Richard O'Brien
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

“Don't judge a book by its cover, don't get unsettled by the way I look…” (from Sweet Transvestite)

We are precisely in the mid-'70s, and it's time to take stock of the most intense, complex, and contradictory decade of the century. People are beginning to question what to make of the cultural revolution experience of '67-'72. Music brought its own liberations, its creativity to incredible qualitative heights, even to the point of exhaustion or extremization of pre-existing genres (see the birth of progressive or hard rock/heavy metal). But sometimes the most experimental results reached tacky and watery peaks, with grandiosity fundamentally due to an artists' naive outburst, provoked by the newfound freedom to finally make (almost) any kind of album they wanted, with any oddity they wished to include (after the period of submission to hit singles perpetuated since the times of Elvis or earlier). But music began to lose vigor and ideas, the lyrics started to seem yellowed and meaningless after the disillusionment of the '68 dream.

The "Rocky Horror Show" was a glaring example of how Anglo-American culture simply wanted to take whatever was good and alive remaining from rock’n’roll, dress it up with the disenchantment of a bored generation that had seen and tried everything (from free sexuality to drug use, to the condemnation of modesty and decorum) and makeup with the lipstick of irony, the trashy hedonism of those who had grown up with POPular mythologies (like Frankenstein, Dracula horror movies, etc.) and then had the time to dismantle them.
The RHS indeed destroys the entire tradition of musicals from "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" to the latest arrival "Jesus Christ Superstar", just two years before, but wandering in the opposite direction: both have an innovative and transgressive setup and are aimed at the youth audience, but the first takes itself completely seriously, while the second makes fun of everything and everyone, diving into bad taste not out of conviction, but because there was nothing more fun left to do.

Hence the choice of a magnificent soundtrack, a mix of Bowie-Bolan glam, kitsch Elton John à la Crocodile Rock, violent yet danceable rock&roll, and super gay and terribly sexy gospel choirs. Of course, all spiced up with Tin Pan Alley tunes or inspired by the cultured Broadway tradition.
The cauldron written by Richard O’Brien was the diabolical soul of this London theater show, which soon replicated in Los Angeles ultimately ending up on the big screen.

Performed mainly by the great London theatrical actors (including O’Brien himself, a still little-known but exceptional Meat Loaf, and an incredibly talented Tim Curry/Frank-N-Furter), the film, renamed "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", was enhanced with the addition of the almost debutants Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon, perfect as the American couple ready to be swept away by the Transsexual Transylvania parties.

Many (all?) will have already seen, loved, or hated this film gem: but whatever your opinion, I invite you to rediscover this soundtrack, a glam jewel symbol of a disoriented era that finally knew how to laugh at itself.

P.S.: absolutely do not miss the Time Warp dance, the Sweet Transvestite manifesto, Meat Loaf/Eddie defrosted rock’n’roller complete with sax solos in Hot Patootie, and the aroused Sarandon in Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me…
P.S.2: if you find it, the 25th-anniversary Rhino reissue is recommended, with 5 more songs compared to the original
P.S.3: is there a Columbia among you??? Yours, Eddie