Blow Up: Original Soundtrack (MGM/ 1967)

Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up is one of those films that successive generations of impressionable media studies undergraduates get themselves all worked up about. This on account of the movie being held up as something of a profound cinematic meditation on the intensely subjective nature of perception. But in spite of that self-consciously arty baloney at the end when a bunch of poncy Marcel Marsaud wannabes enjoy a game of mime tennis in the park, the movie does capture something of the ebullient spirit of so-called Swinging London (itself something of a highly subjective concept).

One particular manifestation of that spirit was the loosening up of previously rigid class demarcations which, in the words of the cultural theorist Michael Bracewell, signalled 'a new bohemian affair between working-class creative types and the aristocracy, which brought the likes of David Bailey or Mick Jagger into the country homes of England.' But while I for one would certainly question Mick Jagger's working class credentials, it's no secret that the central character (played by David Hemmings) in Blow Up is based on the real life — and unequivocally working class — photographer David Bailey. So to this end, though directed by a foreigner and incorporating such distinctly European arthouse traits as the indecipherable plot, and confused characters behaving in a wholly irrational manner, Blow Up is as legitimate a portrayal of British society as more social realist offerings of the time, such as Up the Junction and The Family Way. What's more, the film also contains a number of memorable set-piece scenes such as the cameo appearance by The Yardbirds, performing 'Stroll On' in a studio mock-up of the Ricky-Tick club (apparently), as well as the first full frontal nude scene in mainstream cinema, in which Jane Birkin and actress Gillian Hills assume pseudo lesbian poses for the benefit of David Hemmings' probing camera lens. And the action is underpinned with an evocative and broodingly atmospheric jazz soundtrack, scored by Herbie Hancock, which is as sharp as the cut of a three-button, single-breasted Italian suit.

I first saw Blow Up in the early Nineties at London's National Film Theatre, which was running a programme of classic movies from the 1960s: this to accompany a retrospective exhibition of art from the same decade which may or may not have been held at the nearby Hayward Gallery. It was one of three that my then girlfriend TJR and I chose to go and see; the others being Lindsay Anderson's If, and the knockabout Swinging London spoof, The Smashing Time. Out of the three, it was If that I particularly wanted to see or more so, introduce TJR too. Firstly because she was American and I considered If to be one of the most quintessentially English movies ever. But more so because I'd seen this extraordinary film a number of times on TV during the course of growing up, and felt sure that its spirit of revolutionary romanticism had infected me at an early age and had subsequently helped shape the angry young man I'd become. In short, then, given that it was still early on in our relationship, I felt that by encouraging her to see the film with me, I would be opening her up to a side of my psyche that I would otherwise never have been able to articulate nearly so poetically as Lindsay Anderson. And after having witnessed If's explosive power on the big screen for the first time, I came out fired up with the spirit of the barricades. But though I didn't doubt her when she said that she enjoyed the film, she did go on to say that she thought the rebel's (led by Malcolm McDowell’s Travis character) machine-gunning of all of those innocent people at the end, was a little extreme. Which sadly made me realise that she hadn't truly connected to the movie's message, nor the manner by which it was put across. Ho hum...

The soundtrack album, meanwhile, was picked up in 1990. It was part of a particularly catholic selection of five albums, scored for £3.50 each at a record fair (the others being, From Ohio by Firehose, Time Boon, De Devil Dead by Lee Scratch Perry, The Essential Astrid Gilberto and The Best of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band). And though I bought the Blow Up soundtrack prior to seeing the actual film, I did so on the strength of my having been acquainted with a blistering version of Blow Up's principal theme, performed by the James Taylor Quartet on a mini album released in the late-Eighties. This frenetic slice of hammond-led, neo-mod garage, had quickly established itself as something of a floor-filler on the all-too-rare occasions that my friend Paul C and I worked the twin wheels of steel at the weekly college hop.

But by way of a totally unexpected bonus, couple of years down the line, Dee-Lite appropriated the original's climbing bass riff for their 'Groove is in the Heart' single. This gifted me the opportunity to show off at dinner parties, by casually asking friends and acquaintances whether they were aware that the distinctive riff from the Dee-Lite hit was actually lifted from Herbie Hancock's signature score for Antonioni's 1966 movie, Blow Up? ‘Priceless!’ to quote an ad for a well known credit card.