7.28.2008
Yuppi Du
Yuppi Du colonna sonora originale LP (Clan, 1975)
One day about five or six years ago, an old guy walks into the bookstore and asks if I am the guy who buys records. I tell him that I am and he says he collects soundtracks and that he wants to unload some, could we set a time for me to check them out. He says he has them in a storage locker. We set a time and he takes off. A few days later I pick him up at his apartment and we take a short drive to the storage place. He gets out of the truck, unlocks the unit, and rolls up the door. Inside the storage unit are shelves of records, a couch, a chair, and a table with a small turntable and a lamp on it. The whole thing is set up like a living room. The old guy lives in a small apartment with his son, but couldn't bare to part with his records. So for a hundred bucks a month he rented out a storage unit and turned it into his record room. His son would drop him off in the morning and he would listen to records all day, eat lunch, listen to more records. In the afternoon, his son would pick him up - with a few records to take home - and he'd be back the next day. Today, he was letting me go through his records.
There were thousands of records, all cataloged by some system he had which was divided by movie genre and year. Almost every genre was represented, some more so than others. The old man was heavy on the musicals but very light on Blaxsploitation. He did have a healthy collection of film noir soundtracks, as well as foreign stuff, especially Morricone and Rota. I was directed to pick out what I wanted, then he would go through and take out the stuff he wanted to keep. Then we'd haggle. I spent a couple hours going through the records. I pulled heavy from his sci fi, noir and detective soundtracks, while keeping an eye out for The Caine Mutiny OST, knowing that he'd never sell it, but just to look at a live one (he didn't have it). I also was generous in my helping of Italian soundtracks. He went through everything and took all the Morricone single soundtracks but let me keep the collections. He wouldn't part with Fellini or Kurosawa OSTs. And plucked out a few noir gems. That left me about fifty records, which he sold me for $200. He got the cash, I dropped him off at Pancake Circus, and went home to go through my score.
One of the best of the batch I present to you today. The soundtrack to Adriano Celetano's film Yuppi Du is a great rip off of Deodato, Morricone, and Nelson Riddle. Who composed it, I have no idea. What the movie is about, I am not sure. I read some keywords in IMDB which tell me it has to do with a love triangle and suicide. There are some great clips on you tube but they are in Italian and I only know the food, not the language. If you want to try to figure them out, check out this and this. If you don't know what the hell is going on, that is fine. You should still dig the wacked humor & surrealism. Perhaps an Italian reader or Italian film nut can chime in, as the film seems to have been a pretty big deal in its homeland. And after you check out the songs below and the clips above, give this fucked up version of the theme song out.
# posted by Scott Soriano : 19:41
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Celentano is a massive star in Italy, (and in typical Italian fashion has been a star for close to 50 years now). As well as providing the cheesy music you'll hear in many pizzerias all over the world (Azzurro, il Ragazzo della Via Gluck) he's composed some more interesting stuff, like the proto-rap song which is getting some attention in the 'edit' community (see http://hypem.com/track/592635/Adriano+Celentano-Prisencolinensinainciusol+%28GW+Ruff+Edit%29 ) and acted in many popular movies, as well as working as a TV presenter.
A "cattolico popolare" (i.e., left-leaning catholic) Yuppi Du, which he wrote and directed,came out in 1975 was his most ambitious project, and very much of its time - an attempt at magical realist, socially conscious musical. It was presented at Cannes festival and had great success in Italy, but was never release on VHS or DVD, nor exported abroad.
If you happen to be near Venice this summer, pop in at the 'Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica' where they will be showing a reastored and re-mixed version.
A "cattolico popolare" (i.e., left-leaning catholic) Yuppi Du, which he wrote and directed,came out in 1975 was his most ambitious project, and very much of its time - an attempt at magical realist, socially conscious musical. It was presented at Cannes festival and had great success in Italy, but was never release on VHS or DVD, nor exported abroad.
If you happen to be near Venice this summer, pop in at the 'Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica' where they will be showing a reastored and re-mixed version.
Hey hey... love Celentano! Thanks for posting these gems. Could you please re-post the theme song? The link appears dead/misrouted...
# posted by 
: 17:44
: 17:44
Hey, I heard "Yuppi Du" on a college radio show years ago and have always meant to track it down, so THANKS for posting this (and thanks to the internet for existing, etc.). Looks like quite a place you got here so I'll be sure to look around further!
Greg
Greg
I SERIOUSLY would dig hearin Pink Reason or Zola Jesus er sumbody coverin "Yuppi Du"...that's word.
# posted by : 09:02
: 09:02
Hi there to all. I have seen Yuppi Du in the '70s, while at high school in the island of Crete, Greece. The film was a shock to us in our early teens. We loved the style, the songs the attitude. We spent hours discussing the intimacies of the plot (???!), I still remember after close to forty years some scenes (like the two weddings, the first one with everybody poor but happy and the second with everybody rish but unhappy, crippled etc). And the songs!, the dance! we simply loved them all! We were young, entering deep into "esoteric", underground and noir films, we were putting our rock band together, what would you have expected?
I still hear in my head some melodies from Yuppi Du that I have not sincerely have heard since that one screening. Somehow this film has remained as one of the cornerstones of my youth education.
Celentano was then and still is a HUGE star in Italy. He is an incredible performer, singer and songwriter. His last CD offering is asd powerful as his work was forty years ago. What an artist.
I hope Yuppy Du is released in DVD format so that I can have it. All the best to all.
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I still hear in my head some melodies from Yuppi Du that I have not sincerely have heard since that one screening. Somehow this film has remained as one of the cornerstones of my youth education.
Celentano was then and still is a HUGE star in Italy. He is an incredible performer, singer and songwriter. His last CD offering is asd powerful as his work was forty years ago. What an artist.
I hope Yuppy Du is released in DVD format so that I can have it. All the best to all.
# posted by : 03:59
: 03:59<< Home
