That 70s Show

Back in season two of The Sopranos, in an episode in which nothing much happens - no ventricle-charged bloodshed, no real turning points, the kind of week that drives the obsessive plot-sitters wild with frustration - Tony Soprano is forced to report for duty every day as an executive at the waste management company he owns. With the Feds closing in, his lawyer advises the boss to stay out of the strip club and away from the streets. As with every week in this brilliantly-written series, the episode was its own discreet chapter and it ran along a crooked road to this soundtrack:

Disco Inferno - The Trammps
Gotta Serve Somebody - Bob Dylan
More Than a Feeling - Boston
Space Invader - The Pretenders
You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory - Johnny Thunders

The songs were perfect; against an almost casual lack of action, they portrayed much of the underlying tension in the life of a mobster. And man, they took me back.

Music propels The Sopranos, and so much of it was either recorded in - or inspired by - the 1970s, and a certain style of life here in the low-down middle atlantic states of that wonderful, dogshit time. Although the backdrop is the real estate-charged world of turn-of-the-millenium north Jersey, the hoods who make up the revolving central cast are leather-clad, picaresque hot-rod jockeys riding the Turnpike of 1977 or so, flipping 8-tracks into the console, sucking on the embers of an old joint,  and downshifting battered Camaros past the exit signs.

Line up Tony's crew in black and white in the parking lot of the Bada Bing, and they look much like an aging band of northeast classic rockers, with paunches, thinning hair, and leather coats - the E Street Band in their 40s and 50s. Oh yeah, one of them is the E Street Band in hs 50s - Steve Van Zandt, a musician of singularly good historical taste, who no doubt inhabits the soundtrack of The Sopranos just as well as he fills the greasy pompadour of Silvio. Van Zandt's wardrobe for the show is amazingly like his threads for the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour - no accident there, I think.

Indeed, outside of Tony's thoroughly modern children and their plot lines, every character in The Sopranos has that 70s grime on them - before unleaded gas, before environmental controls on the refineries of Elizabeth, before new graffiti-free subway cars, before a sterile Times Square. And yeah, before the unrelenting Federal prosecution of the 80s made the Soprano crew into pure fantasy. Although he's the youngest member of the gang, Christopher Moltisanti is the clearest 70s throwback in the cast, played to spectacular precision by Michael Imperioli - those of us who grew up in Yonkers in the 70s knew this guy, and I suspect this goes for Belmont, for Queens, for Brooklyn, for Newark, for Philly, and onward down the seaboard. The character is pitch perfect, although at the extreme range of violence - his sensibilities toward life, his priorities, are closer to The Seven-ups (that underrrated 70s car-chase opera), than to the old-time gangsters of The Godfather.

At the center, of course, is James Gandolfini, whose habitation of Tony Soprano has certainly ruined him for future lead roles. As Chris is the young Tony, living his 70s now, Tony just looks back. He only looks back. There are few clues to what he thinks about the future, what he wants to do, or really, how he wants to live. Everything is about the past - an elegaic but unsympathetic view of the past. Tony talks about his younger days on the therapist's couch, but when he walks into the kitchen singing Aqualung, you're back there.

Sunday's episode indulged that 70s symbolism to the max, with its noirish, filthy carnival scenes, the short leather jackets, the focus on cars and drugs, the big hair, and the music. Over the course of its run, repeat musical quotations have framed the action, with pulll quotes from Jefferson Airplane, Booker T and the MGs, Cream and Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, The Eagles, Boston, Led Zeppelin, Steve Miller Band, Stones, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, and Steely Dan. No accident that Silvio tried to lure the outed gay gang member back with backstage passes to the big Blood, Sweat, and Tears show.

This week, as Christopher fell back into heroin and self-hatred, the score returned to Johnny Thunders - the ultimate destructive 70s era New York rocker. The carnival faded to near black and white: deep, horrific colors like a faded print of the French Connection. And Thunders and the Heartbreakers lurched into a live, raucous version of Pipeline - no doubt played in some dive club in Brooklyn circa '78, filled with half-drunk, leather-clad guys like Christopher Moltisanti.

Comments

[chervokas]

Actually the heroin scene was set to the tune of The Dolphins by a 1960s junkie icon, Fred Neil.

