Imaginary Albums #16: Velvet Goldmine Soundtrack

Pivoting from imaginary single (or double) artist albums to soundtracks, here's my personal reworking of the soundtrack for Todd Haynes' 1998 film Velvet Goldmine. As noted when first posted, Haynes' odd movie about a fictionalized Bowie-like character (Bowie himself declined to give Haynes the rights to use his story or his music) already has a pretty terrific soundtrack. The official album, like the film it's drawn from, blends 70s glam classics with contemporary remakes (provided by members of Radiohead and Sonic Youth, among others). 

For my imaginary soundtrack, I replaced the covers with originals. I also added in the Bowie songs that Haynes had apparently hoped to use.  So, ok, the end result feels more like a basic glam compilation--chock full of Brian Eno, T. Rex, Roxy Music, Cockney Rebel, etc., and a little heavy on the Bowie--rather than the more varied official soundtrack. But it's a helluva line-up, and arguably less sonically jarring than the mix of 70s and 90s recordings on the original.

The official soundtrack also included a few originals recorded for the film; they're all pretty great, so, despite the anachronisms, I used them on my CDR version. Unfortunately, the official soundtrack doesn't stream, so they're omitted from the Spotify playlist below. On the other hand, I rounded out the Spotify version with a few songs played in the movie that didn't make the soundtrack album, so it nets out ok.