commentary on the spooky playlist...

[acroyear]

(rock set)

• Steve Hackett - The Steppes
  
  At a certain point, I realized there were rock stars, prog rock stars, and composers.  Discovering this, with its intensity, its darkness, its sense of direction, made me realize Hackett is a composer, who just happens to compose for rock instruments.  Last made the set in '05.
  
  
• Planet P - Do You See What I See?
  
  From "Pink World", follow-up to Project.  Very intense concept album, a rarity in the 80s.  It still doesn't quite make sense to me but given my orchestral moods I've not really given it a full listen-to yet.
  
  
• BOC - Burnin' for You
  
  Straight-out rock number from the early 80s, though I didn't hear it 'til long after the "classic rock" phenom had started.  I use the live version from ETI Live - muddier mix at times but the guitar work is more intense than the studio.
  
  
• Thomas Dolby - One of our Submarines
  
  It made it to last year's "Thriller-Free Zone" cdrom but didn't make the evening's playlist.  This year, it gets there.  My dad adored this song, along with Al Stewart's "Life in Dark Water".  Though he never served on a sub, he knew what it was like and those two songs capture it perfectly.
  
  
• Planet P - Why Me?
  
  Yet another in the "Major Tom" family of songs.  Great video, great song, great artist.
  
  
• David Bowie - The Glass Spider
  
  Joe Schneider, fellow bass clarinet and drummer in my high school band, came back the day after Bowie's Glass Spider tour appearance at the Cap Centre yelling, "David Bowie Is God!".  When I saw the video of the tour, I understood what he meant.  Though Bowie sometimes tries to laugh off his 80s "pop" output, he did have a few magical moments and this is certainly one of them.
  
  
• David Bowie - Loving the Alien
  
  And this is another.  Great guitar work from Peter Frampton on that tour and in this version.
  
  
• Uriah Heap - The Park
  
  Until he died, at the hand of needless war...
  
  Made it to last year's playlist.  I didn't realize until high school, when I picked up and played the album myself, that there were guys singing this in full falsetto.  Very dark, very intense.  The instrumental break derives greatly from 21st Century Schizoid Man, though I didn't realize it at the time.
  
  My father made a mix-tape 8-track, mostly for sailing purposes but useful for long drives like going to California in '79, centered around Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn.  Other tracks included works by Arlo Guthrie (like the Kevin Burke fiddle solos, the first truly "celtic" work I ever heard, plus City of New Orleans), Moody Blues For My Lady, Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine, Clapton's Layla, Yes's And You and I, and these two Uriah Heap tracks.  In short, absolutely the best music he had in his (vinyl) collection at the time.  It took 5 years of separation from that, living through the 80s pop scene while that was actually cool, before I realized the musical legacy and heritage he placed before me in that one 90 minute mix.  It was one of two 8-track mixes that are so ingrained into my childhood that I have no memory of ever being without it.
  
  The other I reproduced for him as a Christmas present cdrom 3 years ago.
  
  
• The Cure - Fascination Street (extended mix)
  
  Made the set in '05.  This version provides everything that was missing from the single release.  This song needed to breath; it needed its time to take you in, and this mix provided that time.  I first heard it on the radio in the Philly suburbs while driving home from a movie (probably Batman I) with my brother.
  
  
• Uriah Heap - Lady in Black
  
  Made it to last year's.  I've had that moment where the Wise Woman (tm) came into my life, said absolutely what needed to be said, and disappeared from my life as quickly as she came.
  
  And if one day she comes to you, drink deeply from her words so wise; take courage from her as your prize, and say hello for me...
  
  Her name was Holly.  I only knew her fleetingly in 1993.  She told me the truth, nothing more.  And changed my life forever.  If she hadn't said what she'd said, none of you would be reading this now, 'cause I'd (still) be a self-centered a**hole the likes of which you'd never have imagined I might have become.
  
  
• BOC - Veteran of the Psychic Wars
  
  Made it to last year's.  I used to see myself as one of them, only meeting one for real has made me realize what few wars I've been involved in have been child's play.  I'm a vet, but of a different war than this.
  
  
• Met At Work - Overkill
  
  "I can't get to sleep".  again.  and again.  Other Men at Work songs made it to the list but this is the first year for this one.  Very mature lyric.  Most kids only think they're insomniacs.
  
  
• Oingo Boingo - Wierd Science
  
  New discovery made just *after* Halloween, during the Great Tower Collapse.  I vaguely knew the song from the movie but it never totally gels within it, nor do most of the songs.  The movie doesn't *really* need the songs actually used in it so much as it just needed songs from that era.  Most of the songs are better than the movie.
  
  
• Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
  
  New discovery made just *after* Halloween, during the Great Tower Collapse, and the one I promised would make this years list, 'cause it is just WAY too damn cool.  Hard to believe this guy wrote the score for "Big Fish", much less Batman and Simpsons.
  
  
• Alice Cooper - I Love the Dead
  
  On the Poison/Trash tour, this is the point where he offs himself by guillotine.  The other actors show his head to the audience while the band continues the chorus.  I almost wish the kids who passed by at the time actually stopped to try to hear the lyric...if for nothing else than to give them something to talk to the parents about.  heh heh heh...
  
  
• Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare
  
  Missed last year's playlist only 'cause I forgot to add it to the Thriller Free Zone (since I'd only ripped the 80s era tracks) so it hasn't been on the list since '04.
  
  
• Alice Cooper - Poison
  
  I want to hurt you just to hear you screaming my name was my ex's fav lyric (before we broke up, not after).  In hindsight, I can understand why, both personally and objectively.  It's a GREAT line.
  

