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Posted: |
Jan 5, 2020 - 10:30 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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I've had this on replay since I got it. Unfortunately, as with all box sets, once I get to the end of Disc 4 I've forgotten what Disc 1's like. It's like painting the Forth Road Bridge. So I've just re-re-relistened to Disc 1.
Overall impression of the whole set so far is that it's pretty good, but I feel that there's a big drop in quality towards the end with such a predominance of Richard LaSalle. I'll go into why I find his music irritating in a later post, once I've endured his contributions for surely the last time. But enough of the Scrooge spirit.
Disc 1 kicks off with John Williams' score for "The Crash", and it's terrific. The best thing on the set by far. What's really interesting is just how much he took notice of Irwin Allen's directive of "Stick a bit of PLANET OF THE APES in there". It's unmistakably John Williams, but the Goldsmith score is like a thread running through it all - in fact through the whole series. Not just the reverbed harp, but the woodwind lines, the abrupt snare drum exclamations, the Gimpelesque piano runs... Whatever, I never really appreciated John Williams' work for Irwin Allen's TV shows before, but I'm going to reevaluate that now I've heard "The Crash". Splendid music, and INTERESTING too, which is a big plus. I also like the Alexander Courage "original" score for "The Crash" on Disc 4. It's kind of similar to his Star Trek work. I can imagine a big giant alien played by Ted Cassidy, with Courage doing the aural lumberings. It's quite striking - and a jarring step up after all the previous LaSalles.
But back to Disc 1 - "Framed" and "Underground" follow, by Leith Stevens, then there's a bit of Paul Sawtell for "The Flight Plan" before we're back to Stevens again for "Manhunt". Unlike ZardozSpeaks, I never liked Paul Sawtell's work on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and I'd be hard-pressed to name a film of his whose music really impressed me. Standard run-of-the-mill fare. It's so undistinguished I hardly even notice it when it's playing. The Leith Stevens scores on the other hand are very good, although I think my favourite pieces by him are on Disc 2. Still, I really like how Stevens repeats themes and motifs throughout his episodes. They give the set a kind of sense of continuity. It's not prime '50s SF Stevens, but there are enough hints of what he had previously done for the big screen to make the scores here more than serviceable - he was so good at evoking a sense of loneliness, wonder... and desolation too.
Oh, I forgot the Mullendore! Yes, "Terror-Go-Round" is quite good but nothing special. I do like parts of the other Mullendores on the set, and "Terror-Go-Round" is fair to middling.
So that's Disc 1. I'll do the same for the other discs (you have been warned) when I get the time, but I'll finish with a Zardozish overview. First impressions only at the moment. Overall I'd say that the Williams is the absolute highlight. Thereafter, in no particular order, I really like most cues by Stevens. The Irving Gertz score is fun in that it reminds me of his '50s horrors, while the Robert Prince is quite intriguing, certainly when surrounded by LaSalle. The Alexander Courage original "Crash" is very good, some of his other ones less appealing. Mullendore's scores vary in quality, but it was always going to be that way when you get the goofy assignments. The Harry Geller stuff does very little for me, while the Richard LaSalle overdose is really kind of excrutiatingly banal. It's more fun listening out for who he's copying every five seconds than trying to hear his "own" voice in there.
More LaSalle character assasination in due course. Next week at the same time, Disc 2. Oh, and "The Invaders".
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Nice one, LC - well edited. Thumbs up.
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I've had this on replay since I got it. Unfortunately, as with all box sets, once I get to the end of Disc 4 I've forgotten what Disc 1's like. It's like painting the Forth Road Bridge. So I've just re-re-relistened to Disc 1.
Overall impression of the whole set so far is that it's pretty good, but I feel that there's a big drop in quality towards the end with such a predominance of Richard LaSalle. I'll go into why I find his music irritating in a later post, once I've endured his contributions for surely the last time. But enough of the Scrooge spirit.
