The Soundtrack Sessions 1: Prince - Batman (1989)
Welcome to Deeper Cuts: The Soundtrack Sessions - a three-episode miniseries which finds the Deeper Cuts trio looking at the the intersection between film and music while looking at albums that were meaningful to one of them.
Some years really stand out as landmarks in our lives. The summer of 1989 was one such year for Rob (and for Graeme): a "crossfade year" which was both the end to an era and the beginning of another all at the same time. This was Rob's gap year, working his first full time job at a bookstore and with the possibilities of the future an open frontier ahead of him. It was a last hurrah as the embers of teenage-hood faded. It was also the year of Tim Burton’s Batman movie. Prince’s soundtrack to that movie became a soundtrack for that whole summer when Rob and Graeme were all so young and hopeful for the future. What of the music after all these years? What does Shannon make of this nostalgic trip? What does Graeme remember about that summer? When it comes to this record, are we partying in Wayne Manor or languishing in Arkham Asylum?
Our Spotify Playlist covers each episode of this miniseries. And don't forget to talk to us on Twitter (@deepercutscast) and to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts!
Our annual holiday special has returned and so has our traditional gift exchange! Join Shannon, Graeme and Rob as they exchange albums with each other and find out if their gift a Christmas cracker or a lump of coal. But this time they're not alone: we did this episode live in front of an audience on Zoom! Join the Deeper Cuts trio for Q and A and find out what their pals are bringing as musical gifts for the rest of us. It's a holiday party you don't want to miss... and you have the best seat in the house!
Why are there so many songs about rainbows? In this last episode of our fourth season, the Deeper Cuts trio indulge in some comfort listening, true to our well-established Muppet Agenda. This time, it revolves around the soundtrack album to 1979’s The Muppet Movie. Saving his money from a paper route, a young Graeme bought this, his first self-financed music purchase and, as much as he loved the movie, this soundtrack was a separate and equally worthy experience for him. Years later, what value remains to be found between the grooves of this platter that still matters? What are the impressions of Graeme’s fellow musical sojourners who also have a history in Muppet fandom? Join us in this, our season finale, and let’s get movin’ right along!
A year and a half in a new city. A raffle for concert tickets. The tail-end of a slowly declining and not very healthy relationship. It was a time when Shannon realized that things were coming to a head in that phase of her life. This was Shannon's emotional context when she went to a concert as a part of the PBS series The Artist’s Den and saw Rufus Wainwright for the first time. Rufus was singing songs from his then new album, 2012’s Out of the Game and the music, and the artist, attached themselves to Shannon’s spirit as she underwent a life-changing metamorphosis that marked the beginning of her real time in New York City. How can music help us to move forward in our lives? And what do her fellow Deeper Cuts trio members have to say about the record? Are they going to welcome it to the ball, or are we all going to cry bitter tears instead? Pull up a pew, have a seat, and explore those questions, among others, along with us.
Remember record stores? Those magical places which seemingly contained all the music in the world? Rob remembers one such record store fondly -- Cactus Records in Oakville -- because it was there he encountered an album that he'd been interested in for years: Sade's sophisiti-pop opus Diamond Life. How were Sade's stylish sounds received by Rob's fellow panelists? What were their favourite record stores of yore? What strategies did everyone employ when they shopped at record stores... and what were their great finds? Come with us, dear listeners, as the Deeper Cuts trio write a collective love letter to the record store.
Parents are good for one or two things. Sometimes, one of them is how they serve as vectors for great music; how to spot it, what to listen for, and how to form your own lifelong love for musical artistry. At a young age, Shannon’s dad helped her hone an appreciation for music by listening to records with her, and particularly ones centered around the guitar. One of the big ones at the time was 1967’s Are You Experienced? by the Jimi Hendrix Experience; a formative album for many generations of music fans. The album was representative of a sea change during a very turbulent time of the late 1960s, a time when politics, technology, and musical forms converged seemingly all at once in one big colourful explosion. But how does the Deeper Cuts trio process all this in 2020? Is it fire or just a bunch of purple haze? How do The Wonder Years, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Ken Burns, Les Paul and Mary Ford, and J.R.R Tolkien fit into all of this? Put on your paisley prints and dive in to find out!
The end of a road can take on many different forms. Sometimes, the road branches off in two or more directions. Sometimes, it’s a dead end. At other times, that road is shrouded in mist with no road signs to indicate what’s ahead. In any of these situations, you have to decide on what to do next to the best of your ability. At the end of his university career, Rob faced the end of a road, and the end of an era while the way forward became suddenly uncertain. During that time, Elvis Costello and the Attractions’ 1996 record All This Useless Beauty was his soundtrack, an album replete with tales of uncertainty, ambiguity, disappointment, and complicated shadows to say the least. How did this inform his perspective at the time? What does he and the rest of the Deeper Cuts trio make of the album all these years later? Join us for our second episode in our fourth season to discover whether it’s beauty resonated or turned out to be useless after all.
Sometimes, you find yourself growing up. You realize that some of the things you believed and thought were solid in your life really aren’t – and in fact are even harmful to you. You find you have to question those things to create a new path for yourself. You’ve got to start again. This was Graeme’s experience at the end of his high school years and the beginning of his college years. Sting’s 1987 record …Nothing Like the Sun was Graeme's "first grown-up record" and was an important part of his personal soundtrack at the time when he was calling his belief system into question. This is an album that also touches on life-changing events and challenges to meet a world that is often perplexing, cruel, and sometimes even violent. How did this album help Graeme create clarity during a tumultuous time in his life? How did the Deeper Cuts trio process the music? Did it go straight to the heart? Or does Graeme dance alone on this one? There’s only one way to find out! Join our new main host Shannon Dohar (alongside Rob Jones and Graeme Burk) for this first episode of our fourth (!) season.
Home. What does it mean? What associations do people commonly hold about what their home means to them? How can music help to tie us to home, especially when one is far from it and missing it? When Graeme went to a military school at the age of 12, ABBA’s penultimate 1980 album Super Trouper helped him to keep his feet on the ground while he was regularly apart from his family. How did this record help Graeme during this trying period to make that connection? What is it about this record that brought him joy then, and what is it about it that does the same today? How does music help us keep, or gain, a sense of home? And what did the other members of the Deeper Cuts trio think of Sweden's greatest contribution to pop music? We can face it together the way old friends do, dear listeners! Tune in to this last episode of the third(!) season of the Deeper Cuts podcast and bop (and a half!) along with us!
Sometimes, it’s just time to move on. And yet, after struggles, trials and tribulations and painful endings, sometimes that’s not the easiest thing to do. How do you find the right path? How do you redefine your life once an important chapter has closed? This is a situation we all face in one way or another. For Rob, the 2000 album Daisies of the Galaxy by EELS was the soundtrack to a tumultuous chapter in his life. Luckily in that very record, he found some perspective on the subjects of pain and struggle, loneliness, and how to look on the bright side even though the skies were still pretty cloudy. In this episode, the Deeper Cuts trio give their impressions of the record, and the group discuss the business of moving on, and what music has to say about dealing with loss, and finding ourselves again after it’s all over. Put out that smoke and breathe some air, friends! Give us a listen.