(orchestral set)

• Zimmer/Howard - Vespertillo (Batman Begins)
  
  Made it to the Thriller Free Zone last year but didn't make it the evening.  This year it does, and got the "cool music" compliment from a teenager at the door.  Not sure he knew what it was (and not sure how much I should respect it, since he was hardly costumed to any reasonable degree), but I'm glad my efforts to be strange are appreciated (by someone other than the parents who walk the kids).  Strange soundtrack, vieing between Zimmer's rock and amateur tonality, Howard's orchestral experience and ability to be avant-garde, and yet a Glass-like minimalism that's not common to either of them (perhaps the director's choice?).
  
  
• Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique (last movement) - Bernstein, NYPO
  
  Features the Dies Irae chant as well as its own Idae Fixe motif.  I usually get the Dies Irae chant by playing Country Lane from Clockwork Orange (the score - it didn't make it into the movie but summarized the film brilliantly) but this year was different.
  
  
• Zimmer - Singapore (Pirates III)
  
  A dark musical summary of the set-up and first "battle" in the film.
  
  
• Saint-Saens - Danse Bacchanal - Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra
  
  A new discovery this year.  Brilliant work.  I'd only heard Carnival and the Symphony (Organ) previously, but this tone poem (and the other below) are astounding.  Certainly purist Romantic at heart, of course, but still brilliant.
  
  
• John Williams - March of the Slave Children (Indiana Jones II)
  
  Made it to the Thriller Free Zone last year but didn't make the evening.  This year it does.  I hated the soundtrack LP release (and subsequent CD that added nothing to it) because it wasn't really the full score and especially didn't include the typical "closing credits medley" so common in Williams scores for Lucas, Spielberg, and others.  I played this in high school band (10th grade) as part of that medley.  I'm very annoyed at Spielberg and Paramount for not authorizing a full 2-cd*3 set of all 3 movies the way Lucas and 20 Century Fox put out the complete scores for the original Star Wars trilogy.  Williams best work, the work most uniquely *him*, is in his incidentals, not in his "theme" arrangements, and the soundtrack releases for Indiana Jones don't do that work justice.  Surely the success of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings' extended soundtrack cd's should be hints that there is an audience for this material?
  
  
• Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre - Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra
  
  See Danse Bacchanal above.
  
  
• Zimmer - Drink Up Me Hearties (Pirates III closing credits)
  
  Zimmer is great at coming up with thematic motifs and great at coming up with emotional underscoring for intense film moments, but he sometimes lacks at true composition by not really developing his motifs the way a really trained composer would.  The closing credits for Pirates III are the one really solid exception to that - here, he overlays *three* separately developed themes from other parts of the film on top of each other to create a piece that stands solidly on its own and rips my heart out every time.  This version is only 4 minutes long.  The film's closing credits, where it continued for another 6, I eagerly await for the December DVD release.  I was in tears in the theater as it played and it, the scores of all 3 films, suddenly came together the way they always were intended to but never quite found the space for...
  
  
• Liszt - Mephisto's Waltz (1) - Karajan, BPO
  
  Acquired through the Great Tower Collapse.  Heavy stuff, like the Faust Symphony, where Liszt played with tonality-stretching as far as he dared for the time.  There are still secrets in this score I've yet to find, but hey, I can't know everything.
  
  
• Disney - Grim Grinning Ghosts
  
  Made it last year.  It only made it this year 'cause I flipped discs and needed to get something playing quickly.  BTW, everybody, and I mean *everybody*, has been raving about the improvements to the ride at WDW's Magic Kingdom.  The Anaheim crowd, who did get some of the improvements first, are already expressing jealousy.
  
  
• Disney - Twilight Zone (ride soundtrack)
  
  Here only 'cause it was next on the cdrom.  Nothing too spectacular, just some eerie chords as lead-ins to obligatory excerpts of the show's theme.  I've been in the library, the tv room, and the basement where the elevators are loaded, then I leave at let my wife have all the fun from there.
  
  
• Dukas - Sorcerer's Apprentice (Fantasia '82 version)
  
  Usually makes the cut (though it didn't last year, just for variety's sake).  It is what it is, excellent and relevant.
  
  
• Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain (Fantasia '82 version)
  
  Different versions have made the cut before, but this is first for this one since I started tracking.  Next year, I might scare people for real by playing the Saturday Night Fever disco mix (Night on Disco Mountain), since it'll be the movies 30th anniversary.  If the track doesn't scare 'em, the age reminder will.  Heh heh heh...
  
  
• Ben Bartlett - stuff from Walking with Dinosaurs
  
  If I ever win the lottery and we divide up the money right, a substantial portion of my cut will be to commission a symphony from this guy, and then get Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony to premiere it, on XM (who will record it), at Strathmore.  Every instant of music from his Dinosaurs and Beasts scores is sumptuous and I really want to hear more from him only very little of his work makes it to this side of the pond.
  

Catch me on Sunday for my first AT40 review in quite some time...

Comments

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

The Anaheim crowd, who did get some of the improvements first, are already expressing jealousy.

Well, Disneyland has the "Nightmare Before Christmas" retheme right now. Personally, I preferred the original theme, tho I like some of it. I'll say more in my Journal tomorrow when I talk about the trip.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

WDW doesn't do the significant ride changes for seasonal events the way DL does - a smaller portion of their crowd are regular visitors. I've got the soundtrack to the Nightmare version and I love how there are subtle hints of GGG tucked inside trying to sneak out past the Elfman score. I do want to see DL's version some day but the fall has few days off between MDRF ending and Christmas with all of its performances.