Welcome to a world where errant nipples are pursued through the hot tubs of exotic locales by feral fuzztones, wanton wah-wah pedals, and decadent session musicians. Here’s some R-rated soundtrack fodder to impress the chicks, excite the lads, and keep you grooving All Night Long.
Manfred Hubler & Siegfried Schwab - Vampyros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party [Motel Records]
An incoherent misogyny-soaked mess of a movie from Spanish director Jess Franco (king of incoherent misogynist messes), the 1971 film Vampyros Lesbos is for whatever reason still considered an exploitation classic. But it’s this soundtrack (including music from that and other contemporary Franco films) that really retains its, um, bite. Psychedelic music goes to Vegas and the result is a farrago of fruity decadence that would make Hugh Hefner giggle and Donovan get it on. The transformation of the Stones growling “Can’t Get No Satisfaction” into the cheerfully horny “There’s No Satisiaction,” complete with bizarre misspelling, moaning male chorus embellishment, and strutting sitar is perhaps the funniest moment, but it’s rivaled closely by “Ballad of a Fair Singer,” in which a growling organ gives way to a stop time chorus in which a faux opera diva attains orgasmic bliss, complete with piped in applause. The booklet includes numerous pictures of the much-admired exploitation star Soledad Miranda in various states of undress and/or hanky-panky, as well as some really entertaining over-the-top Euro hippie fever-dream prose.
Gert Wilden & Orchestra - Schoolgirl Report [Crippled Dick]
Gert Wilden was a German composer who scored more than fifty films. He’s best known, though, for his work on erotic sexploitation fodder in the 1970s — particularly a series of faux documentaries epitomized by The Schoolgirl Report, in which the decadence of modern youth is exposed (as it were) for the enlightenment of the viewing audience. In any case, this album includes nineteen tracks from various Wilden soundtracks, and it’s a delight. From the horn heavy, James-Bond-meets-psych-guitar title theme for Die Dressierte Frau; to the grinding “Dirty Beat” which shamelessly nicks a riff from Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker”, of all things; to the so-sincere-it-hurts nightclub blues of “Ecstasy Blues”, Wilden and the Orchestra ladle gimmick on gimmick while always retaining a undeniable soulful jazz swing. The booklet includes a generous helping of film stills from classics such as Schoolgirl Report Part 4 — What Drives Parents to Despair and The Young Runaways — Sex Adventures of German Girls Worldwide, all showing girls up to no good, and/or ironing topless.
Various Artists - Beat At Cinecitta [Crippled Dick]
Trashy sexploitation soundtracks were a European-wide phenomena — but if one country was trashier and more sexploited than its neighbors, that country would be Italy. There seems to be an almost infinite supply of high quality grooving Italian lounge film music, and gobs and gobs of it are collected on Easy Tempo’s seven volume (at least) compilation series. However, if you’re going to get one batch of Italian soundtrack naughty goodness, this Crippled Dick collection (and its sequel, Beat at Cinecitta vol.2) is the way to go. That’s largely because of the packaging, which includes lots of hubba-hubba stills (rape! lesbian passions! hot cars!), completely over-the-top film posters, and some actual honest-to-God biographical information about each of the featured composers. Said composers include Francesco De Masi, Piero Piccioni, and the mighty Riz Ortolani, who throws down six swinging cuts, including “Una Sull’ Altra” which sounds like an over-carbonated Count Basie Orchestra mugging the Pink Panther. Francesco De Gemini’s “Cheops and Nefertiti” is another highlight, with its amphetamine drum rolls backing the synchronized scatting of nonsense syllables.
Soundtracks for individual Italian sexploitation films are available, though sometimes a little hard to come by. I can recommend wholeheartedly Piero Umiliani’s smooth La Ragazza Dalla Pelle Di Luna. Also check out Ennio Morricone’s Barbablu, for the stuttering, honking title-track alone.
Various Artists - Inside Deep Note: Music of 1970s Adult Cinema [O.S.T. Grammofon]
What it says on the tin: sexy cuts for getting it on in bell-bottoms and wide-collars. The packaging here is actually somewhat frustrating; there’s tons of naughty pictures (just R-rated, though — no penises) and a long, spicy essay by a female director of 70s X-rated pictures. All of which is pleasant enough, but…where did all of this music come from? Who composed it? A few tracks do list film names (“Hot Buttered Buns” comes from The Manimal, for example) but that’s the extent of the info we get.
Ah well. The main thing is the music. Less swinging than the Eurolounge we’ve been discussing up until now, this is sweatier and earthier, closer to straight funk and acid jazz. Most tracks find a hard groove and stick with it; “Slip It In,” for example, opens with bass, drums, and organ and rides it out for three minutes plus, occasionally stirring in some sizzling fuzz guitar — until the very end where they add some ridiculously classical sounding violin. “Coconuts” is less typical, combining a shoulder-shrugging country sensibility with itchy percussion. And, of course, the music is interspersed with (literally) X-rated dialogue from the films, here given track titles such as “Hebrew National Salami” and “Please Be Gentle!” If that isn’t enough for you, there is also an Inside Deep Note 2 — and though it’s difficult to find, the original release of that gem included a DVD with clips from films of the era.
Roy Ayers - Coffy [Polydor]
This 1973 gem is usually classed with blaxploitation — but any movie with Pam Grier topless for even a nano-second qualifies as sexy-as-hell in my book. Beyond that inducement, this is actually an honest-go-God great movie, directed by the incomparable Jack Hill, one of the funniest and smartest American directors of all time, period. The soundtrack is pretty great as well. The well known opener, “Coffy Is the Color,” is hot and rich, with the full orchestration (organ, vibes, and a passel of percussion along with the guitar and bass) adding to rather the detracting from the soulful grind. Other uptempo numbers like “King George” and “Aragon” are even funkier, while “Shining Symbol” blends in easy listening in a way that suggests Ayers had been checking out some Earth, Wind, and Fire. Willie Hutch’s soundtrack for Hill and Grier’s follow-up, Foxy Brown, is also highly recommended.
