film songs

Generated 2007/06/08 20:03:14

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Susie Before Sunrise
Deep Inside We're Blue
Bing Can't Walk ('Cause Bob Broke Both His Legs)
End Of The Line
Floundering
Talk Hard
I Wanna Be A Boss
Footnotes

Commissioned for the short film Death Smokes A Big Cigar

Here where the carousel spins
On an ocean of blame
We pick pockets in the crowds
Near the gold mines of shame

And I will wear a red ruby ring
That reflects the full moon
Meet me on the corner tonight
And we'll sleep deep down in the sand dunes

Chorus:
Susie climbed a mountain of tacks
She lost control of the facts
She put all of the clothes in a brown paper sack
And drove outta state the next day before sunrise
Before sunrise

Susie climbed a mountain of tacks

Walkin' by the old funzone¹
South of the gutter of doubt
Past a broken mirror glass
The reflection faded in and out
And I saw her there

Chorus repeat x3

notes

I don't know when this song was actually recorded; 1997 is, well, a shot in the dark.

credits

Written by: Stanard Ridgway
Published by: © Copyright 1997 Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs (administered by BMI)

performers

Joe Berardi: drums, percussion
Mark Shulz: lead guitar, vocals
David Sutton: electric and acoustic bass, vocals
Stanard Ridgway: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Pietra Wexstun: keyboards, vocals

Commissioned for the short film Death Smokes A Big Cigar

Swimmin' in the slime
Peelin' off th' dock
Baby got a purple skirt that is polka-dot
Beauty in decay can be the only way when you are not

Wind is blowin' strong
Rainin' in the world
Nothin' but a sag where there used to be a curl
Cloud is comin' on
The weatherman was wrong––it's hot

Kill the referee
I'm callin' off the match
Gimme somethin' real––Babyface will need a peel tonight

Chorus:
Where they go
We don't know
But deep inside we're blue
Catch that fish
Your only wish
Deep inside we're blue
Blow that horn
From you I'm torn
No one has a clue
So pass that glass
Did you have to ask
Deep inside we're blue

Collision traffic mess
Failure or success
Who you lookin' at and tryin' to impress
Join you in your pain
Are you lookin' for the same tonight

Place me in your web
I will obey your plan
Gimme somethin' real––Babyface will need a peel tonight

Chorus repeat

notes

I don't know when this song was actually recorded; 1997 is, well, a shot in the dark.

credits

Written by: Stanard Ridgway
Published by: © Copyright 1997 Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs (administered by BMI)

performers

Joe Berardi: drums, percussion
Stanard Ridgway: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Mark Shulz: lead guitar, vocals
David Sutton: electric and acoustic bass, vocals
Pietra Wexstun: keyboards, vocals

Commissioned for the film Slamdance

If you've got a friend that you want messed up
Just meet me on the corner by the Tail Of The Pup²
I'll be there soon if you'll wait a while
It'll be just one punch for my « patients (patience?) »
And a drawer full of dirty shirts
We'll find out just who hurts––'cause

Chorus:
Bing can't walk
Bob broke both his legs
Bing can't walk
Bob broke both his legs

You're the one that I'll remember most of all tonight
Someone let go of my string, I'm fallin' down like a broken kite
Who's to say, and who's to know––they don't know what I know
There's something out there floatin' free
Anything I had is tangled up in the branches of a hangman's tree

Chorus repeat

Like a punch in the face or a kick in the groin
There's nothin' goin' down––goin' down but the dollar and the coin

Greasy little fingers point to ugly little lies
Hide them in a hope chest in an attic in Van Nuys
Trusted friendships can go sour––betrayal at the midnight hour
Just remember––I hate to lose

There's something out there floatin' free
Anything I had is tangled up in the branches of a hangman's tree––'cause

Bing can't walk
Bing can't walk

Chorus repeat

A touch of sin could break your back
Or scramble up your eggs

But then I've got a personal code
I just hit 'em on the head, throw 'em in a trunk,
And then I drive on down the road
Ha.

notes

The lyrics to this song have not been published; they were transcribed by Larry Hastings. The song credits are a bit light, but they're correct––they are from the Slamdance soundtrack.

