Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
In the 1980s, movie soundtracks were big business...as were movies, and, well, music. People actually bought stuff. But with the advent of MTV and shows like Miami Vice that melded music and visuals, a movie's soundtrack became a big part of the film.
Director William Friedkin had made some huge movies in the '70s (The French Connection, The Exorcist), but by 1985, his career was in a bit of a lull. That year, he came back with a strong film in To Live and Die in L.A., a neo-noir action thriller in which two Secret Service agents chase a counterfeiter. The movie starred William Petersen as agent Richard Chance and Willem Dafoe as counterfeiter Eric Masters and both give excellent performances. I saw the movie in the theaters when I was home from my freshman year of college and really enjoyed it.
But the big surprise was that Friedkin chose the English synth pop act Wang Chung to compose the movie's soundtrack, based on their previous studio album, 1984's Points on the Curve. Friedkin was a fan of the album, especially the songs "Dance Hall Days" (the band's big hit to that point, which hit #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Dance/Disco chart) and "Wait." He used both those songs in the movie and then had the band record new music.
Wang Chung got its start in 1980 as Huang Chung (which means "yellow bell" in Mandarin), formed by Jeremy Ryder (who used the stage name Jack Hues) on lead vocals and guitar, Nick Feldman on guitar and Darren Costin on drums. They released a self-titled album as Huang Chung in 1982 on Arista Records but none of the singles nor the album charted. After signing with Geffen, the band changed the spelling of its name to Wang Chung to make the pronunciation easier for English speakers and released Points on the Curve in 1983. "Don't Let Go" got up to #38 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Dance Hall Days" became a bigger hit.
Wang Chung toured with the Romantics, Berlin and the Cars. Costin left the band after the tour, starting his own band called Heroes, and Hues and Feldman continued as a duo. In addition to their work on Friedkin's film, the group recorded songs for the soundtracks of The Breakfast Club and First Born. Producer Peter Wolf (not the J. Geils singer, but the guy who co-wrote "We Built This City") was used as the group's drummer for this work.
Friedkin specifically asked Wang Chung not to record a theme song for To Live and Die in L.A., but after seeing a cut of the movie, the group made one anyway and gave it to the director. He was impressed and kept it as part of the film and soundtrack.
I remember seeing videos for the band's Points on the Curve songs and not being overly impressed, but "To Live and Die in L.A." reached another level. It was dramatic and gritty, like the movie, really capturing the mood of a very dark film.
"In the heat of the day, every time you go away/I have to piece my life together/Every time you're away/In the heat of the day/In the dark of the night, every time I turn the light/I feel that God is not in heaven/In the dark of the night/The dark of the night/I wonder why I live alone here/I wonder why we spend these nights together/Is this the room I'll live my life forever?/I wonder why in L.A./To live and die in L.A./I wonder why we waste our lives here/When we could run away to paradise/But I am held in some invisible vice/And I can't get away/To live and die in L.A."
I haven't listened to the rest of the soundtrack, which essentially served as Wang Chung's third album, so I couldn't tell you what that sounds like, but man, what a killer title song. It was released as a single and the video got plenty of play on MTV. The song got to #41 on the Billboard Hot 100; the album hit #85.
"If I let myself go and for where I just don't know/I'd maybe hit some cold new river/That led out to the sea/An unknown sea/I'd either swim or I'd drown, or just keep falling down and own/I think it's that that makes me quiver/Just keep falling down/Down, down, down/I wonder why I live alone here/I wonder why we spend these nights together/Is this the way I'll live my life forever?/I wonder why in L.A./To live and die in L.A."
The movie was a hit, getting mostly good reviews and grossing $17.3 million, spending six weeks in the top 10 at the box office. Petersen, who had been mainly a stage actor to that point, followed it up with a terrific performance in Michael Mann's 1986 film Manhunter (best known for featuring the first appearance of Hannibal Lecter, played by Brian Cox). Dafoe had played some bit roles in the previous few years, but this was the first movie to really highlight his unique style; he shot to stardom the following year in Platoon and has had an interesting and successful career since.
As for Wang Chung, they followed the soundtrack up with their fourth studio album Mosaic in 1986, which featured two top 10 hits in "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" (which included the immortally fun/stupid line "Everybody Wang Chung tonight") and "Let's Go." Their next album, 1989's The Warmer Side of Cool, was a disappointment and the band split up in 1990.
Feldman teamed up with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss to form the band Promised Land, which released an album in 1992. Hues worked on soundtracks and recorded a solo album that was never released; he later teamed with Tony Banks of Genesis to form Strictly Inc., which released an album in 1995.
Wang Chung reunited in 1997, releasing a greatest hits collection. They did a Club 80s Flashback Tour with A Flock of Seagulls, Missing Persons and Gene Loves Jezebel. In the years since, they've reunited periodically to release songs or play shows. Hues went on hiatus in 2016 and was replaced by Cutting Crew vocalist Gareth Moulton, but he returned the following year. They did another '80s tour earlier this year.
The song "To Live and Die in L.A." had a bit of a renaissance earlier this year when comedian John Mulaney used it as the theme of his six-episode Netflix talk show Everybody's in L.A.
No comments:
Post a Comment