Review: 'Planet Wax: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Soundtracks on Vinyl'

There have been a lot of compilations of album cover art, and they’re usually good for a flip-through but lack focus and insight. Planet Wax: Sci-Fi/Fantasy Soundtracks on Vinyl is in a whole other universe. Collecting the covers of sci-fi and fantasy soundtracks, Aaron Lupton and Jeff Szpirglas’s new book has a specific focus and is atypically enlightening.

Farewell, Anita Pallenberg

Despite her work as a model and actress who appeared in such groovy items as Performance, Barbarella, and an episode of Absolutely Fabulous (in which she played the Devil against Marianne Faithfull's God), Anita Pallenberg will forever be known as the woman who made Keith Richards seem tame. Her life was well-lived but rocky. She endured an abusive relationship with Brian Jones before getting involved with Richards. Her drug-abuse rivaled that of her mate's. The death of the infamous couple's infant son Tara drove a wedge between them that caused a permanent split after Pallenberg's 17-year old boyfriend Scott Cantrell killed himself in her and Richards' bed in 1979. 

In the early eighties Pallenberg worked hard to get sober, and despite a couple of relapses, continued on while mostly choosing to remain outside of the public eye with occasional returns such as her Ab Fab appearance and work as a DJ. Yesterday, Pallenberg died at the age of 73. Her Rock & Roll adventures will surely continue to be the stuff of myth for years to come.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 118

The Date: January 26

The Movie: Barbarella (1968)

What Is It?: Jane Fonda zips through space in sexy outfits and engages in self-consciously campy antics with David Hemmings, Anita Pallenberg, and Marcel Marceau. Maybe you can’t expect great cinema from Roger Vadim’s comic-book adaptation, but you can expect marvelously dated music and special effects, a truly scary sequence involving killer dolls, and unforgettable turns from Fonda, Hemmings, and “Pretty Pretty” Pallenberg (though, not her voice).

Why Today?: On this day in 1928, Roger Vadim is born.