Vanishing Point: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Vanishing Point is a 1971 American action film directed by Richard C. Sarafian, starring Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, and Dean Jagger. It focuses on a disaffected ex-policeman and race driver delivering a souped-up car cross country to California while high on speed ('uppers'), being chased by police and meeting various characters along the way. Since its release, it has developed a cult following.
Sarafian wanted to score the majority of the film from an album called Motel Shot by Delaney, Bonnie & Friends. Lionel Newman, head of Fox's music department at the time, denied Sarafian's request because the studio did not want to spend a substantial amount of money obtaining rights to the tracks. The director then suggested that musician Randy Newman score the film, but Fox refused this request as well.After watching the film, musical supervisor Jimmy Bowen wrote three original songs. Delaney, Bonnie & Friends ended up performing a musical number in the film.
A soundtrack of the film was released in the United States by Amos Records. The original vinyl album is long out of print. There have been reissues of the soundtrack compact disc in the United States by various record companies including A&M Records and in Europe by Amos Records.
Vanishing Point was the inspiration for Primal Scream's 1997 album of the same name. It is meant to be an alternative soundtrack to the film. Lead singer Bobby Gillespie said, "The music in the film is hippy music, so we thought, 'Why not record some music that really reflects the mood of the film?' It's always been a favourite of the band, we love the air of paranoia and speed-freak righteousness ... It's a pure underground film, rammed with claustrophobia". In addition, a track from the album was named "Kowalski" after the character from the film. The track also featured samples of Super Soul's "last American hero" speech from the film. Author Irvine Welsh scripted the video for "Kowalski" which was directed by musician Douglas Hart. The video features a Dodge Challenger and super model Kate Moss beating up the band.
Super Soul's "last American hero" speech was also incorporated into the lyrics of the Guns N' Roses song "Breakdown", from their album Use Your Illusion II (1991).
The film was the basis for Audioslave's music video "Show Me How to Live" (2004), directed by the AV Club and which included members of the band in the 1970 Challenger traveling across the desert, following the plot of the movie. Cleavon Little also appears in the video.