The soundtrack to Rebel Highway, the collection Fast Track To Nowhere are versions of rock and roll classics from the musicians of the 90s. The compilation was released on A&M Records in 1994.
Iggy Pop has always delighted with his versions of rock and roll tracks, let’s recall the synthetic Real Wild Child, dissected and released as a brand new song; Sweet Sixteen, with a name inspired by Chuck Berry, as well as concert performances of blues standards (such as Crawling King Snake). And here’s the iggy-punk C‘mon Everybody – yes, Eddie Cochran was definitely the forerunner of punk rock and cycobilly.
Los Lobos primarily play tex-mex and Mexicana, but here Jerry Byrne’s version of Lights Out (original from 1958) is 100% rockabilly. The Hijacker’s Girlfriend begins with the song of the Wolves.
I must admit, I’m a small fan of Chuck Berry, I don’t know why John Lennon and Keith Richards considered him synonymous with the word rock and roll, all his riffs are kind of chopped up, there’s little musicality in them, rather one rhythm, elevated to a rule. So the Meat Dolls took a version with a variation of one of the signature Chuck Berry riffs for their cover of The House Of Blue Lights. All that’s left of Ella Mae Morse’s original jump blues is the lyrics.
Sheryl Crow, having recorded her most successful debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), which became multi-platinum, continued in the same spirit with Fats Domino’s song I‘m Gonna Be A Wheel Someday. In a good way, light country Americana is firmly embedded in my head.
Charlie Sexton was one of the idols of girls in his youth and played synthpop, he is a virtuoso guitarist, who later became a member of Bob Dylan’s concert band in the late 90s. His fateful version of Race With The Devil rounds out Rodriguez’s magnificent Racers.
The Smithereens give their cover of the song Stroll by Diamonds. These diamond shards are pretty good.
Babes In Toyland – The Girl Can’t Help It – is too flashy, and for good reason. After all, her original belongs to the vociferous Little Richard. Blues Traveler moved away from the great Fats version by playing their funky cover with a mind-blowing harmonica solo.
Concrete Blonde’s top Jody Reynolds hit Endless Sleep has become more bluesy and modern sounding. The plot of the film Girls in Prison is built around this rockabilly standard. The Neville Brothers play essentially the same Shirley standard. & Lee 1956, keeping the same approach, without bringing anything of his own. The song Evil by Wild Colonials from a Motorcycle Gang, based on alternative rock of the 90s, is listened to inappropriately.
Still, it’s the perfect playlist for a car. One fan of the series on the web writes that in the mid-90s, having accidentally fished this CD out of the basket “everything for 99 cents”, he listened to it in the car for a dozen years until he lost it at one of the parties, and that this disc is worthy of re-possession.
OST Rebel Highway (1994) – Fast Track To Nowhere
02 Meat Puppets – The House Of Blue Lights
03 Los Lobos – Lights Out
04 Concrete Blonde – Endless Sleep
05 Neville Brothers – Let The Good Times Roll
06 Sheryl Crow – I’m Gonna Be A Wheel Someday
07 Charlie Sexton – Race With The Devil
08 Blues Traveler – I’m Walkin’
09 Wild Colonials – Evil
10 Smithereens – The Stroll
11 Babes In Toyland – The Girl Can’t Help It
Download songs from the collection Fast Track To Nowhere (Rebel Highway OST) or listen online:
