Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2017 January 23 • Monday

Middle-class suburban teenagers get into drugs. There used to be whole movies about it! Our 449th Soundtrack of the Week is the music from one, The People Next Door.

I'd like to see this. Roger Ebert gave it a good review when it came out and it stars Eli Wallach.

The soundtrack album is pretty good, too, mixing some rock and pop songs with underscore by Don Sebesky.

The main theme is this song performed by The Glass Bottle, "Mama, Don't You Wait Up For Me (Wonderwheel"): "Yesterday the piper played / And lifted me, a simple child of the shade / Little man, I understand / He took your hand . And marked a path through the glade / And wherein lies the wonderwheel / We've all been structured how to feel".

Or something like that.

The other song of interest is "Sweet Medusa" by Bead Game. This one is a little more psychedelic, a little less straightforward, with a dramatic shift in the time feel as it goes from verse to chorus.

Sebesky's music fits perfectly in between these songs, particularly his weird "The Trip", which shows the influence of what Miles Davis was doing at the time (1970).

"Maxie" is kind of a throwback to late-'60s schmaltz pop psychedelic acid funk grooviness.

Things are wrapped up, at least musically, with Sebesky's grounding "Life in Review", which sounds climactic, perhaps even triumphant. I'll have to watch the movie to find out!