O Lucky Man

"If you have a friend on whom you think you can rely you are a lucky man,
If you have a reason to live on and not to die you are lucky man,
Preachers and poets and scholars don't know it,
Temples and statues and steeples won't show it,
If you've got the secret just try not to blow it,
Stay a lucky man, a lucky man."


brilliant!   September 22, 2003
David W. Jackson (La Mesa, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I caught the movie, O Lucky Man! on television years and years ago, and never knew the actual title. The funny thing was, I only caught a total of fifteen minutes of it. I never forgot it. I was totally unaware of the "trilogy", and of the beautiful soundtrack, until I tried to buy all three movies at the same time for different reasons. If you don't know, "If", "O Lucky Man", and "Brittania Hospital" are the movies, all great. When I saw this movie in total, the first thing that caught me was Alan Price. Not the music, his face. The brilliant stroke was just to have him in it. You are not just listening to music while watching something else. It's Alan Price singing and playing. And he is affecting. There's is something sly, and smart-assed, in his face and lyrics. This sounds like a rave for the movie, which is how I came by it, but the music itself, without aid at all, is so deft and smart in it's own right, that it really only adds to it to see it performed. Every line, from beginning to end, is like Price himself. Most notably, "Look over your shoulder" affects me the most. Musically, it is very sly and very deft. Try to Play it. Lyrically, it is the perfect note for the soundtrack itself. The beginning is all catch-phrases. Happy stuff. And out rolls the happy lines "...there's always someone coming after you". This is, in my opinion, the best that the early seventies had to offer. I agree with the 9/11 stuff, but I think it still belongs in its era. Phil Ochs had already gotten there himself, at a cost to himself, but only Alan Price could have written such great music to match a film like that. Also quite notable are "Justice", a personal favourite, and "changes", a parody of a song that I could not get out of my head for years. I still remember snatches at Baptist churches with my parents and now I only remember Alan's lines, thankfully.
Not forgetting, "my home town", simple but great. "Poor People". very mean to say that poor people just don't understand the way things really work. Half of the album is an instruction book in how to rise above, and forget, the working class. But it is all so clever, and the main theme restates it. It has an open interpretation as well, not my favourite, musically. If you are a fan of movies, it is an uncommon soundtrack. If you are a fan of the seventies, well, who knows? It is the cream of the crop, in my opinion. If you are a music fan or a musician, it is absolutely essential that you buy this album right now and learn from it. By the way, I am going to buy it right now. I only wish there was more of it. But the tracks on it are the crucial ones that you hear(and see) in the movie. Alan Price is an amazing composer and singer(and musician).


Yessssss!   May 2, 2002
Yes, to all of the above.

This movie and soundtrack had a great influence on me back in "73 long before we had a name for the postmodern turn. I've dragged an album around with me all over this continent. Have also made a couple copies of the film off the cable (which had that missing scene, by the way), sadly to have them disappear when loaned out. So now what a thrill to get fresh copies of each.

If you're trying to get a handle on 9/11, the middle east, unfaithful priests, city politics, and George Bush, buy this VHS and disc. You will find yourself to be a Lucky Person!


O'Lucky at last!   November 18, 2001
Harris Fogel (Springfield, PA. USA)
I was thrilled to discover that this album was finally released on CD. I've worn through numerous copies of the LP, and ever since the advent of the CD, I have been looking for it on CD with no luck, until now!

Like many other folks, I was profoundly moved by the film and music of O Lucky Man. Years later, when my wife finally saw the film I had talked about for so long, she offered the opinion that it was a little boys adolescent fantasy, and in retrospect, I think there is some truth in that. As soundtracks go, O'Lucky Man is in a class by itself. Not a mere aural background to a film, but rather it is an integrated part of the film, the characters, and the commentary.

I still think of it as an amazing bit of work, and was lucky enough to attend a seminar on the movie in Los Angeles, hosted by Lindsay Anderson and Malcolm McDowell, in which we learned among other things that the song "My Home Town" had a sequence of someone attempting suicide, which Travis tries to stop by climbing a rain gutter and effect a rescue, only to have it tear away from the building at the last moment. Anderson discovered that even the original negative of the scene had been destroyed by Warners, who felt that film was too long, and ordered the cut. Anderson joked about the impact of a 3 minute scene on a movie that was already running at a "leisurely pace" and found a first generation print of the scene under his bed. That night was to be the first time the film was to be screened as it was intended. This was not to be, and although he hand carried a print of the scene to be spliced into the film for the night, somehow, it still never happened! Which led to a very funny, and (...)off director howling at Hollywood for it's classic ineptitude. I'm waiting for my VHS copy to arrive to see if the video release has the footage restored. I'm recalling this from memory, about 15 years ago.. So I hope I haven't made too serious a mistake here.

The music however is another matter. The integration of the Alan Price and his band into the film, the strength of the songwriting, made it one of my favorite albums. I was searching for something related to Alan Price, and there it was, a lovely reissue of the soundtrack on CD. Sound wise, this is an open and clean sounding reissue. The album always seemed to be mixed a bit on the low side, and this reissue allows the soundstage to emerge a bit more defined.

Price is an odd musician, he has released albums that celebrated an almost working class take on the music world, and also lovely concept albums like "Between Today and Yesterday," and a great live album "Performing Price," which was just released on CD.

In contrast to former bandmate Eric Burdon, who followed a completely different career path, Price cut wonderful covers of songs like Randy Newman's "Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear" a far cry from his R&B roots.

I really love this album, and I agree with David Kinney in that this work stands on it's own even without the film. Of interest is the updated liner notes by Malcolm McDowell, in which he says that he was amazed that this wasn't nominated for an Academy Award ... my thoughts exactly.

Go ahead, buy this CD.. it's a wonderful bit of work.


O lucky listener.....   January 29, 2001
David Kinney (San Francisco, Ca. United States)
Here's a rarity alright...a soundtrack to a great cult film that stands on it's own merit. It is not at all neccessary to have seen Lindsay Anderson's minor masterpiece to appreciate Alan Price's wonderful song stylings. Alan Price had a featured role in the film and many of the songs were performed concert style within the context of the fiim, but they have lost none of their lustre away from the big screen and some 30 years down the line. Ballads, instrumentals, music hall, and good old northern english soul make for an eclectic and thouroughly pleasant listening experience.Top pick; The title cut ,a rollicking good time and a tune Alan's old mates The Animals would have been proud to call their own. Hey, go rent the movie (uh..good luck) but by all means don't pass up the chance to own this wonderful timeless piece of musical inspiration.