Book: Lights, Camera, Soundtracks by Martin C. Strong

Sometimes, a book comes out about music and you think 'Jeez! That's a lifetime's worth of work!' and Martin C. Strong's 'Lights, Camera, Soundtracks' is one of those impressive tomes. Basically, what you got here is the most comprehensive collection of soundtracks ever written as it hosts over 50 years of rock 'n' roll flicks, musicals and more. It's incredibly impressive stuff!

The book is split into three sections, with Rock Movies, Musicals and Pop Fiction leading the charge, followed by Rockumentaries and Performance Movies, and finished neatly off with Pop/Rock Scores and Blaxploitation. Coming in at just under a thousand pages, this is some seriously all-inclusive work, with hardly any stone left unturned!

Like any good reference book, it's a breeze to navigate (should you be watching some mad '60s film and find yourself thinking "WHO MADE THAT?! I NEEEED IT!"), with reviews of the soundtrack and a snappy summary of the films that spawned the music.

So, each section. Well, the first covers the breadth of pop and rock musical feature films (like 'Rock Around the Clock') and Part Two concentrates on documentary and performance films (which means films like Festival!, Woodstock or Dig!). The third part wades hip-deep in the soundtracks where pop culture and pulp fiction meet (Trainspotting, Easy Rider etc). It's a wonderful tome that saw this writer simply picking it up, letting it fall to a random page and then eagerly hoovering up the facts.

Of course, with a book as well-researched as this, it's full of ace trivia (like 'Duelling Banjos' was actually written as 'Feuding Banjos' by Arthur 'Guitar Boogie' Smith in 1955) and great snapshots of what tracks are really like (Christopher Lee's singing section in The Wicker Man is referred to as "quarry deep basso profundo" and "worth it for the rolled 'r' alone!).

If you're looking for a book, with chapters and a story, then look elsewhere, but if you want a brilliant catalogue of music in cinema, then you need this essential body of work. It's thorough, accurate and most of all, great fun to get lost in. It's a trainspotter's wet-dream that's for sure! [mof]