Category: 1968

Categories
1968 1972 K Music Reviews N Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title Television Year

Nightwatch / Killer By Night

4 min read

Order this CDAn oddball pairing of two very different scores for two very different TV pilots, by – you guessed it – two very different composers. One of the final titles issued by the much-missed Film Score Monthly label, the obscurity of the scores presented probably kept this release obscure as well, but it’s very much worth a listen.

Still in his “Johnny Williams” days prior to shedding his jazz musician moniker, John Williams turns in a fascinating score to an unsold 1966 series pilot that didn’t get an airing in a TV movie slot until 1968. The main theme from Nightwatch has hallmarks of Williams’ past – there’s a strong rythmic influence from his Lost In Space theme – and his future, namely in an echoing brass motif that would later find use, in a slightly slower form, aboard the Death Star. But put those two elements together and the result is almost, at the risk of committing sacrelige, Goldsmithian. And that’s a description that applies to parts of Williams’ score for the Robert Altman-directed pilot, while just as many parts are unmistakably Williams. It’s a fascinating selection of music from a period when Williams’ playbook wasn’t set firmly in Star Wars/Jaws/Superman/Indiana Jones mode. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those, but the Nightwatch score is a bit more experimental – and the fact that elements of it show up in his later work speaks to the fact that not only did Williams deem his experiments to be of value, but he also probably never expected this material to resurface again.

Aired in 1972 as another unsold pilot, Killer By Night starred Greg Morris, fresh off of Mission: Impossible, in a gritty crime drama about trying to track down a disease carrier trying to remain at large in a heavily populated area. None other than Quincy Jones scored this project, which, like Nightwatch, vanished into obscurity after its premiere. (I don’t know if it’s amusing or sad that it’s now easier to hear the music from either of these shows than it is to see the shows themselves.) Jones’ score fits somewhat into the expected jazz category for an early ’70s crime noir, but the somewhat scientific element of the storyline gives Jones a good excuse to get spooky with it too, adding some weird synthesizer to the lineup and letting the listener know this isn’t just going to be car chases and gunfire. Some tracks do fit right into the early ’70s TV jazz pigeonhole; the end credit theme gets wonderfully funky, and still other tracks pour on the weird. It’s as different as you can get from Nightwatch, but both are equally welcome.

4 out of 4That either of these scores exist, and can be listened to, at all is a real treat. (The Altman pilot scored by John Williams is so obscure it doesn’t even appear in Altman’s IMDb listing.) There was a time when the boutique soundtrack labels could drop real surprises in our laps like this one and curious soundtrack fans were up for the discovery. These days, out-of-left-field releases like this are more rare – the soundtrack labels have to line up titles that they’re certain will sell, not just titles that will spark mere window-shopping curiosity. That’s a loss for us all. Because this kind of music, dusted off after a long rest in the vault, tended to be the most wonderfully surprising stuff.

    Nightwatch – music by Johnny Williams
  1. Nightwatch Main Title (1:01)
  2. Bertil’s Bomb (0:49)
  3. Lund’s Problem (2:14)
  4. Lund’s Leap (1:59)
  5. The Cradle Might Rock (0:46)
  6. Granstrom’s Headache (1:01)
  7. A Child’s Fear (1:57)
  8. Kathryn Flees (0:36)
  9. The Run (0:50)
  10. By the Fence (1:29)
  11. Stumbling Around (1:01)
  12. Entering the Hospital (0:32)
  13. Inside the Hospital / The Final Dash (3:07)
  14. The Waiting Room (1:04)
  15. End Title (1:20)
  16. Nightwatch End Title (0:51)
  17. Chicago Group (source) (3:12)
  18. Bumper #1 / Bumper #2 (0:19)
  19. Promo (0:40)

