"Junk" - from "Sid and Nancy" soundtrack

[Mr. Joyce]

I apologize if this has been discussed previoulsy, but a quick forum search turned up nothing. I am curious about this song, and am not getting a lot of information from the CD insert (it states only "performed by the Pogues, produced by Dave Jordan").

Specifically wondering who wrote it, when approximately it was written, and was it written specifically for the scene in the film in which it appears? Given the name, and how well it fits in with that scene, that seems like a definite possibility.

Any info would be appreciated - thank you.

[Zuzana]

From the Lost Decade:

"Pressed for time, the band had to abandon the idea of a video, and turned their attention to Alex Cox's Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungeon movie. Love Kills. Cox screened a roughcut of the terminal romance and invited them to contribute some music to the soundtrack. After experimenting with various instruments, they came up with the atmospheric 'Junk Theme' an instrumental written by Finer, arranged by himself, Chevron and Fearnley and produced by Dave Jordan. "It was after hearing 'Rain Dogs' in Germany that we started talking about different sounds," says James. "I discovered that if you get a mandolin on your knees, dampen two of the strings and hit it with teaspoons you get a really individual noise. We used that on 'Junk', which starts off pretty straightforwardly then goes off into loads of things. There's violin, banjo, accordion, mandolin, bass, drums, guitar, auto-harp; we just piled everything on.""

[JamesFearnley]

Well, the 'Lost Decade' kind of says it all. Except that I think it was on 'Junk' that I pulled out the violin, wanting to add an element of John Cale, but overall wanting to make the sound I made to be the aural equivalent of sticking one's fingers down one's throat. 'Junk' was indeed credited as being arranged by Philip, myself and Jem, but I think most of us had a hand in it. Quite which scene in the film it was supposed to go with I can't remember at all. With most of the film music we did, which includes Straight to Hell, we flew blind a bit, considering that film composition and recording for film relies a lot on - what are they called - 'flags' or something; visual cues on the film, in any case, and time codes and whatnot. We never had the luxury of that, ever - don't know why. By way of example, Jem and I worked hard to get an orchestral whip to sound at the exact moment that Sue Kiehl and Joe exchange looks, in a scene in Straight to Hell, but not working with time code, the finished product went a bit awry and the orchestral whip cracks in some other fucking place, which was a disappointment. Oh, the effort we went to.

[Mr. Joyce]

Well, the 'Lost Decade' kind of says it all. Except that I think it was on 'Junk' that I pulled out the violin, wanting to add an element of John Cale, but overall wanting to make the sound I made to be the aural equivalent of sticking one's fingers down one's throat.

Well, I think you achieved that! Just for fun, I went back and compared what is in the film vs the song on the soundtrack. About 55 seconds are used in the film out of 2:45, and it seems to be the middle third that was used - after the violin kicks in, but it cuts out before it gets quite so noisy.

One thing I did not notice before is that in the film, early on in the song you can very clearly hear the "mandolin ... dampened strings .. hit it with teaspoons you get a really individual noise", but for the life of me, that does not seem to be on the version on the soundtrack.

Thanks to both of you for the information - can't wait to see you March 16-19.

[philipchevron]

One thing I did not notice before is that in the film, early on in the song you can very clearly hear the "mandolin ... dampened strings .. hit it with teaspoons you get a really individual noise", but for the life of me, that does not seem to be on the version on the soundtrack.

Thanks to both of you for the information - can't wait to see you March 16-19.

We did more mixes of that piece than was good for us. There are endless variations. Perhaps me and James will try to do a sort of composite mix at some point.