Kickboxer soundtrack

The soundtrack of Kickboxer is a difficult subject to research online. I've been looking around for a while now and I still haven't found a source for a CD. I know such a thing must exist as I've seen a picture of the CD cover on Youtube. During this post I'll post some links to Youtube videos that play the songs while displaying the cover so you'll get to see what it looks like. I don't particularly like the idea of posting links to video clips from Van Damme films. I'd much rather people purchased the DVD's in order to further fund our hero's acting career. But since the CD seems to be almost completely unavailable I don't mind linking to this content. While I'm on the subject I'd appreciate it if anybody who knows where to find copies of the soundtrack would post a link in the comments section.

The first song to feature in Kickboxer is The streets of Siam as performed by Stan Bush. Stan Bush holds a very special place in my heart which can be traced back to hearing Mark Wahlberg's cover of The touch in Boogie Nights. Stan Bush prattles on about winners, leaders and the sincere duty of following said leaders. It's an inspiring song that fills me with confidence with regard to Eric “The Eliminator” Sloane's chances in his upcoming match. In the film it's combined with an amusing montage that I mentioned in an earlier post.

Next up is Fight for love, again from Stan Bush. This is a melancholic and introspective number. I have no doubt that Kurt Sloane would have gladly listened to this song when searching his soul about whether or not to launch an ill-conceived vengeful and violent crusade against tiger economy gangsters. Again we are treated to an amusing montage where Kurt is inspired by statues of Buddha to launch said violent crusade.

Taylor steps in to re-establish the tempo by taking Kurt to a mellow strip bar. Here Terry Woods is screaming out How do you keep me comin' back. This song warped my childhood brain about what people in Thailand would consider to be sexy music. I've now accepted that this song may not be indicative of such tastes in such parts of the world. This song appears to be misrepresented on the credits as performed by Beau Williams. The singer of this song sounds female and completely different from the Beau Williams who sings later in the film. I'm happy to be corrected on this by anybody who knows better.

After all of the high tempo sexy music the mellow strip bar obviously identifies the need to cool Taylor down and plays Chack's Stew. It's a nice little instrumental number conducive to Taylor's baffling storytelling.

But just in case you forgot that Taylor was a “high-livin', slick-talkin', fast-walkin', cool-drinkin' dude” we are then treated to the harsh tasty beats that he rocks the tape deck in his van with. That is to say Roll with the punches performed by Michael Logan. For nearly twenty years I laboured under the misapprehension that this was actually called “Roll with the parties” and that it was there to make it crystal clear that Taylor was a wild card. All that it really represents is the dangers of an ex-pat falling out of touch with contemporary music trends.

After Kurt trains to some inspiring background music for a while he finds himself in a ghastly Thai bar where somebody saw fit to install a jukebox. The locals are busy brooding about protection rackets and listening to I won't stay performed by the delicately named Lucinda Ramseur. I can't blame them for all looking a bit down when this song is playing. After all it's about a woman who has forgiven her lover's adulterous indiscretions and is promising that she will forgive him again.

Fortunately Xian understands that we need something a bit more up tempo if our hero is going to showcase his dancing skills. Beau Williams, a poor man's James Brown, belts out the split inducing Feeling so good today. This is one of the stand out scenes in the film, if not Van Damme's entire career, and the genesis of his long standing love affair with dancing (if, that is, you don't count Breakin'). Thank you Beau Williams.

Again we are left with some more inspirational training music until the secret underground fight finishes. As you would expect the closing credits roll with some suitably reaffirming music supplied by Stan Bush. But somehow I'm never convinced that the indomitable sentiments of Never Surrender quite fit with the way that Kurt let Tong Po slap him around for several rounds. Nevertheless it is a pleasant high note to finish the film with and when the guitar kicks in and I see smiles creeping out from underneath the Team Kurt moustaches I'm always convinced that I've just seen a masterpiece.