Randy Holden :: Population II / Over The Edge

“A kid who rats on another kid…is a dead kid!” – Ritchie White (Matt Dillon in Over The Edge, 1979)

In terms of genre, when it comes to film, teenage rebellion/ennui is a veritable cottage industry. While it may go in and out of vogue, every decade seems to produce at least a couple of noteworthy films that capture the current zeitgeist. Rebel Without A Cause, Richard Linklater’s Dazed And Confused and Pump Up The Volume immediately come to mind, as does Jonathan Kaplan’s 1979 film Over The Edge—aka, actor Matt Dillon’s first onscreen performance. Perhaps the ultimate (and by ultimate I mean completely and utterly over the top) teen rebellion flick, Over The Edge takes the whole us VS. them (you know, “parents“, “the man“) angle to new heights, all soundtracked by era-appropriate acts such as the Cars, Cheap Trick, the Ramones, etc.

But what does any of this have to do with Randy Holden? Well nothing, really, except that I recently revisited both the film and Holden’s solo album, Population II in quick succession. And they made sense together. Taking them in back to back I came to the quick conclusion that the former could absolutely be scored by the latter. Population II, Holden’s gnarled solo joint after splitting form Blue Cheer, in all its sludgy 70s–stoner–psychedelic–guitar glory, was practically made to serve as fodder for the film. Example: check out the 1979 trailer, below, and have a listen; together or separately.

Elsewhere: Over The Edge: An Oral History of the Greatest Teen Rebellion Movie of All Time

MP3: Randy Holden :: Between Time
MP3: Randy Holden :: Fruit & Iceburgs (Conclusion)
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8 thoughts on “Randy Holden :: Population II / Over The Edge

  1. Over the Edge was awesome!! But that shot is not from Over the Edge it’s from another awesome film Little Foxes!

  2. Little Darlings. Not Little Foxes 😉 Little Foxes is an old Bette Davis film. Foxes was the Jodie Foster/Cherrie Currie movie of about the same time.

  3. I’m just here to represent Pump Up The Volume. It’s this movie that led me to run my own pirate radio station for a couple of years. Long live that movie…

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