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Count me as one of the few hundred who picked up this great score. Even though a lot of the music (especially for the scenes in the greenhouse and the ending) is already burned into my brain from years of watching the film, it’s fantastic to have it in such clear, crisp sound on the new Album.
This soundtrack release has been one of the big missing pieces on CD for music from 50’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy films.
So very happy to have finally have it. Thanks again La-La Land for the fantastic release!
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Oh, cool, Manderley, love your story. Love that you got a taste of Canadiana whilst working north of the border.
Ah, yes.....
Although I can't remember ever using "whilst" in my conversations, I did learn to pronounce "about" in the Canadian way, which always sounded to my ears more like "aboat" (as in "a boat") rather than the American interpretation of how they think Canadians say it, "aboot" (as in "a boot")! 
"Eh?" creeps into my conversations occasionally, but when I dine in the US I try never to wipe my mouth with "serviette"---but always a "napkin".
One of the fun things I also enjoyed observing was the calmer Canadian way of expressing some things. In the US, if someone asked you how you liked the dinner, you might say, "Wow! The steak was GREAT!" In Canada, you might say, "The steak was very nice."
Funny. I occasionally slip and say "aboat" but as a once-auditioning actor I learned to remove those "Canadian-isms" from my speech. Makes actors more marketable to films being shot in Canada.
I've always said napkin rather than serviette. (Those dang Quebecois!)
And though I'm a Canadian boy at heart, I'm also not your typical "polite" Canadian. Are most Canadians really that polite? I'm loud and obnoxious and prone to very open displays of my pleasure: "Yeah, that is one fuckin' rad steak!" (Okay, maybe not that bad.)
I do drink too much pop and not enough soda, though.
Back to the actual thread, who else has been playing the heck ("shit" for those non-polite Canadians) out of their copy of this?
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Posted: |
Sep 24, 2015 - 5:35 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Back to the actual thread, who else has been playing the heck ("shit" for those non-polite Canadians) out of their copy of this?
Me.
And I think that's because, in simplistic terms, it's great. But the thing is it didn't immediately draw me in on first listen. I was certainly very pleased to "have it" (bottlecap alert), but I also found that, apart from notable highlights, it kind of washed over me. Much of it sounded almost routine, just typical film music really. And when it seemed to meander, well that made my mind wander. Then there were the bits that sounded quite hectic. I could imagine my mum shouting down from upstairs (to the basement), "Turn that bloody telly down!"
Ah but therein lies one of the great dichotomies of listening to film scores - only on repeated listens does this gem really shine. Funny that it was written for a film, to be heard (in fact not even that) once under sound effects and dialogue, and yet it only reveals its true splendour under closer scrutiny. I suppose the same could be said for most good scores. Anyway, I was certainly interested enough on first listen to want to put it on again because I knew there was a lot I'd missed first time round - and I've hardly stopped playing it. I love how I now more or less know where the notes are going, and I can really hear the subtle details in the composition, little offbeat ways to round off a motif or whatever.
Still, and I don't mean this to sound negative at all, I don't know if it's really THAT forward-thinking and modernistic. That was never really an issue with me because I love (some) Golden Age scores, but some of the younger whippersnappers out there might be a tad disappointed if we keep harping on about how groundbreaking it is. No, scrub that - sod them! I think JB said it best above when he mentioned how it seemed to bridge the gap between the Golden and Silver ages (artificial terms anyway, but I think we understand.) Maybe "forward-thinking" means that it's written in the idiom of the 20th century rather than the 19th?
Anyway, I'm now making lots of little connections in my head with other music. There's the occasional Max Steiner flourish,and
some of it harks back to the Universal monster movies of the '30s and '40s. Come to think of it, a lot of that stuff (the Dessau cues from HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN for example) were pretty brazenly adventurous for the time. Then there are the more manic moments. I thought for ages, "What IS that?", and I think I'm reminded of the Big Bad Wolf - the same approach as Carl Stalling and Scott Bradley. And then when I was thinking "how old-fashioned", I realised that those two (Stalling and Bradley) were among the most advanced of anyone. Oh, the contrabassoon! Crazy! It's a strange instrument, lending itself to the devilishly sinister or the grotesquely comical. I think JB says "diabolical", but I didn't want anyone to think I was using the word in the same way as Doctor Terrible. I SWEAR I hear a quote from "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" in one of the cues. If that was intentional it certainly invites some amusing interpretations. Stalling and Bradley would be proud.
