While this makes a fascinating radio narrative, I listen through it to hear the year 1973, because Marty's crew spent a week capturing wild ambient sound to mix into the soundtrack. You can't mask the reality coming through. Oh, we also get a thick dose of Little Italy atmosphere, what with the continual oldie pop songs and opera playing everywhere, and that beside the traffic, street noise, parties, bars, and dialogue. The people we get to know here are terrible. They're petty criminals and racists (they all seem to hate black people while doo wop serenades them), yet somehow we are drawn to them. We become witnesses. It's truly a parallel universe very like our own, whether we want to admit that or not. This show might even put you in a trance. (It happened to some live listeners.)
Produced and engineered by dj bennett (chillroom@killradio.org)
With special thanks to killradio.org and radio4all.net, my live listeners, to Mike Schmitt, Louise, Dennis. Thanks to Jason Estes. Some of the opera titles in the set list are probably misidentified, help if you can. This program is presented for education and entertainment. Comments requested please.
The Chill Room, 8 June 2013, 12:30am PST on killradio.org
Down These Mean Streets
192k, 2 hours 7 minutes, a romance of a radio play built with the sounds of the city
Set list and soundtracking (many tracks partial, incomplete list, film sound also includes field recordings of live musicians during the Feast of San Gennaro): Thunderstorm in Lawrence KS 2012 / The Carpenters-Rainy Day Traktor / Marjou's Icing Mix of Tori Amos-Sugar / Rolling Stones-Shattered / Walter Carlos-Summer (Sonic Seasonings) / The Ronettes-Be My Baby / Rolling Stones-Tell Me / Eric Clapton-I Looked Away / Rolling Stones-Jumpin' Jack Flash / Giuseppe Di Stefano-Addio Sogni di Gloria / The Star Spangled Banner / The Shirelles-I Met Him on a Sunday / Little Caesar and the Romans-Those Oldies But Goodies / The Marvelettes-Please Mr. Postman / Renato Carosone-Scapricciatiello / Jimmy Roselli-Malafemmina / The Aquatones-You / Betty Everett-The Shoop Shoop Song / The Chantels-I Love You So / The Paragons-Florence / The Chips-Rubber Biscuit / Johnny Ace-Pledging My Love / Ray Barretto-Ritmo Sabroso / The Charts-Desiree / The Miracles-Mickey's Monkey / Cream-Steppin' Out / Art Garfunkel-Always Look on the Bright Side of Life / Dicrylium-Superhero's Lullabye (soundcloud)
Mean Streets (1973). Produced by Martin Scorcese and Jonathan Taplin. Screenplay Martin Scorcese and Mardik Martin. Sound mixer Don Johnson. Directed by Martin Scorcese. With Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, Amy Robinson, Richard Romanus and Cesare Danova. A Taplin-Perry-Scorcese Production released through Warner Bros.
I'm a mook? What's a mook? You can't call me a mook.