The Music Of Red Shoe Diaries

MUSIC OF RED SHOES DIARIES (CD)
Wienerworld

Release date: June 26th, 1995
Running time: 48:39 minutes

Composer: George S. Clinton
Zalman King Official Site

As a teenager growing up in the early 90’s I was prone to channelling surfing into the early hours of Saturday or Sunday mornings. After everyone had gone to bed I’d have a few hours peace and quiet to myself and with Sky television channels that meant, along with a good dose of really bad 80’s horror, I was also treated to some adult entertainment too.

Not everything was of German origin though, I found myself addicted to the stories in this soft-core porn series. Yes, that’s right – the stories. Produced by the late Zalman King, who also directed some of the episodes as well, Red Shoe Diaries was unlike anything I had experienced up until then.

Jake Winters, played by a pre-X-Files David Duchovny, finds himself placing an ad in the newspaper. After the suicide of his fiancée and finding out she was having an affair, he now asks for women to send him their real-life stories so he can better understand why she did what she did. The letters they send him always begin the same way, “Dear Red Shoes”, the name he uses in the ad, after a salesman who sold his fiancée a pair of red high heels.

What struck me about The Red Shoe Diaries was that it felt so incredibly sensual. For a teenage boy that was as close to the real thing as I would get, for the time being at least. Part of what made the experience so exciting was the incredible music that accompanied the show.

Composed by George S. Clinton, the soundtrack features 11 pieces making the best use of piano, wind and string instruments. Together they make an excellent stand-alone collection and I was so lucky to find it one morning at Spitafields Market in the spring of 1997 for £1.50.

Since then I’ve never travelled anywhere without it and there have been many moments in my life the music of Red Shoe Diaries has become the soundtrack to. From the opening with Tango Negro, a song that builds slowly amidst the bass, piano and percussion to the rising crescendo of the accordion, to the melancholia of No Tuna, there’s a tinge of sadness and heartbreak in each note.

I remember the late summer nights in 1997, sitting on the balcony of my parents’ home and listening to Breakfast. It was the perfect song to accompany the moonlight, feeling the cool breeze and wondering what life has in store in the years to come. Seduced by the frenzied passion of Laundry with the faint beat of the tabla it then breaks to Chinatown which returns to the pensive mood of earlier songs like Midnight Bells and Izalco.

However, it’s the 8th track, Runway, that I was always in love with and it still feels the same way today as it did all those years ago. Beginning again softly with percussion before the melody is heard, played exquisitely on bass with the reverb turned up.

I would imagine my dreary world of East London disappearing as I pictured life in 10 or 15 years time, perhaps somewhere like Los Angeles or New York, as a businessman, maybe with one of those mobile phones with the long antennas and a filofax, drinking cocktails in bars and meeting someone, being free to fall in love.

My imagination would know no limits with the music of Red Shoe Diaries and thanks to shows like this, cheesy as it sounds, I was never afraid to go after my dreams.

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is an emerging artist with a philosophy degree, working primarily with pastels and graphite pencils, but he also enjoys experimenting with water colours, acrylics, glass and oil paints.

Being on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, he is stimulated by bold, contrasting colours, intricate details, multiple textures, and varying shades of light and dark. Patrick's work extends to sound and video, and when not drawing or painting, he can be found working on projects he shares online with his followers.

Patrick returned to drawing and painting after a prolonged break in December 2016 as part of his daily art therapy, and is now making the transition to being a full-time artist. As a spokesperson for autism awareness, he also gives talks and presentations on the benefits of creative therapy.

Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and science fiction, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

Patrick Samuel ¦ Asperger Artist

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