we’re seeking songs that are iconic of the 70s and 80s, to reflect the music that’s most important in my life. (My friend Ken would hiss and spit; he says that’s all I listen to. Not quite entirely true; just mostly what I listen to.)

Anyway…24 tunes on the FTaRH soundtrack, so that sets our limit.

“Train Kept a Rollin” (Get Your Wings)—Aerosmith
“Time” (Dark Side of the Moon)—Pink Floyd
“Hotel California” (Hotel California)—The Eagles
“Back in Black” (Back in Black)—AC/DC
“Rocket Man” (Honkey Chateau)—Elton John
“Killer Queen” (Sheer Heart Attack)—Queen
“Stranglehold” (Ted Nugent)—Ted Nugent
“Waterloo” (Waterloo)—ABBA
“Halo of Flies” (Killer)—Alice Cooper
“In the Dark” (Don’t Say No)—Billy Squier
“Lucretia Mac Evil” (Blood, Sweat and Tears 3)—Blood, Sweat and Tears
“Don’t Fear the Reaper” (Agents of Fortune)—Blue Oyster Cult
“Hooked on a Feeling” (Hooked on a Feeling)—Blue Swede
“The Ballroom Blitz” (Desolation Boulevard)—The Sweet
“Turn the Page” (Live Bullet)—Bob Seger
“You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” (Not Fragile)—Bachman Turner Overdrive
“Don’t Look Back” (Don’t Look Back)—Boston
“Cold As Ice” (Foreigner)—Foreigner
“I Want You To Want Me” (Live At Budokan)—Cheap Trick
“Couldn’t Get It Right” (Gold Plated)—Climax Blues Band
“Young Americans” (Young Americans)—David Bowie
“Money For Nothing” (Brothers In Arms)—Dire Straits
“Black Water” (What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits)—The Doobie Brothers
“Mr. Blue Sky” (Out Of The Blue)—Electric Light Orchestra

Your basic playlist of what (today) calls itself a ‘classic rock’ station, I guess. And of course I ran out of room before I ran out of songs, because I shot for songs that I felt were ‘iconic’, but also a few lesser tracks that deserve to be saved from obscurity (as soundtracks often do). Some are included solely for their personal meaning to me (ex: ”Black Water”—if you were there, you know why).

Some of these tracks, particularly the really long ones, probably wouldn’t be suitable for a real soundtrack. But hey, it’s my article and I get to play them, damn it.

Now all I need is another 25 tracks…ok, another fifty. Damn, I’d never be able to cut it down all the way to 24, I wasn’t even through “E” on my iTunes library.

And this isn’t exactly a riveting-reading Prompt topic, is it?

Needs more Long Tall Sally

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