The Big Easy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Soundtrack]

the big easy: original motion picture soundtrack [soundtrack]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
While it didn't do for Louisiana music what the film The Harder They Come did for reggae, the soundtrack to director Jim McBride's steamy and stylized cops-and-corruption movie is a pretty good introduction to the region's extensive musical delights (even if gospel's great Swan Silvertones are from West Virginia). The late Dewey Balfa (who appears in the film's sweet porch-party scene) is to Cajun music's rural past what Terrance Simien and Zachary Richard are to its rocking present. Buckwheat Zydeco is to zydeco what Beausoleil is to Cajun: an intelligent synthesis of the old and new that you can dance to. It's a shame the St. Augustine's Marching Hundred's raw and jumping version of "Li'l Liza Jane" didn't make the cut from film to album. And it's an even bigger shame that star Dennis Quaid's awful ballad did. --Richard Gehr

The Big Easy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack,Various Artists,Mango,Adult Contemporary,Cajun,Film Music,Pop,Pop/Rock,Soundtrack,Soundtracks,Soundtracks & Film Scores,Traditional Cajun,Zydeco

The Big Easy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Soundtrack]

Average customer rating:

Louisiana
One Of The Best
the best single disc intro to the music of new orleans
Fabulous!
Forgettable Movie, Unforgettable Sound Track

The Big Easy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Fontana Island
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Adult Contemporary | Pop | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

1980s | By Decade | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Big Easy
Best Of Louisiana Cajun Classics : Cajun & Zydeco's Greatest Artists
The Best of Cajun: The Traditional Songs
Zydeco's Greatest Hits
The Ultimate Collection

ASIN: B000003QKO
Release Date: 1991-07-01

Tracks:

Iko Iko - The Dixie Cups
Tipitina - Professor Longhair
Ma 'Tit Fille - Buckwheat Zydeco
Colinda - Zachary Richard
Tell It Like It Is - Aaron Neville & The Neville Brothers
Zydeco Gris Gris - Beausoleil
Oh Yeh Yai - Terrance Simien & The Mallet Playboys
Hey Hey (Indians Comin') - The Wild Tchoupitoulas
Closer To You - Dennis Quaid
Saviour, Pass Me Not - The Swan Silvertones
Buck's Nouvelle Jole Blon - Buckwheat Zydeco & Ils Sont Partis Band
Pine Grove Blues - Dewey Balfa

Amazon.com essential recording

While it didn't do for Louisiana music what the film The Harder They Come did for reggae, the soundtrack to director Jim McBride's steamy and stylized cops-and-corruption movie is a pretty good introduction to the region's extensive musical delights (even if gospel's great Swan Silvertones are from West Virginia). The late Dewey Balfa (who appears in the film's sweet porch-party scene) is to Cajun music's rural past what Terrance Simien and Zachary Richard are to its rocking present. Buckwheat Zydeco is to zydeco what Beausoleil is to Cajun: an intelligent synthesis of the old and new that you can dance to. It's a shame the St. Augustine's Marching Hundred's raw and jumping version of "Li'l Liza Jane" didn't make the cut from film to album. And it's an even bigger shame that star Dennis Quaid's awful ballad did. --Richard Gehr

Customer Reviews:

Louisiana.......2006-11-06

Great soundtrack, if you liked the movie and New Orleans! I love both!

One Of The Best.......2006-05-11

We loved the movie and discovered the sound track. As a New Orleans regular this CD just adds to the mood when we are back home. I predict you'all will jus' love it.

the best single disc intro to the music of new orleans.......2005-08-12

the keyword here is single disc. the whole album clocks in just under 47 minutes. don't know why, but back then the standard running time for a cd is about 45 minutes, so that's at least 20 some odd minutes worth of music they could have put into this cd. of course, at additional right fee. perhaps that was why we couldn't tap into the music of new orleans a little deeper.

that being said, this is a great compilation for beginners. the music of new orleans is an acquired taste that you may never get used to. no matter how much japanese people likes toro, the fatty belly section of tuna, if you don't like sushi, then you will never know. once you get a hang of sushi, you will get to love toro. once you start to liking the new orleans music, you will never get enough.

although new orleans is heavily influenced by the french, but they don't have this type of music over in france, so we can almost say that this is one of the most under recognized original american music. few people knows any new orleans songs outside of tell it like it is and iko iko, and frankly speaking tell it like it is really doesn't sound new orleans to me. it is about as new orleans as toto's africa is to africa. if nothing else, getting this disc to hear the music from the big easy is both fun and educational .

one single disc cannot do new orleans justice, so there is a 4 disc boxset: doctors, professors, kings & queens - the big ol' box of new orleans, also available here at amazon. that set, as comprehensive as it is, does not sound as good as this disc in terms of fidelity. there are only four songs from this cd that appeared on the boxset, but none of them are the same version as the ones appeared in the other title. if you get both you won't feel cheated.

Fabulous!.......2005-07-08

I have seen this movie several times over the years and it never fails to delight me.

Forgettable Movie, Unforgettable Sound Track.......2005-05-17

Some say, all music came from New Orleans. Jazz and blues, from which so much American music descended, got their start in the clubs of New Orleans and fields around the Mississippi delta. New Orleans, and Louisiana generally, remains a major center of musical vitality, if somewhat apart from the American mainstream.

In the mid-80s, I began to develop an interest in "New Orleans" music, and the many varied styles it encompassed including traditional "Dixieland", brass-band and more modern Jazz, as well as second-line, blues, rock'n'roll, cajun, gospel, zydeco and funk. About that time, the Big-Easy, a midling, formulaic picture, put out its sound track, and I was hooked. A sampler of the various styles, with the infectious, polyrhythmic beat so characterisctic of the The Big Easy.

There is so much they could have put on the album, and a one or two that could have been omitted. But since then, I have developed a life-long love of all the various music that represents NOLA.

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