    Killer By Night – music by Quincy Jones

  20. Main Title / Opening Hold-Up (4:23)
  21. Dead Dip Bird (1:44)
  22. High Rent District (0:51)
  23. Doctor, Come Home / Girl Died (1:44)
  24. Point One (0:47)
  25. Somethin’ Def (0:43)
  26. Oxygen Tent / 22 Possibles / His Room (1:26)
  27. Sweaty Meeting (0:36)
  28. No Title (2:12)
  29. Doctor, Wife & Supermart (0:49)
  30. 4th Cut to Hood / Wait (1:06)
  31. Microscope / Let’s Get Him (3:11)
  32. Cut To Cops (2:25)
  33. Police (2:00)
  34. Door Up the Ladder (2:01)
  35. End Title (3:32)
  36. Tracey Source (3:13)

Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: November 3, 2011
Total running time: 59:20

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1968 2018 D Doctor Who Music Reviews Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title Television Year

Doctor Who: The Invasion – music by Don Harper

5 min read

Order this CDThe scores for Doctor Who‘s 20th century Cybermen episodes seem to have a habit of taking a torturous route to being released in their original form. A bit of clarification is in order: this release contains the original recordings from 1968 by Don Harper (whose handful of other scoring credits include an episode of the BBC2 sci-fi anthology Out Of The Unknown, and stock music used in George Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead), the only music he ever composed for Doctor Who. Better known as a jazz musician, Harper’s services were engaged due to director Douglas Camfield’s curious habit of actively avoiding using Doctor Who’s “house composer” at the time, Dudley Simpson. Though many composers contributed to the 20th century series, there’s not another score quite like this one in the series’ history. Harper’s jazz leanings are on display, along with a very good dramatic instinct for the uniquely eerie music heard throughout The Invasion‘s eight episodes.

Why the clarification? Because Harper also re-recorded this music for the De Wolfe production music library under the title New Decades, which itself was later re-released as Cold Worlds, whereas this release has the original 1968 recordings. (The stories behind Doctor Who’s music can be just as strange-but-true as the rest of its behind-the-scenes lore.) On the one hand, The Invasion’s score sticks out quite noticeably from what came before and after it (the following story, The Krotons, has also been the subject of its own soundtrack release). But Harper has a very good sense of what the show’s “feel” is, and unnervingly dissonant tracks such as “International Electromatics Headquarters”, “The Cyber Director”, “The Cybermen, My Allies”, and “Plans For Invasion”, though brief, make the case that Harper would’ve made a fine addition to the rotation of the series’ musical talent if he had been hired to do so again. A much chirpier tone – almost “smurfy” in a way, and yet very, very 1968 in its feel – takes hold in the track “Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart”, giving the newly-promoted future series regular his own theme music in only his second appearance.

But the story doesn’t end there. Harper recorded a total of barely 20 minutes of music, intended to be used and re-used to track eight 25-minute episodes, and then, somewhat confoundingly, Camfield didn’t even use everything that was recorded. (One almost gets the feeling at times that Camfield would have preferred to skip musical underscores altogether but was coerced into including incidental music by the producers.) Also included are several tracks of effects and sound-design-bordering-on-music by Brian Hodgson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, intended to provide additional musical options; tracks 15-34 are Harper’s unused score cues. Also tracked into the episode is a track by John Baker of the Radiophonic Workshop, “Time In Advance” (simply titled “Muzak” here), originally composed for an Out Of The Unknown episode of the same name. Baker’s work – with a lovely jazzy piano overdub sitting on top of an abstract yet tuneful radiophonic backing – sits nicely alongside Harper’s own jazz influences and doesn’t seem out of place. (I’ve never made a secret of the fact that “Time In Advance” is one of my all-time favorite pieces of classic Doctor Who music, so consider this reviewer’s biases fully on display here.)

