hoshizora

Things are monumentally weird right now. Not even bad. Just weird. So instead of talking about the events in my life that even I don't truly understand, I'm going to talk about something that none of you will probably care about, but which has been a source of solace for me for the past several months.

I'm going to talk about the music of On Any Sunday.

On Any Sunday is a 1971 documentary about motorcycling. My father is a great fan, and I watched it countless times in my youth. What stuck with me for years -- aside from the love of two-wheeled vehicles -- was the incredible soundtrack.

Composed by the prolific Dominic Frontiere and performed by an assortment of amazing session musicians including the great Carol Kaye on bass, the film score is some kind of masterpiece of late '60s-early '70s commercial jazz. I don't know how else to put it.

I love all the tracks, but the highlight is undoubtedly the 2'45" funk number "Sunday Drivin'." Starting off with an incredibly tight groove laid down by Kaye and drummer Larry Bunker, it launches into a guitar- and brass-driven crescendo that piles on note after note to a stack of chords that finally explodes (collapses?) into a gloriously driving melody that in turn gives way to a psychedelic guitar solo before repeating the whole thing with an organ and then -- yes -- a harmonica.

It is joy. The album was released only on vinyl, and routinely goes for over a hundred bucks on eBay. But I have a copy.

Now you, too, can hear this incredible song, and I hope you'll take from it some small measure of the pleasure it has brought me.

[DOWNLOAD]

And yes, now that you mention it, I do miss writing for a magazine.