Scottish stage and screen actor, comedian, director, producer and author Alan Cumming hardly needs any introduction. We were more than delighted when he agreed to curate ARgENTUM’s December Soundtrack through the lens of the REBEL ~ an archetype Alan accepted with unabashed glee.
As he spoke from his New York apartment on taking on the role of Artistic Director of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in the foothills of the Scottish Highlands, had he finally joined the establishment? Not a bit of it. He intends to elevate provincial to global, incubating world-class productions in the heart of Perthshire and then taking them to London or Broadway. His ambitions have caused quite a stir, eliciting comments such as “his appointment is a shot in the arm for Scottish theatre”.
A creative and artistic polymath, back in the US, he balances his high-profile persona with flights to Upstate New York and DJ’ing Downtown in his club. And, as you will see from his notes on his inimitable soundtrack, getting down and dancing has been a crucial part of this REBEL’s journey that started in the 70s. Oh yes. “You know you’re getting old when they remake films you were in while you are still alive!”
Babooshka - Kate Bush
Kate Bush made me feel not as much a weirdo as I thought I was. As a teenager in the 70s, she was a bit of a lifeline and inspiring. Babooshka is a great song about a wife tricking her husband by sending him letters from a supposedly younger woman and testing his fidelity. She used a fusion of pop and originality to highlight fascinating subjects and completely expanded everyone’s idea of what was possible with a pop song. She was an authentic maverick ~ absolutely a REBEL.
Glittering Prize - Simple Minds
This takes me back to 1982 when I was at drama school in Glasgow, feeling so liberated and excited and awed by the fact that I was dancing to music played by a big Scottish band! As Phil says to Spanky in John Byrne’s The Slab Boys, “When you’ve got a wardrobe full of clothes, you’ve got everything to live for!”
Dignity - Deacon Blue
This was 1988, and The Conquest of the South Pole had transferred from the Traverse Theatre to The Royal Court in London, and that kind of changed my life quite a lot ~ I was suddenly in a play in the West End and nominated for an Olivier Award. I guess that’s why we moved to London. I was staying in my agent’s house in Kensington, and I used to come home and listen to that Deacon Blue Raintown album on my little Walkman. I just loved that song so much ~ it has got a very REBEL spirit to it ~ it’s about a street cleaner who works for the council and is going to save his money and buy a little boat up on the West Coast and sail it… He’s got this dream about how he will get away from everything. I think it’s such a Scottish aspirational thing because it’s not about money and big shiny things; it’s about a beautiful, free, natural and mystical experience. To get away from it all ~ and it keeps him going. I feel like that ~ I have a couple of sanctuaries in the world that act as this calming thing. I just have to think about them and that I will be there one day. I realise how lucky I am and that all the stuff I do allows me to have those things ~ so I really understand the song in that respect.
Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
This band was in the early to mid-90s and was a really interesting sound to me. They were dancey and fun ~ sort of funk meets indie ~ I just loved that and thought they were so clever. I was living in London in my late 20s, and after the break-up of my first marriage, I became a bit more of a club kid… So, this is evocative of a time when I loved dancing and felt free. Their big album was Space Cowboy, and they were a kind of a stoner, funky fusion of black and white culture. It was a new phase of my life. I’d just done Cabaret and Hamlet and had started doing films that were shot in the UK but became big in America, and that was how I ended up going there.
Do You Take It - The Wet Spots
I met them in the early 2000s when I was making loads of films in Vancouver. I had a circle of friends there as I went so often. The Wet Spots were a band I got to know; I heard their music and thought it was hilarious. It’s such brilliant loungey, clever music with great harmonies, musically very tight. Lounge music was a big thing in the early 2000s ~ and then, of course, these dirty, dirty lyrics. I loved that. I put this on some days when I do concerts. We give them a playlist as people come in, and I hear people chatting when I’m backstage and you hear the song, and of course, they have no idea what the song’s about as they’re buying their programme. I love the rebellious spirit of that, using a form and having a subversive message.