3 out of 4With the brevity of the tracks presented, and the brevity of the score overall, it’s something of a minor miracle that this album tops out at just over an hour (thanks in large part to some of the lengthy, looped background sound effects tracks), and it’s a bit mind-boggling that a majority of the tracks presented have no story context, as they were left on the cutting room floor. So very much like the later Revenge Of The Cybermen release (perhaps not coincidentally the next TV outing for the Cybermen), a lot of what’s on the disc was never actually heard in the show itself. Harper achieves a great deal with very limited resources (the liner notes indicate that he never had more than five players, six if he too performed, presumably achieving a denser sound with overdubs), so it’s nice to hear his work free of the context of the show itself. It’s a pity so much of it went unused; some of the material that was left out is some of the most distinctive and enjoyable of the lot. Clearly, the Cybermen can’t have nice things.

  1. Doctor Who (new opening theme, 1967) (0:52)
  2. The Dark Side of the Moon (Music 2 Variation) (0:33)
  3. The Company (Music 7) (1:31)
  4. Hiding (Music 8) (4:54)
  5. International Electromatics Headquarters (Music 3) (0:16)
  6. Muzak (2:46)
  7. The Cyber Director (Music 5) (0:08)
  8. The Cybermen, My Allies (Music 7) (0:27)
  9. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Music 12a) (1:22)
  10. Plans for Invasion (Music 8) (1:25)
  11. Mysteries (Music 12) (1:31)
  12. Fire Escape (Music 11) (1:11)
  13. The Dark Side of the Moon (Reprise) (Music 2) (0:31)
  14. The Cybermen, My Allies (Reprise) (Music 7, looped) (1:07)
  15. Music 4 (Trapped in Gas Chamber – v. 1 & 2) (1:29)
  16. Music 9 (2:20)
  17. Music 10 (2:00)
  18. Music 13 (0:05)
  19. Music 14 (0:15)
  20. Music 15a (0:04)
  21. Music 15b (0:20)
  22. Music 15c (0:04)
  23. Music 15d (0:20)
  24. Music 15e (0:16)
  25. Music 15f (0:04)
  26. Music 15g (0:04)
  27. Music 15h (0:23)
  28. Music 16a (0:04)
  29. Music 16b (0:05)
  30. Music 16c (0:06)
  31. Music 16d (0:07)
  32. Music 16e (0:04)
  33. Music 16f (0:08)
  34. Music 16g (0:05)
  35. Part of TARDIS disappears (0:25)
  36. All of TARDIS disappears (0:24)
  37. TARDIS take off slow and painful (2:13)
  38. International Electromatics Headquarters Exterior (10:33)
  39. International Electromatics Headquarters Interior (6:26)
  40. Computer Background (0:21)
  41. Computer Whirrs (1:01)
  42. Electronic Eye (2:37)
  43. Cyber Director Appears (2:26)
  44. Cyber Director Constant (7:51)

Released by: Silva Screen Records
Release date: September 14, 2018
Total running time: 1:01:15

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Categories
1968 1997 Film P Planet Of The Apes Soundtracks

Planet Of The Apes – music by Jerry Goldsmith

Planet Of The ApesSo much has been written down through the years about the influential career milestone that was Jerry Goldsmith‘s score for Planet Of The Apes that I’ve resisted reviewing it for a long time. It’s well known that it’s an unsettling, unconventional listening experience, with or without the movie. What is there to add to that?

The funny thing, however, is in giving it a fresh listen and finding that a lot of it is actually in a familiar orchestral vein. In some ways, it’s the exact opposite of Goldsmith’s later score to 1976‘s Logan’s Run, which starts out synthetic and becomes lushly orchestral only when the characters leave their artificially constructed, computer-regulated environment. Planet Of The Apes starts out aboard a futuristic spacecraft, familiar ground for many a science fiction flick, but then both the movie and the music ditch those familiar trappings for a desperate, primitive quest for survival.

Frequently, this is accomplished with a wall of percussion that, up until this point, viewers and listeners just didn’t expect to hear next to an orchestra. But it really isn’t until “The Search Continues” that Goldsmith pushes the music into a space where it’s barely recognizable to our ears as music. Using some novel instrumental effects, he creates the disconcerting audio equivalent of chittering apes. “The Hunt” uses the call of a primitive horn to raise the tension as Taylor (Charlton Heston) tries to lead a colony of humans to freedom.

