For having worked sound, edited film and/or written original music for each of John Cassavetes’ masterpieces, it doesn’t peeve me so much that Bo Harwood wallows in obscurity as much as the fact that any information or music by the guy is so goddamn hard to find. Even the horror (not by Cassavetes) flick, Happy Birthday to Me, was stripped of Harwood’s soundtrack for VHS release. But both he and Cassavetes operated so far out of the mainstream, I really shouldn’t wonder…

The opening piano theme for Woman Under the Influence? Written and played by Harwood in Cassavetes’ office, having never played a piano prior to Cassavetes’ insistence. The background radio tune during the stripper’s audition in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie? Sung and written by Harwood. The operatic pieces in Love Streams? Harwood. And that old standard “Almost in Love with You”? Actually co-written by Cassavetes and Harwood and sung by jazz trumpeter, Jack Sheldon.

Bo Harwood - Almost In Love with You



And in the hopes of gaining at least one convert, and at the risk of runnin’ a train on this web-whored out clip from one of my all-time favorite flicks - here’s a scene from Love Streams. First I had a dub of the VHS from the Chicago Public Library, then I bought the French laserdisc, and now it’s all online, where your mothertexting, TV-fucked-attention spans just want the cheap thrills anyway. And, like, plenty of them, and it doesn’t matter how tawdry or vacuous they are as long as it’s new as long as it’s new as long as it flashes and fuckin’ bleeps in forty fuckin’ different colors.

Pay particular attention at - 1:13, 10:50, and especially at 14:20.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pm and is filed under '80s, Out of Print, Soundtrack, Video, nagra. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.