Soundtrack Saturday: Big Trouble in Little China

Posted in Soundtrack Saturday by - February 05, 2011

I don’t think it’s any great secret that one of my favourite films of all time is the John Carpenter masterpiece Big Trouble in Little China.  Now the thing a lot of people don’t realise when it comes to John Carpenter films is that the dude likes to write the music for his films and will perform it.  Classic soundtracks such as Halloween and Escape from New York capture the feel of the films perfectly in no small part thanks to John Carpenter envisaging everything he wants from his film.

So like his other films John Carpenter was very hands on for the soundtrack of Big Trouble in Little China and it only adds to the Carpenter feel of the film.  I’m not 100% certain but I can’t recall any other films he performed lyrics for the music like he did here:

Yes that’s right, the main singer there is none other than John Carpenter himself!

The CDs are pretty scarce on the ground unfortunately, my impression is that I have an actual copy in my collection somewhere but it’s equally likely that I’m confusing the Escape from New York soundtrack and that the copy I have is borrowed from my cousin Larry.  iTunes doesn’t carry the music either except for a couple of tracks on compilations.

Here’s the track listing for those of you keeping score at home, this is of the original soundtrack, not the re-release:

  1. Coup de Villes — “Big Trouble in Little China” 3:13
  2. “Pork Chop Express” 3:40
  3. “The Alley” 2:00
  4. “Here Come the Storms” 2:20
  5. “Lo Pan’s Domain” 4:30
  6. “Escape from Wing Kong” 8:00
  7. “Into the Spirit Path” 7:07
  8. “The Great Arcade” 10:00
  9. “The Final Escape” 4:47
  10. Coup de Villes — “Big Trouble in Little China” -Reprise- (3:08)

Couldn’t track down too many of the tracks I’m afraid and on eBay you’re looking anywhere from $30 to $65.

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This post was written by Lee
Lee is a pop-culturalist who grew up weighing everything’s worth as it related to pop culture references. He is also an aspiring illustrator and lives in Australia with his wife who is perfectly normal and reads books that do not contain robots which Lee finds odd but charming.
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3 Comments

  • Phil K
    February 05, 2011 at 9:32 am

    Ah awesome, this has had a lot of action on my iPod/iPhone over the last couple of weeks. Not a huge fan of track 1 as seen in the Youtube video but the rest of the music is fantastic especially Pork Chop Express.

    The version of the album I have also had the theme from Escape From New York on it too which was odd but could of been a bonus track or some mixed up by cousin Larry. Quite a great track too

    PS. I am just assuming I know who cousin Larry is ;-)

    • Dan
      February 05, 2011 at 9:53 am

      Everyone knows Lee’s cousin Larry.

    • Lee
      February 05, 2011 at 11:55 am

      The version you’ve got (possibly) is the rerelease, not sure why they popped the extra tracks on there I figure they think of it as a bonus. I drop them off my copy when transferring over to the iPhone.