Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) Review

The decade of the 1980s was the era of the cult movie and probably spawned more initially unsuccessful films that eventually became popular than any other period. A perfect example of the kind can be found in this moody little story about a rock band that hit it big in the early ‘60s then disintegrated under mysterious circumstances. While the mystery may not be all that clever, the characters, acting, and music make this a classic rock and roll flick.

Movies about the inherent drama found within rock and roll bands are a dime a dozen, being a kind of low hanging fruit that writers and producers can’t resist. Easy to write, easy to shoehorn a music act into, and always teeming with conflict they are also relatively cheap to produce.

So what sets this low budget flick apart from the pack?

“On the Dark Side”.

Okay, I’m being a little facetious, but once the movie premiered, vanished quietly, and moved on to cable rotation, that song dominated MTV and radio in 1984. Odds are younger folk have heard that tune on classic rock stations and never seen the movie. They have missed out on quite a treat featuring a talented cast that went on to bigger things later.

Back in the early ‘80s, I watched this film many times on cable and so it was with some surprise that I ran into a used DVD at a local coffee shop. The surprise wasn’t that it had been put out in that format, but that I’d never gotten around to purchasing it. So of course I had to buy the well battered DVD out of nostalgia and to review.

The movie begins with the previously mentioned song being played live before a 1960s audience. Don’t be alarmed by the sudden shift from film to VHS level quality! Artistic choices can be alarming, but remember not to panic since it is only a device meant to show a shift to the present – the present being 1983 in this case.

Media Magazine staff are watching archival footage of an old band, Eddie and the Cruisers in a small studio. Conveniently, they name each member of the band thereby introducing us to the cast of characters we’ll be watching for the next ninety minutes. If it feels a little heavy handed, it is. I forgive the hokey method because it helps the story get up and running very quickly.

Cheesiness aside, we also get to know the main instigator of the film, Maggie Foley (Ellen Barkin), in the scene. Blonde and always smoking a cigarette, she’s the intrepid if somewhat suspect reporter always looking to work an angle for ratings -- even if it means making things up. Pushy, blonde, and slightly seductive, Maggie appears to be a main star of the production.

Appearances can be deceiving. It may be overanalyzing, but that seems to be one of the themes of the story.

Eddie and the Cruisers hit it big back in ‘63, only for tragedy to destroy the band. Nostalgia for their music has their songs getting air play again and with that setup, the story begins to unspool. A lost album and the circumstances around Eddie’s death are the twin mysteries driving the narrative.

Not only are the fans haunted by what was and could have been, so are the remaining survivors of the rock and roll group. “Warm Summer Nights” features nostalgia driven lyric, so it is the perfect song to segue way to the real main protagonist of the movie, Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger). Through his eyes and memories we are presented the tumultuous events of twenty years before.

 

Currently a high school English literature teacher, he once was a college graduate pushing a broom at a bar on the Jersey Shore.

This was a dead period in American rock and roll, with girl bands dominating the pop charts and the British Invasion led by the Beatles yet to happen. Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens were killed in the plane crash immortalized in Don McLean’s “American Pie” three years before on “the day the music died.”

So it was the Jersey Shore sound that kept rock and roll alive during the interim, at least according to the movie. In reality, that regional sound didn’t start up until the late ‘60s. Never learn your history from Hollywood, folks.

Del Shannon’s classic “Runaway” is the trigger bringing back Frank’s memories of a fateful meeting with a pretty girl. The flashback goes somewhat awry when she turns out to have not just a boyfriend in tow, but an entire band. Still, the chance meeting would change Frank’s life forever.

Entering his life are:

Eddie Wilson (Michael Paré), the leader of the band and main vocalist. Sparse with his words and always passionate, he’s a driven perfectionist.

Joanne Carlino (Helen Schneider), Eddie’s girl and backup singer. Immediately drawn to Frank, she’s obviously going to be a source of friction within the group.

Sal Amato (Matthew Laurance) fills the role of the member chafing from being in the leader’s shadow. His tastes in music does not mesh well with the mercurial Eddie, but hey, who pays attention to bass players anyway?

The drummer (David Wilson). Not only doesn’t he suffer from sudden human combustion, he doesn’t show any signs of life or even a name. He is “just going through a phase” according to Eddie.

Wendall Newton (Michael ‘Tunes’ Antunes from the Beaver Brown Band) plays sax and that’s all. He never says a word during the entire film, in fact. There are token performances and then there is this, which is fairly ridiculous.

And of course, no band would be complete without their sleazy manager. Coming off as a low level conman, Doc Robbins (Joe Pantoliano) is something of a scene stealer whenever he gets a chance to speak.

A present day break in leads Frank to reuniting with the surviving band members one by one. Someone wants the missing tapes from the Season in Hell album that never was put out and is willing to go to extremes to do so. Against that backdrop are flashbacks to when the band started to see success. Alternating between the past and present is the structure for the movie, so this isn’t a flick you can walk out of for awhile and easily jump back into.

All the tropes need covering so the one of girls coming between band members isn’t going to be surprising. Consequently, a considerable amount of time is spent on Joann’s flirtations with Frank. Obviously still single in the ‘80s, she is the one who got away for the bookish man. His introducing her to the poem “A Season in Hell” by Arthur Rimbaud becomes a pivotal plot point in a scene that screams “pay attention to me!”

