Since March is Women's History Month, I will be focusing on the music from films directed by WOMEN.
And while I realize everyone has Barbie fever right now, my celebration of the wonderful Greta Gerwig goes back to her 2017 solo directorial debut, Lady Bird.
Gerwig also wrote the screenplay and assembled an absurdly good cast, including Saoirse Ronan as the title character— high school senior Christine McPherson— who renames herself "Lady Bird."
There's also Timothée Chalamet, Lucas Hedges, Beanie Feldstein, and the sublime Laurie Metcalf, as Lady Bird's, um, not entirely understanding or sympathetic mother.
The film is beautifully written. It strikes a perfect balance between heartfelt and heartbreaking and can still make you laugh. And it gave us another glimpse into the depth of Gerwig's talent as a director and the accomplishments that were yet to come.
The film was rightly nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Screenplay, and Director, plus acting noms for Ronan and Metcalf, but were shockingly shut out. Frankly I'm still annoyed Allison Janney beat Laurie Metcalf for Best Supporting Actress.
But that's neither here nor there.
As for the music, Gerwig chose acclaimed musician and composer Jon Brion to do the score, which was released a few months before a specially-curated selection of music heard in the film came out.
And that's where today's SoundTRAX selection will come from, because it's my favorite kind of compilation: one that's all over the place musically.
In addition to some bits of dialogue, you get tunes from the Dave Matthews Band, The Monkees, Altered Images, Haim, the Velvet Underground's John Cale, Ani DiFranco, John Hartford, Reel Big Fish, and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. There are even some choirs involved as Lady Bird goes to a Catholic school.
I really had trouble picking a song to play today because I truly love several of the options. But what can I say— I'm a sucker for Arthur Lee and the groundbreaking band he formed in 1965.
From Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird, it's Love with "Always See Your Face."
SoundTRAX is a dive into notable music from iconic films and TV shows every Monday-Thursday at 8:10 a.m.
