From Tom Petty to David Bowie: 10 songs that perfectly capture the Quentin Tarantino sound
No one will ever mistake a Quentin Tarantino movie for anything else. The strong identity of his films extends to a certain sound that permeates them. He has achieved this to such an extent that the ‘vibe’ of his films can be felt beyond the cinema. There are unrelated bars that have the Tarantino feel, there are snippets of conversation at a bus stop that have the Tarantino feel, and there are most certainly songs, songs that seem destined to one day feature on one of his soundtracks, that have the Tarantino feel.
Whether it’s working on a drama or a comedic romp, some of the best scenes in Tarantino films tend to sound like your hippest uncle’s old record collection. For as timeless as his style may be, the music of every Tarantino film tends to feel like hitting shuffle on an oldies radio station and somehow coming up with some of the greatest hits from every generation of rock ‘n’ roll.
Although Tarantino is much more in tune with the classics than many others, there are many tunes from across all eras that capture his signature sound. Since the songs are always known to be just a little bit left off the dial, they are all still quirky enough to fit the mood of every scene they’re used in, often painting subtext better than any dialogue ever could.
With that in mind, we’ve tapped into the radio waves and found ourselves often saying, ‘This would be perfect for a Tarantino movie’. That is surely a symbol of his holistic strength as a director. So, we’ve decided to cook up a playlist of songs that have never featured on one of his soundtracks but nevertheless perfectly capture his cool signature sound.
10 songs that capture Quentin Tarantino movies:
10. ‘He’s Misstra Know It All’ – Stevie Wonder
Every Tarantino classic thrives on a good anti-hero. Even though there are some genuinely heroic stories in his catalogue, every one of the protagonists in each film, more often than not, has some sort of checkered past. And if there was ever a good track to put over the end credits of a story about a seedy character’s life, why not have one of the most optimistic put-down songs of all time?
While Stevie Wonder intended to write this piece about Richard Nixon at the time, hearing the faint sounds of ‘He’s Misstra Know It All’ blaring out of a car stereo would be the perfect way to close one of the director’s more disturbing action flicks. It might be a nice way of putting a bow on a movie, but given how happy it sounds, it would also do a great job at trying to process the amount of violence you just witnessed.
9. ‘The Jean Genie’ – David Bowie
There aren’t many movies that couldn’t be improved by adding a bit of David Bowie into the mix. ‘The Starman’ flirted with every genre under the sun, so it makes sense that everything from a disturbing thriller to a Wes Anderson movie could make for a great fit. As for Tarantino, some of the best movies that he has ever made feel like they are crying out to see a return of Bowie’s glam-rock period.
While Bowie had his fair share of cinematic songs in his later periods, like his Berlin trilogy, ‘The Jean Genie’ is the kind of song that could soundtrack anything from a seedy bar brawl to be blaring out of a jukebox in the middle of a retro joint à la Pulp Fiction. Then again, let’s be real. If someone of Tarantino’s calibre was going to make a movie with a David Bowie soundtrack on it, fans would probably feel shortchanged if his glam anthems didn’t get the most grandiose visuals imaginable.
8. ‘We Will Fall’ – The Stooges
One of the often neglected sides of Tarantino’s style is how he approaches horror. While many people talk about how he can be a bit gratuitous with the amount of blood he decides to put into every single frame, the real horror behind the biggest films he has ever made comes from the human side of the characters. These villains are normally despicable people, and they would need a song that sounds like the pathway to Hell.
While The Stooges never had any set plan when it came time to make their debut, ‘We Will Fall’ is the kind of droning rock song that could be used in the dungeon of a villain. For as foreboding as the piece is, this isn’t something that works well as a grand reveal. Subtlety is for the weak, and the best way to introduce this song is in a scene when a character figures out that everything isn’t quite what it seems anymore.
7. ‘Train Leaves Here This Morning’ – Eagles
There has always been a side of Tarantino’s style that leans slightly towards Western sensibilities. While he always puts his own spin on it, there are always periods where he feels like he’s writing a love letter to every gunslinger that he ever saw on TV. Every cowboy needs their country songs, and Bernie Leadon could do the job when working with the Eagles on ‘Train Leaves Here This Morning’.
Before that nameless hotel in California turned the band into superstars, this song feels like driving through the desert on a hot summer’s day right before you might see your gun-toting rivals on the other side of the canyon. These days of the Eagles may be long gone, but that doesn’t mean that Tarantino can’t find a way to breathe new life into the track with the right visual storytelling.