Get On Up, I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine - James Brown
I’ve always known this song, but I just love it ~ it’s so freeing. When I went to New York to do Cabaret on Broadway, I experienced a sort of renaissance in my life. I was in a new city, I was very comfortable with myself, I had sorted myself out, and I embraced my party, sexual, hedonist side in a way I hadn’t before. I always associate this song with when you want to be sexy, and you want to feel sexy, and I was doing a job in which my whole purpose was to be a sex machine (as MC). So, I always think of that as part of that time; the confluence of my life, work, and situation all meant that I was very free, and it made me better in the role than I had been in London. My life changed in a lovely way, so James Brown was my soundtrack to that. When I DJ, I always put this song on. It’s a song that doesn’t progress very much; it sticks and has a riff that keeps repeating ~ it’s a groove, and I really like it.
Under Pressure - Queen, David Bowie
This one is an evergreen ~ it’s one of these songs you put on, and everybody goes, ‘Oh great’, but then it’s got such a build, I love a builder of a song. You know, there’s more, then there’s a key change and another bit. It’s got this ascending thing that people love ~ it makes people feel abandon. It’s got this great message ~ I’m going to be set free from this pressure.
Never Gonna Not Dance Again - P!nk
This is relatively recent; I’ve become obsessed with this song in the last couple of years. I love P!NK! Her whole persona within the pop star world is quite rebellious, bolshy and edgy. The double negative is such a stupid title, really ~ everything your English teacher told you not to write. Basically, it just means you’re gonna dance. If somebody asked you not to dance, it’s like **** that I’m gonna dance. A lot of her songs are like that ~ it’s like, ‘Look at me, I’m a rock star’. This song is all about giving everything: my dog, my drinks, my nights out ~ I’d give everything away, but I’ll never stop dancing. And I love that ~ I think dancing is a rebellious thing, a form of resistance and joy ~ a way of protest and resistance, losing it and having abandon on the dance floor. This song really makes me do that. It’s a mesmeric builder.
Can’t Stop The Feeling - Justin Timberlake
Again, this is another, a few years earlier than P!NK (2016). It was a part of the Trolls film, a kids’ film I didn’t see, and it’s on the soundtrack. It’s about not being able to resist the urge to let go. It’s in the same spirit of dancing and abandon. We can’t stop our feelings; we can monitor and hide them, but we can’t stop them. So, it’s like saying, ‘I can’t stop this feeling, so I’m going to dance!’ I love abandon ~ it’s such a great state to be in, and I feel it is very important to be able to access it quickly, easily, and regularly. I think, as Scots, we’re very good at understanding the value of letting go… When a bunch of Scots get together, we have a hooley and let go. You talk, drink, dance, and tell stories, and we don’t have any shame about that.
Slave To The Rhythm - Grace Jones
Oh! This is from 2000. In 2000, I made a film in Berlin ~ it was such a great experience. I was making a film called Investigating Sex. I always loved this song ~ but this was a very hedonistic time, and I would go out to clubs a lot in Berlin. A few of us went out and arrived in the middle of the night at this disused factory and went past crumbling walls to this spot where there was this incredible wall of sound and people dancing, and all of a sudden, it was the really extended remix of Slave To The Rhythm. We were so lost in the dance ~ it was just an amazing moment. It has such a great association for me. That moment of absolute release ~ and I was a slave to the rhythm.
Non, Je Regette Rien - Edith Piaf
I put this song on at parties and let everybody sing along because nobody knows all the words, but they know what it means and the passion behind it. She’s the ultimate REBEL, I think. She was constantly battling against society’s norms. She was just a fighter ~ this weird little creature who captured everyone’s hearts because of the passion and authenticity in her voice. And I love it because it’s a good palette cleanser when you’re dancing. When I’m DJ’ing, I think, OK, give them a rest and have a moment to feel the passion and say, ‘No, I don’t regret anything’ and that itself is a rebellious act.
F*** You - Lily Allen
I just love this because of the sentiment and the emotion behind this lovely, sweet little pop song, which is actually saying, ‘F*** you’ with your hateful and antagonistic ways. It was very ahead of its time, actually ~ saying we’re in a culture war because you have these opinions. Just be kind and nice. Just love one’s fellow human beings, and we’ll be alright. I love how cute it is and singing along to it with a big crowd of people. When I did Cabaret again in 2014, I would play it every single night in my dressing room, and everyone loved it. It’s such a great song to sing as a group and sing what you can’t say in real life.
So… This is my REBEL soundtrack!
Listen to the REBEL Soundtrack, curated by Alan Cumming:
