Amazing Stories: Anthology One
Produced and overseen by Steven Spielberg from 1985 through ’87, Amazing Stories was a lighthearted take on the anthology/playhouse series format that hadn’t been seen on television in two decades. There was no recurring cast of characters, and no connected stories – but unlike The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents or The Outer Limits, Amazing Stories was built on one prerequisite set by Spielberg – a sense of wonder and the fantastic, not the fatalistic. To this end, Spielberg – largely on the power of his own name – drew A-list Hollywood writing, acting and directing talent into his orbit for the show’s first season, and an absolutely stellar, unprecedented A-list of composers, a gathering of genius the likes of which – in all honesty, and not intended as hyperbole – we may never see again on one project.
We’re talking about composers who weren’t even “doing” TV anymore at this stage in their careers. We’re talking Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams and James Horner. We’re also talking composers who were on the brink of making it big – Danny Elfman, Bruce Broughton, and others. How the show looked and felt was up to the individual directors and cast members of each story, but Spielberg put the money up front from the word go to make sure that Amazing Stores would sound amazing.
Although a single-disc compilation of two Amazing Stories scores was released by Varese Sarabande a while back, it was obvious that there was room for more music from this series. Intrada stepped up to the plate with a trio of 2-CD collections, covering several episodes per set and presenting the widest variety of composers’ works possible. Though several episodes were still left out by the time the third and final volume was rolled out, the result is a much more comprehensive collection, sure to please fans of many of the major film composers of the 1980s and ’90s.
John Williams’ music from the first episode, Ghost Train, sits nicely alongside his movie scores from the same era (E.T., etc.), and for a relatively short suite of music (though it’s also every note he recorded for the episode), it all develops beautifully. Two scores with period flavorings follow, James Horner’s Alamo Jobe – which, whenever it breaks out of its western feel into something more traditionally contemporary, sounds like a lot of Horner’s other output from the ’80s – and Bruce Broughton’s more whimsical, century-spanning (and Mark Hamill-starring) Gather Ye Acorns. Georges Delerue’s wistful, low-key The Doll follows, but the next suite – a jarring selection from early Spielberg collaborator Billy Goldenberg’s score from The Amazing Falsworth – is an unsettling wake-up call after Delerue’s calm music.
The second disc opens with a 4-second “station ID bumper” version of John Williams’ main theme, and dives into the music from Moving Day, scored by David Shire, who, fresh from scoring 2010: The Year We Make Contact, brings synth collaborator Craig Huxley with him for some music that sounds remarkably similar to that movie at times. Delerue returns for Without Diana, a heartfelt score that oozes tragedy even without the accompanying visuals. Contrast is once more the name of the game as this is followed up by an early Danny Elfman score, Mummy, Daddy, dripping with the kind of wackiness and whimsy that would become his hallmarks. Hollywood pastiche is the name of the game for another Bruce Broughton score, Welcome To My Nightmare, which brings things to a close (well, technically the Amazing Stories end credit music does that).
Where sound quality is concerned, there are a few quirks that stem mainly from the material being recorded at the twilight of mono sound mixes for television: some of the recordings are in stereo, while others aren’t. But the quality of the recordings is rich and crisp, like the sessions were recorded just last week. The shortest episode suite on this volume is just under nine minutes in length, so the double CD set is more than justified, and the packaging and liner notes are top-notch and informative. Overall, the Amazing Stories collections may be the best thing indie soundtrack label Intrada has ever done, and they’re a treat for fans of the composers whose work appears here.
