"Cruising" Soundtrack

[Energyguy]

I have just got hold of the LP soundtrack from the 1980 Al Pacino film "Cruising"...One of the tracks is a really cool funk track called "Lump". I really love this and its by a group called MUTINY. Does anyone have any info in this group and di they release much material ?

[ol'skinflint]

I have just got hold of the LP soundtrack from the 1980 Al Pacino film "Cruising"...One of the tracks is a really cool funk track called "Lump". I really love this and its by a group called MUTINY. Does anyone have any info in this group and di they release much material ?

I've had the soundtrack for months and am just now getting around to playing it. I played "Lump" and like it. If you read the writer's credit, it lists Jerome Brailey as one of the writers, and he is a member of George Clinton's crew of writers and musicians (and in fact he is co-writer of Parliament's biggest hit, "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker".) The song has the Clinton/Parliament sound. I suspect there's no real "group" involved here. Many writers and producers would invent group names for soundtrack songs, even Giorgio Moroder has done it. By the way, that movie "Cruising" was so violent and dark that each time I've tried to watch it I've turned my eyes away from the screen during some of the scenes..

[Videoskooter]

One of the tracks is a really cool funk track called "Lump". I really love this and its by a group called MUTINY. Does anyone have any info in this group and di they release much material ?

Neil, check out:

MUTINY

It's so long ago that I've seen that movie. Wasn't it mainly Punk and Rock?

[thommy2458]

I've always loved the music from this film-sorta punk/funk
rock.Is this available on CD yet?

Thom

[Energyguy]

Neil, check out:

MUTINY

It's so long ago that I've seen that movie. Wasn't it mainly Punk and Rock?

Yep - its a great film and finally getting a region 1 DVD release later this year !
Its an interesting soundtrack which is mainly made up of hard rock music.

[remicks]

*****

This a great film??

Why would anyone find even an ounce of entertainment in watching a film whose sole purpose is to savagly depict gay people being brutally set up for murder ????????????

****

[markydefad]

Yeah, I think it's a failure as a film...but totally fascinating as a timepiece reminder of what the S&M/leather scene looked like in Gay culture in the late Seventies....I love watching the club scenes and the leather guys dancing...it so reminds me of SF back then.... but the story makes no sense...especially the ending..... :icon_rolleyes:

[remicks]

*****

I have no idea how it ended . I had left the theatre by then .


****

[Energyguy]

*****

This a great film??

Why would anyone find even an ounce of entertainment in watching a film whose sole purpose is to savagly depict gay people being brutally set up for murder ????????????

****

Its only a movie.. You should not take it so seriously. If we took offense at everything we saw at the cinema/on TV we would not watch anything. It is a very dark and disturbing film but a great thriller !

[Energyguy]

I've always loved the music from this film-sorta punk/funk
rock.Is this available on CD yet?

Thom

It's one of those very rare soundtracks that got deleted years ago and is only available in the original LP format (if you can find it). As far as I am aware it has never had a CD release.

[markydefad]

"Cruising" was very controversial & un-p.c. back then..because of it's depiction of Gay guys as serial killers [oh yeah, just what we needed] :icon_mad:...and was a cinematic stink bomb when it was finally released....I think I've only seen it on cable...but each time I come across it on late night Encore or whatever...I always watch it ......

William Freidkin, the director, was a very talented guy...but couldn't pull this one off....


Leonard Maltin gives it *1/2 stars...

" distasteful, badly scripted film. Gay world presented as sick, degrading and ritualistic. Filmed on authentic NYC locations..."

