As you can guess, most of it was crap. But I did find a couple gems. One was a jewel case for Iron Maiden's Powerslave, which, instead, had the disc for Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Meh, still free.

But the real prize was a caseless copy of the soundtrack album from the movie Varsity Blues. I love that movie. Sure, it was a slightly hammy late 90s film about Texas high school football at a time when the film and television industry really loved Texas high school football. But I still can't get enough of it. I would go so far as to say that it is one of my favorite sports movies of all time.

Plus the film had some really great music in it and how can I say "no" to a free copy of the soundtrack? Check out this tracklist:

1. "Fly" - Loudmouth
2. "Nice Guys Finish Last" - Green Day
3. "My Hero" - Foo Fighters
4. "Run" - Collective Soul
5. "Are You Ready For The Fallout" - Fastball
6. "Horror Show" - Third Eye Blind
7. "Every Little Thing Counts" - Janus Stark
8. "Hot For Teacher" - Van Halen
9. "Ship Jumper" - Simon Says
10. "Kick Out The Jams" - Monster Magnet
11. "Black Eye" - Black Lab
12. "Two Faces" - Days Of The New
13. "Thunderstruck" - Sprung Monkey
14. "Teen Competition" - Redd Kross
15. "Varsity Blues" - Caroline's Spine

However, since there was no case or liner notes when I nabbed the disc, I wasn't entirely sure what music made the cut for the album. There was far too much music in the movie for a single-disc compilation. So I threw it in the CD player in my car (about the only place I have a working CD player anymore) and started listening.

Green Day? Good.

Foo Fighters? Always great.

Collective Soul? Nice.

Janus Stark? Not someone I'd ever heard of but I LOVE that song in the movie.

Van Halen? Awesomesauce.

After the VH song, though, I started listening to just the first few seconds of each track because I was looking for one song in particular... AC/DC's "Thunderstruck," which was one of my favorite musically accompanied scenes in the film, when the Coyotes football team gets their butts handed to them after a very late night out at a strip joint. That song is choreographed with some of the most brutal football imagery I've seen in a Hollywood production. And the song was seemingly nowhere to be found on the album.

After resigning myself to the song not being on the disc, I began listening a bit deeper to the songs I didn't know. That's when I found track 13. It didn't sound exactly the same, but about ten seconds in, it developed the distinct Angus Young hammer-on guitar work that marks the beginning of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." But it was off a bit. That's when I heard the voice kick in. A really horrendous screechy voice trying to belt out the song. It only got worse as the lead singer of this band, apparently called Sprung Monkey, mashed in some of the lyrics from the AC/DC hits "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" and "Big Balls."

Huh whaaaaa???

Oh, please, someone make it stop!!

Maybe I just don't understand the legalese that goes with the creation of soundtracks, but it seems to me that if a record label allows a song to be used in its original form in the movie, shouldn't it be available for the soundtrack album as well? And, if not, then why use it for such a key scene at all? Sure, it was a very well-chosen song and probably difficult to replace, but you gotta figure fans will be wanting the soundtrack for that song. In its original form. If you can't obtain rights for the soundtrack album, pick a different song entirely that you will have rights to for the album.

And not one by the band Sprung Monkey.

Dear. God. No.

My rating for the album? 4 of 5 stars if I can manage to mentally exclude the Sprung Monkey track. Clearly there was a reason it was number 13.