For those of us who didn't live through them, decades are often defined by songs from the era that are well-known enough to have stood the test of time on radio playlists and movie soundtracks. For example, "My Girl" by the Temptations represents the '60s, or "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees is the trademark of the '70s. But most people never think of songs that maybe have been on the radio every day during their decade but have since fallen into semi-obscurity.
Various Artists
Almost Famous
Dreamworks
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Almost Famous unearths songs like this from the early '70s. The soundtrack for Cameron Crowe's equally transcendent movie shows if not the absolute reality of life in 1973, at least the most true definition of society to come along in a while.
Many of the artists on the CD, such as The Who, Elton John and Rod Stewart, became big stars in the era. But the album refrains from picking the most well-known songs by each of these artists, songs that at this point have become almost cliche due to their overuse.
Almost Famous manages to include songs that are both mellow and excitable. Among the highlights are "America," a great period-setting track from Simon and Garfunkel, and "That's the Way" by Led Zeppelin, who appear on a soundtrack album for the first time.
A large downfall of many soundtracks is the addition of songs "inspired" by the film or songs added to flesh out the similar tunes that were actually in the movie. Almost Famous performs the great service of simply replaying everything audiences can hear in the movie: from "Fever Dog," an original song performed by the movie's fictional band Stillwater, to John's "Tiny Dancer," which appears in one of the film's pivotal scenes.
Any fan of '70s rock should consider bowing at the altar of film director and album producer Crowe (and his wife Nancy Wilson, who composed the score) for creating a soundtrack that can function as either a sweet reminder of a great film or a truly in-depth look at a past music era.
