“Repo Man” Soundtrack

Published On: September 18, 2017Tags: , , , , ,

“Repo Man” Soundtrack, 1984. Today I’m spinning the soundtrack to the first film I ever saw starring Harry Dean Stanton, who died this past Friday (September 15th) at 91. Repo Man’s soundtrack was a who’s who primer of California punk (with godfather Iggy Pop in the mix with the title track “Repo Man”), introducing SoCal hardcore to the masses. Black Flag’s “TV Party” and “Coup D’Etat” by The Circle Jerks are perfect selections for the Emilio Estevez’s Otto: jaded, bored and broke. So, too, are Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized” and Fear’s “Let’s Have a War,” both punk classics and particularly popular among my group of friends in the mid-80′s. The more offbeat art-punk track and the endlessly quotable “Pablo Picasso” written by Jonathan Richman of the Modern Lovers (”Well some people try to pick up girls/And get called assholes/This never happened to Pablo Picasso/He could walk down your street/And girls could not resist his stare and so Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole”) and The Plugz’s Mexicali “Hombre Secreto” complete the film’s surreal storyline and southern California setting.