Dazed And Confused

Every generation has a movie that defines the generation before them. In the 70's George Lucas gave us American Graffitti. In the 80's we had countless movies about the 60's, mainly in regards to the Vietnam War. In the 1990's Dazed And Confused was released, and instantly became a cult classic. One of the major reasons was the soundtrack.

Everyone that was anyone, with the exception of Led Zeppelin were on the soundtrack for this movie. The music was so popular that they released two sperate CDs, and jammed each one full of Classic Rock standards.

This review is for the first soundtrack album. We'll call it Dazed And Confused's "Aqua Album", which was the album that contained the bigger, more commercial hits. The second album in retrospect is the album more worth getting and we'll call it the "Pink Album".

The first track on the album is Rick Derringer's Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo, which is a a good selection to start off this collection. I'm not much of a fan of the song, but musically it's solid and the lyrics are acceptabley tolerable, based on the content of the song. When I listened to this album way back when, I normally skipped this track. Now, I'm willing to listen to it, and I enjoy it to a small extent.

After that comes Slow Ride. This was the main song in the movie. I think it was played more than any other song. This Foghat song became so over played at one point that I couldn't listen to this song for a good couple years without wanting to hit the skip button. Now a days I totally dig on it. The only time I hear the song is if I have my Mp3 player on, or happen to throw this CD into the player. It's not even played on the radio much anymore, which is also nice. The overkill on this song really sucked the life out of a great, energetic, slightly funkylicious, good times tune.

After that it's on to Alice Cooper's School's Out, which I've covered before, but here's a little recap. This has got to be the most recognised song in history. It opens with a riff so legandary that is was even inscribed on Glen Buxton's (the guitarist that wrote and played it) tombstone. If you don't know the song, I'm sorry you spent your childhood in a coma, or under some cruel dictatorship.

Jim Dandy is another one of those songs I don't care for, but I respect it on this collection. It's got a lot of boogie, major dance appeal, and a catchy chorus. It's interesting, and even a bit exciting musically. However, I find the song to be a bit too Pop Bubble Gum sounding for me. Listening to this song has never inspired me to look into discovering more about Black Oak Arkansas.

I feel the need to mention that this movie takes place in Texas in the 1970's and the music in this movie does clearly reflect that. There are some bands on here that were much bigger in Texas than they were in the Midwest, and bands that had been huge in the Midwest were left out all together. Then there are bands that were global successes.

However, you can't have a movie that takes place in Texas and not have ZZ Top on the soundtrack. Since this album contains the big radio hits that would leave only two choices and the option they went with was Tush. As I've stated before, never have more honest words been spoken. "I been up, I been down. / Take my word, my way around. / I ain't askin' for much. / I said, Lord, take me downtown, / I'm just lookin' for some tush. / I been bad, I been good, / Dallas, Texas, Hollywood. / I ain't askin' for much. / I said, Lord, take me downtown, /I'm just lookin' for some tush. / Take me back way back home, / Not by myself, not alone. /I ain't askin' for much. / I said, Lord, take me downtown, / I'm just lookin' for some tush."

I hate Nazareth's Love Hurts. It's such a typical ballad, that it sickens me. I hate the way his voice sounds on the song, and everytime I hear this track I want to kick the members of the band in the balls. Luckily, I really enjoy almost every other Nazareth song I have ever heard, so I can somewhat forgive them.

After that comes Ted Nugent's Stranglehold. I've covered this one before, and since I'm not much of a fan of the song, I'm just going to copy and paste what I wrote before:

Every band has that one song that I can never figure out why it's so popular. For Ted Nugent the song is Stranglehold. It's a good solid song. I won't deny that, but it's a little boring from a Ted Nugent point of view. It's a bit too much in the way of guitar wanking to be enjoyable. It's like Ted opted to go all Pink Floyd, without understanding what being all Pink Floyd is all about.

I love The Runaways' Cherry Bomb. It's bad ass, full of attitude, and proof that girls can rock just as hard as guys can. The only thing that ever hurt this band was the fact they didn't have penises. Also it's nice to hear girls be just as naughty as the guys. "Hey street boy what's your style / Your dead end dreams don't make you smile / I'll give ya something to live for / Have ya, grab ya til your sore / Hello Daddy, hello Mom / I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb / Hello world I'm your wild girl / I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb". If only girls today had these type of balls.

Sweet's Fox On the Run follows that up, and although it's a bit chauvanistic lyrically, it's absolutely fantastic. The music is fun, but not Bubble Gum Pop, it's British Glam, which, when done right can be fantastic. This song is totally done right.

Low Rider has been one of my favourite songs since I first heard it on Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke. War was one of those bands that was really big in the Southern U.S., especially with states that had a larger Mexican/Latino/whatever the proper term is, population. From what I understand this was the only song that really broke into other markets successfully.

I normally stop the CD after that last song. Not because the rest of the CD sucks, just the next song does, but because I've heard every other song hundreds of times, or I own the songs on various different albums.

The first of the last four songs is Lynyrd Skynyrd's Tuesday's Gone. This song is ass. I don't like this version. I don't like Metallica's cover. I don't like this song. It's like they decided to take a great idea, slower, more soulful Sourthern music, and then totally fuck up the formula. I love songs like Free Bird and Simple Man, which are great songs that take their time to reach epicness. But, it's good epicness and not this slow sissy ballad shit. Quit your fucking whining.

After that, the last three songs are Deep Purple's Highway Star, Kiss' Rock And Roll All Night and Black Sabbath's Paranoid. I've covered all these songs before too. I'm just going to republish the previous write-ups for those songs, but with slight tweeks. Like I said, the album ends after Low Rider for me.

I really don't like Highway Star. It's just so over played at this point. I find it's more over played than Smoke On The Water, which I also enjoy better. There is something about last minute songs, inspired by tragic events that just make amazing history.

The second last song on the album is the most famous Kiss song ever. Rock And Roll All Night, which showcases one thing about American culture. Over played, cheaply written, Pop songs, meant for the lowest common denominator to even understand, are way too popular.

I'm sure I'll take some heat for this, but let's be honest. If it were not for Ace's solo in the song, it would be Peter Criss banging out the same non stop tempo as the guys sing, "I wanna rock and roll all nite / And party everyday", over and over and over again. I'd also like to point out that Gene Simmons should be sued for false advertising everytime he personally plays this song. After all, he pretty much booted Ace out of the band for doing that exact thing.

If you don't know Paranoid, something has gone drastically wrong in your life, and I am sorry. This song should be considered one of the most over played songs in history. I should be ranting and raving about how tired I am of hearing this song, God knows I've done it with many others, some also on this soundtrack. However, Paranoid may be one of the single greatest songs under three minutes. This is also the song that I say is the complete blueprints for what became Trash Metal.

In retrospect, I wish I had bought the Pink Album as well, or instead. The track list was a little less of the over played stuff, and a little more of the unique stuff. However, this disc is great in a mix.

10/10 - content

7/10 - production

8/10 - personal bias