Although the HBO/Max series Painting With John concluded its third season on July 7, only to be unceremoniously canceled by the network a little over a month later, the series’ story isn’t quite over yet: John Lurie has announced the impending release of the soundtrack to Painting With John, a 56-track double-album set which includes not only original material written for the series but also classic recordings from throughout Lurie’s discography.
The soundtrack, which will be released through Lurie’s own label imprint, Strange & Beautiful Music, will be released digitally as well as on limited-edition, two-LP, 180-gram vinyl.
The cover art for the upcoming soundtrack to 'Painting With John,' composed by John Lurie
For those unfamiliar with Lurie’s long and illustrious career, he first found fame as saxophonist and co-founder – along with his brother, pianist Evan Lurie – of the Lounge Lizards, a group whose music was once described by Robert Palmer of the New York Times as “staking out new territory west of Mingus, east of Bernard Herrman.” The band played around New York City and elsewhere from 1978-1998, effectively closing up shop after their fourth and final studio album, 1998’s Queen of All Ears.
Also of note: The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits, ostensibly a posthumous collection of an African-Jewish musician, but in reality a character – and album – completely constructed by Lurie, and one which led to a second album in 2017, Marvin Pontiac: The Asylum Tapes. Additionally, while still part of the Lounge Lizard, the John Lurie National Orchestra released their lone album, 1993’s Men With Sticks.
But then there’s also Lurie’s film and television work, which includes writing not only soundtracks and scores, including the theme to Late Night with Conan O’Brien, but also acting in such films as Permanent Vacation, Stranger Than Paradise, Paris, Texas, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Last Temptation of Christ, Mystery Train, and Wild at Heart, among others. And lest we forget, in 1991 Lurie got his first TV series, IFC’s Fishing with John, a celebrity fishing show (including guests like Tom Waits and Willem Dafoe) which – although it only ran for six episodes – made enough of an impact that it was released in its entirety as part of The Criterion Collection.
Unfortunately, after the conclusion of Fishing with John, Lurie contracted a particularly bad case of Lyme disease, one which – to use the phrase from the press release for the soundtrack – “turned sound and light into elemental enemies.” It was so bad that, in Lurie’s own words, “After the illness started, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do this again.”
And yet Lurie persevered: he moved to the Caribbean, he wrote a memoir (History of Bones), he started a new career as a watercolor painter, and – you guessed it – he got a new TV series, Painting with John, which gave him a chance both to show off his paintings as well as to offer more of the unique insights into life that he provided with his previous series.
Oh, yeah, and Lurie also recorded some music for the show, too. The process of writing and recording new music was something he hadn't done in years, but he made the most of it. As he said in the press release, "This may be the last thing I do. I want it to be beautiful.”
You can order the soundtrack by clicking right here.
Here's the full track listing...and in case you're wondering which is our favorite song title, it's a tie between #38 and #54. Feel free to offer your favorite(s) in the comments.
Track Listing:
1. Painting with John: New Opening
2. African Swim: Main Titles
3. Al Al Al Al
4. Goodbye to Peach
5. Floating Clarinet
6. Temple of Banjos
7. My Little Garden Gnome
8. Flutter
9. Driving into Country
10. Ali Hum
11. Small Car
12. Pygmy with Dog Barks
13. Wah Wah
14. I hope she is okay
15. I don’t like to stand on line
16. Banjo to The Fuzzy
17. Bird Rules The Herd
18. Old Man Dancing
19. Banjo Delightful One
20. Unky G
21. Cowboy Beckett Ocarina
22. Boomba
23. Dervish Banjo
24. Vibe Whoops
25. Unbelievable
26. Hog Head Blue
27. Hum Ba
28. Banjo Delightful 3
29. Floating Nesrin
30. Habba Happatoo
31. John & Calvin Wah Wah
32. A Goat says Fuck
33. Hermits Unite
34. Detective Erik Muspaterre
35. John Gun Walk
36. Sea Monster
37. Beastliness
38. These are not the dots that connect it, those are the other dots.
39. Lighter Dervish
40. Helium Balloon
41. The Emperor of Cameldom
42. Nesrin’s Gun Walk
43. Cowboy Beckett Jaunty Guitar with Hoo Hahs
44. Disappearing Alligator
45. Banjo Confusion
46. Baby Pigs
47. Episode 5 with Clapping
48. The Beast
49. The Explosion
50. The Snake that protects teeth
51. Ride like the wind, you idiots!
52. The Night Hunters
53. GB-14
54. Once upon a time, there was something delightful
55. The First and Royal Queen
56. The Invention Of Animals
