Quentin Tarantino’s favourite album of all time: “It’s his masterpiece”
There’s a lot to be said about the expert use of music in cinema. Of course, for most avid cinephiles, this is not news, but it’s always worth taking a closer look at those directors who champion the use of pop music to enhance their films and the experience of the audience watching. One of the greatest auteurs of his generation, Quentin Tarantino, is famed for his expert choices regarding music.
Whether it was the “sound of the ‘70s” that permeated the entire story of Reservoir Dogs or the complete soundtrack from Pulp Fiction, arguably one of the greatest compilation albums ever made, or the RZA-driven Kill Bill soundtrack, Tarantino loves music. And it is written all over all of his movies.
Though his choices for his films are, by and large, dictated by the narrative at hand (though we’re pretty sure he could squeeze a 1960s anthem into just about any story he wanted given the right timing), trying to decipher exactly what makes the director tick musically is a little difficult to figure out. Famously known for his love of Elvis Presley, Tarantino wouldn’t consider ‘The King’ to be his favourite record of all time.
“One of the things I do when I am starting a movie,” the acclaimed director once said when noting his process for creating some of pop culture’s most beloved films. “When I’m writing a movie or when I have an idea for a film is, I go through my record collection and just start playing songs, trying to find the personality of the movie, find the spirit of the movie. Then, ‘boom,’ eventually I’ll hit one, two or three songs, or one song in particular, ‘Oh, this will be a great opening credit song’,” Tarantino once explained.
When looking through Tarantino’s long-ranging career and the nine movies he’s delivered thus far, it’s hard to avoid the impact music has had on his impressive canon and how, with their unique style and pace, those songs have been equally as vital in establishing the director’s iconography: “To me, the opening credits are very important because that’s the only mood time that most movies give themselves. A cool credit sequence and the music that plays in front of it, or note played, or any music ‘whatever you decide to do’ that sets the tone for the movie that’s important for you.
“So I’m always trying to find what the right opening or closing credit should be early on when I’m just even thinking about the story. Once I find it, that really kind of triggers me in to what the personality of the piece should be what the rhythm of this piece should be.” It’s one of the more candid viewpoints you will hear from a director, noting how definitively music can influence the story.
In an interview with Uncut, when noting his ten favourite albums of all time, the director produced some unique choices, picking out two albums from Phil Ochs and paying tribute to some of the ‘60s and ‘70s more obscure acts. It speaks directly to his work as a director, with the filmmaker often leaning into his own record collection to create dynamic soundtracks. There is, however, one album that ranks as his absolute favourite of all time — Bob Dylan’s seminal 1975 LP Blood on the Tracks.
The record is a favourite among many Dylan aficionados, and when speaking with Uncut, Tarantino confirmed: “This is my favourite album ever. I spent the end of my teenage years and my early twenties listening to old music–rockabilly music, stuff like that. Then I discovered folk music when I was 25, and that led me to Dylan.
“He totally blew me away with this. It’s like the great album from the second period, y’know? He did that first run of albums in the Sixties, then he started doing his less troublesome albums – and out of that comes Blood On The Tracks. It’s his masterpiece.”
The director connects with Dylan on another level, too, using his career as a jumping-off point for dealing with his growing legacy. Asked by Vulture if he was nostalgic for the ’90s, Tarantino noted Dylan’s later resurgence as an inspiration: “I’m not, even though I think the ’90s were a really cool time. It was definitely a cool time for me.” However, like Dylan, Taranitno could have easily been cemented into a concrete grave had he allowed the hype to grow too much: “But almost like how Bob Dylan had to survive the ’60s so he could be not just considered an artist of the ’60s, I had to survive the ’90s so that when VH1 does their I Love the ’90s thing, they wouldn’t mention me.”
It could have been that Tarantino, had he not have been careful about his choices and persevered with what he believed to be the right movies to make, he could have been left in the decade: “I think the jury was out about that for a while. But if I am going to be nostalgic about the ’90s, it’s for the lack of everybody being connected to all this technology all the time,” not for his moment in the sun.
Bob Dylan survived a similar issue as he escaped the 1960s. The singer has had quite a few comebacks in his long and varied career. As quickly as the singer was championed as one of the voices of his generation, he was cast to the scrap heap of history, too. Blood on the Tracks from 1975 acts as one of the singer’s first required comebacks, and it lands with the weight of a champion boxer’s knuckles on your jaw.
Dylan’s consistent refusal to be pigeonholed, his lack of awareness of the critics around him, and his desire to always push himself creatively have all inspired Tarantino in his own work. But perhaps none more so than the seminal album from 1975.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.