RetroTrash

TV & MOVIES





NOTES ON THE ABOVE
TV and film soundtracks have provided a good source of inspiration for not only cover versions but also covers; drawing on multi-themed imagery you couldn't go wrong if you're doing a spy collection, for example. Just get a couple of pretty girls and shove guns in their hands and get them to pose provocatively, as in the Basie Meets Bond cover. Or, if it's going to be based on the famous theme from the Avengers, and you can't actually afford Diana Rigg, well just get a brunette with shoulder length hair, dress her in full leather and get her to pose with one foot resting on all the men she has felled single-handedly. Hence you end up with a cover like that of the Theme from the Avengers, which, in my opinion, is a pretty good cover. It's a shame that the music inside isn't as good. In fact, the music sounds very rarely like the actual themes, but for an alternative to the real thing they make a change. It's always interesting to hear other people's attempts at the Bond themes when one is sick and tired of hearing the originals. The Basie attempt is interesting for the fact that it is different, even though none of them sound anything like the originals. End Note You may be wondering why a couple of covers are here on this page. Well, the Disco Erotica is supposedly based on a film (music from and inspired by, etc.) although I never knew there was such a film. It is an official album yet has no market value. The Sunburn cover I included because it reminds me of the famous photo of Farrah used in the poster of her in a swimsuit three years earlier, which kind of summed up the seventies for me as a teenager, and also the fact that she looks great. (See another pic of her taken from the same photo session for the cover here.) So it would have been a pity to omit this cover. And it's a great shame that she is no longer with us. Besides, the film itself is not that popular. I could have included others (Emmanuelle with Sylvia Krystel topless on the cover or Joan Collins posing seductively in that outfit on the cover of The Bitch, etc.) but they're official soundtracks and are not trashy. And that is the criterion: are they trashy and cheap-looking enough to be included here? If not, then really they shouldn't be here at all. But if, however, they are sold in junk and charity shops at ridiculously low sums because the shops are trying desperately to get rid of them (i.e., they have no market value, even among collectors) then surely they should be deemed trash. And that is the point: I picked up the Sunburn album for 50p—nothing in comparison with an original Emmanuelle soundtrack which can go for £10 upwards if in reasonably good condition. Having said that, I've come across copies of The Bitch for only 50p on more than one occasion, so you go figure it out. I think I'll invent a new label: Trash Value. As I said in the intro, what is someone's trash maybe somebody else's treasure. So it is all a matter of value. As a collector of junk like the records on this and the previous pages, these records have no value outside of my own collection; they mean a lot to me because I collect them. To somebody else who does not collect this kind of stuff they are, however, worthless. And that's where the Trash Value comes in. The next time you're browsing in a junk shop ask yourself this question when you come across a record with a truly tacky sleeve: what is its trash value? I bet someone will be prepared to pay something for it, especially if they are, like me, a true collector. To view larger images use the Database
BACK	GALLERIES	HOME	DATABASE	NEXT