Disc 1 kicks off with John Williams' score for "The Crash", and it's terrific. The best thing on the set by far. What's really interesting is just how much he took notice of Irwin Allen's directive of "Stick a bit of PLANET OF THE APES in there". It's unmistakably John Williams, but the Goldsmith score is like a thread running through it all - in fact through the whole series. Not just the reverbed harp, but the woodwind lines, the abrupt snare drum exclamations, the Gimpelesque piano runs... Whatever, I never really appreciated John Williams' work for Irwin Allen's TV shows before, but I'm going to reevaluate that now I've heard "The Crash". Splendid music, and INTERESTING too, which is a big plus. I also like the Alexander Courage "original" score for "The Crash" on Disc 4. It's kind of similar to his Star Trek work. I can imagine a big giant alien played by Ted Cassidy, with Courage doing the aural lumberings. It's quite striking - and a jarring step up after all the previous LaSalles.
But back to Disc 1 - "Framed" and "Underground" follow, by Leith Stevens, then there's a bit of Paul Sawtell for "The Flight Plan" before we're back to Stevens again for "Manhunt". Unlike ZardozSpeaks, I never liked Paul Sawtell's work on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and I'd be hard-pressed to name a film of his whose music really impressed me. Standard run-of-the-mill fare. It's so undistinguished I hardly even notice it when it's playing. The Leith Stevens scores on the other hand are very good, although I think my favourite pieces by him are on Disc 2. Still, I really like how Stevens repeats themes and motifs throughout his episodes. They give the set a kind of sense of continuity. It's not prime '50s SF Stevens, but there are enough hints of what he had previously done for the big screen to make the scores here more than serviceable - he was so good at evoking a sense of loneliness, wonder... and desolation too.
Oh, I forgot the Mullendore! Yes, "Terror-Go-Round" is quite good but nothing special. I do like parts of the other Mullendores on the set, and "Terror-Go-Round" is fair to middling.
So that's Disc 1. I'll do the same for the other discs (you have been warned) when I get the time, but I'll finish with a Zardozish overview. First impressions only at the moment. Overall I'd say that the Williams is the absolute highlight. Thereafter, in no particular order, I really like most cues by Stevens. The Irving Gertz score is fun in that it reminds me of his '50s horrors, while the Robert Prince is quite intriguing, certainly when surrounded by LaSalle. The Alexander Courage original "Crash" is very good, some of his other ones less appealing. Mullendore's scores vary in quality, but it was always going to be that way when you get the goofy assignments. The Harry Geller stuff does very little for me, while the Richard LaSalle overdose is really kind of excrutiatingly banal. It's more fun listening out for who he's copying every five seconds than trying to hear his "own" voice in there.
More LaSalle character assasination in due course. Next week at the same time, Disc 2. Oh, and "The Invaders".
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Since I have an absolutely massive ego - and also would like to keep this coherent, sort of, I've taken the liberty of quoting myself for the second part of the Land of the Giants gigantic retrospective saga. It helps me too, to see what I'd said before. Anyway, you may have realised that not even one day has passed since my first "review", and I told you that the next one would be next week. It isn't. This is now. And so, with no further a doo-doo -
Disc 2 - Those re-re-relistens are a revelation. The crap stuff becomes serviceable on multiple listens. That was a joke - there's no crap here, but quite a lot of merely "serviceable" music. Having said that, this might be the second-strongest disc of the set, just beaten because of the lengthy "Crash" score on Disc 1 -
"The Creed" by Irving Gertz really made an impression this time. Apart from the nostalgic connection it brought due to the throwback to the '50s Universal horror/SF sound, it struck me as being really well-written music. It's actually INTERESTING. How many times do I have to tell you that that's important (to me)? Intense snare drum, lonesome woodwinds, exciting piano... Very good indeed.
Harry Geller has two scores represented on Disc 2 - "The Golden Cage" and "Target Earth". They passed me by on first, second, third listen... but I quite liked it/them this time. I like the moments of almost exotica siren call in the first one, and the electric organ in the second. It's all "okay". Nothing outstanding.
