Memory Lane: Pulp Fiction Soundtrack

Good day!

It is popular to hate Quentin Tarantino. I have friends that say that his films are pretentious and over-reliant on violence and pop culture references. I respectfully disagree, and feel that Pulp Fiction was the best film of 1994 and was robbed of the Best Picture Oscar by Forrest Gump.

What made Pulp Fiction come together for me was the soundtrack, and if you purchase it on CD you will get nothing but gems. In my opinion, this eclectic mix is the best collection of songs ever put together for a movie.

Excluding the ridiculous dialogue bits that they included, some highlights include:

”Miserlou” as performed by creepy old Dick Dale and his Del-tones. This is still a great song, though.

”Jungle Boogie” performed by Kool &the Gang. My god, when you DJ a party, everybody loves this one.

”Lets Stay Together” performed by Al Green. By far, one of the sexiest songs ever recorded.

”Lonesome Town” performed by Ricky Nelson. Can’t you just picture Ricky sobbing and doing lines of blow with Rams cheerleaders in between takes?

”Son of a Preacher Man” performed by Dusty Springfield. Sultry? Hell yeah.

”You Never Can Tell” performed by Chuck Berry. Very good, but I still like Emmylou Harris’ version better.

”Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon” performed by Urge Overkill. Creepy? Hell yeah.

Tarantino has a knack for working these songs into the movie so that you never fail to associate them with their accompanying images. Just as I cannot hear “Stuck in the Middle With You” without picturing the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs, I cannot hear “Flowers on the Wall” without seeing Bruce Willis driving that ridiculous Civic. “Sorry, baby, but I had to crash that Honda”.

If I could change anything about the Pulp Fiction soundtrack CD, I would have left out the movie dialogue clips. I hate it when they pop up on my iPod when it is shuffle mode.

Mahalo!