Yeah, Leonard but that's the good part...:icon_mrgreen:

[markydefad]

The authenticity of the NYC Gay club scenes in "Cruising" reminds me of another 1980 movie I recently watched again on late-night cable..."American Gigolo"..... wherein Richard Gere, at his homoerotically attractive best, chases down black pimp, Bill Duke, by asking some Santa Monica Blvd. hustler Duke's whereabouts....he replies.."The Probe"..this leads Gere to the club-- PROBE...wherein we watch Gere enter and go up the stairs and down the stairs to the dancefloor where there seems to be a somewhat sparsely atttended leathermen convention on the dancefloor...we see S&M porn star Val Martin "dancing" with someone [I think they were doing "poppers/ethyl chloride" just like Pacino did, well "over-did", in "Cruising"]...and then Gere & Duke go off to the stairwell again to have their scene...I've read that director, Paul Schrader, straight but maybe bi-curious in the old days, used to dance with the boys at Probe, back in the glory days of disco.... that was before my time with Probe...which is still there on Highland Avenue...but named something different now....

The club was THE place to go in Hollywood back then...not as spacious and glorious as SF's Trocadero...but Viteritti played there also....

When I came to LA in 1984...it just remember they did not know anything about "morning music"....it was 130+ bpms to 7:00am...then they turned on the lights and shooed you out the door and down the street to Greg's Blue Dot...the bar that's now a coffee house...to continue the party in the harsh light of day....

Memories...misty, murky memories of the was I was.

[thommy2458]

The authenticity of the NYC Gay club scenes in "Cruising" reminds me of another 1980 movie I recently watched again on late-night cable..."American Gigolo"..... wherein Richard Gere, at his homoerotically attractive best, chases down black pimp, Bill Duke, by asking some Santa Monica Blvd. hustler Duke's whereabouts....he replies.."The Probe"..this leads Gere to the club-- PROBE...wherein we watch Gere enter and go up the stairs and down the stairs to the dancefloor where there seems to be a somewhat sparsely atttended leathermen convention on the dancefloor"

Marky-Is this the scene where they play Cheryl Barnes "Love and Passion"? Everytime I hear that song I think of the Probe...

Thom

[Videoskooter]

Marky, do you mean this scene?



And for the people that don't know the movie "Cruising":

[markydefad]

Videoskooter, you are good!!!

Yes, that's exactly the scene...and it is Cheryl Barnes singing "Love & Passion" ...and the dancefloor didn't seem as sparsely populated as I remembered it... that's good...if you're gonna film there you might as well hire enough extras to make it look fun and not depressing....cuz when it's empty..it IS depressing.... :icon_redface::icon_rolleyes:

The oddest thing is that Gere could park his car in front of Probe and just walk in...never happened to me ...most likely you had to park several blocks way.... but in the movieworld....no cars can park on Highland to ruin your shot of Gere entering Probe.....

The "Cruising" trailer is odd...why those images of the girls in leather biker gear? They weren't in the movie...how misleading making straight guys think they were gonna see the likes of Traci Lords or whoever in leather biker gear when in reality it was only MEN!!! :icon_rolleyes::icon_eek:

[nrgbeat]

My favorite line in the movie was:

How big are you? PARTY SIZE!!!

[SandraDee]

Was the music in Cruising so rock-orientated because it was 1980 & disco had died in many US clubs? It's a shame 'cos there was so much brilliant disco about in 1980; it would've been great to hear 'In The Forest' (Baby O)or 'Love Sensation' (Loleatta H.) or 'All Night Thing' (Invisible Mans Band)or 'Just a`Touch' (Slave) as Al entered those seedy S & M clubs. Much as I love it though, maybe Change's 'Its A Girls Affair' would've been a tad inappropriate.:icon_confused::icon_mrgreen:

[remicks]

The oddest thing is that Gere could park his car in front of Probe and just walk in...never happened to me ...most likely you had to park several blocks way.... but in the movieworld....no cars can park on Highland to ruin your shot of Gere entering Probe.....

