March 2, 2006
Biker Movie Thursday
This is one of my very favorite artifacts: the original soundtrack from the film Naked Angels (1969) on Frank Zappa’s Straight record label.
Today we’re presenting only the first tune on the album - the “Naked Angels Theme” - and sparing you the lame-ass studio boogie boredom that follows it. I wouldn’t waste your time.
But check out this churning fuzz monster. Many folks who are into biker instrumentals like to rave about Davie Allan & the Arrows (and they’re consistently good) - but Simmons & Steirling’s brash, nakedly commercial Naked Angels is A-list material. Hey, just because you’re a studio hack doesn’t mean you can’t cook the amps into overdrive and bust out a prime squealing bit of rough-trade road mythology once or twice in your lifetime. (UPDATE: Jeff Simmons is not a hack.)
The misogynist cover of this LP instantly attracted me, with its glamorous desert rape photo and sundrenched sleaziness. The movie’s very obscurity added to its mystique… which wore off slightly when I finally saw it, with Ivan Lerner, who curated a biker film festival at Anthology Film Archives. 
To be blunt, it didn’t leave much of an impression; though, as I recall, the filmmakers reused the “Theme” several times, like Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman” in the movie Superfly. Maybe it’s time for me to watch it again with fresh eyes.
And perhaps the “Naked Angels Theme” does go on a couple measures too long… but that makes it the perfect length to saddle up your gleaming chopped hog for a four-minute wind-swept freedom run, all the way down the endless highway, to that enormous new beige mega-mall they just opened.
Pleasant shopping, sucker.
Jeffrey Simmons & Randy Steirling - “Naked Angels Theme”
Rick at 12:03 am
4 CommentsÈ
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i believe i still have a vinyl copy of this one, if it survived the occasional purges. you’re right, track one is the only good one. i’m still looking for a vinyl copy of CYCLE SAVAGES soundtrack. i found the movie on DVD and oddly enough, almost none of the music on the soundtrack is actually in the movie.
RECORD BROTHER blog went through a whole series of biker movie music but i caught it too late, mp3s had been pulled. now they’re in the seventies coloredsploitation thing. ya gotta go through a lot of tunes to find the gems, but check it out if ya get time. (sorry to give a plug to another blog)
Comment by harley sfumato Ñ March 2, 2006 @ 9:27 am
Rick Hall, you rule! This is one of those artifacts that I’d forgotten all about–and the chick’s pants on the album cover! Mmm-hmmm!
I just watched the recently released on DVD “Werewolves on Wheels”–I can only recommend it to die-hard biker movie, werewolves and/or Severn Darden compleatists. The first 10 minutes (a “run” montage) is pretty good, but then? Bleh…But the music! Sometimes the heavy feedback devil dirge gets *out there*. But sometimes it was totally retarded, too…
Harley Sfumato, “almost none of the music on the soundtrack is actually in the movie”–this is also what happened with The Glory Stompers (another fave biker flick of mine; forms the Holy Trinity of Biker Flicks with The Wild Angels and Satan’s Sadists); I would say that at least 90% of the soundtrack album is NOT in the film. But the actual album is well worth hunting down:
Casey Kasem provides bombastic quasi-Mitch Miller delivery on several of them.
Comment by Ivan Lerner Ñ March 2, 2006 @ 5:04 pm
i once had a vinyl copy of the cycle savages - excellent! i can still remember the anthemic ‘we have already died’ and the sexy ‘mourning becomes electra’ among other hits by Orphan Egg and the Boston Tea Party. another excellent release from American Internation Recordings
http://www.bsnpubs.com/mgm/airtogether.html
who also brought us the magnificent soundtrack of ‘the dunwich horror’ my favorite piece of les baxteria!
Comment by wi11iam13 Ñ March 3, 2006 @ 11:10 am
Hey Dummy, you missed four biker flicks at the Egyptian this weekend and you missed Davie Allan in person with cast and crew. You were too busy working on this dumb site no doubt. Attendace sucked all weekend and because of you and your lame friends that failed to show they probably won’t do any more cool stuff at the Egyptian again!
(On a positive note I was able to get the Dart to start this morning using the screwdriver trick.)
Comment by Steve Cattani Ñ March 15, 2006 @ 12:44 pm