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Hi there everyone. Thank you for reading the newsletter. Love and best wishes to you all.
It is October and Halloween season, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s still summer here. Temperatures in the high 80s this time of year can’t be right, can it? As it appears we’re all going to burn to a crisp as if thrown into the fires of hell, we might as well really embrace Halloween and listen to spooky music and horror soundtracks whilst we fry.
I mentioned last week that Jeff had made a start on the store’s decorations and put on display some of the Halloween-themed records we had in stock. There’s a lot of good ones for sure. I was very excited to bring in copies of two lost soundtracks composed by 60s garage music king, Sean Bonniwell, he of The Music Machine fame. That band, with their black gloves and image, really epitomized the 1960s US garage band era. Two killer albums, a bunch of great singles, and a lot of equally high-quality unreleased at the time recordings have cemented the group’s legacy as one of the best in the genre. Their influence cannot be over-estimated. After the demise of the Music Machine, Sean Bonniwell remained active. He released a folk-rock solo album, Close, in 1969, that is hard to find, as it didn’t sell well. After the psychedelic sounds of the Music Machine, even with the slight name change, this record was too much of a stylistic switch for most fans at the time. In retrospect, hearing Bonniwell croon softly over bossa rhythms and soft strings isn’t too bad years later, but don’t be seeking out fuzz guitar solos and the like on that one. It was thought that he had retired from the music business after that record, but that wasn’t quite the case. In 1970 and 1971, he scored the soundtracks to two films: Night Of The Witches and The Day Of The Wolves. Both films are super obscure and underground, and it doesn’t seem as if many had seen them until recently. You can find them on the internet currently. I could stream both on YouTube, complete with TV commercials recorded from Miami TV in 1980. Not the best quality, but it proves both films were made and are real and now we have the soundtrack albums to enjoy them in high-quality sound.
Discovering that there were two lost soundtracks from one of my favorite artists was a real surprise and treat. That neither of these had ever been released in any format up to now was also mind-blowing. Thankfully, the good folks at Real Gone Music have rectified that situation, and now both awesome soundtracks are available on vinyl. Still not much information about the films themselves, but the music sounds great and the records and album art look great. I’ve droned on countless times about how much I love soundtracks, so having these two records scratches several itches. Music created by a longtime hero for cult grindhouse movies that sound cool. Sign me up.
Both soundtracks are chock full of the strange, spooky, weird and wonderful types of sounds you’d expect and want to hear in films like this. The moment the music began on Night Of The Witches I knew instantly that I was going to love everything that followed. I wasn’t wrong. Imagine that Sean Bonniwell of Music Machine and Arthur Lee from Love had made a record together or been commissioned to score a film like Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls and had brought in David Bowie to sing one of the songs and had the hippest and tightest and funkiest rhythm section holding down the music and you’d be halfway there. It’s brilliant.
There are a couple of vocal cuts, but it’s really the instrumentals that are the winners, although I do like the song Down To The Sky, which has the vocal, from I assume Sean, but sounds like Bowie on some of his 60s records. It has a funny line about, if you’re not down with the witches, you’ll be sharing your lunch with a mole. Terrific. This song is also represented in a fleshed-out six-minute instrumental that sounds great. In other moments as I was listening, it sounded as if the Cure were covering outtakes from The Stones’ Satanic Majesties with Cal Tjader playing vibes alongside. For real. Well, something like that. Good for sure. Ethereal and spooky sounds combine with funky back beats and fuzz guitar bursts to create the perfect soundtrack to these films or the soundtrack to our present lives. Almost sixty years later, the music still holds up. It’s wild that music this good is still mostly unknown, especially when a cult artist is involved, but thankfully these two sets of soundtrack music are now out there for our enjoyment.
Day Of The Wolves is a heist film with a contemporary early 1970s feel, and the soundtrack matches that. It’s more gritty than groovy, compared to the Witches soundtrack. More rocking and with heavier drums and more of a brown acid vibe to things. There are elements though that remind me of some of the movie scores Quincy Jones did or that Galt MacDermot made in that late 1960s through early 1970s period. If you know what I’m trying to say, you’ll most likely enjoy listening to this one too. That kind of funky sound that goes with crime caper movies from that time. I’m happy to report that the sound of the vibes is heard on this soundtrack also, and there are even more drums potentially waiting for someone to sample and make a beat out of.
All in all, two good albums of original music, and worthy of your investigation. I’m leaning toward Witches being my favorite of the two currently, but after a few more listens to Wolves, perhaps I’ll change my mind. Which one will get your vote?
Thanks for reading and taking time with us. Until the next one.
Cheers - Dom