Listen to the City

Last updated
Listen to the City
Directed by Ron Mann
Screenplay byBill Schroder
Ron Mann
Produced by Ron Mann
Starring
Cinematography Rene Ohashi
Edited by Elaine Foreman
Music byGordon Deppe
Release date
  • 1984 (1984)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Listen to the City is a 1984 Canadian drama film directed by Ron Mann. [1] [2] Normally a documentary filmmaker, this is Mann's only fictional feature. [1] The film stars P.J. Soles, Jim Carroll, Sandy Horne, and Michael Glassbourg. Featured in small or cameo roles are such notable Canadian counter-culture figures as poets Barrie Phillip Nichol and Barry Callaghan, politician Jack Layton, playwright Sky Gilbert, and radio broadcasters Pete Griffin and Geets Romo. [3]

Contents

Plot

Hupar (Jim Carroll) wakes up from a 20-year coma. Disoriented, he soon meets Arete (Sandy Horne), a young poet, and Sophia (P.J. Soles), a TV newswoman. Together, the three team up to expose corporate crime in a crumbling cityscape of the very near future.

Cast

Production

Bill Schroder and Ron Mann wrote the script in six days and filmed it in twelve days. The film cost $150,000. Scenes with Martin Sheen were shot, but he was edited out of the film. [4]

Soundtrack

Listen to the City
ListenToTheCity.jpg
Soundtrack album by
Gordon Deppe; Spoons
Released1984
Genre
Length29:45
Label Ready
Producer
Spoons chronology
Talkback
(1983)
Listen to the City
(1984)
Bridges Over Borders
(1986)

The Listen to the City soundtrack album consists of the primarily instrumental score for the film, and was written, produced and performed by Gordon Deppe of the band Spoons. On two tracks, Deppe is joined by Sandy Horne as co-performer and co-composer; Horne co-starred in the film and was also a member of Spoons. [5] Rob Preuss, also of Spoons, assists on these two tracks. [5]

The album's final two tracks are actually performed by (and credited to) the Spoons as a whole. These songs, "Tell No Lies" and "Romantic Traffic", were both issued as singles in Canada; both charted and are among the band's most well-known hits in that country.[ citation needed ]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Performer(s)Length
1."Theme for a City (Opening Credits)"DeppeGordon Deppe2:46
2."Something Not Quite Right"DeppeGordon Deppe4:00
3."Sundown"
  • Deppe
  • Horne
  • Gordon Deppe
  • Sandy Horne
4:29
4."Then as Now"DeppeGordon Deppe1:16
5."A New World"DeppeGordon Deppe1:30
6."Take Me Walking"
  • Deppe
  • Horne
  • Gordon Deppe
  • Sandy Horne
3:44
7."Walk into the Wind"DeppeGordon Deppe2:08
8."Until Tomorrow (Closing Credits)"DeppeGordon Deppe2:07
9."Romantic Traffic"
  • Deppe
  • Preuss
Spoons3:34
10."Tell No Lies"DeppeSpoons4:11
Total length:29:45

Personnel

Tracks 1-8

  • Gordon Deppe — all instruments, except
  • Sandy Horne — vocals, bass guitar on 3 and 6
  • Rob Preuss — keyboards and rhythm machine on 3 and 6
Production personnel, tracks 1-8
  • Produced by Gordon Deppe
  • Engineered by Rick Lightheart and Brian Hewson
  • Recorded and mixed at Sound Path Studios, Oakville, Ontario

Tracks 9-10

  • Gordon Deppe — vocals, guitar
  • Sandy Horne — bass, vocals
  • Rob Preuss — electronic keyboards and piano
  • Derrick Ross — drums
Production personnel, tracks 9-10

Release

Spectrafilm, the film's distribution company, went out of business before its release. Listen to the City did not receive a theatrical release and Mann had $70,000 in debt due to its financial failure. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PJ Harvey</span> English musician (born 1969)

Polly Jean Harvey is an English singer-songwriter. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spoon (band)</span> American rock band

Spoon is an American rock band from Austin, Texas, consisting of members Britt Daniel, Jim Eno (drums), Alex Fischel, Gerardo Larios and Ben Trokan. The band was formed in Austin in October 1993 by Daniel and Eno. Critics have described the band's musical style as rock and roll, post-punk, and art rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tears Are Not Enough</span> 1985 single by Northern Lights

"Tears Are Not Enough" is a 1985 charity single recorded by a supergroup of Canadian artists, under the name Northern Lights, to raise funds for relief of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. It was one of a number of such supergroup singles recorded between December 1984 and April 1985, along with Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in the United Kingdom, USA for Africa's "We Are the World" in the United States, "Cantaré, cantarás" by a supergroup of Latin American and Spanish singers, Chanteurs sans Frontières's "Éthiopie" in France, and Fondation Québec-Afrique's "Les Yeux de la faim" in Quebec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spoons (band)</span> Canadian new wave band

Spoons is a Canadian new wave band, formed in Burlington, Ontario in 1979. They recorded several Canadian chart hits between 1982 and 1989, and in 1983, they were nominated for Most Promising Group of the Year at the Juno Awards. Their most popular songs include "Romantic Traffic", "Nova Heart", "Old Emotions", and "Tell No Lies".

