Goodfellas

Contemporary Traces of the Modern Soundtrack

Developed for RMIT Media Arts

Scorsese's audio-visual collaborators

Martin Scorsese: selected ‘song scores’ with editor Thelma Schoonmaker
1973 – MEAN STREETS
1974 – ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE
1980 – RAGING BULL
1983 – THE KING OF COMEDY *
1992 – GOODFELLAS
1994 – CASINO
1999 – BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
2010 – SHUTTER ISLAND *
* Robbie Robertson – music supervisor

Skip Lievsay: sound design for –
Joel/Ethan Coen: BLOOD SIMPLE, MILLER’S CROSSING, BARTON FINK, O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU
Martin Scorsese: THE COLOUR OF MONEY, GOOD FELLAS, CAPE FEAR, CASINO
Spike Lee: DO THE RIGHT THING, JUNGLE FEVER, CROOKLYN, CLOCKERS

Close Analysis

1970

1. Opening audio-visual ‘discombobulation’: (a) car drone travelling / thumps / quiet crickets once car pulls over / boot opens – muffled cries / stabbing / swearing / gunshots / (b) voice-over of Jeffrey starts / boot shuts & hard-cut to loud Italian-American ballad (“Rags To Riches” by Tony Bennett)

1955

2. ECU of Henry’s eye – an audio-visual bluff, as we hear what he sees: his voice-over narration guides our reception of his perception. (“Can't We Be Sweethearts” – The Cleftones – as Henry parks gansters cars.) Not only does Ray Liottta’s voice comment on what is visually occuring, he also halts/freezes the image-track to highlight his commentary and stage-direct the action through his voice (eg. Henry’s dad beating him when he discovers his abstenteeism, the postman’s head going into the pizza oven, Henry blowing up the cars). These moments of frozen image are moments of Henry attaining ‘criminal consciousness’.

3. Sound effects are usually inserted between words, giving the soundtrack a highly compact feel. It also intensifies Liottta’s vocal omnipotence in the film’s narrative.

4. When Italian-American pop ballads and doo-wop from the mid-50s appear on the soundtrack, they compete with Henry’s narration. Often when they are introduced or highlighted there is a noticeable vocal refrain or element pushed up in the mix. These ‘over-mixed’ voices generate a presence which controls and even overpowers the audio-visual experience.

5. Henry’s voice is a combination of these songs in terms of their engineering, production and presence. Their mix of Doo-Wop babbling and Italian balladering also relates to Henry being a young excited kid working amongst adults, as well as his Italian-American heritage (Irish father and Scilian mother). Their bold, sexy brashness likewise starts to shape and mould Henry into a ‘wiseguy’.

6. “Hearts Of Stone” – Otis Williams And The Charms, and “Speedo” – The Cadilliacs. Examples of how the multitude of songs – often presented as excerpts and ellipses – rush up upon the soundtrack like a crashing wave: full volume and replicating the dynamics of the songs’ original mix. Their presence functions like production design, colouring the scenes and their characters with an aura of the period.

1963

7. The vocals of “The World We Live In” – Mina – introduce the airport – joining the ‘jet-soaring’ voice and plate-reverbed orchestral strings with the airport as a symbol of Henry and Jimmy’s shift in operations from truck-highjacking to air-freight stealing.

8. “Chariot” – Betty Curtis – as Henry’s voice introduces us to all the other ‘wiseguys’ in a single tracking shot. Henry’s introductions function as cues for each ‘wiseguy’ to demonstrate something about his character through their own vocal performance (eg. Jimmy Two-Times, etc.).

9. Once the more psychotic cracks start to appear in the Henry/Jimmy/Tommy, music pauses for a while.

10. “Playboy” – The Marvellettes – as The Bamboo Lounge operations are shown once Paulie buys in to the operation. Music fades up loud as Tommy and Henry drive off after setting up fire of the place.

11. At the double-date with Tomm and Henry, Karen’s voice-over suddenly appears on soundtrack, talking about how awful he was. Later she confronts him for standing her up on the second double-date, and her ballsy voice impresses him (“She’s screaming on the street, but she looked good.”)

