The music of counterculture cinema: a critical study of 1960s and 1970s soundtracks

216 Pages·2015·1.157 MB·English

by  Bartkowiak, Mathew J.;Kiuchi, Yuya

The Music of
Counterculture Cinema
ALSOBYMATHEWJ. BARTKOWIAK
ANDYUYAKIUCHI
Packaging Baseball: How Marketing Embellishes the
Cultural Experience(McFarland, 2012)
ALSOOFINTEREST
Soccer Culture in America: Essays on the World’s Sport in
Red, White and Blue, by Yuya Kiuchi (McFarland, 2014)
Sounds of the Future: Essays on Music in Science Fiction Film,
edited by Mathew J. Bartkowiak (McFarland, 2010)
The MC5 and Social Change: A Study in Rock and Revolution,
by Mathew J. Bartkowiak (McFarland, 2009)
The Music of
Counterculture Cinema
A Critical Study of 1960s
and 1970s Soundtracks
Mathew J. Bartkowiak
and
Yuya Kiuchi
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Bartkowiak, Mathew J., author.
The music of counterculture cinema : a critical study of
1960s and 1970s soundtracks / Mathew J. Bartkowiak and Yuya
Kiuchi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
♾
ISBN 978-0-7864-7542-1 (softcover : acid free paper)
ISBN 978-1-4766-2051-0 (ebook)
1. Motion picture music—United States—History and criti-
cism 2. Counterculture—United States—History—20th cen-
tury. 3. United States—History—20th century. I. Kiuchi,
Yuya, author. II. Title.
ML2075.B35 2015
781.5'42097309046—dc23 2015018614
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2015 Mathew J. Bartkowiak and Yuya Kiuchi.
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: (left to right) Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and
Luke Askew from the 1969 film Easy Rider(Columbia
Pictures/Photofest)
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To Sara, Ella, and Porter
—Mat
To Nicki
—Yuya
Acknowledgments
Our sincere thanks to the following folks: Country Joe McDonald,
Robert Greenwald, Shelia Whitely, Jerry Goldberg, Ruth Elderbrook, Thomas
M. Kitts, Lori Petri, Patricia Stuhr, The Marshfield and Lake DuBay Nelsons,
Gary Hoppenstand, Ann Larabee, Peter Rollins, Jerry Lippert, Cynthia Miller,
the great people at the Margaret Herrick Library, Barb and Dale Bartkowiak,
Noriko and Tsuneo Kiuchi, Anna Komanecki, the ENG 277s, the Kruegers,
Dr. Obie, and Rod at the Peanut Barrel. And finally, a hearty thanks to the
good folks at Bell’s, Lagunitas, O ’so, ThumbCoast, Ommegang, Blue Heron,
Capital, Sam Adams, Anchor, New Glarus, Big Lake Brewing, New Holland,
Goose Island, and the Point Brewery for end-of-the-day respites from some
heavy days studying ultra-violence, generational discord, and oppression.
vi
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction 1
1. Framing Utopia: Monterey Popand the Heart of the
Counterculture 7
2. Creating the Downfall: Gimme Shelterand the “End” of
the Counterculture 20
3. Searching for the RealTimes, Baby: Head and the
Unmaking of the Monkees 34
4. Love in Counterculture Film: Music’s Diplomatic Role in
Harold and Maude 47
5. Space Is the Place: Barbarellaand Hearing the Future 58
6. Did the Soundtrack Also Blow It?: Using Rock to Capture
Counterculture Generational Identity 71
7. Setting the Escapist Scene with Music: Sex and Comedy
in an Exotic World 83
8. Generational Genocide: Selling Youth Rebellion in
Roger Corman’s Gas-s-s-s 95
9. African American Artists in Hollywood: Isaac Hayes’
Contribution to Shaft 107
10. I’m Watching It for Its Music: Deep Throatand Its
Soundtrack 118
11. Challenging Normativity and Pushing Boundaries:
Midnight Cowboyand Cultural Resistance 133
12. Ambiguous Meaning of Music: Combining Technology and
Music in the Dystopian World of A Clockwork Orange 145
vii
viii Table of Contents
13. Understanding Country Ways: A Talk with Country
Joe McDonald About Counterculture Film 166
14. Bringing the 1960s to Life: An Interview with Director
Robert Greenwald 182
Coda 190
Works Cited 193
Index 203
Introduction
The term “counterculture” is a tough one to wrestle with in many ways,
even when ascribed to a specific time and place. Defining the 1960s and early
1970s, counterculture in the United States represents a struggle over legacy
and meaning in itself. From those seeing a mass amalgamation of interests,
perspectives, and goals to those seeing definitive lines of division between
factions of this population, the ability to pinpoint and hence study the coun-
terculture can be a consuming one. From these umbrella concerns to smaller
concerns of whether to go with “counter-culture” or “counterculture” in ref-
erencing the phenomenon, there is much to discuss.
The following chapters will not attempt to corner an absolute definition
and a definitive prognosis on legacy. Instead, the book will focus on a myriad
of themes connected to the counterculture and its legacy, through a specific
lens, an intersection of the debate. There are many arenas in which to measure
this time period and a counterculture powerful enough, that it may, in some
eyes, appropriate or own the very term itself: on the political stage, out in
the streets, within student organizations, in radical groups, on television, at
a music festival, on the news, at the end of a joint, at the end of a gun, etc.
Here, the focus will be on the intersection of music and film, and its powerful,
commercially viable, and popularpotency in the time period itself and as a
cultural, political, and social text since.
Films produced during the 1960s and early 1970s as well as films focusing
on those times continue to influence ideological, historical, political, and cul-
tural conceptions of the time and the lasting influences of the countercultural
in everyday life. An important part of how those texts have created a narrative
of the time and of the counterculture is through their uses of music to tell
the story. Though films associated with the “New Hollywood” movement in
film, did remain traditional in many senses when it came to scores and sound-
tracks, many featured more progressive uses of music, including the incor-
poration of popular music and experimental forms. Music, in documentary
1