Ronald Mann, credited professionally as Ron Mann, is a Canadian documentary film director.

<i>Collectible Spoons</i> 1994 greatest hits album by Spoons

Collectible Spoons is a greatest hits collection by the Canadian new wave band Spoons. It includes material from their first four albums on Ready Records, but ignores the next two albums, Bridges Over Borders and Vertigo Tango on Anthem Records. This CD is now out-of-print.

<i>Stick Figure Neighbourhood</i> 1981 studio album by Spoons

Stick Figure Neighbourhood is the debut studio album by Canadian new wave band Spoons, released 1981 by Ready Records. It received some airplay, and went to the top of the Canadian University radio charts, but it was their next studio album, Arias & Symphonies (1982) – and its best known single, "Nova Heart" – that were to bring them to prominence.

<i>Arias & Symphonies</i> 1982 studio album by Spoons

Arias & Symphonies is the second studio album by Canadian new wave band Spoons, released in October 1982 by Ready Records. It contains the highly successful singles "Nova Heart" and "Arias & Symphonies". It was first released on CD in 2000. In 2012, a 30th Anniversary Edition of the album was released on CD with bonus tracks, which are mostly live recordings from Barrymore's, Ottawa, October 26, 1982, originally recorded and broadcast by CHEZ-FM. The iTunes download version includes an extra "live CD" of their performance at the El Mocambo in Toronto, June 26, 1982, which was originally broadcast by CHUM-FM.

<i>Talkback</i> (album) 1983 studio album by Spoons

Talkback is the third studio album by Canadian new wave band Spoons. It was released in 1983 by Ready Records. The tracks that received airplay in Canada were "Old Emotions", "The Rhythm" and "Talk Back". A music video was also produced for "Old Emotions", directed by Rob Quartly. This is the first Spoons album produced by Nile Rodgers.

<i>L.A. Is My Lady</i> 1984 studio album by Frank Sinatra

L.A. Is My Lady is the fifty-seventh and final solo studio album by American singer Frank Sinatra, released in 1984 and produced by Quincy Jones. While the album was Sinatra's last, he recorded five further songs, only four of which have been officially released.

<i>Comic Book Confidential</i> 1988 film by Ron Mann

Comic Book Confidential is an American/Canadian documentary film, released in 1988. Directed by Ron Mann and written by Mann and Charley Lippincott, the film is a survey of the history of the comic book medium in the United States from the 1930s to the 1980s, as an art form and in social context.

"For Once in My Life" is a song written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden for Motown Records' Stein & Van Stock publishing company, and first recorded in 1965.

The following is a list of players, both past and current, who appeared at least in one game for the Miami Marlins franchise, known as the Florida Marlins from their inception in 1993 through the 2011 season.

Aldershot School is a grade 7–12 school located in Burlington, Ontario. Although the current school building was constructed in 1959-1960 and opened in 1961, the original Aldershot School was built in 1870, making the name the oldest in continual use for an educational institution in Halton.

<i>Unexpected Guest at a Cancelled Party</i> 2007 compilation album by Spoons

Unexpected Guest at a Cancelled Party is a compilation album of unreleased material by Canadian 80s new wave band Spoons. Named after the B-side to their "Talk Back" single, it was released independently by Spoons member Gordon Deppe in June 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romantic Traffic</span> 1984 single by Spoons

"Romantic Traffic" is a 1984 single by Canadian new wave band Spoons. It is from the soundtrack album Listen to the City from the movie of the same name. It was released in both 7" and 12" formats: on the former, it was the A-side, while on the latter it was the B-side.

<i>Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music</i> Musical

Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music was a 1981 Broadway musical revue written for and starring American singer and actress Lena Horne. The musical was produced by Michael Frazier and Fred Walker, and the cast album was produced by Quincy Jones. The well received show opened on May 12, 1981, at the Nederlander Theatre and after 333 performances, closing to go on tour on June 30, 1982, Horne's 65th birthday. Horne toured with the show in the U.S. and Canada and performed in London and Stockholm in 1984.

<i>Static in Transmission</i> 2011 studio album by Spoons

Static in Transmission is the eighth studio album by the Canadian new wave band Spoons. Released in early 2011 on CD and iTunes, it is their first album of new material in 23 years since 1988's Vertigo Tango.

<i>Vertigo Tango</i> 1988 studio album by Spoons

Vertigo Tango is the fifth studio album by Canadian new wave band Spoons, released in 1988 by Anthem Records.

<i>New Day New World</i> 2019 studio album by Spoons

New Day New World is the ninth studio album by the Canadian new wave band Spoons. It was released on 22 March 2019 on CD, vinyl, digital download, and through streaming. It is the band's first studio album in over eight years.

References

  1. 1 2 "Canadian Film Encyclopedia - Ron Mann". cfe.tiff.net. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  2. "2009 Focus On Ron Mann - Hot Docs". www.hotdocs.ca. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  3. Listen to the City (1984) - Rotten Tomatoes , retrieved 2021-05-26
  4. Posner 1993, p. 124.
  5. 1 2 "Gordon Deppe – Listen To The City (Original Soundtrack By Gordon Deppe Of Spoons)". Redrum Records. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
  6. Posner 1993, p. 124; 131.

Works cited