12. “And Then He Kissed Me” – The Ronnettes – once Henry and Karen are a couple and we enter the Copacabana and get an overview of the front-end and back-end of the club’s operation.

13. Henne Youngman’s joking voice carries over as Henry and Tommy start their hit at the airport. Then more ‘jetsonic strings’ (“Look In My Eyes” – The Chantels) commence as they secure the key and open the lock to the storage shed.

14. “Roses Are Red” – Bob Gaudie – over close-up of bottle of champagne sent to Henry and Karen by Bobby Vinton as he sings at the club.

15. The ‘discombobulation’ between Italian and Jewish culture: Jimmy watches and TV ad for Morris’ wigs, while in the background Morris and Henry talk business while Morris is on the phone to a bookie. Morris is complaiing about Jimmy while Jimmy is irriated by Morris’ voice on the TV ad. (This scene is even further interrupted by Karen calling Henry on the phone – Henry rushes out while we still hear Jimmy and Morris fighting.)

16. When Henry bashes the guy who attacked Karen, no music: only the sound of garden water sprinklers. Karen watches this scene(unseen) in silence from her house. Henry returns and places a bloodied gun in her palm. He asks her to hide it: her voice-over enters to mark her shift of ‘criminal consciousness’.

17. “Life Is But A Dream” – The Harptones – starts with wide-shot of Henry and Karen’s wedding reception. They dance in slo-mo while Karen’s voice-over talks about meeting Henry’s two families – his blood lineage and his bloodied lineage. The wedding is a Jewish one, but Paulie transforms the social dynamics into an Italian one. The song continues over a series of jump-cuts of Karen receiving all the envelopes of money.

18. “Leader Of The Pack” – The Shangri-Las – bursts with the ‘look-out’ cries to connect Henry and Tommy screeching away in their car with Tommy wildly mimicking Karen’s screaming mother, with Karen’s first hostess party. As the women are revealed to be rough and ready, talking about the violence of their husbands we hear the sound effects of motorcycle revving from the song. (Karen’s onscreen voice carries over in the edit to her back at home that night talking about the hostess party with Henry in bed.)

19. As Henry and Karen make love, Karen’s voice-over justifies how Henry and Tommy are starting to expand their operations.

20. Police search Karen’s house: her dialogue with them is very calm and drained – it’s business as usual. She let’s them search while she watches Al Johnson from an old film whistling/singing “Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye”.

21.”Ain’t That A Kick In The Head” – Dean Martin – plays over a montage of photos of them on holidays.

1970

22. “He’s Sure The Boy I Love” – The Crystals – starts with baritone sax. It has an ominous tone matched with the credit indicating it’s 1970 – the time from the violent start of the film.

23. Spoken word introduction to “Atlantis” – Donovan – as Tommy re-enters. Then when he grabs Billy Batz, the volume of the song boosts as the chorus commences. Sounds of bashing and stomping are mixed in with the music. Loud booms match them grabbing sheets to cover his beaten body.

24. “Pretend You Don’t See Her” – Jerry Vale – sung by singer in club – the song transfixes all the hardened ‘wiseguys’ and their wives. This crooner seems to calm the savage beasts. The song continues as Henry spends the night at his mistress’ flat. It also continues as Henry and Karen and their kids visit Paulie’s place for lunch.

25. At the lunch Paulie yells “C’mon everybody let’s eat” – the soundtrack cuts hard to the opening verse of “Remember (Walkin’ In The Sand)” – The Shangri-Las – then visually cuts to a tracking shot lit in red of all the various ‘wiseguys’ and their ‘clients’ at a bar discussing business. Jimmy talks to Henry about digging up the body of Batz. Cut to them digging up the body as the song reaches it chorus with the repetition of “remember”.

