Music From The Movies Of John Waters

Juvenile Delinquent’s Jukebox gathers together 36 tracks featured in the films of John Waters. “To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about”, opines Waters. “If someone vomits watching one of my films, it’s like getting a standing ovation. But one must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste.” From as early as Mondo Trasho (1969), the American film director has made substantial use of the music of his youth, music that ranges from wholesome ’50s popular vocalists, to rhythm & blues, doo wop, rock & roll and the dance crazes of the early ’60s. For this special 2LP vinyl edition, early pop authority Lucky Parker has selected 36 of the 91 tracks she compiled for the 3CD format of Juvenile Delinquent’s Jukebox, as well as providing a fascinating essay, printed on a colour insert, which charts Waters’ formative years and his early experiments with short film, leading to notoriety with transgressive cult movies like Pink Flamingos and eventual mainstream success with Hairspray and Cry-Baby.

Whether it be as film director, screenwriter, actor, author, stand-up comedian, visual artist or art collector, the perennially pencil-moustachioed John Waters has been pushing the boundaries of good taste and poking fun at America’s idealised image of itself for over fifty years. Given the furore which surrounded his notorious breakthrough feature, Pink Flamingos, it’s almost inconceivable that Waters has so seamlessly infiltrated mainstream pop culture – albeit unintentionally, with multi-million dollar-grossing movies such as the family friendly Hairspray – to become respectable. Drawing on seven of his celebrated movies, Juvenile Delinquent’s Jukebox serves as both a soundtrack to his extraordinary oeuvre, and also a rollercoaster ride through the popular music – at turns wholesome, rebellious and frivolous – of the ’50s and ’60s.