John Lurie
Fishing With John,  Strange & Beautiful Music CD SB-0014, 1998

 Soundtrack for spending time in boats

This unusual disc may tempt you to hold it up to the light and ask "What the heck is this?"  Fishing with John appears to be the soundtrack to composer John Lurie’s all-star cable-TV fishing trips. Lurie’s friends include Tom Waits, who also sings and writes a bit here, director Jim Jarmusch, and actors Matt Dillon, Willem Dafoe and Dennis Hopper. These high profile friends cast their lines in such exotic places as Thailand, Montauk and Costa Rica.

The music ranges from the tribal (with "The Beast") to the operatic/choral (with "Fish Dance") to funky (with "Shark Drive"). What does this say about fishing? I have no idea. It does say a lot about the wide-ranging talents of Lurie, though. Will this music make one want to fish more? I’ll leave that up to the fishermen. As for me, when I get in the mood to stick this disc in my player, I’m just going to skip to cut 11 ("Shark Drive"), and shake my butt and growl along with Lurie’s strange friends.– Dan MacIntosh

of related interest

The Lounge Lizards

 Queen of All Ears, Strange & Beautiful Music CD SB 0013, 1998

The latest from Lurie’s punk-jazz group. Wonderfully wacko, and more cohesive than  Fishing with John, although not by much.