26. Henry sets up Janis in her own apartment – “Baby I Love You” – Aretha Franklin – starts when we enter her pad as she shows around her girlfriends. The African-American soulful tone of “Baby I Love You” links Henry’s ‘libertine’ adulterous shift with the latter 60s increasing liberalism. Cued by Henry’s narration, the song continues over Henry, Jimmy and Tommy beating up Janis’ boss. It cuts back to Janis screaming in delight as Henry grabs her and throws her onto the bed.

27. Indication of the increasing pressure and compaction of drama in Henry’s situation: (a) Karen screaming at Henry as he leaves to see Janis / off-screen family dog barking / their daughter distressed looking out from her bedroom; (b) Karen pushes back a row of clothes in her closet, but we hear a scrape with reverb and the sound of scream-laughing of Henry / Henry at a card game laughing with his friends

28. After Tommy shoots spider at the card game, Italian operatta fades in

29. Extreme vocal contrasts: (a) Karen screaming into the intercom of Janis’ apartment / distorted sound as heard through the speaker in Janis’ room / clicking nails on the buttons / electronic beeping sounds; (b) Karen’s voice whispering / her face out of focus as she holds a gun pointed to the camera, aimed at Henry asleep / sharp clicking as she loads the gun / Henry’s smooth voice talks her down / her clear voice-over appears on the soundtrack

30. After she backs down and Henry overcomes her and roughs her up, he exits, leaving her sobbing. She screams that she is sorry – this is revered and carries over into the next scene of Paulie and Jimmy visiting Henry and Janis at the pad.

31. Violent cut: title – “Tampa Florida Two Days Later” – Jimmy and Henry bashing a guy’s head onto the dashboard inside a car – very loud bangs. This occurs after Jimmy and Paulie calmly talking to Henry about going down to Tampa to “pick up something” for Jimmy.

32. “Beyond The Sea” – Bobby Darin – plays as Henry talks about how life is in prison as they prepare their Italian meals. But while they’re eating traditional food, Henry is dealing drugs.

Four Years Later

33. Paulie’s place – “The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” – Tony Bennett – Henry and the family go for lunch once he’s out from prison

34. “Gimme Shelter” – The Rolling Stones – starts with female vocals over close-up of cards cutting coke on mirror. This fractured angled rock track from The Rolling Stones matches the fractured angles now taken by Henry, Jimmy and Tommy as they branch out from Paulie and start running drugs from Pittsburgh. The collapse of traditional musical/pop paradigms match the breakdown of the Italian familial criminal ethics.

35. “Wives And Lovers” – Jack Jones – as Karen shows off her and Henry’s new place to Morris and his wife.

36. Henry’s voice-over introduces everyone working on the Lufthansa heist – a repeat of 8.

37. “Monkey Man” – The Rolling Stones – hard cut over shot of baby on bed. As Karen and Henry and Lois (the baby sitter) talk about the smuggling she does by taking the baby on a domestic flight. Henry empties the baby bag to reveal all the cocaine the baby-sitter trafficked.

38. The track then moves into an instrumental build-up as we see Henry and Sandy – now starting to show their addiction – at the pad where they package the drugs. Henry and Sandy start kissing and the music volume rises.

39. The musical tingling intro of “Frosty The Snowman” – The Ronettes – as we cut to the Xmas party where everyone is celebrating the Lufthansa heist.

40. One song with two emotional tones: (a) Henry’s house – “Christmas” – Darlene Love – plays in background as Henry, Karen and the kids celebrate Xmas – Henry talks about how perfect the Lufthansa Heist should have been; (b) the same song returns as we see in slo-mo Tommy killing Stax – Henry’s voice-over explains how Stax messed up by not getting rid of the getaway truck – the music plays like his funeral song.

41. Jimmy at the bar, waiting for Morry to open his mouth. Morry has just been calmed down by Henry and is singing “O Danny Boy” as he approaches Jimmy. Loud and clear, the opening riff to “Sunshine Of Your Love” – Cream – camera tracks into Jimmy, his face seething with paranois, tension and hatred. The song continues as Jimmy and Henry walk outside. The image freezes as Henry says how he realises that Jimmy was planning to kill Morry. This is a moment where Henry realises the ‘criminal consciousness’ of Jimmy. Then the music continues later that night as Jimmy narrates how he was now stalling for time to work out how to stop Jimmy from killing Morry. The dread tone of the heavy riff music has now shifted from Jimmy’s tension to Henry’s tension. The music plays while Tommy jokes and everyone laughs.