So pay attention!

There are some stand out moments depicting the band coming together with their new song writer when Frank is drafted by Eddie. The two bond quickly due to a mutual desire to create art rather than just churn out what everyone else is doing. Eddie in particular wants to make songs that “will last forever” and dubs the college boy the Wordman.

The rest of the band is not so enthused by all this, but what their leader wants, he gets.

Such treatment can engender resentment and that kind of bitterness can last for decades. Sal is that member of the group, so it is painfully ironic that he’s running around with a Cruisers tribute band to make money. Despite all the years, he’s still in Eddie’s shadow.

It is character moments like this that make the movie, since the mystery is such a straightforward story. Seeing the band members older and haunted by their brush with fame is compelling cinema thanks to their being believable characters. Anyone who has been involved with a band or has friends who were will recognize the personalities presented here.

Frank has his own mixed bag of emotions for all was not fun back in the day. Taking the band out of their comfort zone and then taking Joann for something akin to a date exposes the classic New Jersey lower class resentments seen so often in entertainment. Wordman doesn’t quite fit in with the rest, despite his humility and even temper, no matter how hard he tries.

Conflict ensues with Eddie and the immortal line “words and music” makes its debut when Frank explains his sometimes turbulent relationship with the late singer to Maggie. It seems like everywhere he’s going, the reporter is there or was just there digging for more on Wilson. Her flirtations with Frank are questionable in their sincerity adding some tension to the newshound’s appearances.

More bad memories are uncovered via catching up to the drummer, Kenny Hopkins (David Wilson). Yes, he actually has a name, though not much more in the way of a personality. Frankly, he comes off as a bit of a creep and someone you’d keep your daughter away from. Just going through a phase? Pfft, that’s his true nature.

Maggie’s digging combines with Frank’s revisiting the past leads to more questions, including the biggest of them all. Is Eddie really dead or did he copy Rimbaud by faking his death? What really happened during the recording of the second album? Who is after the tapes?

Thoughts

Cult movies usually become so for one of two reasons: they are so terrible they become unintentional comedies or they are gems that managed to be overlooked at first. Luckily, this movie is an example of the latter. Sincere and guileless, it never gets overly pretentious as the highly entertaining, if formulaic, yarn unspools.

Eddie and the Cruisers is an earnest movie that often has an intimate feeling about it. This is due mainly to the performances of the cast with no real weak points except for Wendall. Whether he had dialogue in the script that was cut or was provided none, Antunes got no chance to shine like the others. Given he was the only real musician amidst a bunch of actors, maybe that was for the best.

Whatever the case may be, an impression is made of dealing with real people rather than cardboard cutouts churned out from a typewriter. Hey, that’s what was used back when this was made. Fancy shmancy word processors… Real writers went deaf from the sound of keys thwacking the paper and had fingers stained with White Out fluid.

Ahem. These kinds of wandering off of subject happen when you get old.

Direction by Martin Davidson is competent, though not flashy. The same can be said about Fred Murphy’s cinematography which handles the night filming well, an important thing for a movie that mostly takes place after dark. Other than a few creative shots using mirrors, the camera work is pedestrian with no innovative angles or panning.

Music dominates much of the running time with multiple performances showcasing entire songs while managing not to come off as being forced in. For a brief time, the soundtrack made a star out of John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. Deservedly so, though the irony of them becoming a one album hit is a bit too on point. I have to say Paré’s lip synching to Cafferty’s vocals is pretty good and might fool a few people.

Simply put, this was an ideal movie for the MTV era it landed in, back when the cable network aired music videos, influenced cinema, and was watched by what seemed like every teenager in America. The timing couldn’t have been better for it to become a cult hit.

When we aren’t watching performances by the band, the script serves up scads of dialogue betraying the fact this is an adaptation of a novel. P.F. Kluge approved of the adaptation, but couldn’t stand the horrible sequel which only had Eddie Wilson in common with his book.

Rated PG, the movie has plenty of mild profanity and innuendo sprinkled throughout nearly perfectly fitting what the movie rating. Not really suitable for kids in subject matter, ages in the double digits will find the story more interesting anyway.

I recommend Eddie and the Cruisers to rock and roll fans, lovers of wistful characters filled with regret, and anyone who enjoys a good, solidly made movie. After all these years, it still holds up well.

Technical

MGM Home Entertainment’s DVD dates back to 2001 and is a basic offering with only the theatrical trailer for an extra.

Video quality is fairly good with demerits for occasional muddiness during the many dark scenes along with occasional dirt scratches betraying the age of the material. Time seems to have been unkind to a lot of 1980s film stock with lower quality 35mm film being to blame if I recall correctly.

The good news is that the transfer is 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen so if you are like me and only saw it on HBO way back when it is a treat to see the complete picture. Colors are well saturated and show no bleed while contrast is decent. It is not a tack sharp presentation despite the film grain being present.

Audio is typical Dolby Digital Stereo Surround, but don’t expect much in the way of back channel action. This is a solidly stereo soundtrack with no no pops or hiss, but not as spectacular as a movie about music should be. It inexplicably lacks vavoom, making me wonder if the compression was too high.

Subtitles are available in English, French, and Spanish.

Yep, it is a no frills DVD.

