| October 17th, 2004 03:05 PM |
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| kmc |
ALFIE MALES
By DAN AQUILANTE
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October 17, 2004 -- What's it all about, Alfie? We're not sure what kind of answers we'll get from the remake of the 1966 Michael Caine film (this time starring Jude Law), but the soundtrack - pairing Mick Jagger and Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart - is definitely worth mulling over.
Speaking to The Post from their London offices, these two talented musicians knew the risks of making a soundtrack album, since most turn out to be marketing tie-ins that having little or nothing to do with the movie.
Jagger realized that soundtracks weren't held in high esteem by the industry, but he still wanted to do this. "Dave and I work pretty well together and I thought it might be quite fun. I saw some of the footage [from "Alfie"] and it looked good. But basically, I thought it would be a laugh."
Stewart added, "Soundtrack records used to be the movie's score. Then [marketers] learned they could hook people into the cinema with a good song. What gave soundtracks a bad name was the recent trend of putting any random song into a movie hoping something would stick. It's like throwing spaghetti against a wall."
"Sometimes the scatter-gun approach to soundtracks works fantastically," said Jagger citing "The Big Chill," for example, "and sometimes it's rather gratuitous. 'Alfie' was different. We looked at the movie and wrote [original] songs for the turning-point moments and the characters."
The process was different from writing a song for an album, explains Jagger. "I enjoyed the discipline and the artistic challenge of doing that. It was like doing a puzzle."
Jagger's favorite musical solution in the movie is a scene in which Alfie drives away from his best friend and his ex-lover as the song "Blind Leading the Blind" plays. "The song really helps the dramatic tone of the scene."
Jagger bristled when asked if he had empathy for the womanizing character Alfie.
"If you mean like having lots of girlfriends when I was young? Yeah, I do. But understand that the Alfie character is every guy who is attractive and young. Alfie has women falling all over him, but he doesn't have anything else. There's nothing to balance that part; no spiritual life, no artistic life. He doesn't even have a real job."
Parallels between Alfie and real-life Jagger are hardly why Stewart wanted the Rolling Stone on board. "I wanted a clarion voice that people would recognize instantly; a voice that was timeless but tipped a hat to the '60s. That's Mick Jagger.
On working with Stewart, Jagger said, "Dave's not only good at working on the fun stuff like writing and performing, but he's also good at taking care of the [production] details later."
Will the pair's working relationship continue?
Says Stewart, "Mick and I had such good fun doing this project, I expect we'll be doing other things together."
"Mick is very inspired these days," Stewart added. "Writing and working on 'Alfie' made him forget the responsibilities of being Mick Jagger."
Jagger laughed at the notion of releasing his inner Jagger for the soundtrack, but admits, "[Stewart] is right in that being part of a much larger thing, like a movie, frees you."
"And it's good fun."
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| October 17th, 2004 09:34 PM |
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| Soldatti |
Thanks for post the article |
| October 18th, 2004 12:49 AM |
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| Madafaka |
Thnx!  |
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