The two Leith Stevens on Disc 2 are exceptional, amongst my favourites on the whole set. "Night of Thrombildinbar" is wonderful. Charming, moving, with that sense of loneliness that Stevens always captured so well. And from a child's-eye view (or that's the way I picture it). It reminds me of his wondrous THE ATOMIC CITY (buy it now on the Kritzerland label, says Bruce. You'll get I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE too, nutmegs!) Innocence faced with danger. Brilliant. But then we get Stevens' amazing "Rescue" episode. It's a plodding score, as befits the probably-not-very-exciting plot, but it showcases everything that was great about Leith Stevens. The terrible loneliness of us here on Earth, the vastness of the universe... the vastness of a hole in the ground when you're really tiny...
The Mullendore scores are way above average. "Return to Inidu" avoids silly comedy music, but it is quirky in an inventive way. "Shell Game" is charming too, with some beautiful light-hearted sea-faring sounds (just the whiff of the sea). The rejected Mullendore Main and End Titles are interesting, but probably just as well they weren't used. Good music but no hook.
So far Disc 1 and Disc 2 are vying for favourite places in the set.
Next week, at the same time, "The Invaders" - or discs 3 and 4 of "Land of the Giants."
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Since you brought mention of Kritzerland in your posting, Graham, will you be reviewing K-land's new CD on vintage concert works by Franz Reizenstein?
You owe it to the ghost of Christopher Lee to review the music by his favorite composer.
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Since you brought mention of Kritzerland in your posting, Graham, will you be reviewing K-land's new CD on vintage concert works by Franz Reizenstein?
You owe it to the ghost of Christopher Lee to review the music by his favorite composer.
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INTERMISSION
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Zardy - I am rather tempted by the Kritzy Reizenstein newby, because quite a lot of it sounds like THE MUMMY. Having said that, I'm not keen on his "funny" piece. Sir Christopher found it hilarious, but admitted that it wasn't quite in the same operatic league as his score for the Hammer film, which is some of the best music written for film, if not THE best, and certainly, indisputably, one of the best HAMMER film scores ever written, if not THE best, which is saying something as there were a lot, and I repeat a LOT of fine, very fine scores written for Hammer films, but THE MUMMY was certainly one of the best-LOOKING films ever made, if not THE best looking, and most certainly, unquestionably THE best-looking film of all time, ever, in history, which is saying a lot, because many, I repeat MANY films were very good looking, the one that Sir Christopher did for Orson Welles, the filmed opera that he sang, directed by Fellini, and the wonderful Laurence Olivier version of "Rasputin, the Mad Monk", one of Sir Christopher's best, if not THE best performance, ever, it was written for him by Rasputin himself, and Bram Stoker was his uncle, he wrote "Dracula" for Sir Christopher, but Hammer wanted a horror film, and Sir Christopher insisted that it is not a horror novel, "horror" is not a word he liked, and that is why he never, ever appeared in any horror films, but he did meet Ian Fleming, in fact they were cousins, Sir Christopher was in the war, but it was secret, let's just say he did a lot to put the Great back in Britain, a wonderful opera singer indeed.
LAND OF THE GIANTS WILL BE BACK AFTER THE BREAK
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Disc 1 kicks off with John Williams' score for "The Crash", and it's terrific. The best thing on the set by far. What's really interesting is just how much he took notice of Irwin Allen's directive of "Stick a bit of PLANET OF THE APES in there". It's unmistakably John Williams, but the Goldsmith score is like a thread running through it all - in fact through the whole series. Not just the reverbed harp, but the woodwind lines, the abrupt snare drum exclamations, the Gimpelesque piano runs... Whatever, I never really appreciated John Williams' work for Irwin Allen's TV shows before, but I'm going to reevaluate that now I've heard "The Crash". Splendid music, and INTERESTING too, which is a big plus.