[Tom W.]

You're right - it was the episode coda that was JTs Pipeline - even more brilliant using them together...

[Fred]

Sounds like one pineing for one's youth. How sweet and sad (in a good way) at the same time. Outstanding post.

[Slappy]

In the club Christopher's dead ex was running had a hard playing rock-a-billyband/gargage band playing on stage. One I have seen several times live in dives just like on the show. The NJ based Swinging Neckbreakers. A true local NJ band and a fine one at that booked by Van Zandt as told to me by someone familiar with both the band and the actor. I believe Van Zandt has a lot to do with teh soundtrack.

Excellent post for an excellent show.

[Tom K]

I caught the episode last night, in repeat. Thought the best part was Tony holding up the wine he'd (unwittingly?) used to knock CM back into substance abuse, while telling his wife that she shouldn't inquire about whatsername's death, 'cause it might interfere with CM's recovery.

[Tom W.]

That was right up there with the crew getting all emotional in the badda bing over CM's baby, with the dancers sliding down poles in the background...

[James Wolcott]

Didja know that the Seven-Ups is finally going to be released on DVD later this month? With Fox Movie Channel putting All That Jazz in heavy rotation, this is Roy Scheider Appreciation Month.

[Anita]

This really was a great post. Having grown up at the Jersey Shore and having been a somewhat of a regular at the local and northern NJ clubs from '77 through '84, I definitely can attest to the authenticity of the "NJ circa the 70's soundtrack." And, like the poster noted above, I'm sure Van Zandt is driving that boat.

One thing that I wondered about in the last episode however, was the "feast" or "festival" ... if this was meant to be the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy, then that's clearly not in the territory of a NJ "family" ... that would have been part of the NY family's responsibility to negotiate and manage and Tony's guys being part of it lacked a certain authenticity.

[elana]

Little Steven's Underground Garage is basically the only internet radio I listen to. It's like somebody took my music collection, tripled it and then stuck it online with great sound drops. I haven't been able to keep up with the Sopranos (or any other tv) this year but if they're playing JTHB than this does not bode well for his survival chances.

[Mr Blifil]

I was at those clubs when Thunders was playing. There were no Moltisantis, leather-clad or otherwise, in attendance. Those stiffs only related to what they heard on the radio. If they saw some skinny addict dressed in black with eyeliner, they'd beat his ass, which I imagine happened upon occasion. Thunders audience was more likely to be fans of The Stooges or Talking Heads as much as Sex Pistols or The Stones.

Also Thunders died not too long ago, pre Katrina but not too long ago. So it's not entirely a nostalgia trip to honor the guy. Ah, I guess it is.

[Tony Alva]

Great post Tom. Huge Sopranos fan. Lots of Stones music and quotes peppered throughout every season's dialog.

Keith Richards acknowledges the Sopranos during last year’s tour for resurrecting a rare classic track of his from their Voodoo Lounge record titled “Thru and Thru”. It was used as background music during the episode in which Big Pussy gets whacked. It played over the credits for that show too.

[Ralph]

I'm suprised that Tom, or others, never mentioned the obvious inspiration for the Soprano's 70s soundtrack: Scorsese's mob films, Mean Streets, and more to the point, Goodfellas and Casino. Without those films, we may not even have a Sopranos.

[Coop]

Those guys were not just relegated to the Atlantic seaboard. Growing up in and around Chicago in the 60s and 70s we had more than our share of Christophers. Proviso West High School in Hillside was packed wid 'em (as we would say). For the most part they were just wannabes, playing the roles they suspected their fathers lead in everyday life. For some this was certainly true. That high school, by the way, is directly across Wolf Road from Queen of Heaven cemetery...which is where Al Capone, Sam Giancana and a host of other local mob types can be found lying around...

[Mutaman]

Underground Garage is just outstanding- Its great to know there's somebody else out there in his 50's who gets off on music called "Teenacide Pajama Party". Van Zandt clearly puts a lot of work into each show and plays as much contemporary stuff as he does "oldies", and believe it or not some people are still making good R and R.

Finally, anybody into Thunders has impeccable taste. I just discovered "So Alone" which is just magnificent.