… Read moreDisc one
- Amazing Stories Main Title (1:02)
Ghost Train – music by John Williams
- Ohpa’s Arrival (0:30)
- Grieving Ohpa (1:17)
- Ohpa’s Tales (3:44)
- Ohpa Remembers (2:25)
- The Ticket (3:05)
- The Train Arrives (4:17)
Alamo Jobe – music by James Horner
- The Battle / Jobe Runs (3:01)
- Travis Dies (0:51)
- First Chase (3:43)
- Antique Shop (2:16)
Gather Ye Acorns – music by Bruce Broughton
- The Boy / The Gnome (4:34)
- 1938 Radio Source (1:42)
- Jonathan’s Room / The Car (0:48)
- Nothin’ But A Bum / 1955 / Tumbleweed Connection (2:50)
- Regrets (1:27)
- 1985 (0:51)
- Gas Station Source (2:58)
- Holy Moly! / Sow Ye Wild Oats (3:06)
The Doll – music by Georges Delerue
- Doll Shop Sign (1:08)
- The Carousel / Doll On Floor / Well, Miss… (3:12)
- A School Teacher (0:46)
- An Occasional Model (0:36)
- She’s Not Married / An O.S. Clunk / Door Opens (1:54)
- John Walks To Mantle (2:17)
The Amazing Falsworth – music by Billy Goldenberg
- Falsworth / Strangling / Retrospect (3:30)
- Leering / Frigity-Feet (0:30)
- Top Floor / Lights (0:53)
- All In The Fingers / Lunge (3:07)
- Falsworth (E.T.) (0:36)
Disc two
- Amazing Stories Bumper #1 (0:04)
Moving Day – music by David Shire
- Alan’s Dream (1:20)
- It’s Not The Same / Discovering The Room (1:37)
- My God! (2:40)
- Tonight / That’s Alturis (2:30)
- Your Ring (2:14)
- Departure (2:01)
- Finale (0:57)
Without Diana – music by Georges Delerue
- Park (1946) (1:44)
- Only Eight / Forest Walk (2:30)
- Sorry Policeman / Not By George Alone (2:33)
- George In Doorway / Diana’s Story (2:20)
- George Will Be (3:22)
Mummy, Day – music by Danny Elfman & Steve Bartek
- Mummy Movie / Baby Chase / Gas Station (3:21)
- Country Source (0:26)
- Gun Shot / Stinger / Swamp / Old Man / Real Mummy (3:35)
- Kung-Fu Mummy (1:00)
- Motorcycle / Caught (1:23)
- Lynching / Horse Ride (1:25)
- Corridors / Caught Again (0:27)
- Baby / Finale (1:30)
Vanessa In The Garden – music by Leonard Niehaus
- It’s Lovely / Whoa, Rock, Whoa / I Hurt Vanessa (1:47)
- Beautiful Portrait / Humming From The Garden (4:09)
- Vanessa’s Laughter / A Summer’s Day / Do It Together / Create A Life (4:07)
- Vanessa (piano with orchestra coda) (3:19)
Welcome To My Nightmare – music by Bruce Broughton
- Harry Wakes Up (2:00)
- Harry Takes A Shower / Horro Movie / Kate (1:57)
- Fraternity Of The Undead / Bad Milk (1:41)
- Harry & Kate (0:39)
- Harry’s Prayer / The Comet Theatre / Harry At The Movies (7:24)
- Back Home (2:13)
- Amazing Stories End Credits (0:29)
- Amblin Logo (0:15)
Released by: Intrada
Release date: 2006
Disc one total running time: 64:31
Disc two total running time: 70:33
It’s kinda sad, really, that in a careful listen to all of the Matrix franchise soundtracks post-dating the original movie, the biggest revelation turns out to be the quietly-released Animatrix soundtrack. Released along with the DVD in some deluxe packages and released on its own with almost no fanfare, the Animatrix CD contains the music from which the cues used in that collection of nine animated shorts was derived. Now, there’s no doubt that Don Davis is the sound of The Matrix saga for long-form feature films. But I listened to the soundtracks from Animatrix and The Matrix Revolutions back-to-back, and Animatrix is the one that begged for repeat play. In some ways, it’s almost unfair competition: Animatrix had such a wild variety of settings and environments, each crying out for their own unique sounds, that it’d be hard for a movie to keep up. But in that respect, it also resembles the original Matrix more – because wasn’t that movie’s music also a daringly diverse and yet paradoxically cohesive whole?
there for something really cool, but it falls just a little bit short…and yet there’s a fairly compelling energy that binds the whole disc thematically. I’ve got to give at least half the album a recommendation though – there’s something here for just about everyone, but that also means there’s undoubtedly at least one track that’ll rub someone the wrong way in a musical sense too. An interesting listen – and you can take that however you like.
