Music and movies

I'm watching Harold and Maude and thinking about music in movies. It started with The Graduate, more or less and continued with Easy Rider and by the early 1970s it took off. Recently I saw The Wicker Man and the songs were ridiculous, especially the one at the beginning.

So far in Harold and Maude the songs don't seem too out of place, but still. I always think about if i made a movie how I'd put some of my favorite songs in certain scenes, but at the same time I know it'd be wrong. Popular music only seems to work in movies like Goodfellas or The Departed. Can you imagine some song playing in The Godfather (I know there's that one scene with the piano but that works). Even in The Godfather Part III Elvis Costello's "Miracle Man" plays for a few moments but it isn't distracting ( I'll bet it was Sofia Coppola's choice to have that song play. By the way, I thought she was great in that movie ).

( I missed the first half hour of Harold and Maude and now it's halfway through- I hope I haven't missed "Trouble"- I wanna hear Cat Steven's version. )