stan says

A song for the movie thriller "Slamdance" that producer Mitchell Froom called me in to do. That's him on the organ. A friend who worked in television had just shown me some secret, horrific outtakes of a Bing Crosby TV special where he had tripped into the orchestra pit and broke his legs. A big piece of scenery even fell and struck Pearl Bailey on the head sitting in the front row. It made quite an impression! I certainly was not going to write anything called "Slamdance" so this subject matter seemed appropriately cryptic somehow for the film, a gangster kinda murder movie, with a lot of bones being broken and once close partners betraying one another. Being in the music business, I could relate.

credits

Written by: Stanard Ridgway
Published by: © Copyright 1987 Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs (administered by BMI)
Produced by: Mitchell Froom

performers

Mitchell Froom: organ
Stanard Ridgway: vocals, all other instruments

Commissioned for the French film Terminus.

You are my only confidant
And my only friend
Together we will share everything
Until the very end

Chorus:
There's no one here who shares my views
Or sees the way I can see
But there's just one thing that you'll understand
You'll have to even up with me
At the end of the line (x2)

I've bet it all before
But not everything I own
There are some things that you can't buy or steal
Or learn to leave alone

Chorus repeat last line x4

I toss the dice and skin the cat
And I always pay the fine
So we'll settle up even-steven
When we reach the end of the line

Hey, I hear you calling me back home
To fly or fall to the news of it all
There's no dark destiny
Fate will receive what our love will believe
'Til we reach the end of the line

Chorus repeat last line x10

notes

The lyrics to this song have not been published; they were transcribed by Larry Hastings.

stan says

I was playing two nights with my band in Paris on my first solo tour at a great jazz club called The New Morning, when I was approached by a group of cool French film makers to write a song for their new movie, which turned out to be a truly weird sci-fi picture called "End Of The Line". Starring Johnny Holiday, the "French Elvis..." I liked the title right away and said yes. They sent me some footage after I got back to LA and I got pretty into it. After I was done, the film's title got changed somewhere along the way to "Terminus". Some of you might have heard this before, but it's nice to have it here remastered for all its glory.

credits

Written by: Stanard Ridgway
Produced by: Stanard Ridgway
Written by: Stanard Ridgway
Published by: © Copyright 1993 Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs (administered by BMI)

performers

Stanard Ridgway: vocals, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
Cliff Martinez: drums
Mark Terlizzi: bass

Commissioned for the movie Floundering

Tonight I'm looking for someone to tell my troubles to
Some fish will swim but some fish just get caught
I'm walkin' by a market and I remember me and you
Feelin' like an old filet that no one bought

Chorus:
Nobody knows, nobody sees
I'm caught downstream, and I'm floundering

Walkin' by the old canal, I sit down along the shore
I throw one lonely duck my last french fry
I had a dream of drowning––I heard the underwater roar
So pack me up in ice, and take me home to fry

Chorus repeat x2

And late at night, I hear the wind just yawn
Some fish will swim, some fish will spawn

Chorus repeat x2

notes

The lyrics to this song have not been published; they were transcribed by Larry Hastings.

stan says

Written for the indie film dir. by Peter McCarthy, "Floundering" is a cool movie about a well-meaning, mixed-up guy who lives in Venice, CA. and finds himself kinda confused about politics, relationships, and well, he's just like the title says. I could relate that summer, as it seemed all my plans had come to a dead stop. Zander Schloss, fantastic musician and Circle Jerk, called about this and then together we recorded two songs for the flick. That's him on banjo, slide and guitaron. Fond memories and many beers... I think the old folk song "Long Black Veil" was in my head too on this one, "Nobody knows, nobody sees".

credits

Written by: Stanard Ridgway
Published by: © Copyright 1994 Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs (administered by BMI)

performers

Stanard Ridgway: vocals, keyboards, harmonica
Zander Schloss: banduria, lap steel, banjo

Life is tough and full'a stuff
Life is hard as rock
No one around to pull you out
No one to stop the clock