Goldsmith eschews some obvious avenues for more traditional scoring at other points too – the short cue “A New Mate” is anything but sexy; instead it’s uneasy, as the apes prod him and a primitive human woman together. “The Revelation” plays up Taylor’s horror at discovering what’s happened to his surviving shipmate.

“The Trial” again uses existing instrumentation in unconventional ways to play out the parody of the Scopes monkey trial in which Taylor is railroaded and fast-tracked for execution simply because of what he represents. After that, the score is surprisingly low-key, seeming to rumble toward what seems like either an inevitable grim fate or a daring escape… only to culminate, like the movie, in both at the same time.

Rounding things off is a 16-minute suite of music from Goldsmith’s only follow-up in the Apes film series, Escape From The Planet Of The Apes, which presents a nice “highlight reel” of that movie’s music, which was all the more surprising for not following in the footsteps of what Goldsmith created for the first movie. (Varese would later release the entire Escape score on its own as a limited edition in 2009.)

Jerry Goldsmith did accomplish some amazing sounds with Planet Of The Apes, but perhaps even more significantly, he laid the groundwork for the use of unconventional percussion in film scoring to signify the otherworldly and the uninviting. 4 out of 4The percussion lexicon he all but created here led to such things as the Sand People music in Star Wars, Bear McCreary‘s wall of eastern percussion throughout the TV remake of Battlestar Galactica, and many, many others. The shadow cast by the music of Planet Of The Apes looms large over many familiar future scores in the same genre. Jerry Goldsmith just happened to get there first.

Order this CD

  1. 20th Century Fox Fanfare (0:15)
  2. Main Title (2:12)
  3. Crash Landing (6:39)
  4. The Searchers (2:26)
  5. The Search Continues (4:57)
  6. The Clothes Snatchers (3:09)
  7. The Hunt (5:10)
  8. A New Mate (1:05)
  9. The Revelation (3:22)
  10. No Escape (5:40)
  11. The Trial (1:45)
  12. New Identity (2:26)
  13. A Bid For Freedom (2:38)
  14. The Forbidden Zone (3:23)
  15. The Intruders (1:10)
  16. The Cave (1:20)
  17. The Revelation (Part II) (3:25)
  18. Suite: Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (16:27)

Released by: Varese Sarabande / 20th Century Fox Film Scores
Release date: 1997
Total running time: 67:29

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Categories
1968 2007 Non-Soundtrack Music P The Peter Bratzmann Octet

The Peter Br̦tzmann Octet РThe Complete Machine Gun Sessions

Peter Brötzmann Octet - The Complete Machine Gun SessionsThere are three different types of people who will listen to this album. The first person will plug their ears after 10 seconds and turn it off. The second person will continue listening, not out of the respect to the music, but out of morbid curiosity: “Is this a joke? When does the music start?” The third person will listen to the album, listen to it again, and keep on listening. Digging deeper with every nuance of Brötzmann’s music, the listener will find himself faced with the unknown derived from familiarity. It is harsh, brutal and unforgiving — but also captivating and mesmerizing.

As the story goes, three things in particular make this album unique. First, Brötzmann employs an octet for the recording of this album. While octets in jazz are not new, they are uncommon (7 years later, Ornette Coleman used an octet for the recording of his album Free Jazz, but he split it up into two quartets who played simultaneously rather than eight musicians playing all at once). The second thing is that they recorded the album not in a studio but rather at a nightclub in Germany, which provided poor acoustics. This worked in Brötzmann’s favor, however, as it added to the “dense”-ness of the album. The third thing that is unique about the record is the music itself.

