By Steve Tupai Francis (Twitter: @kingtubbydub)
David Bowie (DB) was at the height of his commercial fame when he decided to take on the role of Jareth the Goblin King in Jim Henson’s musical fairy tale. DB had just released his most commercially successful album, the multi-million selling Let’s Dance (produced by Nile Rodgers from Chic) and completed a massively successful world tour when Jim approached him in 1983 to play the lead role in the film, and to contribute songs to the soundtrack.
In reflecting on the movie, David remarked that he had “…always wanted to be involved in the music-writing aspect of a movie that would appeal to children of all ages, as well as everyone else, and I must say that Jim gave me a completely free hand with it. The script itself was terribly amusing without being vicious or spiteful or bloody, and it had a lot more heart in it than many other special effects movies. So, I was pretty hooked from the beginning.“
1985 was a very busy period for David. Try this on for size. He agreed to the lead role for Labyrinth in February 1985. The five-month shoot commenced on April 15, 1985 at Elstree Studios outside of London with David commencing principal photography in June, and concluding in August. In June, he shot his small part in the film Absolute Beginners, and wrote and recorded three songs for the soundtrack including the title track which reached No.2 on the UK charts. David also laid down the basic backing tracks for the songs he contributed to the Labyrinth soundtrack at this time. And just for kicks, on 13th July, he participated in a little concert you might have heard: Live Aid. For broadcast on the day of the concert, DB recorded a version of the Martha and the Vandella’s classic, ‘Dancing in the Streets’ on one night in June with Mick Jagger. Mick and David also shot the video for the song on the same night as well. ‘Dancing in the Street’ went to No.1 on the UK charts in July. Finally in October and November, David completed overdubs and mixing for the Labyrinth soundtrack. Phew!!!!
DB contributed five tracks to the Labyrinth soundtrack, ‘Underground’, ‘Magic Dance’, ‘Chilly Down’, ‘Within You’ and ‘As The World Falls Down’. The first two, and the final song mentioned are among the best songs David recorded in the 1980s.
‘Underground’ is the unofficial theme music for the film, being used for the opening and closing title sequences. Using a backing chorus of 14 vocalists including some of the biggest names in music including Chaka Khan and Luther Vandross, DB understood that the film was about a girl’s emotions at a time of massive change in her life and that the music needed to have a strong emotional core. On this basis, he chose gospel music as the basis for the song, which he described as “the most emotional music I can think of.” Featuring a wonderful call and response chorus, ‘Underground’ is a fantastic song with a catchy melodic hook as well as having the added bonus of veteran bluesman, Albert Collins on lead guitar.
‘Magic Dance’ is a perfect song for the film’s set piece of Jareth and his goblins singing and dancing while baby Toby is tossed around like a basketball. The song is an unusual mix of children’s nursery rhymes, funky rhythm guitars and hard rocking soloing. A strange combo but somehow it works. Two pieces of trivia: 1. the baby Toby sounds on the song were made by David as they couldn’t entice the baby in the studio to contribute. 2. The ‘you remind of the babe’ interaction between Jareth and the goblins was taken directly from an exchange between Cary Grant and Shirley Temple in the 1947 film The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. A wonderful song that is probably the most memorable part of the film.
The showstopper though is the ballroom scene featuring ‘As the World Falls Down’, one of DBs most intoxicatingly beautiful ballads. This would have been a No.1 hit for sure if it had been released in time for Christmas 1985 as originally planned. A gorgeous waltz that morphs into a slow rumba led by a fluid melodic bass riff, the song features a glorious yet heartbreaking DB vocal, that is all yearning desire and sensuous entreaty. Another high point of David’s 80’s output.
Trevor Jones wrote the original incidental score for the film, including the Opening Titles (which segue into DB’s ‘Underground’), ‘Into the Labyrinth’, ‘Sarah’, ‘Hallucination’, ‘The Goblin Battle’, ‘Thirteen O’Clock’ and ‘Home at Last’.
Jones was tapped on the shoulder by Jim Henson as the South African composer had already delivered the score for The Dark Crystal (1982), that interminably slow yet gloriously art directed cine-fantastical marvel that required Matt and Ryan’s to dig deep into their reserves of self-will and determination to watch through to the end (well listen to the podcast guys and you will know what I’m talking about!).
Jones first score was for 1981’s Excalibur by John Boorman (also reviewed in last season’s run of the Video Culture Podcast) going on to win Golden Globe nominations for The Mighty and The Last of the Mohicans. Jones also demonstrated his diversity on a range of films from romantic comedies (Sea of Love, Notting Hill), to sci-fi (Dark City), action (Cliffhanger, Runaway Train), and thrillers (From Hell, 13 Days).
His score to Labyrinth is very 80’s yet appropriately atmospheric and ethereal – spooky, uncertain and full of wonder when Sarah has just entered the labyrinth in search of her brother Toby, and dramatic, cheesy and breathless during the chase scenes and the Goblin battle. In other words, a perfectly adequate and atmospheric score for an 80’s children/young adult film.
To sum up, while the music of Labyrinth has all the trappings of an 80’s soundtrack with gated snares, lashings of sequenced synthesizers, and electronic horns, it is absolutely perfect in evoking and underscoring the emotional moments and action sequences in this classic of children’s cinema.
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