Get Carter

 

Stylized version of the original 1971 movie poster for "Get Carter"

Stylized version of the original 1971 movie poster for “Get Carter”

Get Carter was one of the coolest movies of the early 70s. Hard to believe that lovable Hollywood gadabout Michael Caine was once commonly cast as a thuggish killer. Amazingly, it was remade in 2000 by Sylvester Stallone, of all people; and his version wasn’t entirely unappetizing.

But what I want to talk about today isn’t the movie, but it’s theme music. Written by jazz pianist Roy Budd, the short trippy theme has become adored by electronica afficionados, and recorded by many big name artists.

So, just for fun, here are a few of the different versions of the song.

Let’s start with the original Roy Budd version from 1971:

And here’s the more funky version produced for the 2000 remake:

On their legendary 1981 album “Dare“, the Human League recorded their own version. Here’s a shaky phone-recorded version of the reunited band playing it live in 2008:

In 1995, the Finnish band Laika and the Cosmonauts recorded this version:

And my personal favourite was by the great and peerless French-English band Stereolab in 1998:

Which is your favourite?

loading
×