So here’s a question: can a gem really be “lost” if it was never officially available to begin with? That’s the case for the original soundtrack to the 1971 biker-sploitation flick Bury Me an Angel, featuring songs by East-West Pipeline. Never heard of that band? There’s a good reason for that – the group only existed for the recording of this and the Angels Die Hard original soundtrack.
When doing my research, I found some helpful blogs which had already done some of the grunt work on uncovering the mystery of this group and the great soundtrack to this film. The group’s drummer actually chimed in and gave a brief history of the group:
“I’m the drummer from the band East-West Pipeline. We started in Colorado as the “ Majic Mice” and moved to California where we played concerts and clubs under the name “ Bedlam”. “East-West Pipeline” was the name we assumed to use for soundtrack of Angels Die Hard and Bury Me an Angel. Right place, right time, right music, bad management and production….Bill Cone and I are the soul survivors of the group presently. …Ray Styes 7-21-2019.
I still do gigs in Colorado. Bill lives in Santa Monica and is a Dr. in the psychology field under the name of William Mathison. Bill travels world wide performing speaking engagements debunking UFO sightings and encounters.“
So this clears up why there’s so little information about the group, but sadly does not help much with getting these songs, a masterclass of classic 70’s rock n’ roll and road anthems, officially released. For whatever reason, the soundtrack to the movie was never given an official release, so the best you can do is find bootlegs online, and watch the film on Amazon to hear these great tunes.
Below is a taste of one of the tracks from the soundtrack. I actually emailed Light in the Attic records, who specialize in re-releasing long out-of-print, obscure albums, out of pure hope that they may be willing to do the leg work to try to give this thing a proper release (long shot I know – who knows if the masters are even still out there). Maybe one day someone will spend the time and money to make it a reality.
The Indy Review 