Now we don't need no chaperones
All policemen please go home
The pressure's up––the heat is on
I know what's right––I know what's wrong

Chorus:
You gotta
Talk hard––you gotta talk hard

Out my door, on my street
There's people marchin' with their feet
They're buyin' this, they're buyin' that
Some are thin and some are fat

Suburban towns are all around
With shopping malls––some underground
And in the shops they try and sell
An empty bargain––a wishing well

Chorus repeat x2

Now I can't sit here a-growin' gray
I gotta make a move––nothing to say
What destiny will hold for me, well
No one knows and no one can see

Chorus repeat x2

notes

The lyrics to this song have not been published; they were transcribed by Larry Hastings.

credits

Written by: Stanard Ridgway
Published by: © Copyright 1990 Dis-Information Music (administered by BMI)

performers

Joe Berardi: drums, percussion
Stanard Ridgway: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Mark Shulz: lead guitar, vocals
David Sutton: electric and acoustic bass, vocals
Pietra Wexstun: keyboards, vocals

Well, I've been doodling on this notepad
And I been taking telephone calls
I can tell this job's at the end of the line
And I'm ready for the fall
But I been watchin' the boss carefully
And he always seems to be havin' a ball
And then I scratch my head and wonder
Why I'm down here and he's up the hall

Now, all of my paychecks aren't worth
The paper they're printed on
I get 'em Friday
But Monday they're all gone
There must be some way to change my situation
It's time that I took up a brand new vocation

I wanna take a two-week vacation
Twenty-six times a year, add 'em up
When I fly to exotic places
My jet will be a Lear
I'll need several secretaries
Just to jot down notes
I'll wear Gucci loafers
And expensive shirts
And blue, executive, exotic coats

Chorus:
'Cause I, I said I wanna be a boss
(I wanna be, I wanna be)
I, I said I wanna be a boss
And I'll have people workin' under me
And this lousy job I'll toss
I, I said I wanna be a boss

Well, I'll drive in fancy cars
Well, no, maybe I'll just cruise
With a limo––and a chauffeur,
TV, telephone, and booze
Tinted windows so the common folk
Can't see me here inside
Maybe every now and then for fun
I'll give some old coot a ride

Then maybe I'll slip him
A thousand dollar bill
Then he'll smile and shake my hand
And I'll put him in my will
I'm gonna count up all my widgets
And digits, and all my stuff
I'll make millions in a day
But it'll never be enough
Nope––not enough!

Chorus:
'Cause I, I said I wanna be a boss
And I just wanna take a four-hour lunch
And eat a steak with A1 Sauce
I, I said I wanna be a boss
And I'll buy up every stock there is
From ITT to Doctor Ross
I, I said I wanna be a boss
(I wanna be, I wanna be)

Now if I find a product I like
I'll buy up the whole company
Shave my face, and grin and smile
And then I'll sell it on TV
And everyone will know me
I'll be more famous than Howard Hughes
I'll grow a long beard and watch
Ice Station Zebra in the nude

And grow my nails like Fu-Manchu
Keep a row of specimen jars
Get other people to work for me––well
Maybe I'll buy the planet Mars, and
Build an amusement park up there
Better than old Walt's place
You'll have to be a millionaire to go
We'll smoke cigars and lounge in lace
Talk the talk of businessmen
And bosses that we are
So here's to me––the drinks are free––
'Cause I just bought this bar

Yeah––yeah, I wanna be a boss
I wanna be a boss, boss, boss!
Some kinda intergalactic boss!

credits

Written by: Stanard Ridgway
Published by: © Copyright 1991 Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs (administered by BMI)
Produced by: Stanard Ridgway

performers

John Batdorf: background vocals
Joe Berardi: drums
Larry Grennan: background vocals
Stanard Ridgway: vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards
Mark Shulz: electric guitar
David Sutton: bass
Pietra Wexstun: background vocals
Evon Williams: background vocals

1. Stan's standard nickname for an amusement park.

2. The Tail Of The Pup is a famous kitschy restaurant in Los Angeles; it's a fiberglass fast food stand shaped like a hot dog in a bun.