[Review] Stewart Copeland: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Rumble Fish (1983)

I’m not sure who deserves more credit here: Coppola for giving him the chance, or Copeland for making the most of it.

Kronomyth 2.0: Drumble fish

Francis Ford Coppola made some daring choices when filming Rumble Fish, but picking an unproven Stewart Copeland to create the music score might have been his most daring. Copeland’s score isn’t worlds removed from his Klark Kent experiment: tightly wound, reggae influenced but more angular, with bursts of melody and plenty of percussion. In Coppola’s black-and-white world, however, the music never feels at home, and that dislocation is the source of its power. There is the inexorable ticking of time paired with whimsical shapes that pass in front like ghosts. And aren’t the characters of Rumble Fish themselves already ghosts, fated to die too young in a hamlet of Hamlets?

Lest you think that Stewart Copeland was just lucky that his “sound” matched the director’s vision, consider Mike’s Murder. Hiring Joe Jackson the following year to score that film must have seemed like an inspired choice. Instead, the results were so bad that the director had to scrap Jackson’s score and hired a traditional film composer to finish the job. Which is, honestly, how I might have predicted Copeland’s fate before watching the film and listening to the full score. Nowadays, I couldn’t imagine watching the film with any other music, so close are the two linked in my mind.

As a standalone album of new music, Rumble Fish doesn’t fare much better than most soundtracks. It’s derivative of itself, lacking a little in variety, with a few dominant themes that reappear throughout the score. If you’ve seen the movie, the score will provide some pleasant flashbacks. If you haven’t, you’d be better served by the first Klark Kent record or The Rhythmatist. Judged as a film score, however, Rumble Fish is an unqualified success. It’s unique, bold and provides much-needed color to Coppola’s black-and-white masterpiece.

Original elpee version

A1. Don’t Box Me In (Stewart Copeland/Stanard Ridgway) (4:36)
A2. Tulsa Tango (3:45)
A3. Our Mother Is Alive (4:13)
A4. Party at Somewhere Else’s Place (2:32)
A5. Biff Gets Stomped By Rusty James (2:22)
A6. Brothers on Wheels (4:08)
B1. West Tulsa Story (4:00)
B2. Tulsa Rags (1:33)
B3. Father on the Stairs (3:01)
B4. Hostile Bridge to Benny’s (1:52)
B5. Your Mother Is Not Crazy (2:48)
B6. Personal Midget/Cain’s Ballroom (5:54)
B7. Motorboy’s Fate (2:06)

All songs written by Stewart Copeland unless noted.

The Players

Stewart Copeland (piano, guitar, banjo, Fender bass, double bass, keyboard and rhythm synthesizers, tuned percussion, typewriter, drums, kazoo, Musync) with Stan Friedman (trumpet), Art Krahble (French horn), Mel Martin (saxophone, scoring), Buell Neidlinger (double bass), Stanard Ridgway (vocals, harmonica and string synthesizer on A1), Jeff Seitz (creative and technical assistance), Pavel Strings (strings), Lory Westin (French horn). Produced by Stewart Copeland; engineered by Robin Yeager, Bill Belknap, Richard Beggs, Kathy Morton; mix engineered by Jonney Jeronymides; tape operated by Gordon Lyons; Musync by Robert Randles.

The Pictures

Art direction by Chuck Beeson. Inner sleeve photo by Michael Jacobs. Back cover photograph by Jane O’Neal.

The Plastic

Released on elpee and cassette on November 8, 1983 in the US (A&M, CS-6-4983), the UK (A&M, AMLX-64983) and Japan (A&M, AMP-28087).

1. Re-issued on compact disc in 1992 in the US (A&M, 4983-2).