Yes, it is chaoctic. Brötzmann and Co. play their instruments to the breaking point, with blasts of drums piercing the wails of saxophones and basses. Yes, it is dissonant. There seems to be no trace of melody. In fact, the only time a semblance of song structure creeps in is about 15 minutes into the title track, but the walls of noise soon overtake it. Nevertheless, this is not music that is made simply to be listened to a couple times. It’s something to reflect; examine. It is music that has to be felt.

This new 2007 remaster by Atavistic includes the original LP, and adds two more alternate takes from the same session. There is also a live version of the title track performed two months prior to the studio sessions at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival in 1968. The original LP tracks are great by themselves, but the added material really adds more to the album. The live version in particular is sensational.

Overall, it is a simply astounding piece of work, and one that has few peers in the music archives.

4 out of 4

Order this CD

  1. Machine Gun (17:19)
  2. Responsible/For Jan Van De Ven (8:20)
  3. Music for Han Bennink (11:29)
  4. Machine Gun (Second Take) (15:01)
  5. Responsible/For Jan Van De Ven (First Take) (10:08)
  6. Machine Gun (Live) (17:40)

Released by: Atavistic
Release date: 1968 (re-released 2007)
Total running time: 79:53

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Categories
1968 1995 I Iron Butterfly Non-Soundtrack Music

Iron Butterfly – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-VidaIt’s become one of the most recognizable rock riffs in modern history. The “dun-dun-da-da-dun-dun” is known the world over for its melody and heaviness. Although Iron Butterfly may be considered a ’60s one-hit-wonder, their influence and musical stylings paved the way for today’s heavy metal bands. But many people don’t even realize that there was an entire album to go with that one song.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, the album, was released in 1968. Most of the music follows the titular track in terms of composition: Heavy, distorted guitars, clear drumming, and intricate organ melodies. The album kicks off with “Most Anything You Want”, a song which combines all of the aforementioned elements into a moderate rocker. “Flowers And Beads” probably could have been a hit had it been recorded by a band like The Monkees; a “light” (comparatively) tale about love. “My Mirage” is a moody piece set to a lead keyboard theme. “Termination” is another of the signature “hard” songs that Iron Butterfly was known for, and includes a good helping of overdrive. “Are You Happy” is another recording that prominently features the keyboards, and alternately sounds like Jimi Hendrix jamming with Emerson, Lake And Palmer.

But then there’s the track itself: “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. And for those who haven’t heard the full, 17-minute version, it’s a beauty. It also contains an honest-to-God 2 1/2 minute drum solo (which nobody really does anymore, and certainly not for that long!). As a drummer myself, I found it very refreshing. Of course, after the solo, the guitars and keyboards kick back in to perform the now famous chorus and verse one more time.

3 out of 4The Deluxe Edition of this album released on CD contains two more versions of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”: another lengthy live version, and the much shorter single edit. Although it’s a nice way to fill out the remaining space, they certainly aren’t needed, and one wonders if other selections could have been chosen instead for the bonus material. Nevertheless, if you are a fan of rock music, psychedelia, or just someone who is interested in the origins of music history itself, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is not a bad choice to make.

Order this CD

  1. Most Anything You Want (3:48)
  2. Flowers And Beads (3:09)
  3. My Mirage (4:54)
  4. Termination (2:52)
  5. Are You Happy? (4:30)
  6. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (17:07)
  7. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Live) (18:52)
  8. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Single Edit) (2:54)

Released by: Atlantic
Release date: 1968 (re-released on CD in 1995)
Total running time: 58:10

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Categories
1968 Other Soundtracks Television

BBC Radiophonic Music

BBC Radiophonic MusicThis album, remastered and re-released on CD for the first time just a few years ago, represents the first ten years of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, formed in the late 50s to provide the BBC’s television and radio productions with “special sound” through unconventional and electronic recording techniques. Even mentioning the words “BBC Radiophonic Workshop” conjures up the old newspaper clipping about how the Queen herself once responded to a mention of the Workshop by saying “Yes, Doctor Who?” – and indeed, that’s the mental leap that most of us make when the now-defunct outfit is mentioned. This album proves that there was a lot more to the Workshop than that.