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

Wendall’s death by “heart attack” marks the beginning of the end for the Cruisers. I like how the scene where Eddie can’t bring himself to perform before a packed bar reveals just how sensitive he really is. Down comes the façade of his tough guy image in a great performance by Paré. While the band plays on with Joann awkwardly singing in his place, the difference without the main man is glaring.

Oddly enough, the replacement sax player doesn’t get any dialogue either. Is it racial or is there a hatred of saxophone players involved? For some reason, I find the latter more sinister.

‘80s Joann makes her entrance late in the story in a reprise of how Frank first saw her. Again the chemistry is immediate, though this time tinged heavily with regrets. The melancholy nature of nostalgia is at its purest in this reunion of these two almost love birds. It is through her memories the final hours of Eddie are revealed.

Can’t make a film about the music industry without creative differences with the money men, can you? We finally get to hear some of the music that was lost and it is clearly five to ten years ahead of its time. Featuring distortion and backwards sampling, it is dark and slightly reminiscent of The Doors.

Told it is unreleasable crap, Eddie goes off in a rage at the record label exec. However, the anger is masking something else going on with the singer.

With Joann in tow, he flees to Jersey and a castle made of junk called Palace Depression. A real life place, it was destroyed by vandals years after the movie was made. There he begins to crack up, realizing his drive to create something great has failed and that everything he’s worked toward is gone.

Here is the tortured poet fully realized with the macho mask stripped away to reveal a panicked depressive at the end of his rope. In mere hours he will have vanished and his empty car found in a river.

A recovery run by Joann with Frank to Palace Depression is successful at finding the tapes, however they fail to notice somebody following them every step of the way. That somebody has a turquoise Chevy convertible just like Eddie’s.

Somebody who sounds like Eddie calls Joann, somebody who knows all their private signals with phone calls and headlight flashing. For you younger types, this was a time honored way of communications with a gal you were dating who had hostile parents. It was another era, one far, far away from texting.

I loved Frank finally being proactive at the end, ambushing “Eddie” without Joann’s knowledge. He manned up and would have worked over his former collaborator, except it turned out to be Doc posing as the dead singer. The tapes are his last chance at making it, so he staged the break ins and phone calls.

This was quite a scene, adultly handled with a visible weariness in the reactions of Frank and Joann. Rather than being enraged at Doc, they pity the eternal loser desperate for success. Giving him the tapes, they also give him the opportunity to finally get rich. Their actions are very grown up, which can’t be said of characters in many movies today.

Also mature is the couple finally forming at the end, with both of them letting go of Eddie at long last. He was always the one thing keeping them apart, both in life and death.

Eddie’s being alive in Canada is depicted very nicely as is his reaction to the tapes finally being released. Not a word is said, just showing body language made it a perfect ending to the story and reason enough to never make a sequel. Sadly they did and you will never read a review of it here for it is supremely bad.

Working on Posts and Getting Old

The last couple of weeks have been difficult, so none of the reviews I’m working on have progressed very far. Dad simply isn’t showing any signs of getting better or a willingness to work at it, so I’m trying to push him to do things. That’s been difficult, not to mention time consuming.

As I’m typing, U2’s new album, Songs of Innocence, is playing in the background. A free download until the middle of October, it is proof that the music industry is in trouble. CD sales have dwindled to nearly nothing and now digital download sales are in free fall. Streaming from Pandora and Spotify are being blamed, however the quality of product is more to blame in my opinion.

Songs of Innocence illustrates this well -- for you get what you paid for it. It isn’t even mediocre. Only The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) is interesting at all, the rest is banal. In fact, the album sounds like a band trying to sound like U2.

Life Is Like a Boat

Full of waves that bob us up and down, the water we sail on through life is rarely calm for any lengthy amount of time. The past eight days have not been still, but have not been tempest tossed either. Illness has been part of the downs of my life during this period. Most of them in fact.

Mostly bedridden to start out the week, it felt like I lost a month of things needing doing rather than days. On the other hand, a few good things happened that ranged from the mundane scoring of cheap DVDs at Alco to meeting with a congressional candidate that my father has been pitching tax reforms to.

On the negative side, somebody knocked our new mailbox off its post in the middle of the night. Tire tracks showed it wasn’t either of the snow plows, but a smaller vehicle that hit the post. The hill it fell down is very steep and treacherous, so I had to wait until I was feeling better to retrieve it from the snow. Thankfully, total body weight routines help with balance far more than I realized.

So things weren’t oppressively dull.

I did lose five days straight on weight training, but bobbed back to higher levels of pounds pressed. Things went swimmingly until yesterday, when pain induced sleep deprivation combined with upper respiratory issues made for a difficult day at church. Teaching adult Sunday school to a room filled with professionals from all walks of life and two thirds of the stake presidency while brain dead is not recommended.

My beloved Hoist V2 home gym did not get used as it was beyond my physical stamina after church. Today started out equally poorly, but somewhere after Noon rolled around, I became functional again. Before and after sessions of Pinball FX 2 verified I wasn’t imagining this and so I got to workout again.

One must adjust to the ups and downs of life or risk the chance of developing lifesickness, the equivalent of being seasick but more disorienting and disheartening. With less throwing up, I hope. Knowing that waves always go up and down is a big part of developing the emotional sea legs needed to cope with life. Not that I’m always on an even keel.