6. ‘In the Cold Cold Night’ – The White Stripes
Has there ever been a decade less suited to a Tarantino soundtrack than the 2000s? Throughout his work, the director seems to be pulling from the kind of music that existed in the era between roughly 1952 and ends around the mid-1980s. No band born after that date should be given too much credit in one of his films, but The White Stripes practically feel like they exist solely to be used in a soundtrack one day.
Outside of the amazing music that Jack White gets up to in his solo career, one of the most haunting songs that he ever made was when his sister Meg stepped behind the microphone for ‘In the Cold Cold Night’. Compared to the mysterious pieces that Tarantino has used in the past, this feels like it could be his answer to something like The Pink Panther theme song, should he ever decide to direct scenes taking place in the dead of night before all hell breaks loose. He never limited himself to just one genre, so why not bring a bit of mystery into the mix?
5. ‘The Ballad of El Goodo’ – Big Star
One of the hallmarks of any Tarantino soundtrack is finding obscure songs from the past that no one had ever heard of. Just like the fairly random co-stars that pop up in his films on a whim, it feels like Tarantino wants to prop up these people who were his heroes in the past and see if he can give them their flowers while they’re still alive. While most of Big Star is long gone, ‘The Ballad of El Goodo’ is the kind of song reserved for a glorious finale.
For every great anti-hero he has written, there are just as many people willing to stick their neck out for the greater good, and ‘The Ballad of El Goodo’ feels like the perfect way to see a character off. The verses might have a bit too much sugar to be associated with Tarantino, but for once, maybe the hero walking off into the sunset might actually have the happy ending that they deserve.
4. ‘Something Big’ – Tom Petty
There’s usually a bit of a learning curve when watching Tarantino films for the first time. They may not make the most sense when looking through them in one sitting, but the more you peel back the layers, the more you see the linear story or the dark themes hidden underneath the surface. Then again, if the director can get the scene to tell the story for him, Tom Petty‘s ‘Something Big’ would fit the bill.
For all of the tracks that he has written about lonesome heroes of America, Petty practically wrote a Johnny Cash song with this gem, making the whole thing feel like the kind of story Tarantino can write in his sleep. I mean, a tale about a guy on the wrong side of the law who ends up leaving town and meeting a grizzly end in a hotel room as law enforcement tries to piece things together? Tell me that’s not a logline for a movie that hasn’t been written yet.
3. ‘Everything is Everything’ – Donny Hathaway
For all of the great set pieces that he has made, it’s not like Tarantino doesn’t understand subtlety. Considering how much passion he puts into every shot, it seems like the film icon has the same fire that he had when he was an indie filmmaker… only with a larger budget than most people get in their lives. It’s always about building up the tension before getting to the climax, and ‘Everything is Everything’ is what that kind of storytelling is all about.
Although Donny Hathaway had recorded a stellar version of this in the studio, the MVP of the live version is Willie Weeks, who takes his bass guitar and brings the entire band down to a crawl, slowly increasing the tension until the rest of the band come screaming in. Since the live version runs well over ten minutes, this feels like it could be the soundtrack to an entire fight scene without any other foley effects needed.
2. ‘From a Buick 6’ – Bob Dylan
Any artist, music or otherwise, can afford to take a few cues from Bob Dylan. If you’re a musician, Dylan already restructured the way we look at songwriting. From a film perspective, his way of telling stories is baked into the tradition of American folklore at this point. It was always about going against the norm, and even at his poppiest, Dylan could be used as a great illustrator of context.
While Highway 61 Revisited is cited as one of Dylan’s best albums, ‘From a Buick 6’ is the kind of song that feels more suited to a travelling man working his way through the US. He may not know where he is going half the time, but Dylan’s voice soundtracking a motorcycle sprawling across a vast landscape feels too perfect for the director not to use. Even if it’s just a little hint of subtext, this could be Tarantino’s tip of the hat to the rebellious creative entities outside of cinema.
1. ‘Whipping Post’ – Allman Brothers Band
If there’s one thing that Tarantino has covered, it’s how to create a good action scene. Whether it’s with swords, fists, or old-school shootouts, there’s no greater director when it comes to making engaging action scenes that have plenty of violence to go around. Footage of two people fighting each other is one thing, but having a lowdown and dirty guitar lick behind them increases the cool factor by at least 20 points.
Even though The Allman Brothers Band typically shunned the term ‘Southern rock’, this feels like the kind of song made for a cowboy-style adventure. From the uneasy groove to the endless solos, the whole track moves along as if it’s watching a battle take place in real time. Slowing down to a crawl before building up the intensity, ‘Whipping Post’ is everything a fight scene should be. It’s chaotic, it’s unpredictable, and you don’t know the outcome until the very end.