As much as I adore his Lost in Space scores, The Crash is by far my favorite of his Irwin Allen TV work. Really mature and interesting, both exciting and creepy. If you watch the pilot episode, check out the unaired version as the Spindrift first approaches the city below. The tracked music is okay but compared to the same scene scored by Williams it's flat. The aired version is chilling, very creepy. Williams came a long way in the years between LIS and LOTG and you can hear his later disaster film score style developing. Truly great stuff.
LeSalle is fun and I like his work, but he's very much a "heard one , heard them all" kinda composer. When he scored Allen's "City Beneath The Sea" some of it was note for note from Land of the Giants.
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Thanks for posting your extensive thoughts on this great set, Graham! I find that I pretty much in agreement with you on most of assessments. I think that the scores by John Williams, Leith Stevens and Joseph Mullendore are the winners here. I should revisit the LaSalle scores again, but yes, they can be fairly underwhelming and can become a game of spotting what previous score he's referencing, which winds up being POTA most often, it seems!
Cheers Tom. Nice words, thanks. But "extensive thoughts"? That was only for the first two discs. More waffle on the way! Yes, "underwhelming" might a good adjective to describe the LaSalle scores in general... I'll attempt to steer clear of anything too offensive when I get around to hearing them again. Already onto Disc 3 for the fifth time...
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Scott McGoldsmith said the below, but I messed up the italics when editing the quote
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As much as I adore his Lost in Space scores, The Crash is by far my favorite of his Irwin Allen TV work. Really mature and interesting, both exciting and creepy. If you watch the pilot episode, check out the unaired version as the Spindrift first approaches the city below. The tracked music is okay but compared to the same scene scored by Williams it's flat. The aired version is chilling, very creepy. Williams came a long way in the years between LIS and LOTG and you can hear his later disaster film score style developing. Truly great stuff.
LeSalle is fun and I like his work, but he's very much a "heard one , heard them all" kinda composer. When he scored Allen's "City Beneath The Sea" some of it was note for note from Land of the Giants.
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And this is me - You might be right Scott that Williams' score for "The Crash" is actually more impressive than his work on Lost in Space. "The Crash" really held my interest throughout, but then I began to wonder if I was just in the mood for it, and maybe not in the mood for Lost in Space... But nah, too many plays of both. "The Crash" is indeed superior. Oh and yes, definitely foreshadowing his disaster epics which were just a few more years further ahead.
I've just listened to the first two scores on Disc 3 - LaSalle's "The Mechanical Man" and Harry Geller's "The Inside Rail". Both a bit of chore to be honest. More developed insults are brewing but will have to wait until I've digested the possibly indigestible...
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Scott McGoldsmith said the below
I just might change my user name to this! Since my last name is McIntyre, I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself.
Harry Geller's "The Inside Rail"...a bit of chore to be honest.
As is the episode. It's hard to believe that was the first episode of the season to be produced, but it's easy to see why ABC held it back. It's hardly representative of the action adventure type stuff Irwin liked to do.
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I've had this on replay since I got it. Unfortunately, as with all box sets, once I get to the end of Disc 4 I've forgotten what Disc 1's like. It's like painting the Forth Road Bridge. So I've just re-re-relistened to Disc 1.
Overall impression of the whole set so far is that it's pretty good, but I feel that there's a big drop in quality towards the end with such a predominance of Richard LaSalle. I'll go into why I find his music irritating in a later post, once I've endured his contributions for surely the last time. But enough of the Scrooge spirit.
