The Soundtrack Music & Album

The film's opening credits credit only Alex North with the music, but the closing credits also credit Robertson with "Midway Music." North (now dead) was a veteran, well-respected soundtrack/Hollywood movie scorer.

The soundtrack album (on record; I don't believe it's out on CD) has Robertson music on side one, and North music on side two. Side two sounds pretty much like standard movie-music, and, while not offensive, is of no interest to the Band fan.

Side one has 6 songs; 4 1/2 written by Robertson. (The "1/2" is "The Fat Man," credited to Fats Domino & Dave Batholomew, "additional lyrics by Robbie Robertson" (shades of "Mystery Train"). The sixth tune is credited to "Randall Bramlett & Davis Causey."

Robertson is credited as playing on only the first 3 of these 6 songs: "Garden of Earthly Delights," "Pagan Knight," and "The Fat Man." (The first 2 are instrumentals with Robbie on guitar; Robbie also sings on "The Fat Man," the only vocal on the album.)

The first song on the album, "Garden of Earthly Delights," is stripper-music (and is used this way in the film; the carnival in the film offers a strip-show in a trailer also called the "Garden of Earthly Delights"). It is a fantastic song, and Robbie's guitar solo on it is probably my all-time-favorite Robbie solo; it surely is one of his most prominent solos ever recorded, on a par with his solo on Clapton's "Sign Language," but faster, louder, and even funkier. "The Fat Man" is also a standout cut. These two songs alone make the soundtrack album well worth owning (however, the other songs are not that great).

The film seems to use most of these side-one songs as background music, but to my ears it appears that the movie's versions of these songs are different recordings from the album versions. The vocal cut, "The Fat Man," is sung in the film by a carnival-freak fat man, not by Robbie, so clearly it is a different version. The carnival fat man in the film (called "Harold 'Jelly Belly'") sings amazingly soulfully -- better than Robbie on the album. This is not to criticize Robertson's vocal -- it's just that guy who plays Harold "Jelly Belly," or whoever was overdubbed for him, is an unexpectedly talented singer.

By the way, the movie's closing credits, although citing Robertson as creator of "Midway Music," fail to give detail as to specific performances or songs used. On the album, though, the credits are clear: Dr. John plays organ on 3 cuts, and Gary Busey contributes "drums & vocal harmony" to "The Fat Man." The other players are all listed, but none has a significant Band connection or independent name. Apart from "The Fat Man," the whole album is instrumental.