And isn't there a little bit of Tiomkin in the way the busy, rapid-fire phrases are passed in quick succession from one section of the orchestra to another?
That's all the old stuff exhausted. Oh yes, there are modernistic bits too - for Hollywood anyway. The low-end piano (really intriguing to hear what it's actually doing), the previously mentioned unused bolero-type danse macabre for the final chase, the Leith Stevens-ish writing for Miles' mounting anguish in the middle of the road at the end...
I'm not very happy with what I've just written, It was kind of streamofconsciousness, and looking back it seems that I'm just mentioning loads of other scores it reminds me of. Bottom line is I really love this, and if it comes over as otherwise, well, it doesn't matter. Nobody reads long posts anyway. They can't even undertand a topic heading, having spent so long pressing the "like" button on Facebook whenever someone puts up a picture of their breakfast.
BUY THIS CD OR FOREVER BE A NUTMEG!
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Posted: |
Sep 24, 2015 - 5:55 AM
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By: |
spook
(Member)
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Back to the actual thread, who else has been playing the heck ("shit" for those non-polite Canadians) out of their copy of this?
Me.
And I think that's because, in simplistic terms, it's great. But the thing is it didn't immediately draw me in on first listen. I was certainly very pleased to "have it" (bottlecap alert), but I also found that, apart from notable highlights, it kind of washed over me. Much of it sounded almost routine, just typical film music really. And when it seemed to meander, well that made my mind wander. Then there were the bits that sounded quite hectic. I could imagine my mum shouting down from upstairs (to the basement), "Turn that bloody telly down!"
Ah but therein lies one of the great dichotomies of listening to film scores - only on repeated listens does this gem really shine. Funny that it was written for a film, to be heard (in fact not even that) once under sound effects and dialogue, and yet it only reveals its true splendour under closer scrutiny. I suppose the same could be said for most good scores. Anyway, I was certainly interested enough on first listen to want to put it on again because I knew there was a lot I'd missed first time round - and I've hardly stopped playing it. I love how I now more or less know where the notes are going, and I can really hear the subtle details in the composition, little offbeat ways to round off a motif or whatever.
Still, and I don't mean this to sound negative at all, I don't know if it's really THAT forward-thinking and modernistic. That was never really an issue with me because I love (some) Golden Age scores, but some of the younger whippersnappers out there might be a tad disappointed if we keep harping on about how groundbreaking it is. No, scrub that - sod them! I think JB said it best above when he mentioned how it seemed to bridge the gap between the Golden and Silver ages (artificial terms anyway, but I think we understand.) Maybe "forward-thinking" means that it's written in the idiom of the 20th century rather than the 19th?
Anyway, I'm now making lots of little connections in my head with other music. There's the occasional Max Steiner flourish,and
some of it harks back to the Universal monster movies of the '30s and '40s. Come to think of it, a lot of that stuff (the Dessau cues from HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN for example) were pretty brazenly adventurous for the time. Then there are the more manic moments. I thought for ages, "What IS that?", and I think I'm reminded of the Big Bad Wolf - the same approach as Carl Stalling and Scott Bradley. And then when I was thinking "how old-fashioned", I realised that those two (Stalling and Bradley) were among the most advanced of anyone. Oh, the contrabassoon! Crazy! It's a strange instrument, lending itself to the devilishly sinister or the grotesquely comical. I think JB says "diabolical", but I didn't want anyone to think I was using the word in the same way as Doctor Terrible. I SWEAR I hear a quote from "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" in one of the cues. If that was intentional it certainly invites some amusing interpretations. Stalling and Bradley would be proud.