Disc 1 kicks off with John Williams' score for "The Crash", and it's terrific. The best thing on the set by far. What's really interesting is just how much he took notice of Irwin Allen's directive of "Stick a bit of PLANET OF THE APES in there". It's unmistakably John Williams, but the Goldsmith score is like a thread running through it all - in fact through the whole series. Not just the reverbed harp, but the woodwind lines, the abrupt snare drum exclamations, the Gimpelesque piano runs... Whatever, I never really appreciated John Williams' work for Irwin Allen's TV shows before, but I'm going to reevaluate that now I've heard "The Crash". Splendid music, and INTERESTING too, which is a big plus. I also like the Alexander Courage "original" score for "The Crash" on Disc 4. It's kind of similar to his Star Trek work. I can imagine a big giant alien played by Ted Cassidy, with Courage doing the aural lumberings. It's quite striking - and a jarring step up after all the previous LaSalles.
But back to Disc 1 - "Framed" and "Underground" follow, by Leith Stevens, then there's a bit of Paul Sawtell for "The Flight Plan" before we're back to Stevens again for "Manhunt". Unlike ZardozSpeaks, I never liked Paul Sawtell's work on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and I'd be hard-pressed to name a film of his whose music really impressed me. Standard run-of-the-mill fare. It's so undistinguished I hardly even notice it when it's playing. The Leith Stevens scores on the other hand are very good, although I think my favourite pieces by him are on Disc 2. Still, I really like how Stevens repeats themes and motifs throughout his episodes. They give the set a kind of sense of continuity. It's not prime '50s SF Stevens, but there are enough hints of what he had previously done for the big screen to make the scores here more than serviceable - he was so good at evoking a sense of loneliness, wonder... and desolation too.
Oh, I forgot the Mullendore! Yes, "Terror-Go-Round" is quite good but nothing special. I do like parts of the other Mullendores on the set, and "Terror-Go-Round" is fair to middling.
So that's Disc 1. I'll do the same for the other discs (you have been warned) when I get the time, but I'll finish with a Zardozish overview. First impressions only at the moment. Overall I'd say that the Williams is the absolute highlight. Thereafter, in no particular order, I really like most cues by Stevens. The Irving Gertz score is fun in that it reminds me of his '50s horrors, while the Robert Prince is quite intriguing, certainly when surrounded by LaSalle. The Alexander Courage original "Crash" is very good, some of his other ones less appealing. Mullendore's scores vary in quality, but it was always going to be that way when you get the goofy assignments. The Harry Geller stuff does very little for me, while the Richard LaSalle overdose is really kind of excrutiatingly banal. It's more fun listening out for who he's copying every five seconds than trying to hear his "own" voice in there.
More LaSalle character assasination in due course. Next week at the same time, Disc 2. Oh, and "The Invaders".
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Since I have an absolutely massive ego - and also would like to keep this coherent, sort of, I've taken the liberty of quoting myself for the second part of the Land of the Giants gigantic retrospective saga. It helps me too, to see what I'd said before. Anyway, you may have realised that not even one day has passed since my first "review", and I told you that the next one would be next week. It isn't. This is now. And so, with no further a doo-doo -
Disc 2 - Those re-re-relistens are a revelation. The crap stuff becomes serviceable on multiple listens. That was a joke - there's no crap here, but quite a lot of merely "serviceable" music. Having said that, this might be the second-strongest disc of the set, just beaten because of the lengthy "Crash" score on Disc 1 -
"The Creed" by Irving Gertz really made an impression this time. Apart from the nostalgic connection it brought due to the throwback to the '50s Universal horror/SF sound, it struck me as being really well-written music. It's actually INTERESTING. How many times do I have to tell you that that's important (to me)? Intense snare drum, lonesome woodwinds, exciting piano... Very good indeed.
Harry Geller has two scores represented on Disc 2 - "The Golden Cage" and "Target Earth". They passed me by on first, second, third listen... but I quite liked it/them this time. I like the moments of almost exotica siren call in the first one, and the electric organ in the second. It's all "okay". Nothing outstanding.
