The Goons' Theme - Roadracers

This is the music that plays while Teddy and his cronies are hanging out in a park waiting for Dude to show up for the rumble. The two goons are getting drunk while spinning themselves on the park merry-go-round. The goons make for great comic relief to Teddy’s intensity. With that in mind I didn’t want the music to be too menacing but more humorous (almost). Quinten Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” hadn’t come out yet and we’d not been privy to any of the scenes from that movie so I had no idea there would be a twist-dancing scene in his film, even though Roadracers and Pulp Fiction had the same music director. I timed the tempo to more or less match the speed of the spinning merry-go-round. This scene has some great camera work by Robert Rodriguez of close ups of the goons while they are spinning and getting bombed. Johnny Reno's saxophone work here is really great, right out of Fort Worth native, King Curtis’ playbook but also hinting at the greasy sound of a mobster night club on the Vegas Strip (or FW’s Jacksboro Hwy and Jack Ruby’s Dallas night club, The Red Jacket).

The two things I’d been listening to most that influenced this little ditty were the “Las Vegas Grind” compilation CDs and Professor Longhair’s New Orleans craziness, with those loopy bass lines. So I tried to make this piece “loopy” in the comical sense. It’s one of my favorites from the film and was one of the easiest pieces to come up with. It came very naturally and quick and is a fun little tune.

This is from my Roadracers Showtime Studio CD. I had to edit out a touch of dialogue. In the film there is dialogue and ambient sound over the whole song but not on the CD.

Enjoy!