The underground classic, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez, has a pretty perfect soundtrack that features a veritable Who’s Who of the Los Angeles punk scene from the early '80s with songs by The Plugz, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, and Suicidal Tendencies.
“I think it's all great. I love all those songs and listen to them still,” Alex Cox, who wrote and directed the movie, told New Times via email. When the dude who made the movie shares his admiration so plainly, it's hard to argue with him.
There was a music editor on the film who didn’t last long, so Cox stepped in and assumed yet another job on set. The soundtrack's roots run deep in the L.A. punk rock scene as Cox was assisted in his sonic task by Steven Hufsteter, Tito Larriva, the late Charlie Quintana, and Tony Marsico, members of Latino punk act The Plugz.
“Alex [Cox] had been following the L.A. punk scene for a long time. He had been going to UCLA and he was an avid punker," remembers Hufsteter. "There was one of those magical, L.A. scene nights where someone was backstage, and I recall them saying something like, ‘I am doing a movie and would you maybe want to do the music for it?’ But, you know, those backstage conversations are so full of flakes that you don’t take that stuff seriously."
The Plugz finally came around to the idea of working on the film thanks to an answering machine message. “I was at Tito’s [Larriva] house and the message machine was just spooling through all the messages and this guy says, ‘We have a movie and we’d like you guys to do the music.’ And Tito’s just ignoring it. I was like, ‘What is that?’ and Tito said the guy had been hassling him, then asked, ‘Do we want to do that?’” Hufsteter says.
"Repo Man" was executive produced by the late Michael Nesmith. Yes, Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, an incredibly prolific songwriter himself. He could have just made the soundtrack but the team involved wanted a band to do it, specifically a band that hadn't ever made a score before.
“We were so lucky," says Hufsteter. "It had a great deal to do with the place that The Plugz had made for themselves in the punk scene. They wanted that authenticity."
“I would see [Larriva] and the band frequently at punk shows, including the infamous, legendary Elks Lodge Hall show [the Elks Lodge Massacre on March 17, 1979], which the police shut down before The Plugz got to play," says Cox. "By the time we began 'Repo Man,' the lineup had changed and Steve Hufsteter had joined the band. They bestrode punk and Latino music like a colossus and seemed ideal for our film."
Here's something you don't see every day: a "Repo Man" movie poster from Ghana.
Courtesy of Alex Cox
The album includes a mix of previously recorded and new songs. Side one kicks off with “Repo Man” by Iggy Pop and a group of hired guns that included Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and Clem Burke of Blondie. “[The producers] were very anxious to get Iggy involved and Iggy was very anxious to get involved because he was very broke at the time," says Hufsteter. He knew they needed music for the chase scenes and wasn't sure if he would have to write it himself. "But when I heard Iggy’s riff [for 'Repo Man'], I knew I didn’t have to because it would tie together the intro song to take his riff and work from there. It’s such a brilliant riff. It’s on a 'Jaws' level and just three notes.”
Actor Dick Rude who played Duke in the film remembers the recording session this way: “I have imprinted fond memories of being in the studio with Iggy [Pop], Steve Jones, Nigel Harrison and Clem [Burke]. I heard them jam around until they came up with the title track. I even have a recording of Iggy singing about me. It is always a profound experience when you create art that inspires others to create their art in contribution. Especially when you are a huge fan of the artist. In this case, these guys had been real heroes for me, so getting to sit in on and give rise to their music was a dream come true.”
After Pop's song, Black Flag kicks down with “TV Party” from its 1981 album "Damaged." "The only song which appeared in the script was ‘TV Party,’ which Otto sings in a moment of existential sadness on the railroad tracks,” Cox explains.
Suicidal Tendencies provided “Institutionalized” from its self-titled 1983 debut, followed by Circle Jerks's “Coup d’Etat” from 1983’s "Golden Shower of Hits." Zander Schloss was an actor in the film portraying Kevin the Nerd, but after making connections during the film, he took over for Roger Rogerson as the Circle Jerks's bassist.
“I was walking down the street counting pennies for a burrito and a couple of people from the cast of 'Repo Man' pulled up and said, ‘Hey man, the Circle Jerks are looking for a bass player.’ So, I said, ‘Why are you telling me that?' and they said, ‘You look like you could use a gig,” Schloss said during an unrelated interview with New Times in 2016.
The first of three Plugz tracks, and the only not made specifically for the film, rounds out Side A. The Larriva-penned tune “E Clavo Y La Cruz,” which translates to “The Nail and the Cross,” is also on the band’s 1981 album "Better Luck." It's featured when the arch-nemeses of the repo men, the “Rodriguez Brothers,” make their first appearance.
Another L.A. band, Burning Sensations, kicks off the B side with a righteous cover of Jonathan Richman’s “Pablo Picasso.” The New Wave version sounds tough yet smarmy. With some attitude, it punctuates a classic scene when Estevez’s character Otto, a newly christened repo man, drives around town in a car he just repossessed.
The hardest sounding song on the soundtrack is Fear’s “Let’s Have A War.” By adding Fear to the mix, Cox gave a huge nod to the harder edges of early L.A. punk rock that helped create a tone that was somewhere between chaos and tightly controlled self-destruction.
“When the Shit Hits the Fan” is a Circle Jerks song that was re-worked for the film and the band even performs it laid-back lounge-style in the background of a scene in the film. Its inclusion articulates the running battle that Otto has with himself over whether or not he can hold onto the things he loved when he was younger. His line “I can’t believe I used to like these guys" exemplifies Cox's irreverence.
The Plugz recorded an outstanding version of “Secret Agent Man” that was reimagined as “Hombre Secreto” for the movie, providing the excellent instrumental tracks that score the films most memorable scenes. According to Hufsteter, this track was done specifically for the film and ended up being very cool for another reason. “The 'Secret Agent Man' theme was a long enough cue that they had the great idea of using it as the B side of Iggy’s theme song,” says Hufsteter who played in both The Plugz and The Dickies at the time.
Juicy Bananas was a funk band and Schloss's first gig after moving to L.A. The act's track, “Bad Man” provides some of the more tongue in cheek moments on the soundtrack with a super funky, soulful riff. “Before the Circle Jerks, I had a career in jazz and funk and R&B,” Schloss recalls.
The final track is The Plugz's “Reel 10,” the only piece of actual score, according to Hufsteter, on the soundtrack. “Dozens of film score labels have come to me begging to put out a soundtrack of all the other cues [parts of scores recorded specifically for certain scenes]. The instrumental cues are quite phenomenal, but we can’t find or get the cooperation of Universal [Pictures] to find the actual multitrack tapes,” says Hufsteter.
Cox had even more to say about Universal's noncooperation. “Universal hated the film and didn’t want to release it, but their parent company was MCA, and when the [soundtrack] started selling well, the head of MCA Records called his opposite number at Universal and enquired, in menacing tones, ‘Is there a movie which goes with this?’” he says.
As Tracey Walter’s hilariously philosophical character Miller said in the film, “The life of a repo man is always intense.” Intense, just like the soundtrack.