The two Leith Stevens on Disc 2 are exceptional, amongst my favourites on the whole set. "Night of Thrombildinbar" is wonderful. Charming, moving, with that sense of loneliness that Stevens always captured so well. And from a child's-eye view (or that's the way I picture it). It reminds me of his wondrous THE ATOMIC CITY (buy it now on the Kritzerland label, says Bruce. You'll get I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE too, nutmegs!) Innocence faced with danger. Brilliant. But then we get Stevens' amazing "Rescue" episode. It's a plodding score, as befits the probably-not-very-exciting plot, but it showcases everything that was great about Leith Stevens. The terrible loneliness of us here on Earth, the vastness of the universe... the vastness of a hole in the ground when you're really tiny...
The Mullendore scores are way above average. "Return to Inidu" avoids silly comedy music, but it is quirky in an inventive way. "Shell Game" is charming too, with some beautiful light-hearted sea-faring sounds (just the whiff of the sea). The rejected Mullendore Main and End Titles are interesting, but probably just as well they weren't used. Good music but no hook.
So far Disc 1 and Disc 2 are vying for favourite places in the set.
Next week, at the same time, "The Invaders" - or discs 3 and 4 of "Land of the Giants."
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Discs 3 and 4
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And so I quote myself once more, in order to keep things hanging together logically, and also so that I can see absolutely all of my half-formed thoughts in a big lengthy piece of computer-phony fool's cap (sick) jiggery pokery which will have Mr Marshmallow (sp?) running a mile before he gets past the first.p (etc). I do not however predict much coherence. I am the man down the pub. Anchor's A-Weigh! -
I mentioned in an earlier petit lapin that Disc 3 gets off to a rough start with a LaSalle and a (not good) Geller. I may lump all my LaSalle opinions together, later. I don't know yet. I'm in real time. So yeah, definite drop in quality from the first two discs. My mother-in-law always says, "Cuidado con la sal", when I'm pouring it onto my haggis supper each Sunday, but in this case there's no avoiding too much LaSalle. He's a dominating force he is, though ultimately ineffectual, even counterproductive. Oh but it's not later yet. So hush -
I think that the best things across CDs 3 and 4 are, in no particular order, the Mullendores, the (one) Robert Prince, and the Alexander Courage(s). The Harry Gellers are either standard or annoying, although there are one or two nice moments of jazz piano on "Giants and All That Jazz" (I detect the hands of Artie Kane?). The actual Artie Kane tracks themselves (for "Collector's Item") hold very little interest except as a souvenir, being merely a selection of music box themes.
I really really like the unused Alexander Courage score for "The Crash". It's so like his work on Star Trek. Quality writing, the ominous lumbering gigantic chords being both vaguely Herrmannesque and yet totally Sandy Courage. Very different from John Williams' stupendous replacement score, but one of the best on the set nonetheless. A question - How come it's less than 15 minutes? I did skim the (very good) liner notes once more, but didn't immediately see if this was the only material available or in decent sound, or if it was always a "partial" score, perhaps being brought up to full length by library cues originally? Something doesn't ring true there. You tell me. Actually, come to think of it, I think that Scottie MacGoldsmith answered the question in an earlier post, but it was too oblique for me. I'm in the pub, on my phone. How rude. Stiil, the lads are blabbing shite as usual. Fitba' this, fitba' that - give me Land of the Giants any day over that rubbish. Well, most of Land of the Giants.
"Nightmare", by Robert Prince, is vaguely irritating, but in a good way. I always liked Prince (not so much The Artist Formerly Known As, but the real McCoy, Dr Robert McCoy Prince) for his TV work on stuff like "Night Gallery" and his spooky TV Movies, so I was ready to like this. Interesting electronics, "interesting" vaguely irritating tuba ramblings or rumblings. It's good but doesn't really go anywhere - which could be said for many of the representations of the scores on the whole set. At least it woke me up from a LaSalle sandwich.
Oh, I waxed lyrical over Alexander Courage's "The Crash" earlier. His other one here is the goofy-sounding silent movie one. The episode has John Carradine playing himself (a fading horror movie star), and the music is quite clever. Silent movie pastiche. Well done, and even inventive - better than what many could have done, but the material was probably a non-starter.