That said, if you find the original recording of the Doctor Who theme to be inpenetrably weird, you probably won’t find much enjoyment on this album. The most accessible piece is a short electronic rendition of “Happy Birthday”, while fans of more out-there fare will dig such items as a selection of John Baker’s music from a BBC Radio production of War Of The Worlds, or the truly strange (and yet oddly compelling) “Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO”, assembled by Delia Derbyshire (who also, not surprisingly, was the creator of that most famous rendition of Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who music). The latter especially is nearly timeless, with its mixture of backward vocals, found sounds and a thumping, throbbing beat making it seem almost current. And for a track that’s very nearly 40 years old at the time of this writing, that’s not a bad trick. The Workshop was so far ahead of its time, you’d think they had a spare TARDIS in the back at the Maida Vale studio.

Many of the pieces on this album are very short, being either jingles or music beds meant to be talked over by the voices of the BBC’s various regional radio stations at the time. Not being completely familiar with the context, I’m sure I’m missing something here, but it’s still interesting (if occasionally odd) listening.

Best described as what the future used to sound like, this album will appeal to fans who are already familiar Rating: 3 out of 4with some of the Radiophonic Workshop’s more well-known work and are curious about what they were doing when they weren’t doing Doctor Who. Fans of analog synthesizers and early electronic music will probably enjoy it too. Folks more accustomed to mainstream fare, however, may find that this album is far too disjointed a collection of sounds that are far too strange for their ear.

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  1. Radio Sheffield (0:51)
  2. Radio Nottingham (1:21)
  3. Boys And Girls (1:02)
  4. Mattachin (1:15)
  5. Pot Au Feu (3:21)
  6. Time And Tune (0:25)
  7. Tomorrow World (1:10)
  8. Reading Your Letters (0:14)
  9. Blue Veils And Golden Sands (3:33)
  10. The Missing Jewel (1:03)
  11. Artbeat (0:40)
  12. Fresh Start (0:27)
  13. Christmas Commercial (0:48)
  14. Sea Sports (0:50)
  15. The Delian Mode (5:38)
  16. Happy Birthday (0:36)
  17. The Frogs Wooing (0:40)
  18. Milky Way (1:44)
  19. Structures (3:02)
  20. New Worlds (0:46)
  21. Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO (1:50)
  22. Festival Time (0:30)
  23. The Chase (1:45)
  24. Towards Tomorrow (1:11)
  25. Quiz Time (0:59)
  26. P.I.G.S. (0:52)
  27. Autumn And Winter (2:03)
  28. Door To Door (0:30)
  29. Factors (0:38)
  30. War Of The Worlds (4:55)
  31. Crossbeat (0:30)
  32. Air (1:43)
  33. Time To Go (0:24)

Released by: BBC Music
Release date: 2003 (originally released in 1968)
Total running time: 47:06

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Categories
1968 1998 M Move Non-Soundtrack Music

The Move (remastered)

The MoveHere it is at least, 30 years after the fact – the Repertoire Records digitally remastered CD release of the first Move album – plus 16 bonus tracks (if only there were that many ELO holy grails to be found…!).
While I won’t deny that ELO might not have found its commercial voice with a two-headed monster (Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood) at the steering wheel, trying to go in two directions at the same time, never underestimate Roy Wood, especially not as a songwriter and arranger. He had the novel idea of quoting classical music in pop songs, and occasionally boosting the band’s sound with string players, some three years before the name Electric Light Orchestra ever appeared on a record spine. Some of the Move’s best songs (or my personal favorites, at least) – “Mist On A Monday Morning”, “The Girl Outside”, “Cherry Blossom Clinic” (the very Beatlesque short original version, not “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited”, which is mistakenly labeled as the original on many budget compilation CDs) – sound like nothing so much as the embryonic sound of ELO. In fact, due to the fact that the Move had a little bit of financial backing, as opposed to the untested waters forged by the first ELO record, some of the string sounds are more lush than anything ELO did until 3 out of 4Eldorado. And, though it isn’t a string-laden classic, ladies and gentlemen, you haven’t heard it all until you’ve heard Mr. Bev Bevan croon “Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart” – even “Ben Crawley Steel Company” pales next to this timeless recording. How Bev never got started on a solo career as a vocalist, I’ll never know!