If my friends could have seen me ranting at the cats, the computer, and the world in general while being very ill Monday, they would have been shocked. An unusual combination of sickness, exhaustion from CFS, and high pain had me worse than the normally surly attitude I exhibit when ill. Of course, this passed and life went on.

Feeling better allows me to appreciate things properly, such as the beautiful song the post title was taken from. Here’s a live performance of Life Is Like a Boat by Rie Fu:

Simply lovely tune.

This song was the end theme for the first season of the anime Bleach and I’ll always fondly associate it with the character Rukia. I think you’ll find it stands on its own perfectly well.

Games People Play

With the year approaching its ending, I’ve found myself looking back at more than the past twelve months. For some reason, nostalgia has been hitting me harder than I’m used to.

It has been twenty years since DOOM from Id Software was released. I remember waiting for the shareware first episode to download over the glacially slow dialup connection I had through America Online.  Eager anticipation led to mild disappointment after firing up the game only to find I had to run it in a reduced box to get acceptable frame rates on my Packard Bell 486SX-25. That disappointment dissipated once actually running and gunning through the eerie atmosphere of darkened base on a moon orbiting Mars.

My first PC games were Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat, Dune, and Orel Hershiser’s Strike Zone. They weren’t graphically intensive, though Dune was one of the most lovely 256 color games every put out. Having played Castle Wolfenstein 3D, I couldn’t wait to play Id’s next game.

Two decades later and I’m playing games that look like this. How things have changed!

A Sound Decision

Little did I know that I’d end up with some quality headphones within a few days after my last post. Research had led me to AKG’s K 240 being the best performer for my auditory tastes while not spending hundreds of dollars. However, I kept digging due to a feeling I hadn’t considered every option. Wandering about the audiophile side of the Net I ran into something that was too good to be true: under $50 headphones that rivaled $150-1500 cans. But the more I dug into the phones it became clear this wasn’t a come on or mass delusion. UPDATED 8-29, see below the fold.

Enter the Superlux HD681’s which I purchased for just under $32 U.S. from Amazon.

These are full size circumaural (enclose the entire ear) headphones with a phenomenal range of 10-30,000 Hz. Nobody wears these to impress anyone for they are the cheapest looking plastic affairs I’ve ever seen. Muted red plastic trim adds to the dullness of appearance.

Fortunately, they are anything but dull in sound. Absolutely amazing range with deep yet controlled, bass, sparkling mid-tones, and extreme highs. The latter can be too much depending on the kind of music played and many will probably want to use an equalizer to tone down the high frequencies.

The Insert Title Here Post

Ever try to use your brain only to find a busy signal, or worse yet, an answering machine? That’s how I’ve felt so far this week. Fortunately for me it is only Tuesday evening and the rest of the week awaits. Life has seemed hectic lately, yet I think it is only my perception of things rather than it being busy.

Part of the vapidity I currently suffer from has much to do with being overly tired. I’ve been pushing my limits again and finding out that they have become more restrictive. Not encouraging, but I work with what I’m given. This time around, I made myself fairly ill the middle of last week by really overdoing things. Still, it could be worse.

The last two Sunday’s have been particularly interesting due to changes at church. Bidding farewell to those you are fond of is always a melancholy things, usually a little while after when it hits you that you won’t be seeing them around anymore. In this case, an older couple moving out to the West to be nearer the kids and grandchildren marks the end of an era to me.

A Ripping Good Time

An adventure into audio featuring:

• Sound! (an Asus Xonar DSX)
• Action! (CD ripping)
• Thrills! (swapping an op-amp with an OPA2111KP)
• Wildlife! (Media Monkey)
• And a cast of thousands! (my music collection)

When opportunity knocks, you are obliged to take it up on its offer, no matter how dangerous it may be. That’s living life on the bleeding edge of technology and it isn’t for everyone. But for the daring there are rewards to be had, oh yes.

So when the onboard audio of my new motherboard didn’t impress me with its decidedly unmellifluous tones, it left me looking for a new conduit to pump my eight thousand odd music tracks through. It had to have good clarity and not cost over a hundred bucks.

A Thank You Speech to Remember

Actually there are three, but the last is the most eloquent and appropriate acceptance speeches ever given. This is from Rush being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an ever controversial institution. I know I'll never forget Alex's passionate speech.

Lord of the Rings, Donnie Darko Style

This is impressive on multiple levels. Now we need WETA to provide the CGI to finish it!

Dave Brubeck Passed Away Today

First, the single he is most famous for – if you don’t recognize his name, you’ll recognize the tune:

Take Five–The Dave Brubeck Quartet

Brubeck lived a long life and died at the ripe old age of 91. He missed 92 by a day, but will be remembered as long as good jazz music still gets played. I really need to add more of his music to my personal library.

Check it out, this is what musical brilliance sounds like.

Too Much Time on My Hands

Having spent nearly two decades as an online news and politics junkie, it has been quite a surprise to find out just how much time it consumed daily. I may not have quit cold turkey, but it is close to that extreme. So it is amazing how much longer days seem; I look at the clock and it is still the morning when it would normally be the afternoon.

The readjustment is still in progress, but I’ve already gotten started on some projects that were on the backburner. Okay, they were not on the backburner. They were pure speculation wedged behind some dusty books on a remote bookshelf. You know, the dark places where even dust bunnies fear to go.

