370 Roman Yards
Italian auteur Michelangelo Antonioni’s hallucinatory 1969 counterculture epic Zabriskie Point features tunes from Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead, John Fahey, the Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd, among others. However, Antonioni originally hired the Floyd to do the entire soundtrack, which they delivered. The results of the Zabriskie Point sessions have been bootlegged for eons, but this recent version (entitled 370 Roman Yards) really works best as an album, a nice addendum to the band’s late 60s work. There’s a lot of nice stuff — the Byrdsy “Country Song,” the haunting “Oenone,” and of course the reworked “Careful With That Axe Eugene” (here re-titled “Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up”) that so memorably accompanies the explosive (literally) final sequence of the film. I actually think that — despite some incredible cinematography — Zabriskie Point is one of Antonioni’s weakest films, but the Floyd’s rejected soundtrack is certainly worth your time. Turn on, turn up, fade out!
(via funnyormegadie)