Enjoying very much the Mullendores over all four CDs. On discs 3 and 4 he's got "Deadly Pawn" and "Panic". It's mostly sort of old-hat and whimsical, but it's all deftly handled and he rarely falls into total stupidity. Endearing for the most part. I like Mullendore a lot.
So what's left? Richard LaSalle. Seven fucking scores? Five of them on Disc 4? That's what bogs down the latter part of this set for me. Dick fucking LaSalle. "No te pases con la sal", says my mum-in-law. Sorry dear, but I can hardly avoid him here. Right, I said "fucking" too many times. I don't hate Richard LaSalle. I like his Main Titles from the Vincent Price film DIARY OF A MADMAN, and there are hints of that here too, which means he did have his own style. I'd class it as a kind of watery-feeling 1940s jungle exotica. There's a lot of langourous material here, but it generally conveys either drowning in a tropical soup, or drowsy parrots. Until WAKE UP - THE MONSTER'S COMING!! Yes, a recognizable style. What was that other Irwin Allen TV thing... "Boiled Under the Sea"? Anyway, Richard "really got" what Irwin Allen was looking for (copyright Jeff Bond), and so went on to write the same soporific siesta action music for a number of Irwin's TV disaster epics. Thankfully John Williams was back for the big screen Allen disasters, while Richard LaSalle scored movies such as SUPERBEAST, very appropriately made in the stifling heat of the Philippines, about monsters and experiments. It's absolute cack, but it does include a "real" autopsy scene, if that's your thing. Richard LaSalle hardly stirred from his hammock. Except when THE MONSTERS WERE COMING!!! Then he blared for all he was worth.
So, Richard LaSalle. He had his own style. That's a good sign, but it's not a style that me/myself/I liked much. Then he had his "borrowed" styles. Oh good! Not so good. On "Land of the Giants" he had all the raw material at his disposal, all the classic film scores, including the ones Jeff Bond couldn't name in the liner notes because it might have ended up in a court case. Smart move Jeff. I mean that and I love ya. But this is the FSM Message Board and Richard LaSalle's lawyers aren't going to prosecute me if they're not looking at this. Or even if they are. So, with all the great raw material at hand (PLANET OF THE APES, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, BULLITT,
VERTIGO add nausea and stir), what does he he do? He DILUTES it to baby-food level of digestion. So if you can imagine a cartoon version of those films, but made for three-year-olds, that's what LaSalle's takes sound like to me. It's not even as advanced as Scooby Doo level, it's more for the TeleTubbies crowd. Which is a bit sad really. I always thought that "dumbing down" (as Irwin Allen did) could be balanced by a mature musical approach (as was so often the case), but the music here makes everything seem much more infantile than even a man in a carrot suit out of "Lost in Space".
Is that the time? Oh no, the bar's closing! Last orders! I'll do my conclusion tomorrow. Can you stand the suspense? Then it's Queen Martin's Invaders! AAAEEEAGGHH!! Mine's a pint.
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Posted: |
Jan 13, 2020 - 3:15 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Right, that's me back from the pub. But I'll continue in my "man down the pub" chatty streamofconsciousness way, thanks.
One of the great things about box sets like this, plus an increasingly failing memory, is that I sometimes "forget" that I've actually got scores by certain composers. Because my collection is filed mostly in composer order, I can usually find whatever disc easily. But box sets representing a variety of composers (or even single CDs with the work of more than one composer on them) are usually filed under the title, at the end of the composer A-Zs. I hope you're all following this in rapt attention.
