Song, by Toad

[This is the first in our series of posts about soundtracks. I really appreciate you all chipping in and making a contribution like this. We start with the splendid Crash Calloway from Pretending Life is Like a Song. Enjoy.]

There’s an argument that tribute bands do a lot to help live music, filling schedules and keeping venues open that would otherwise struggle to scratch a living, but that this aside they’re generally to be sniffed at – folks who might be technically competent but are being fundamentally unimaginative.

Why then is a film about a covers band, essentially a tribute act for a label, if not a genre, so bloody good? And it’s not just about a blinding script and great performances, a rock solid sense of location and just that perfect feel, it’s also got a fantastic soundtrack even if it’s a soundtrack played by the tribute band.

It helps that they’re singing such fantastic songs (I’m reminded of one of the Python’s comments on the solid narrative structure of Life of Brian – ‘Yes, it has got a bit of shape, hasn’t it’) although this could easily mean that they can’t possibly do any of them any justice and you only end up hating them more.

I love the songs and I love the way they’re delivered here, with fun and passion and, well, yeah, commitment. I love the rehearsal scene up above the snooker hall – none of this packaged up ‘on three and into studio quality sound’ nonsense, their rehearsal is real, with the noodling around and the picking up each other’s instruments and the jokes and the baby (there isn’t always a baby but there’s always someone or something completely out of place – I remember being at a band rehearsal where there was a clown), and a launch into a performance at last which is substandard and messy and needs doing all over again.

I love the live shows – there’s an audience’s longing for that sense of community that The Commitments is very happy to exploit. I love the way everything comes together just for the song. I love the look and the sound of them. I love the fact that, as a rule, it’s not the obvious frontline tracks that they play but the things you might really love, the stuff you’d be putting on tapes for your mates ‘cause these were the less known songs they should really be listening to.

It helps as well that it all goes so horribly wrong. I love Joey’s line at the end (I love most of Joey’s lines, we’ll come back to this in a minute) that ‘sure we could have been famous and made albums and stuff but that would have been predictable’. What’s so wonderful is that for all of their fantastic individual talent and their wonderful if occasional cohesiveness on stage is that they’re never more than committed and enthusiastic amateurs.

And it occurs to me, in a bit of a half-arsed ‘might not have thought this through’ way, that this is us, this is what we do – we find stuff that we care about and, committed and enthusiastic amateurs that we are, we go on about it without any sense of professional detachment and we maybe put a bit more of ourselves into this than we should, and just for a little while there’s a real sense, I think, that we get to live the dream. So if you’re one of Mr Toad’s many readers who isn’t actually a blogger, and, I have to say, if you’re maybe in your 30s, and you have a reasonably fulfilling career and you’re doing okay, and you’ve always had a bit of a thing in the back of your mind about doing some writing but you’ve never quite worked out how to get around to it, this is how. You start a blog. You go to blogger or wordpress or typepad and you sign up and you choose a name (you’ve already chosen one and you know it) and you think about that first entry. There’s a community out here that you can connect with you will read you and agree with you and disagree with you and nudge you along. You might not have very much initially but it would be a start and, as Joey would say, I believe in starts. Once you have the start the rest is inevitable.

The Commitments – Destination Anywhere
The Commitments – The Dark End of the Street

Posts in this series:
- Crash Calloway from Pretending Life is Like a Song writes about The Commitments.
- Nate, who plays viola in The Young Republic explains why some terrible films have excellent scores.
- My dearest darling Mrs. Toad sings the praises of the High School Movie.
- DC, presenter of The Waiting Room, goes on a truly interminable ramble about the great Tom Waits and One From the Heart.
- Brother of Toad talks about how the context of music can interfere with its use in a movie.
- John sums up Natural Born Killers in three sentences.
- I have a go myself by writing about the art of referencing films in your song lyrics and what it lets you do.
- Tim from The Daily Growl digs away at the sensual texture of In the Mood For Love.
- Matt from Draped in Velvet might never forgive the false start of the world of rap-rock.
- Ian from Broken Records delivers the rant that started this all off: why soundtracks just don’t work!