One minor project is cataloguing my movie collection and putting it into a spreadsheet or database. It is a bigger task than I expected, but is well underway now. That will help keep things in order for movie reviews, not to mention when I loan the things out.

While not earthshaking in consequences or intellectual depth, it is a good example of the little things that have gone undone due to a lack of time. Now that time has opened up for me.

At least I won’t be suffering the fate shown in this classic video:

Remember when pop rock was actually good?

Technology Can Make You Feel Old

I was reading that the first CD came out thirty years ago today. Three decades ago. I remember hearing my first one circa 1987 since cassette tapes took awhile to be displaced.  In fact, I did not have a CD player until around ten years after the first ones were released.

Now the Compact Disc is on its way out with sales having collapsed. Downloadable digital files have been the bulk of music sales for some time now and supposedly streaming subscriptions are the wave of the future. That I will believe when I see it.

Attempts to replace the CD with another hard medium all failed. SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc), DAT (Digital Audio Tape), and DVD-A (Digital Versatile Disc – Audio) never caught on with only DAT surviving in the studio environment.

Some Guitar Fun

A video from a father and son duo I am friends with. It has been a trip watching Chris Jr. move from drums to guitar and then evolve as a player. The kid has a lot a talent and learns it all by ear.

"Just Because" is a fun tune and this noodling around turned out well, I think:

Rotation

Besides being an awesome tune from Herb Alpert’s amazing Rise album, it is also a word that means going around in circles.

In this case, I am writing about the reviews of series I cycle around. With too many in rotation, it is time to finish out two to streamline things a little. So for the near future, Squid Girl season one and Bleach season one will be fast tracked since they are almost completed. Then the rest will resume their normal places.

The movie reviews will get loose rotation too. Marx Brothers films will be joined by Godzilla movies and Studio Ghibli animes, with other movies slotted in between. A couple of relatively unknown foreign films will be prioritized before I fully start rolling on that rotation.

But before any of that gets posted, I have to put up the 1979 video of the title tune. While Rise is a great tune and made the album a huge hit, this is by far my favorite track from it:

Pure music, late ‘70s style.

Enjoy.

Sears Roebuck and the Blues

Just a short post to link to a fascinating (but all too short) article on the birth of the Blues and its connection to the old Sears catalogs. Since my father worked at Sears as a repairman for twenty years, I tend to notice anything written about the company. I would like to see this expanded into something bigger, for the article only just scratches the surface of how cheap products from Sears mail order enabled some famous musicians to get started.

Mr. Krueger’s Christmas: 25th Anniversary DVD

A simple 25 minute film featuring Jimmy Stewart as a lonely old man on Christmas Eve became something of a classic amongst Latter-day Saints after its 1980 release. While marking a shift in outreach to the public from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its importance is more than that. It is the simple message at the end that says it all about the holiday.

I had originally planned to review something completely different for Christmas, but was hit by a moment of inspiration. Having had difficulty getting into the feeling of the season, I realized it had been a few years since I last watched this. So along with purchasing Christmas with the Rat Pack from Amazon’s MP3 service, it was time to make an active effort. By the way, I’m listening to that superb compilation while writing this review.

Mr. Krueger’s Christmas begins with the title character working as a custodian of an apartment building. It being Christmas Eve, he sets out for a tree to put up in his basement apartment. Attempts to interact with people on the street are ignored or barely acknowledged. It is cold outside in more ways than one.

Along the way, he looks at a suit in a shop window, much like a child looking at toys would. In no time he is lost in a fantasy of being fitted with a new suit and being treated like a man of status. It is only the beginning of fantasies which Willie Krueger succumbs to out of loneliness.

Zulu Soundtrack by The City of Prague Philharmonic

John Barry’s soundtrack for Zulu finally gets the justice it deserves in this lavish rendition in HDCD format. Also included are tracks from many of his other movie scores on this two disc set that spans most of his career.

In these faltering times for classical music and orchestras, The City of Prague Philharmonic has carved out a niche by redoing film themes and soundtracks under the direction of Nic Raine. The best modern recording technology has been employed for maximum clarity. Often the result is superior to previous recordings and occasionally Raine’s arrangements are simply better than the original.

A few years back I discovered one track from Silva Records 1999 double CD Zulu set online and that led to me buying quite a few tracks performed by the Philharmonic of various film themes. But I wanted to get this CD and only recently did I find a used one in the price range I am miserly so fond of.

Upon receiving it I was delighted to find that while the case had a light crack, the CD’s were immaculate. Even better, they were in the relatively rare HDCD format. After setting up Windows Media Player properly, I could hear a difference between it and my normal Media Monkey playback. Decent speakers and headphones are a must for this, otherwise you will not be able to tell the difference. But how to rip the CD’s and preserve the 20 bit quality?  DBPowerAmp to the rescue and I used its demo to rip the tracks to FLAC.

Further adding to the quality of Silva Records issue is a nine page booklet packed with liner notes on the tracks. Insights into Barry’s process on each film answered some questions I had while listening to the compositions and that made listening even more enjoyable.

On to the tracks. What I wrote about them in the review of the Ember release still applies, so you will want to read that first.

