Original Soundtrack
Last Tango in Paris (Rykodisc 10724)

Gato Barbieri's score for the 1972 film by Bernardo Bertolucci is as intense, erotic, and multifaceted as the movie apparently is, judging by its critical standing. Aside from one awkward viewing chaperoned by my parents in the mid-80s (they had seen it and decided to let me watch it on cable – frankly, I enjoyed the unchaperoned Young Lady Chatterley II much better, and would probably still), I am not familiar enough with the movie to discuss the music's "crucial role" or any such blather.

Recently made available on CD for the first time by Rykodisc in their United Artists soundtracks reissue line, Last Tango in Paris is a justifiably popular album and one that merits its reputation as, to quote a nonexistent critic just to prove my point, "a bad-ass soundtrack, G."

The soundtrack proper is a rerecording of Barbieri's music from the film, and was a best-selling album in the LP era, and Ryko has augmented the program with nearly 30 minutes of film cues strung together into "The Last Tango in Paris Suite," so this CD gives you essentially all the music associated with the film.

The music is exceedingly sultry, using tango in its most sensual incarnations to provide the right backdrop for Bertolucci's tragic tale of full frontal nudity (well, I at least remember that much). Barbieri's sax is big and round, approaching a Stanley Turrentine or Sonny Rollins style tone, and he is backed by an orchestra arranged by Oliver Nelson, providing a grandiosity to the music that prevents it from simply being overly sentimental or sexual.

In parts it resembles smooth jazz (more in terms of what that music was in the 70s rather than what it has become in the 90s) but it never becomes, like, Dave Koz smooth. (That's a compliment to Barbieri, not Koz.)

The main theme ("Last Tango in Paris Tango") recurs throughout the score, giving the album a unification that elevates it beyond background music. It's exciting and designed for active listening, standing apart from the film quite well.

If there is a drawback to the CD it is the length, which at nearly an hour gets kind of tiring, particularly since you're basically sitting through the same soundtrack twice (in its original LP configuration as well as the film versions of the same cues).

It's not an album that especially hooks me, but I do enjoy it and respect it as one of the better "classic" soundtracks out there.

Unfortunately for me, as I listen, my confused blend of memory and hindsight only allows me to picture a naked and diapered 400-pound Brando walking around an empty apartment shoving fists full of butter into his mouth as he mutters incoherently to himself, diarrhea oozing down the back of the diaper and splayed across his back like mud on a windshield. Which only makes me play the album again and again!

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Tron Trutron