Ha Ha !! Besides look !! Gere drives thru three before taking up TWO spaces !!!
But actually by the time I went to The Probe ...3 AM or so .... one could usually find a spot nearby ....
I personally don't have really good memories of that place ... only went a few times ...for me entering that club was akin to dropping into a shoe box full of crowded mice ... ( must've been trippin' :icon_lol:) and it was way tooo loud in there for such a boxed in space ........:icon_sad:

About that AM GIGOLO scene .....everybody from the Village People but Filipe ! Leatherman ....cowboy .... construction worker .... now honestly ....did anyone here ever actually even once see anyone in a disco wearing a construction worker's hardhat????? :icon_razz::icon_confused:

The "Cruising" trailer is odd...why those images of the girls in leather biker gear? They weren't in the movie...how misleading making straight guys think they were gonna see the likes of Traci Lords or whoever in leather biker gear when in reality it was only MEN!!! :icon_rolleyes::icon_eek:

They had to promote this piece of crap in any desperate way possible .... but ya ..... why didn't they just show (and audibly play) the part of the poor guy tied up in bed helplessly pleading for his life before being viciously stabbed to death???? .... after all .... that was the movie's "highlight" wasn't it ??? :icon_razz: :icon_razz:

*****

[SandraDee]

did anyone here ever actually even once see anyone in a disco wearing a construction worker's hardhat????? :icon_razz::icon_confused:

I'm sure when I looked at the old photos of Trocadero Transfer on the RTP website there is at least one photo of a guy in a hardhat.

[Energyguy]

Was the music in Cruising so rock-orientated because it was 1980 & disco had died in many US clubs? It's a shame 'cos there was so much brilliant disco about in 1980; it would've been great to hear 'In The Forest' (Baby O)or 'Love Sensation' (Loleatta H.) or 'All Night Thing' (Invisible Mans Band)or 'Just a`Touch' (Slave) as Al entered those seedy S & M clubs. Much as I love it though, maybe Change's 'Its A Girls Affair' would've been a tad inappropriate.:icon_confused::icon_mrgreen:

No disco music at all in this movie..Its all rock/heavy metal orientated except for a funk track. Not sure why they chose this ?? Perhaps the disco death had something to do with it..? The film is basec around the S&M scene so perhaps they did not play much disco music on this part of the scene..?
My favourite tracks on the soundtrack are :

"LUMP".....Mutiny
"SPY BOI"....John Hiatt
"IT'S SO EASY".....Willie De Ville

[SandraDee]

..."American Gigolo"..... wherein Richard Gere, at his homoerotically attractive best, chases down black pimp, Bill Duke, by asking some Santa Monica Blvd. hustler Duke's whereabouts....he replies.."The Probe"..this leads Gere to the club-- PROBE...wherein we watch Gere enter and go up the stairs and down the stairs to the dancefloor where there seems to be a somewhat sparsely atttended leathermen convention on the dancefloor

I didn't know that was a real club in that film; it looks like the type of club I always loved when I first went on the gay scene in the mid-80s, you know, that 'knock twice & ask for Bill' type of seedy dive.:icon_twisted: I always felt very naughty & subversive going into that type of place with the heady aroma of amyl nitrate & leather/rubber, whereas nowadays gay clubs are no different to straight clubs with neon signs and hen parties queueing up to get in.:icon_sad:

[Videoskooter]

"LUMP".....Mutiny
"SPY BOI"....John Hiatt
"IT'S SO EASY".....Willie De Ville

Is this De Ville?

[normvork]

Was the music in Cruising so rock-orientated because it was 1980 & disco had died in many US clubs? It's a shame 'cos there was so much brilliant disco about in 1980; it would've been great to hear 'In The Forest' (Baby O)or 'Love Sensation' (Loleatta H.) or 'All Night Thing' (Invisible Mans Band)or 'Just a`Touch' (Slave) as Al entered those seedy S & M clubs. Much as I love it though, maybe Change's 'Its A Girls Affair' would've been a tad inappropriate.:icon_confused::icon_mrgreen:

I think there was an attempt to create a menacing and harsh atmosphere with this soundtrack. At the time this soundtrack came out I was surprised by the lack of disco, having not seen the film. But people who were more worldly than I told me that the big city cruise bars had moved to this type of music to distance their "manly men" clientele from "girly man" dance music. The NYC macho gay guys must have bought into the "disco sucks" homophobia so they could be more like the straight white boys.
I hated the soundtrack, hated the movie.