Disc One:

1. Zulu Main Theme/Isandhlwana – The much richer sound and impeccable clarity are noticeable immediately.
2. News of the Massacre/Rorke’s Drift Threatened – The drums really stand out more with the strings and horns benefiting greatly from the digital recording.
3. Bromhead’s Safari/Wagons Over – The addition of the short intro for Michael Cain extends this track in a lovely Copeland-like passage.
4. “You’re All Going to Die!” – One of the missing pieces it features ominous strings reminiscent of Barry’s Bond compositions. It is a much better segue into the next track than Wagons Over.
5. First Zulu Appearance and Assault – Compared to the original, the strings shine and the harp is delicately pristine. It makes the Ember release sound muddy.
6. March of the “Men of Harlech” – The Crouch End Chorus led by David Temple sing the full song acapella and it is a fantastic addition that is just as stirring as when the soldiers sang it in the movie.
7. Durnford’s Horses Arrive and Depart/The Third Assault – This shows off what a modern recording does for trumpet and brass in general.
8. Zulu’s Final Appearance and Salute – The HDCD wider “soundstage” allows you to place where almost every instrument is. Superb.
9. “Men of Harlech”/End Title – Once again, fantastic.
10. The Girl with the Sun in Her Hair (Sunsilk TV Commercial) – Composed for a 1967 shampoo commercial it reminded me of Barry’s work on From Russia with Love. It is classic 1960’s soundtrack far and is quite good. Too good for a commercial!
11. The Specialist: Suite – A compilation of music from Sylvester Stallone’s 1994 action movie it was a rare outing into action films post Bond. In some ways it sounds like he was trying to reach back to his hey day and it turns very jazzy two thirds of the way in. Sadly it is not memorable.
12. The Cotton Club: Suite – Now this is fun. Getting back to his jazz roots, Barry composed a very George Gershwin style soundtrack in 1984. The first third features a playful piano and smoky sax, the middle darker and noirish, and ending in a mournful theme. A very good bit of music, indeed.
13. King Rat: March – Very military and strangely upbeat it does what a march is supposed to do – move your feet. It fits the 1965 film’s POW setting well.
14. The Tamarind Seed: Suite – Since no soundtrack was ever released from the 1974 movie, this is the first time the music has been made available. It is a moody string based affair about an affair. At one point a repeating instrumental phrase builds relentlessly, sounding much like a Morse code transmission, which reflects the spy thriller elements of the movie. It ends with a slow moving piece that reminded me of parts of Barry’s later soundtrack for The Black Hole.

Disc Two:

1. The Last Valley: Main Theme (Choral Version) – Big, militant, and sinister is how I would describe this theme. Appropriate for the 1970 film set during the The Thirty Years War. If you liked the soundtrack to Conan the Barbarian you will like this. I liked it.
2. Love Amongst the Ruins – A gentle and romantic waltz befitting the 1975 TV movie starring Katharine Hepburn and Lawrence Olivier. Harpsichord and strings dominate. For some reason it reminds me of The Wrong Box, a completely different movie.
3. Mercury Rising: The Story Ends – A generic effort that wanders about aimlessly before deciding to walk a darker path. It appears Barry did not know what exactly to do with the 1998 Bruce Willis film and parts of it seem like leftovers from Dances with Wolves.
4. Midnight Cowboy: Florida Fantasy – Cheerful in contrast to the 1969 movie it came from it is more of a pop track than anything else in this collection. Notable for featuring guitar work and what sounds like bongo drums if I am not mistaken.
5. King Kong: Prelude & Love Theme – Large sounding like the title character of the infamous 1976 remake it was composed without seeing the film! The first part is more discordant than I am used to with Barry. The love theme sounds like Rogers & Hammerstein meet John Barry. I really do not know how I feel about that.
6. Frances: Theme – From the very depressing 1982 movie, it combined Mozart’s Sonata in A major with Barry’s own music. Unfortunately, the outcome is slow, boring, and forgettable.
7. My Sister’s Keeper: Suite – Another rarity in that it comes from a 1986 period piece set in 1943 that ended up going straight to video. Opening with a harmonica and a bluesy piano, it gives way to strings and what seems to be only the left most keys of the piano. That makes for a deliberately uncomfortable passage evoking feelings of bad news. Then it gets darker in tone before finally lightening up. This is my favorite track on Disc Two and was a very nice surprise.
8. Hammett – Chinese motifs blend with piano and clarinet for a feeling of being in smoke filled and dimly lit dive. Can’t get more appropriate for a private eye film dealing with Chinatown! It is a good composition from a very troubled production that finally came out in 1982 after years of problems.
9. Dances with Wolves: The Buffalo Hunt – Gorgeous horn work and strings star in one of the best pieces from what I believe is Barry’s best soundtrack. It is a great rendition, but I still prefer the original soundtrack version from 1990. Go buy that, now!
10. The Deep: Theme – Slow, relaxed, and well… blah. I vaguely recall the 1977 movie only because of Jacqueline Bissett in her prime.
11. Mister Moses: Suite – Nic Raines went back to the original compositions of this music since Barry had compromised them to appease the film makers of the 1965 movie. So in a way, this is another first on this release. I would describe it as a very fun mix of Zulu and Dances with Wolves. Very enjoyable to listen to and it will bring a smile to your face.

