I Guess It's About Time For Our William Tell Routine

The next two or three days I'm going to feature a couple of my favorite offbeat movie soundtrack albums. This is no countdown, though, so let's get right to the best: the indomitable Naked Lunch soundtrack by Howard Shore and Ornette Coleman.

The 1991 release of the Naked Lunch movie hit me like a typewriter from the sky. It had everything a curious young man could ask for. Explorations of the space between perception, hallucination, and reality. Young travelers navigating the intentions of demented and decadent expatriates. Apt portrayals of some of the greatest bits from William S. Burroughs works. Roy Scheider with breasts. And bug powder. Lots and lots of bug powder.

The soundtrack serves the film perfectly, and is a stupendous document all on its own. The idea of Ornette Coleman blowing over an orchestra could easily have gone awry. Instead it burrows into your imagination, hollows out a little nest, and issues out a brood of dark, enticing, larval thoughts.

You'll have to excuse me. I have to go finish typing my report...

Naked Lunch Soundtrack

( This playlist is the whole soundtrack. When I tried to create a sampler of this record, I only ended up shaving off three out of eighteen songs. Happy Friday.)