Bookshop Browsing Soundtracks

If I sold hamburgers I suppose I'd have to play hip-hop, just like the guy on the stall opposite the shop. Hip-hop and burgers might be made for each other, but since burgers are as American as apple pie, why couldn't they go with Rock 'n' Roll or Swing, as well as onions? The actual truth is that he, like most selling food, is a good deal younger than me, so why the hell would he present Count Basie with his burgers? As it is, to varying degrees of annoyance, depending on the volume, most of the food stalls have virtual sound systems blasting out 'street' sounds...you know...to create that...er...street 'vibe' and entice youths to cram more calories into their gobs, pile on the pounds, then make Tik Tok videos about how great it is to be...um...big. Something like that. Good luck to 'em! 

One soundtrack that's become a favourite of mine in the shop is Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Not only are there some great tunes, but those adverts! The intro to Hector by The Village Callers still hits the spot, years after it was a regular in my DJ box. Tanya Tanning Butter sounds a bit dodgy, though. It gives you a mild burn? 

As I dream and drift from Camden market back in time to Los Angeles circa 1969, I see two sides, dark and light; impressions from an idealised, sun-drenched fantasy and reading Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn. Guinn pulls no punches in knocking idealist Hippy utopian dreams right out of your head, not that I had any to begin with. The tragic fact was that in San Francisco, lost girls looking for salvation on 'the scene' proved ripe for the picking as far as Manson was concerned. There were plenty of them, tasting the bitter reality of 'freedom' (to starve and be exploited). No, if I'm 'there' I am at least with Gary Lockwood in his 1952 MG TD Midget in Jacques Demy's Model Shop. Not that his situation was great. He'd got his draft papers and his car was about to be repossessed, but to me it looks better than being a stoned hippy. Anyway, Demy can even make living in a shack on an oil field look romantic. By coincidence, I've just learnt that Tarantino was inspired by Model Shop regarding OUATIH. 

Isn't it romantic? Working in a bookshop...maybe, if you're in a Woody Allen film. I can't remember but there must be one of his characters who does...Well here's my second favourite film-related soundtrack for browsers in Black Gull Books. Music from Woody Allen films...and it's 'about 9hr 30 min' long! In theory then, I could play it for the whole day, but I prefer variation. As it is, I'm torn between wanting to create an old-world romantic atmosphere wherein one browser might fall head-over-heels for another as they both peruse the Classics section and not wanting to appear to be a creaky old fart stuck in the past!

What a dilemma. But who am I kidding? I am stuck in the past. It just happens to be a past in which Kraftwerk might feature along with Sidney Bechet. I doubt that Woody Allen has much time for Kraftwerk. After all, aren't they the epitome of cold, soulless art? Maybe, then again, you could argue that there's a lot of 'soul' in those beautiful melodies and their connection to Classical romanticism, albeit directed towards robots. 

Allen's got to be the most literary of filmmakers, hasn't he? So bookish. So I play the selection, fully aware that virtually nobody will get that I'm trying to conjure the atmosphere of an imaginary Parisian bookshop in which love affairs begin to the sound of Artie Shaw's Moonglow.

Black Gull Books, 70 Camden Lock Pl, London NW1 8AF (I'm there Tues, Weds & Thurs)