FOOL FOR LOVE 1986 - I had only been living at the ranch in Santa Rosa for awhile. My dad died a year before. Sam called one day in April and said he'd like me to write some songs for the movie version of his play, FOOL FOR LOVE. He had begun production in Santa Fe and had played an old tape for Robert Altman of me singing - a tape that he'd been carrying around for years - some of my very first songs - "Wedding Band," "Man of My Dreams," "True Love," "You Lied Your Way Right Into My Heart, Honey. " He had played the darn tape for Robert Altman. Well, low and behold Altman went nuts. That tape had been recorded when I first started singing and playing the guitar and was, well, funky. Of course it was scratchy and missing some high end too by now. Well, of course, Robert Altman would love it.
I went immediately to the basement apartment to write songs for the movie. We'd just had a new filly born at the ranch out of Jesse's mare, Ruby. It was a beautiful time of year. I wrote "Let's Ride" and "Comes and Goes" and a song called "Elainey May" and got those off to Sam in three days. Sam called back right away and said he loved them, but couldn't understand what I was saying "moving with the move?" No, no, bro, "moving with the moon." "Oh, okay, that's good. " He would submit them to Altman. Altman loved those - and wanted more, wanted to see if I could do the whole soundtrack. I wrote "Rosa" "A Heart That's Broke" and "Why Wyoming" (with the help of Louise Kirchen) in another spurt and sent them off. Next - I should come back to the set in Santa Fe and meet everyone. So I flew to Santa Fe. Sam was living there at the time. I had just flown back a year before for my father's funeral.
Recording the Soundtrack , Picking the producer/engineer/studio - Jim Gaines at the Record Plant. Jim was a friend of my husband Doug Killmer (best bucket blues bassist alive). Jim produced Huey Lewis and Journey. Met with Gaines at his house and he listened to a few songs and was interested. So I recommended him to Altman. Cannon Films liked the idea of Gaines and so we were down to the wire. We had six new songs and I had always wanted to record "End of the World" - so that was 7. Altman wanted a title cut called "Fool for Love." I submitted a song that I now call "Four Letters in Blue" and the "Fool for Love" that appears in RESERVOIR DOGS and 3 more songs with that title. Altman didn't like any of them and he went ahead with "Let's Ride" for the title song. That is really the pick of the soundtrack album. "Black Sidewalk" was one from my song bank. Altman really liked it but couldn't fit it into the movie. It just appears on the album.
