Welcome to another round of RANDOM MUSIC REVIEW JANUARY, in which I try to grab one random album, compilation or EP from my collection and write a review about it. Any bets how long I will last? This is day two!
I love the „Song from and inspired by the motion picture“ compilation. It’s an odd kind of subgenre (?) that brought me lots of joy over the last few decades. Even if you might get a headache when you try to figure out what exactly the idea behind certain compilations was, apart from having a marketable movie tie-in.
One of those cases is the soundtrack for THE FLINTSTONES, the 1994 live action version of the classic cartoon. The movie has its qualities. For example the look. Seeing the whole cartoon world brought to live like that, is even today still amazing. I think we can all agree that John Goodman and Rick Moranis are perfectly cast as Fred and Barney. And even my straight-as-women-of-her-generation-come mother admitted that Halle Berry is sexy as hell in this one. Sure, the rest of the movie is more on the mediocre side, but that’s not the topic here.
No, obviously the real topic is the soundtrack, which was called MUSIC FROM BEDROCK and unites 13 more or less Flintstones and stone age related tracks on one disc. Which brings us back to the „What exactly was the idea behind this?“ part.
My suspicion is that the studio thought: „Okay, we have this major motion picture event that will appeal to children and nostalgic parents, but what do we do to also get some money from the teenagers who will feel too cool to watch such a movie?“ The answer was putting a soundtrack together with a bunch of hip and hot bands from that time. Spoiler: I wouldn’t put it in my all-time favourite soundtrack category, but it’s a nice listen.
Obviously the best known song is a cover version of the cartoon theme, done by The B-52s who go here by the name The BC-52s. If you know the show, you know that this is exactly the kind of dumb joke that would happen on there. And The B-52s are the perfect band to cover the theme! Now I do have to admit that this band is sadly one of the bigger blindspots in my music knowledge. I know a few songs from them. Mostly their hits. But I don’t think you have to be a superfan to agree that handing the iconic theme song over to the B-52s makes absolutely sense! Their version was a pretty big hit although mostly in Europe. In the US it only went to Nr 33, but for example in Germany it reached Nr 9. Even Nr 2 in Belgium and Nr 3 in the UK! That’s cool!
The 2nd track of the album is already a headscratcher. Stereo MCs provide a song named HUMAN BEING (BEDROCK STEADY). Musically this is the complete opposite of the Flintstones theme. That one was, and I don’t mean it in a demeaning way, kitshy and corny, but also fun. It absolutely fit the tone of the movie. HUMAN BEING (BEDROCK STEADY) has more of an alternative vibe. Stereo MCs had their biggest hit, CONNECTED, two years earlier, in 1992 and this song here feels a bit similar. Not in the „next song after a smash hit“ kind, where it sounds like a cheap copy though. I guess this might be just the Stereo MCs style of that time.
I however am not a Stereo MCs expert, but what I know from them is pretty versatile. And I love their DJ Kicks mix! This song here seemed to be soundtrack exclusive. My research couldn’t find it on any other singles or albums. Now I’m not saying that this was made for this movie. It might have been just an unused song that was slapped on this compilation just because. And it’s a good song, but outside of that BEDROCK STEADY subtitle, there is nothing that connects it with the Flintstones! Let me quote parts of the lyrics here:
We gotta break up
Send it away
We gotta break up
Send it away
We gotta break up
The way we behaved
We gotta break up
But a state of grace
We’re hard and we’re crazy
Our minds are so hazy
We’re burning up
Like volcano under daisy
Yeah
They say I’m lazy
But they won’t faze me
No
I have no doubt
‚Cause we’re going roundabout
You could twist the song into a certain relation to the way Fred behaves in the movie. He starts out doing something incredibly selfless for Barney and Betty, then becomes an arrogant jerk and forgets about his friends. Humans are complicated and I guess they also were already in the stone age. Maybe this is what the song is about? It’s a good one. Just not something that I would put on a Flintstones soundtrack. I’m sure it wasn’t even called BEDROCK STEADY until it landed on here!
Up next are My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. Another band whose inclusion makes no sense, except for my „We have to sell it to the teens“ theory. Even though the song is good. It is called HIT & RUN HOLIDAY. And maybe it got on there because of its kinda ironic sixties vibe? Which seems kinda fitting for a movie based on a 60s TV show? HIT & RUN HOLIDAY was also the title of their album that was released the following year. And what I think is really funny is that this song was released as a single, with a Flintstones themed cover! Maybe I’m alone with this, but reading MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT, HIT & RUN HOLIDAY and FROM THE FLINTSTONES on the same CD cover, made me laugh loud!
Thrill Kill Kult were no strangers to soundtracks though. They already appeared on the Cool World soundtrack and in the same year as The Flintstones they also had a song on one of the most iconic soundtrack compilations ever! The one for THE CROW! Which is in my opinion a more fitting setting for a band like this, although, yes, I like HIT & RUN HOLIDAY! It’s a cool summer song, IMO.