[Energyguy]

Is this De Ville?

Yeah, thats oneof the Willie De Ville tracks. That is quite a funny scene in the film !

[needlefingers]

Controversial gay film "Cruising" revived - MSNBC Wire Services - MSNBC.com

Controversial gay film "Cruising" revived

By Craig Modderno


LOS ANGELES - America in 1980 was a culture confronting itself. Conservative Ronald Reagan was elected president strongly supporting family values, while at the box office "Cruising" hoped to lure mainstream audiences into seeing a movie featuring graphic gay sex.

Twenty-seven years later, the Reagan administration has come and gone, leaving a mixed legacy, and porn films of almost every stripe are easily available.

But "Cruising," about a serial killer haunting New York gay bars and S&M
joints, seems to have vanished in the intervening years.

It was a box office flop but drew protests from gay groups, instead of the expected support, and its star, Al Pacino, who plays a straight cop investigating the murders by posing as a gay man, seldom talks about it.

Now the film is hoping for a second life -- it is out on DVD after a re-release in theaters in a handful of major cities, and is being heavily touted by director William Friedkin, of "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist" fame.

In a recent discussion, Friedkin said he was still shocked at the backlash he received while filming in New York City.

"I was amazed at the violent response. It got so bad that we literally gave the crew the call sheets at the last possible moment and reminded them every day not to tell anyone where we'd be shooting," Friedkin said.

ANGER AT 3 A.M.

"For example, we had an early morning shoot on an isolated street featuring Pacino being approached by a gay man he's met earlier in the evening who may or may not be the killer of several gay victims in the East Village," Friedkin said.

"Suddenly hundreds of protesters showed up at 3 a.m. throwing rocks and shouting threats at us, which we didn't help by responding in kind. From the experience I had making 'Cruising' I learned people don't get upset when you push the boundaries of violence in films but when you do so in sexual areas you're going to make a lot of people angry."

If he tried to make the movie today, he would be laughed at by Hollywood's bosses, he said.

"I wouldn't get into their office even if I had a worldwide hit like 'The Exorcist' recently behind me," he said. Despite gays being a major economic force, today's Hollywood elite are scared to make a movie that examines the dark side of sexuality, gay or straight, he said.

"Besides which, no agent at any major agency would let his client play the lead today, in fear he might be typecast as being gay or gossiped about in the tabloid or Internet press."

One reason "Cruising" remains controversial is the film's ending, which leaves an unanswered question about the Pacino character's sexuality and whether or not the real killer has faced justice.

"THIN LINE"

Pacino has said Friedkin kept him out of the loop when they were making "Cruising."

"Am I the killer at the end of the picture or have I gone gay? To this day I don't know because Friedkin never told me how to play my final scene," Pacino said recently.

When told that, Friedkin, responded with a sly grin that threatened to break into a laugh.

"That's the most intelligent thing I've ever heard Al say. Like most of my movies, especially 'The French Connection' and 'To Live And Die In LA,' there's a theme of the thin line between being a cop and a criminal.

"I wanted Al to use his own skills to discover if and when his character crossed that line. I guess it's the no-risk state and predictability of movies today that 27 years later the ambiguous ending of 'Cruising' is still controversial."

Controversy also remains over its graphic violence and intense sex scenes that even today would probably earn "Cruising" the dreaded NC-17 rating, which bars all but adults seeing the film. So how did it get an "R" rating in the ultra conservative Reagan era?

"With great difficulty," Friedkin said. "I sent over fifty different cuts to the rating board before we finally just wore out the censors," he said.