Hailing from the landmark cartoon of the same name, Animaniacs bestows upon the show’s fans 16 songs from the early episodes of the show. There are some surprising omissions (namely the theme songs for the “sub-shows” that existed within the Animaniacs umbrella before being spun off themselves), and in many cases it becomes evident that the show’s best musical content hadn’t arrived yet.
(“Schnitzelbank”, anyone?), but thankfully they’re in the minority.
One of my few good memories about programming during the time I worked at a Fox affiliate in the early 1990s is Animaniacs, a Warner Bros.-produced cartoon with plenty of jokes that would fly in under the kids’ radar and give a big belly laugh (or maybe just a knowing smirk) to any adults who happened to be watching with their kids.
Alas, poor Andromeda. I really do feel bad about this show. I was among the first to pan it upon its premiere in 2000, but at the same time, I realize that it could’ve turned out better. Based on an unused outline by the late Gene Roddenberry, the show centers around Dylan Hunt (played by Kevin Sorbo, and inheritor of a character name that Roddenberry bestowed upon the lead characters of his Genesis II and Planet Earth pilots), the captain of the High Guard starship Andromeda Ascendant. The ship barely survives a huge uprising by a race which was thought to be among the High Guard’s allies, and flies too close to a black hole, changing the laws of time around the ship and leaving it in limbo for hundreds of years. A salvage ship’s crew retrieves the Andromeda Ascendant and awakens Captain Hunt in an age when the High Guard is no more and chaos reigns in the universe.
A month or three ago, I remember being a little annoyed at how similar most of the tracks sound on the soundtrack from Earth: Final Conflict. If that show’s producers wanted an example of how to make good, distinct music with an “alien” sound, they should’ve studied this gem from Fox’s critically-acclaimed, fan-adored and prematurely-canned science fiction series which is now a decade old.
I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the new double DVD release of James Cameron’s 1989 underwater opus, and that prompted me to dig out my CD of the soundtrack. With other major films such as Roger Rabbit and Contact to his credit, Alan Silvestri is hardly an obscure composer. But The Abyss may be one of his most under-appreciated scores. The opening notes, which accompany the otherwise credit-less opening title of the film, proclaim the main choral figure of the entire score, an inspirational wall of voices that sounds appealingly like a hymn that should already belong to the classic musical canon, but doesn’t. This brief statement quickly gives way to a sustained burst of military snare drums, shattering the moment of wonder as the story begins. The next few tracks take place much further into the movie, as Michael Biehn’s character leads Ed Harris and his civilian divers on a recovery mission into a wrecked nuclear sub. The music takes on foreboding and mysterious atmospheres in turn as the threat of Beihn’s paranoid Navy SEAL character grows, and as the presence of the undersea beings becomes more evident with time. “The Fight” is much more percussive and electronic, and the relentless “Sub Battle” track leads into two of Silvestri’s best works ever: “Lindsey Drowns” and “Resurrection”. Those who have seen the movie will no doubt remember exactly what scenes this music covers.
I was bound to like this soundtrack, especially since the movie in question was my favorite of 1995. I’m sure no one needs a brief note explaining what the movie was about, so we’ll get right to the music and the soundtrack. My biggest complaint with the soundtrack is not the movie soundbytes, but the fact that they’re occasionally mixed in with the music. There are some really good contemporary tunes (I would’ve gladly done without Hank Williams’ “Honky Tonkin'” but I loved the Mavericks’ rendition of “Blue Moon”, and then there’s The Who and Hendrix – quite an eclectic mix!), and the score is one of Horner’s best in a long time, though he is again guilty of borrowing from him previous works (I could swear I remember some of this music from the movie Glory). And it was a