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I know the score wasn't released until August of 1989, but wanted to get this thread started to share the love for the film/score that first got me (and I'm sure a few other 40-somethings) into film music.
First up, David McCaulley's excellent analysis of the "Shootout" scene with score reduction:
There's a lot to love about Elfman's (and Burton's) Batman. There's not a track on the original album that I skip.
But WOW, Shootout (or First Confrontation) is a work of art in both picture and sound.
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The 10 minutes suite on ...Darkened THEATER is purrfect
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Couldn't agree more with all of the above! Thanks!
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The Servo Satisfaction
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Back in the Summer of 1989, after having seen the movie in the theater and heard Elfman's fantastic score, it was an agonizing wait until the score itself was our in record stores. I kept track as best I could looking at upcoming album release schedules in magazines or newspapers, it was so difficult back then to find any information. I would ask the record stores! I purchased it first on cassette (I didn't have a CD player yet) and wore that cassette out! It's not only an incredible musical achievement by Elfman overall, but regardless of all the recent expanded editions, that original 60 minute album presentation is a winner from start to finish.
Oh man. Do you remember that?
Monday: "Do you know when the Batman CD is coming?"
"It's over there."
"Those are the Prince songs."
"That's the Batman CD."
"No, there's one with the music from the movie coming."
"That's the only one there is."
"But there's one with the music coming."
"No."
"No really, there is."
"I don't know anything about that."
"OK, thank you."
Next Monday: "Do you know when the Batman CD is coming?"
"It's over there."
"Those are the Prince songs."
"That's the Batman CD."
"No, there's one with the music from the movie coming."
"That's the only one there is."
"But there's one with the music coming."
"No."
"No really, there is."
"I don't know anything about that."
"OK, thank you.
(Repeat until, what, late July?)
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Good movie. Excellent score.
I thought Batman Returns was better, all-around. That material was a better fit for Burton and Keaton.
This first film was the result of a gritty, violent script that went through the development mill, then was handed off to Burton for his finalization. In a “cultural landscape” that wasn’t yet ready for the true Frank Miller approach, I thought it was the best compromise the corporate overtakers could’ve/would’ve produced.
The score helped a lot. I haven’t heard the La-La Land Elfman set. Is it a true hi-fi experience?
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People who prefer RETURNS usually also prefer SUPERMAN II
How very, very sad.
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Batman 1989 was my first score purchased on CD - I think it may have been the first CD I purchased. Though I was in my late 20's, it took my mom buying me a CD Walkman for my birthday to upgrade from vinyl and cassettes. That was early August, and I think the CD had just come out. When I put it in and hooked it up to my ok sound system, I was both figuratively and literally blown away!
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This score blew me away. I was aware of Elfman already from Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, but I wasn't sure how that added up to an epic comic book adventure, but those first notes of the main title made it clear that he was not %#&+ing around. This was gonna be a great score… and the movie took advantage of it, too. The music is very prominent in the mix, and it adds much to the dark quirkiness of the whole enterprise.
The score was one of the cassette tapes I played constantly throughout high school. It was also a pretty generous offering for a soundtrack album at the time, running a good 10 — 15 minutes longer than most albums at the time, one of the marks of the transition from LP to CD era.
Loved that album, still do, but I also love the La-La Land presentation of the complete score as well. It's nice to be able to have both.
I was also rather partial to the other scores and themes he did in this vein after he got typecast (Darkman, The Flash, etc). And, of course, his follow-up was fantastic with a great end title song too. But this right here, Batman 1989, this was really the moment for me when Elfman went from being a guy who did these nifty, quirky scores for Tim Burton to being The Man.
In fact, after this YouTube video I'm watching is over, I'm gonna go listen to the original album.
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Words cannot express how Danny Elfman's scores for Batman and Batman Returns impacted my life. To fully show my sincerest appreciation. I had one of my friends record me improvising The Batman Theme (Reprise) on Piano. Hope you all enjoy it and please forgive my friend for filming me vertically.
https://youtu.be/WkWDWSCAgYQ
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Words cannot express how Danny Elfman's scores for Batman and Batman Returns impacted my life. To fully show my sincerest appreciation. I had one of my friends record me improvising The Batman Theme (Reprise) on Piano. Hope you all enjoy it and please forgive my friend for filming me vertically.
https://youtu.be/WkWDWSCAgYQ
Has Wags changed her ( awkward) screen name?
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The first film to go out in Dolby Digital sound - on a wide release.
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I was 3 when this movie came out so I didn't really appreciate it until much later...I had a thing about clowns and Nicholson's joker scared the shit out of me until I was about 5.
As much as I think Jurassic Park was the first theater experience where a film score jumped out at me, watching my crappy VHS of Batman countless times just for the main titles is an indelible part of my childhood. I remember being excited that the local library had a copy of the music but when I got home and listened, it felt like some kind of cruel joke (nothing against Prince but I wanted that dark orchestral magic).
I still have my cassette soundtrack somewhere--when I first listened to the LaLa release, I felt a little nostalgia for the missing tape hiss that i'd gotten used to after listening to that cassette a million times.
I would be very curious to read more about the recording sessions. I always thought the performance of this score was inspired.
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When Shirley Walker passed away, obituaries mentioned she CONDUCTED the score for BATMAN.
A rare and deserved honoriam.]88
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