Steve McQueen - Bullitt Original Motion Picture Soundtrack VINYL LP WS1777
A high-speed car chase between a Dodge Charger and a Ford Mustang, with super-cop Bullitt at the wheel, who forces the hitman off the road and into a petrol station, which explodes and incinerates him. Prior to that, harsh clashes of metal, hubcaps flying all over the place, and the chief character Steve McQueen, who grimly changes gears and hurtles through the streets of San Francisco, wheels screaming and rubber burning. That was how Hollywood staged one of the longest and most dramatic car chases, long before the days of the Anti-Blocking-System and Anti-Slide-Control.
Very up-to-date and just as exciting as the screenplay is the music Lalo Schifrin wrote for the film, which embeds the characters, places and events in a musical context.
Initially the music travels through easy-going Latin terrain. But gradually the rhythmic texture changes and takes a rougher path, with clicks, knocks and hammering. Legendary flute lines create a compensatory placidness with airy clouds floating above the sharp mix. A really special track is “Shifting Gears”: here you can listen to Schifrin tuning the car, how he manipulates a jammed springy bossa to take on the sound of clean, smooth-running rock.
Tracklist
A1 Bullitt (Main Title)
A2 Room "26"
A3 Hotel Daniels
A4 The Aftermath Of Love
A5 Music To Interrogate By
A6 On The Way To San Mateo
B1 Ice Pick Mike
B2 A Song For Cathy
B3 Shifting Gears
B4 Cantata For Combo
B5 The First Snowfall
B6 Bullitt (End Title)
