''The Top of His Head'' is a

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

improvisor Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

, of the 1989 Canadian

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film, '' The Top of His Head''. Frith wrote and composed all the music, with the exception of "This Old Earth", which was written and sung by

Jane Siberry Jane Siberry ( ; ; born 12 October 1955) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, known for such hits as " Mimi on the Beach", "I Muse Aloud", "One More Colour" and "Calling All Angels". She performed the theme song to the television series ''Maniac Ma ...

, and a

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

of "

The Way You Look Tonight "The Way You Look To-night" is a song from the film ''Swing Time'' that was performed by Fred Astaire and composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics written by Dorothy Fields. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1936. Fields remarked, " ...

". The music was recorded at l'Office National du Film, Montreal, Quebec, Canada in August and September 1988, and was released on LP and CD in 1989 by the Belgian

independent label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

, Crammed Discs. The CD release contained two extra tracks, "Driving to the Train" and "The Long Drive". Siberry's song, "This Old Earth", was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1990 Genie Awards. Siberry rerecorded the song as "Something About Trains", and it appeared on her 1989 album ''

Bound by the Beauty ''Bound By the Beauty'' is a 1989 album by Jane Siberry. It received better reviews than her previous album, ''The Walking'', and the title track received more extensive radio airplay than Siberry had seen since "One More Colour" in 1985. The tr ...

''.

Reception

In a review at AllMusic, Ted Mills described ''The Top of His Head'' soundtrack as " less aggressive work compared to rith'sother releases, though not exactly gentle by any means." Mills said the atmosphere of the album is "moody", and many of the tracks include "synthesizer and guitar drones", and "industrial environmental collages". The exception is Siberry's "This Old Earth", which Mills felt comes across as "an almost normal song". Nicole V. Gagné wrote in her 1990 book, ''Sonic Transports: New Frontiers in Our Music'' that ''The Top of His Head'' has "some of the strongest pieces Frith has ever made". She called "Driving to the Train" "astounding", and described the two guitars on "Gus Escapes" as "one of the most memorable duets of any Frith recording". Gagné was pleased to see the return of humour on the album after its absence on ''

The Technology of Tears ''The Technology of Tears (And Other Music for Dance and Theatre)'' is a double album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It is the first of a series of Music for Dance albums Frith made, and is sometimes subtitled ''Music ...

'', but added that "you can feel a dark undercurrent, the frustrated inarticulacy of '' Speechless''".

Track listing

All tracks composed by

except where stated.

LP release

CD release

:♯ donates bonus tracks

Personnel

– all other instruments, machines, radios, tapes, programming *Anne Bourne – cello, accordion * Jean Derome – saxophones *

– voice, guitar ("This Old Earth"), accordion ("This Old Earth") *Christie Macfadyen – voice *

Ken Myhr Ken Myhr is a Canadian musician and composer. He is most noted for his work on the film '' The Accountant of Auschwitz'', for which he won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Music in a Non-Fiction Program or Series at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards ...

– slide guitar ("This Old Earth") * Peter Mettler – additional tapes, influence, advice Source: Liner notes

References

Works cited

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Top of His Head, The Albums produced by Fred Frith Fred Frith soundtracks 1989 soundtrack albums