I might have a few Tarantino movie soundtracks lined-up in this series, but I’ll start with the Pulp Fiction soundtrack which was an important record for the “teenage me” from 1994. This crazy movie became a cult-classic of the 90’s and its soundtrack is a strange but successful eclectic mix of rock, funk, soul, country, pop, and… instrumental surf music? Not to mention the snippets of conversation from the movie – why did they choose to insert the parts about the hash bars in Amsterdam, the quarter pounder with cheese, the “Dutch” habit of putting mayo on fries, and the fact that you can eat a pig with a guilt-free conscience because unlike dogs, they ain’t got a personality…? Who knows, but those definitely add to the atmosphere.
Pulp Fiction is a great movie with fun characters and a good plot. It is however, like other Tarantino movies, extremely violent. But the irony of having those bloody scenes coupled with random stupid conversations about fastfood or whatnot between those great characters somehow resulted in a very enjoyable 90’s style movie. If you think about it, movies from the late 80’s/early 90’s were often insanely violent, although we seem to have gotten used to it for some reason – some have even almost become “family classics” which play on TV all the time (like Die Hard, Robocop, or Total Recall – the “good” guy uses some poor random bystander as a shield for God’s sake!!). What is the world coming to?…
Back to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, every kid had that record in the mid-1990’s, including me (it was a nice change from the time when everyone was listening to the previous popular soundtrack, “Dirty Dancing”! I’m guilty as well, but I’ll forgive my 9 year-old self). The Pulp Fiction soundtrack was such an entertaining assortment of songs that I never would have listened to otherwise, like that hilarious country song “Flowers on the wall” or the wonderful surf music, which is as cool as it gets (I beg you, please listen to the 1963’s version of “Misirlou” available below if you only know “Pump it” by Black Eyed Peas!!).
Alright, let’s (jungle) boogie!
Songs and groups you need to hear 