Sunday, February 5, 2023

This Budd’s for You

Roy Budd - Jazz It Up (MC/M4)
The Marseille Contract AKA The Destructors soundtrack, 1974
 

Utter the words "jazz funk" to me, and I'm mentally picturing Jamiroqui playing to a bunch of poncey chin-strokers on Later with Jools Holland, or some other corporate backslapping programme. Regardless of which, it's the ninth circle of Hell for this humble blogger. Fortunately, the late Roy Budd produced some angelic gems like Jazz It Up (MC/M4) whenever he tried his hand at producing film soundtracks.

Ironically, some of Budd's soundtrack choons sound closer to being spawned in a recording studio in the South Side of Chicago rather than South London; like a complete vice versa with the legendary Quincy Jones. The man had the Midas touch and even laced Celebrity Big Brother twister Leo Sayer a cool guitar riff when they worked together.

Choice picks:

Carter Takes a Train (from Get Carter, 1971)

The Stone Killer (Main Titles) (from The Stone Killer, 1973)

Jazz It Up (MC/M4) (from The Marseille Contract, 1974)

The Thief  (from Diamonds, 1975)

Mister Funker (M15 - FB) (from Foxbat, 1977)

Who Dares Wins (from Who Dares Wins AKA The Final Option, 1982)

Nineties Brit pop heads might have first learnt about Roy Budd thanks to the renewed interest in Get Carter at the time, but for yours truly, it was when I first caught Who Dares Wins on TV while channel surfing, and witnessed that testosterone fuelled scene where an uzi toting Lewis Collins and his SAS boys ran down that US embassy hallway to neutralise an eighties precursor to Greta Thunberg.

Who Dares Wins (US Embassy Assault scene)
Ian Sharp, 1982
 

12 comments:

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Aw shit - King Geedorah sample on that Stone Killer track 👀

Funnily enough I was walking past a charity shop yesterday and noticed his The Wild Geese soundtrack LP in the window.

Spartan said...

Bit of a buzz when you accidentally stumble upon the source sample from a rap song. Another Roy Budd choon off an obscure Brit coproduction has been killing me working out the rap song that sampled it.

That The Wild Geese OST might be worth something, possibly. Can barely remember the film let alone the soundtrack, though.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

I've never seen it.

Hmm. I thought that Roy Budd track sounded like Amil & Roc-A-Fella's 4 Da Fam but it turns out that's a different Roy Budd track.

Spartan said...

That's actually it, cheers! Had my Roy Budd tracks mixed up as they sounded a bit similar.

I was thinking it might have been a Rockafella track, but couldn't remember the exact artist.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

If only M.O.P had got that beat instead.

Westwood always used to use the instrumental as his backing music when he was yapping.

Spartan said...

Would have been a way better fit for M.O.P.

Didn’t Amil end up working in a supermarket or something?

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Yeah. Preferable to going the Steady B & Cool C route, I guess.

Spartan said...

Damn! That's the like the rap equivalent of Geoffrey from Rainbow to all the zoomers, I guess.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Geoffrey died as a cabbie, while Timmy Mallett tours Butlins camps and does wacky pop singles TV shows on the Freeview music channels. Life truly ain't fair.

Spartan said...

Surprised people still go to Butlins in the twenty-first century. 😀

Even the Carry On team went overseas back in the day.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

So international.

Butlins Minehead looks a blast when they hold the darts open there. Full on pissed-up party all weekend.

Spartan said...

Wouldn’t mind going to one of those events and getting blind drunk. Looks like a modern day version of a medieval banquet.