All in all, this is an interesting overview of John Barry’s work over the decades. The performances are all very good and benefit from the all digital recording, not to mention the 20 bit HDCD format. However, there have been no new HDCD capable players made since the 1990’s so that is a problem.  But if you have the know how, you can decode it like I did and it will sound terrific on a decent soundcard.

This version of Zulu is simply superior in every way but one to the original Ember Records release. All that is lacking is the narration by Richard Burton. Otherwise everything about the modern version is better mainly due to modern recording techniques, but also the inclusion of a couple of missing pieces. Add in all the other tracks from different movies and it becomes a slam dunk. One caveat is that it will cost you more than twice as much as the Ember release to buy in physical or digital format.

I highly recommend this two CD set to fans of Zulu, John Barry, and good film scores.

Zulu: The Soundtrack Review

John Barry is most famous for his many James Bond soundtracks but his resume is considerably larger than that. His score for the movie Zulu is one of his more memorable early efforts, despite being a relatively small amount of music. This is the first of two reviews of different releases.

Watching Zulu the music always stands out due to it being overtly dramatic and “in your face” when it is used. There is nothing subtle about it and that was hardly unusual in the late 1950’s and 60’s scores. Used sparingly in the film, it made a bigger impression then its scanty twenty minutes of use in the long movie should. So it is a pity that the movie was only released in monaural format given how good it was.

One of the nice things about the Web is the ease of obtaining hard to find music in digital format. In this case it was Amazon’s MP3 store that provided me a chance to get the original soundtrack issued on the Ember label for a reasonable price.

Originally put out on stereo LP, the album surprised me in including extra tracks by The John Barry Seven. I scratched my head and wondered why. Then I saw the total time for the film score amounted to 18:26! They clearly needed the extra music to pad the flip side of the LP. Running time for the album is just shy of thirty six minutes.

The stereo presentation of the music is not very impressive and appears to be artificially shifted from the monaural sources used for the movie. Still, it is better for stereo systems and should allow some matrix expansion whether it be Dolby ProLogic or DTS. The MP3 files are of high quality variable bitrate (VBR) and given the source do not lose much fidelity. That will put this release at a bit of a disadvantage in comparison to the Silva Records version I will review in the future. Well, not the only disadvantage.

John Barry got his start as a jazz musician and the use of musical motifs in variation is something he carried over to his orchestral composing. Zulu is an extreme example of this with nearly every track being a version of the main theme. It is an amazing demonstration of doing much with very little, in my opinion.

On to the tracks!

1. Main Title Theme/Isandhlwana, 1876 – Proud, dramatic, and deliberately over the top, it states the main theme forcefully. Brass and drums dominate before fading into Richard Burton’s narration from the beginning of the movie. Oddly, the narration was placed so it came through the left speaker only.
2. News of the Massacre/Rorke’s Drift Threatened – This is the fanfare from the title reveal in the movie seguing into a brief restatement of the theme. Not content to restate the theme, Barry continues into a muted version ending with military drums and a lonely trumpet evoking the feeling of being alone against the world. Or in this case against 4,000 Zulus.
3. Wagons Over – Again the muted version of the theme but punctuated with fanfares to raise the tension. It is a short but effective track conveying the growing conflicts within the outpost.
4. First Zulu Appearance and Assault – A slower building piece that relies heavily on base drums at first and then adds horns and strings to push the theme. It is all about dread and tension building, then fading and building again. Which is a perfect companion to the ebb and flow of battle, of course.
5. Durnford’s Horse Arrive and Depart/The Third Assault – The first part of this is oddly out of order on the soundtrack, having accompanied the scene showing the local cavalry before the first attack. As a result, the hopeful and lilting horns playing an optimistic version of the main theme seem out of place. The silence that bridges the two passages aggravates things somewhat. The later half is a stately reprise of the theme.
6. Zulu’s Final Appearance and Salute – It starts out quiet with underlying tension before becoming a despairing implementation of the theme. It fits the scene in the movie perfectly in the changing moods.
7. The VC Roll and Men of Harlech – Burton narration from the film lists the Victoria’s Cross winners and fades into a men’s choir singing Men of Harlech. It is somber and at the same time brings forth a feeling of pride, just as in the movie.
8. Stomp and Shake – Female Zulu singers provide the vocals over very surf/jazz rock guitar for a piece of 60’s pop kitsch. It reminds me somewhat of the soundtrack to Hitari.
9. High Grass – More of the same, minus the singers and slightly mellower. At this point I was thinking this is 60’s movie music 101.
10. Zulu Stamp – While more rhythmic, it is more of the same again, albeit in a playful form.
11. Big Shield – Okay, this is pure 1960’s light jazz material and could have been composed by Henry Mancini for a Pink Panther film. That is not necessarily an insult, but it is hard to adjust to these tracks after listening to the score part of the album.
12. Zulu Maid – The female singers return for a song that is fluffy lightness.
13. Monkey Feathers – Ever imagine the main theme of Zulu done on an electric guitar? I had not and that is exactly what this is. The problem is the presentation being like the previous tracks by The John Barry Seven. A more serious attempt at this would be a classic piece of electric guitar -- which is not to be found here, sadly.
14. Zulu Stamp [Mono Single Mix] – It is what it says it is, the mono version of track 10.
15. Monkey Feathers [Mono Single Mix] – You guessed it, the mono version of track 13.