42. Two kids approach the pink cadiallac under the train bridge – cut to the piano intro to “Layla” – Derek And The Dominoes – as we see what they see: the murdered bodies of one of the heist gang and his wife. Henry’s voice details how Jimmy was now killing everyone off. The music continues over a montage of other gang members’ bodies being discovered murdered. Eventually, though, the music ‘forecasts’ the death of Tommy when he is executed when he thought he was going to be made. His death, Jimmy’s anger in the phonebooth, and Henry’s explicative voice-over all work to extend from the embodied sadness in the tone of “Brothers And Sisters” as it breaks down and dwindles toward its conclusion.

Sunday May 11th, 1980 6:55 am

(Increasingly precise inter-title cards for scenes 43-53)

43. Over this inter-title card, the “Jump Into The Fire” – Harry Nilsson – bass riff starts up. Jimmy loads up the car, looks up at the sky as he hears a helicopter. He drives – looking wasted and paranoid – and talks in voice-over narration about all the tasks he must carry out that day.

8:05 am

44. The opening slide guitar from “Memo From Turner” – The Rolling Stones – as he continues his journey by car. This then cross-fades to the “I want it” chant from “The Magic Bus” – The Who – as he almost slams into a stationary car on the highway.

8:45 am

45. At the hospital, the doctor checks Henry out: cut to his arm being pumped with a blood pressure pack while “Jump Into The Fire” returns. He pops some valium.

11.30 am

46. The song continues as he returns home to cook the evening’s dinner: his voice-over hurriedly decribes the menu and cooking stages.

47. En-route to deliver some guns, the car screeches as “Monkey Man” – The Rolling Stones – cuts in on the soundtrack. They arive and unpack the guns at Karen’s mother’s garage.

12:30 pm

48. “What is Life” – George Harrison – guitar riff starts as camera tracks in to Henry on a public phone in the street.

49. The song continues as they enter then exit a shop, hiding from their imagined helicopter as their paranoia peaks.

3:30 pm

50. The song continues as they deliver the guns to their dealer and pick up their drugs. His voice-over continues describing his day’s manic tasks.

6:30 pm

51. The song continues back at the house.

8:30 pm

52. At Sandy’s place where the drugs are being cut and packed, the song is then suddenly replaced with “Mannish Boy” – Muddy Waters – as Henry’s does a bug-eyed coke snort.

53. When Henry realises he has to leave and get Lois’ ‘lucky hat’, the drums to “Jump Into The Fire” fade up. This song is the meta-song to this paranoid sequence, driving Henry onward and upward. But as he starts to back out in the car, a gun pokes in the window and a cop yells at him to freeze. The music fades down quickly as the car engine is turned off. Henry’s voice-over: “Only cops talk that way. If they had been wiseguys – I wouldn’t have heard a thing.”

The Aftermath

54. In a replay of 36 and 8, the narc’s interrogting voice drones on while everyone connected with Henry’s gun and drug running are brought in to the police station one by one.

55. Another frozen moment: at the café when Jimmy asks Henry to go down to Florida to do a hit job. This time, Henry’s attenuation to Jimmy’s ‘criminal consciousness’ allows him clarity to realise that he must rat on Jimmy to save his own life.

56. During the court case, Henry’s voice-over cuts across a set of jump-cuts of moments in the case. This increases in intensity, then peaks with Henry directly addressing the camera as he sits on the stand and tells us how it’s now all over.

57. Interred in tract housing somewhere as part of the Witness Protection Programme, Henry picks up the morning newspaper, smiles at the camera as the detuned strings of “My Way” – Sid Vicious – starts up.

58. End credits theme – “Layla” – Derek And The Dominoes.

Text © Philip Brophy.