So there I go thinking about those LAND OF THE GIANTS composers, and Irwin Allen, and I check out what I've got from LOST IN SPACE. I never got around to getting the box set - in fact to tell you the truth I was always a bit hesitant, thinking that much of it would be silly... I mean, how do you score a man wearing a carrot outfit? - but I did pick up three individual releases from GNP's "The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen". Oh, Volume One is ALL John Williams! I'd forgotten that. Oh, Volume Two's got Alexander Courage and Joseph Mullendore on it! And it looks like the Courage episode might be the one starring the man in the carrot suit! I'd forgotten that. Oh, Volume 3 has got John Williams' lovely "My Friend Mr. Nobody" on it, but I remember actually buying that one for "The Derelict", which I'd then recently watched on DVD and loved the scoring - very '50s SF - I think it's mostly a patchwork of Hans Salter and Herman Stein. Oh but Richard LaSalle's in the mix too! And I don't remember hating it! Oh look, I've got THE TIME TUNNEL! John Williams and the very great George Duning! I'd forgotten that. Looking forward to revisiting them again, then maybe the mammothly gigantic STAR TREK box of wonders.
But first I must relisten to the very good QUEEN MARTIN THE SECOND'S INVADERS, and eventually post all my ramblings here. Oh look! Apart from Dominic Frontiere (and Duane Tatro, Richard Markowitz etc) it's got an Irving Gertz score on it! And so the enormous jigsaw puzzle which is ancient SF film and telly music begins to take shape and make sense.
Be seeing you!
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The studio made you cover all episodes, in order?
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As for LaSalle, he copped to his willingness to write to the temp track in a 1980s Starlog interview--he did write some nice moments for "The Derelict" for Lost in Space and since Allen's City Beneath the Sea is one of my great guilty pleasures, I was excited to find that he had simply lifted entire cues of it from LOTG.
A man after my own heart.
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Posted: |
Jan 13, 2020 - 9:59 AM
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By: |
Tom Servo
(Member)
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Right, that's me back from the pub. But I'll continue in my "man down the pub" chatty streamofconsciousness way, thanks.
One of the great things about box sets like this, plus an increasingly failing memory, is that I sometimes "forget" that I've actually got scores by certain composers. Because my collection is filed mostly in composer order, I can usually find whatever disc easily. But box sets representing a variety of composers (or even single CDs with the work of more than one composer on them) are usually filed under the title, at the end of the composer A-Zs. I hope you're all following this in rapt attention.
So there I go thinking about those LAND OF THE GIANTS composers, and Irwin Allen, and I check out what I've got from LOST IN SPACE. I never got around to getting the box set - in fact to tell you the truth I was always a bit hesitant, thinking that much of it would be silly... I mean, how do you score a man wearing a carrot outfit? - but I did pick up three individual releases from GNP's "The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen". Oh, Volume One is ALL John Williams! I'd forgotten that. Oh, Volume Two's got Alexander Courage and Joseph Mullendore on it! And it looks like the Courage episode might be the one starring the man in the carrot suit! I'd forgotten that. Oh, Volume 3 has got John Williams' lovely "My Friend Mr. Nobody" on it, but I remember actually buying that one for "The Derelict", which I'd then recently watched on DVD and loved the scoring - very '50s SF - I think it's mostly a patchwork of Hans Salter and Herman Stein. Oh but Richard LaSalle's in the mix too! And I don't remember hating it! Oh look, I've got THE TIME TUNNEL! John Williams and the very great George Duning! I'd forgotten that. Looking forward to revisiting them again, then maybe the mammothly gigantic STAR TREK box of wonders.
But first I must relisten to the very good QUEEN MARTIN THE SECOND'S INVADERS, and eventually post all my ramblings here. Oh look! Apart from Dominic Frontiere (and Duane Tatro, Richard Markowitz etc) it's got an Irving Gertz score on it! And so the enormous jigsaw puzzle which is ancient SF film and telly music begins to take shape and make sense.
Be seeing you!
I think the LOST IN SPACE box set from LLL is totally worth it for the additional Gerald Fried and Joseph Mullendore scores that weren't on the old GNP "best of" albums. Plus, the sound quality is improved overall and there is more Williams to enjoy from his 4 scores for the show. And there are library cues that are excellent.
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