But again, the lyrics? I’m just saying it’s strange that they promoted a kids movie with a song that features the line „Little hit and run heroin“. Maybe they are singing heroine, with an e at the end, like female hero. It’s for me, who only speaks English as a second language, a bit hard to get from the context. Both seem to work. And I guess heroine with an e makes it more family appropriate. But maybe it’s one of those cases where the band lied to the censors to get their song through. Like when the Chemical Brothers told everybody that that one line in ELEKTROBANK goes „Who is this doing this synthetic type of alpha beta psychadelic funkin’“ although it is actually fuckin’?
Anyway, this is also the only song on the soundtrack that has absolutely NOTHING to do with The Flintstones or the stone age. The Stereo MCs song had at least the name of the Flintstone’s home town in the title, but this? Nothing.
And we finish the first 1/3 of the soundtrack with Shakespears Sister feat The Holy Ghost. I remember Shakespears Sister as a more gothy, theatrical band, thanks to their two hits STAY and HELLO (TURN YOUR RADIO ON). So it surprised me to hear them with a song that has a more upbeat, Reggae feel. I couldn’t find anything about The Holy Ghost though. Discogs tells me that he, if it was a he and not a band name, was featured only on this one song, never released anything else EXCEPT an album in 2019 and another one in 2023. ButI suspect that’s another Holy Ghost and someone just added these albums to the wrong artist by accident.
Anyway, their song, called PREHISTORIC DAZE, was produced by the one and only Dave Stewart, who will most likely forever be remembered as the male part of Eurhythmics, despite being a quite prolific producer in his own right. And the lyrics explicitly reference a Freddy Boy and a Barney whose last name rhymes with trouble.
So to recap: We are four songs into the soundtrack and except for the very obvious theme tune, this is the first one that can be recognized as part of the Flintstones soundtrack, when you hear it out of context.
The rest of the soundtrack is almost exclusively pre-existing music. Almost. The first one of that kind comes from Big Audio Dynamite, which was a band that was founded by Mick Jones after he got kicked out of The Clash. They cover ROCK WITH THE CAVEMAN, originally sung by a guy named Tommy Steele, who is usually referred to as Great Britain’s first Rock & Roll star. Sadly this is one of those covers that are pretty disappointing, because they are just replaying it, without trying to make it their own.
US3 and Def Jef made an actually exclusive song together, named I SHOWED A CAVEMAN HOW TO ROCK. You might remember US3 from their 1992 hit CANTALOUPE. I would actually call their song „Nerdcore“. I assume that Def Jef is a Flintstones nerd, based on the lyrics. The song is about how he hung out in Bedrock and partied with the Flintstones and the Rubbles. He even references Joe Rockhead, one of the more obscure-ish characters in the Flintstones Canon. Probably not to avid watchers of the show, but he obviously never got the same mainstream appeal as the main characters or even the motherfucking Great Gazoo.
The B(C)-52s cover another Flintstone song. This time THE BEDROCK TWITCH, which is really popular among fans from what I could gather. On the show it was sung by Fred in an episode where Fred had to impersonate a famous rock star for sitcom shenanigans.
Within the movie this song even gets some prominent screen time, as the center of a party scene, complete with a choreographed dance number and the BC-52s performing on stage. By the way, just like PREHISTORIC DAZE from earlier, this one here has a prominent producer. None other than Nile Rodgers worked on it.
And that was really the last original song on here. After that we have I WANNA BE A FLINTSTONE, a rockabilly style song from The Screaming Blue Messiahs, who David Bowie was a huge fan of back in the days. The incredibly underrated Crash Test Dummies sing in IN THE DAYS OF THE CAVEMAN about how the lead singer goes on a camping trip and wonders how everything that he is doing for fun right now, was normal for the cavemen. Good song, but in my opinion not the one that I would pick if I would try to convince you that they didn’t deserve their one hit wonder status.
Talking about one hit wonders: Green Jelly of THREE LITTLE PIGS fame sing a cover of ANARCHY IN THE UK, but with the lyrics changed to contain Flintstone references. Interesting enough, the song was originally released as ANARCHY IN BEDROCK until William Hannah and Joseph Barbera sued, because they believed it was mocking their creation. So that it ended up on here either means they softened their stance on it or they had no say on the soundtrack. Fun song, but dumb. Although Green Jelly wore their shittiness as a badge of honor. And of course there is also WALK THE DINOSAUR on it! One year earlier a George Clinton cover was on the soundtrack for SUPER MARIO BROS, but we get here the original by Was (Not Was). Do I have to say anything about this song? Come on!
And before the song ends with a piece of the movie’s score, Weird Al Yankovic sings BEDROCK ANTHEM, a mix of Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ UNDER THE BRIDGE and GIVE IT AWAY. Fun, but hardly his best work. Still, it’s funny that he made that song because he wanted to be ahead of the curve when he heard that a Flintstones movie was in the making. Not sure if he was actually planning to have it on the soundtrack, but it worked out well for him.
Okay, all in all this is a very enjoyable soundtrack. It has this mild alternative edge that a lot of music had in the early 90s. Nothing too complicated or innovative for the charts and the top 40 radios, but also not half-assed for maximum commercial appeal. The BC-52s songs are the clear highlights, but all exclusive songs are actually pretty cool. And so are the non-exclusive songs, although they are not really as memorable for some reason. At least in my opinion.
As a whole I would give THE FLINTSTONES: MUSIC FROM BEDROCK a clear „Buy it if you find it at the thrift store“ recommendation.