And isn't there a little bit of Tiomkin in the way the busy, rapid-fire phrases are passed in quick succession from one section of the orchestra to another?
That's all the old stuff exhausted. Oh yes, there are modernistic bits too - for Hollywood anyway. The low-end piano (really intriguing to hear what it's actually doing), the previously mentioned unused bolero-type danse macabre for the final chase, the Leith Stevens-ish writing for Miles' mounting anguish in the middle of the road at the end...
I'm not very happy with what I've just written, It was kind of streamofconsciousness, and looking back it seems that I'm just mentioning loads of other scores it reminds me of. Bottom line is I really love this, and if it comes over as otherwise, well, it doesn't matter. Nobody reads long posts anyway. They can't even undertand a topic heading, having spent so long pressing the "like" button on Facebook whenever someone puts up a picture of their breakfast.
BUY THIS CD OR FOREVER BE A NUTMEG!
Brilliant post Graham (.. and i read right to the end!).
I too bought this and am enjoying it more with repeated listens. Good to read your thoughts.
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I bought it and I'm very happy with it. I know a few other people who bought it too. It's a great CD and I'm enjoying it. I hope sales will pick up over time. I appreciate it MV!
Doubt it. Labels should focus their energies elsewhere.
if you don't care for the score, there's the door. :/
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Posted: |
Sep 25, 2015 - 4:43 PM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Brilliant post Graham (.. and i read right to the end!).
I too bought this and am enjoying it more with repeated listens. Good to read your thoughts.
Buy that spooky man a phablet! Thanks for liking my rabbit!
How are sales going on this, LLL? I might have put one or two people off by making it sound too too old-fashioned in my streamofconsciousness rabbit. But then again I might have turned even more people on. Hey, steady there at the back. But as I said, it won't make any difference if people don't read more than..., well, that's enough. What? A-phiblet, a-phablet.
Attention Jim Doherty! Stand up!! I see you mentioned Paul Creston in your appraisal of the score. Well, I went and listened to some of his stuff. It was a cursory escuchario, so I can't really say if I noticed a connection, but I did like the Creston stuff. It actually sounded more Germanic than anything strictly of the American 20th century idiom, but I liked it. Kind of reminded me of Paul Hindemith in its chromatics. Some people call that old-hat nowadays, but who's pigeon-holing? How that relates to INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS I've quite forgotten - Ah yes, all this "modernistic vs old fashioned" argument which I had with myself. No labels please - anyone should love or hate the score (or more likely feel indifferent - now isn't THAT relevant? No love, no hate, no problems) just because.
Attention Charles Thaxton!!! Stand up!!!! No, sit down. Sorry to wake you. I think you're right, that this CD might do well if sold at SF conventions. A bit like if soundtracks for THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN were on sale at nerd festivals. Nobody would even realise that Nelson Olivier wrote the music. They'd just have attained their goal of having the 6 music. Get INVASION onto those nerd stalls! You don't have to file it under "Carmen Dragon."
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I'm surprised this isn't selling better. It's a CLASSIC sci-fi score and while it might be from the Golden Age era, well, so was THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL,
Plus, I thought a lot of Silver Age fans were sci-fi fans who would know this score.
It's certainly one of my favourite CD releases of the year.
Cheers
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Nelson Olivier?
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Nelson Olivier?
Shurely shome mishtake?
Actually Shawn, you're the only person who picked me up on that. I guess the others just thought I was being silly again, or they didn't read it.
I listened to this once more just yesterday. It ain't gettin' any worse!
I still have to continue expressing my surprise at the low sales. Is that still the case? I've repeated a couple of times on this thread how I thought the title would sell itself, with no composer connection. Classic film, SF genre... I wouldn't hold my breath for DONOVAN'S BRAIN.
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if you don't care for the score, there's the door. :/
What's with the attitude, Gwyllm?
By the way, I bought it.
No attitude...just responding to posts like "Not my cup of tea" or "pass"...why bother posting comments like that in a thread about something that doesn't interest you?
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