Bret Easton Ellis was 21 years old and in college when his first novel, Less Than Zero, was published.
Being named after an Elvis Costello SONG, music is integral to unfolding the story, colouring the characters and informing the tone of the piece. In the novel, Ellis mentions so many songs, it all seems like a less than subtle hint as to what the soundtrack should be if someone was to ever adapt it.
Unfortunately, the 1987 adaptation missed the point and released a stubbornly different soundtrack, which admittedly isn’t bad. It’s good – just nowhere near what could have been. The same goes for the film, which transformed Less Than Zero into a morality tale centred on drug addiction. And of course the character of Julian, who hardly features anywhere near as much in the book, has a massively beefed up part in the film. The casting was nailed on though – Robert Downey Jr – a man who was fucked enough to do THIS.
MUGHSOTS
A cool blog called The Musical Menagerie kindly pointed PARALLEL MADNESS in the right direction by helpfully naming the tracks, putting them in order and citing what page of the book they’re are mentioned on.
So here’s a killer soundtrack, for a killer novel, with a band called Killer Pussy on it.
Continue for SIDE A.
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