Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991)

Basil Notes...

I think Simon Wincer is a fabulous director. As an artist he gives me almost complete control, once we've established the ground rules. I think the material he choose is very interesting stuff, and I'd go with Simon any day. Basically, you're dealing with two great American myths: the Cowboy and the Biker, but you set them in 1996. To me the quintessential biker sound is "Green Onions" or "Born to be Wild", and the quintessential Cowboy is French Horns and large orchestra - you know, Tiomkin, Gunfight at OK Corral. That is the Cowboy. Here, we have an audience which may not have ever seen Rebel Without a Cause or Gunfight at OK Corral - basically kids. So the challenge is trying to carry over some of the mythical qualities of that music and those musical styles into the future, which basically I tried to affect with synthesizers throughout the score. Also, the score was primarily action. The overriding issue of Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man is action. So by definition, I think action always needs rhythm, so there's a lot of that in it.

Soundtrack Interview
December 1992

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