Order this CD

  1. Yellow Rainbow (2:34)
  2. Kilroy Was Here (2:43)
  3. (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree (3:00)
  4. Weekend (1:46)
  5. Walk Upon The Water (3:22)
  6. Flowers In The Rain (2:21)
  7. Hey Grandma (3:10)
  8. Useless Information (2:56)
  9. Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart (2:48)
  10. The Girl Outside (2:54)
  11. Fire Brigade (2:22)
  12. Mist On A Monday Morning (2:30)
  13. Cherry Blossom Clinic – original (2:30)
  14. Night of Fear (2:15)
  15. Disturbance (2:47)
  16. I Can Hear The Grass Grow (3:06)
  17. Wave Your Flag and Stop the Train (2:56)
  18. Vote For Me (2:48)
  19. Disturbance – alternate mix (2:00)
  20. Fire Brigade – alternate mix (2:17)
  21. Second Class (She’s Too Good For You) – Roy Wood instrumental(2:05)
  22. Cherry Blossom Clinic – different take (2:52)
  23. (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree / stereo (2:57 – stereo mix)
  24. Weekend / stereo (1:46 – stereo mix)
  25. Flowers In The Rain / stereo (2:28 – stereo mix)
  26. Useless Information / stereo (2:56 – stereo mix)
  27. Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart / stereo (2:49 – stereo mix)
  28. The Girl Outside / stereo (2:53 – stereo mix)
  29. Walk Upon The Water / stereo (3:22 – stereo mix)

Released by: Repertoire
Release date: 1968 (remastered edition released in 1998)
Total running time: 78:18

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Categories
0-9 1968 1990 Film Soundtracks

2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: A Space OdysseySomehow trying to call this compilation of existing classical numbers an “original soundtrack” is silly, but that’s what they called it. This is not the Alex North original score, but rather a collection of classical and somewhat-more-modern-than-classical music which Stanley Kubrick used in his famed definitive science fiction film. The Ligeti tracks are always unnerving even without the accompanying visuals of the mysterious monolith and the stargate, and the “Blue Danube” waltz is…well …overused, quite frankly. The highlight of this compilation for me is the excerpt from “Gayane” (which I’ve sometimes seen spelled “Gayeneh”), played over the bleakly solitary scenes of life aboard the spaceship Discovery. Whether it 3 out of 4is the starkness of the music itself, or a kind of gestalt association of the music with the visuals, this music has always been incredibly powerful for me. A newer release of the 2001 soundtrack was recently issued, including a section of sound effects and HAL 9000 dialogue, but I have never “traded up” to the newer version, so I can’t vouch for its quality. But the music speaks for itself.

Order this CD

  1. Overture: excerpt from Atmospheres / Ligeti (2:47)
  2. Title Music: Also Sprach Zarathustra / R. Strauss (1:39)
  3. From Earth to the Moon: The Blue Danube / J. Strauss (9:49)
  4. TMA-1: Lux Aeterna / Ligeti (5:57)
  5. Discovery: Adagio from Gayane Ballet Suite / Kachaturian (5:13)
  6. Stargate: Requiem / Ligeti (5:58)
  7. Stargate II: Atmospheres / Ligeti (8:37)
  8. Transfiguration: Also Sprach Zarathustra / R. Strauss (1:39)

Released by: CBS
Release date: 1990
Total running time: 41:39

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