The hospital scene…the one woman (I forget her name) dressed as the nurse is humming that tune. Anyone know what this song is called and who its by? Its sounds familiar but I can’t pin it down.
Along a similar note, (har har har) how much of the music was “original” for the movie vs. stuff that’d already been composed? So much of the musical score had this sounds-familiar-but-not-quite-exactly feel to it.
Darryl Hannah is the actress in question; the character’s name is Elle Driver, aka “California Mountain Snake.” I’m not sure if it’s deliberate or not, but unlike the other code name snakes, California Mountain Snakes aren’t dangerous.
She’s whistling the theme song to “Twisted Nerve,” a crappy 1968 thriller.
As to the mix of music, I’d say about half is original. I’m not sure if the unofficial theme song “Battle Without Honor Or Humanity” is original or not, tho.
I’m looking at the soundtrack right now, but it doesn’t say which songs were original for Kill Bill and which were pre-existing pieces of music. I remember reading that “Battle Without Honor Or Humanity” came from another film (a Japanese film, of course) from the last few years. The 5,6,7,8’s have several albums of material already, and I’m guessing all the spaghetti western music came from other movies, mainly older ones.
In fact, I’d be willing to bet that the only truly original pieces of music are from The RZA, who got the “Original Music Provided By” credit in the film. Volume 2 may be totally different, though.
I really enjoyed the soundtrack; I’d like to explore some of these artists. Yes, that includes the spaghetti western music (I would say its more like Mexican).
My favorite track is the aforementioned “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” by Tomoyasu Hotei, a Japanese guitarist. His greatest hits album is available, but it’s not much like the music used in Kill Bill; it’s pretty straight-ahead Japanese pop/rock.
He stars in and does the music for a fairly recent Japanese movie called Samurai Fiction (thanks for the recommendation, Sublight). The movie and the music are both pretty interesting. The title sequence is either a direct inspiration for the scene in Kill Bill where they fight in silhouette against a strong-colored background, or else they were both ripped off from the same source. (Be aware that the majority of Samurai Fiction is in muddy black and white. And the actress who plays the master swordsman’s daughter is hot.)
I haven’t been able to find any more info about “Battle Without Honor Or Humanity,” so I don’t know if it’s on the Samurai Fiction soundtrack or from somewhere else. I’d love to be able to find more music like that.
“Battle Without Honor or Humanity” is the main reason I bought the soundtrack. That song is a mini-masterpiece, thanks for sharing the info about Tomoyasu Hotei.
Some of the other tracks not only totally complement the movie, they are cool echoes of my lost youth: Santa Esmeralda’s latin disco remake of the Animals’ “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” Al Hirt’s Green Hornet-Flight-of-the-Bumblebee song, Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang,” top this all off with rockabilly and Isaac Hayes and it’s just one heck of a cool soundtrack.
Can’t wait for DJ Quentin’s Volume II mix.