The album is a mixed bag thanks to the split personality between orchestral score and pop jazz. While I love the soundtrack, I do not love the pop side of it. Other than Monkey Feathers, it felt flat to my ears and condescending. What was serious is turned into superficial twaddle. I have no idea what Barry was thinking other than “I need to pad out the record.”

On the other hand, the score is wonderful for fans of the film. I cannot say how someone who has not seen the movie would rate the music, but I can guarantee it is not boring. Anyone looking for the Zulu singing from the film will be disappointed because none of that is part of the score. That is a pity, since it was as memorable as the orchestral music.

I recommend Zulu to those who absolutely have to have the original soundtrack, the Richard Burton narrations, or are curious about the pop jazz tracks. Otherwise, there is a much better version available taking advantage of modern recording technology.

TRON: Legacy Soundtrack (2010) Digital Format

An exceptional auditory experience blending synthesized and orchestral music, the soundtrack is even more dazzling than the movie. While I’m not a Daft Punk fan, the duo has created something very special here.

Thanks to the Internet, it is easier to acquire music than ever before in all its myriad variations. In turn, that has allowed me to broaden my musical horizons and sample things I would never have otherwise. There are only a few genres I don’t like and techno verges on being one of them. Daft Punk is so big in techno that even I had heard of them. So it was with some trepidation that I approached the samples from the forthcoming movie last winter.

To my surprise, the snippets I listened to were very intriguing and I really liked what I heard. With bonus tracks being offered with the digital version from iTunes, I purchased the album.  After that, I purchased the Amazon exclusive MP3 to complete what was available in the USA. Europe got a deluxe edition which I can’t find or afford so my review is limited to the USA tracks.

So without further adieu, the review of TRON: Legacy Original Motion Picture Soundtrack!

A note on my starring system: It is what I have them marked as in MediaMonkey, the media player and music database program I use. I tend to be harsher with evaluations, so 1 star = can be tolerated, 2 stars = good, 3 = above average, 4 = excellent, and 5 = a true favorite.

The Tracks

Overture is the first track and its slow rising horns and strings set a mournful tone before blending with synth for the fanfare. It is a somber and serious piece, not your typical heroic fare. 3 Stars.

The Grid follows with pulsating percussion and tense strings accompanying Jeff Bridges narration setting up the movie. It builds into heavy synth with a feeling of anticipation to it. 4 Stars.

The Son of Flynn is a moody track dominated by synthesizers that pays some tribute to Wendy Carlos’ score for TRON. It is an odd mix of playful synth that wouldn’t sound out of place on a harpsichord overlaid upon a pensive orchestral base. 5 Stars.

Recognizer builds to ominous tones very quickly. There is a feeling of something big and menacing coming that gives way to a variation of the main motif. It ends with a much darker version of the preceding track. 3 Stars.

Armory brings a change of pace to the soundtrack. Reminiscent of early 80’s electronica of the Tangerine Dream type, it conveys a sense of mystery through its softer tones.

Arena starts with quiet buzzing which leads to an ever escalating and repeating synth keyboard eventually joined by taiko drums. One can easily imagine the entry of a gladiator into an excited coliseum and the crowd erupting. 4 Stars.

Rinzler is a very sinister track that starts ominously. There is a feeling of being hunted, starting with the sensation that somebody is watching you followed by the realization it really is happening. Then comes the horrifying attack and silence.  3 Stars.

The Game Has Changed fuses elements from Arena and Rinzler then brings in the horns from Recognizer. Tension steadily rises and fades like the ebb and flow of an extended battle before ending in a crescendo of noise. 4 Stars.

Outlands begins with the now familiar use of repetitive and tension building strings. Along the way it turns into a Wagnarian journey when the horns kick in for an exciting finish before trailing off suggestively. 3 stars.

Adagio for Tron is mainly orchestral at first before its mournful strings meet mellow keyboards. Here Carlos’ influence is very clear. Halfway, the tone shifts dramatically in a bolder reprise accompanied by dark synths and louder horns. A solo cello assumes center stage to end the piece on a sad note. 3 Star.

Nocturne continues the brooding atmosphere with a mix of slow strings and synths. Introspection and sadness are invoked by the track. 3 Star.

End of Line kicks things into gear after the previous melancholy tracks. Featuring a turn toward techno, it has a strong dance beat that would fit in any club scene. But it also manages to sound incredibly sinister, with a feeling that very bad things are lurking under the surface. Distorted electronic noises contribute greatly to that feeling of unease. It is a stand out track. 5 Stars.

Derezzed was the track that got previewed on the Web and from what I’ve seen is classic Daft Punk. An example of pure techno it is frenetic and has a heavy beat, but with an 8 bit feel to it. Distortion that was present in the previous track is increased dramatically. 3 Stars.

Fall sounds like falling, strangely enough. Fuzzed tones rise like a tea kettle, pause, then start over again. The effect is that of something going very, very wrong. 3 Stars.

Solar Sailor brings another break from the tension while remaining somewhat pensive. Keyboard synth work reminds me of a babbling brook and also the original movie. Something serene and lovely is implied in this relatively peaceful track. 3 Stars.

Rectifier ends the mellow mood decisively when sinister strings build into something martial and strident. An impression of an army appearing over the horizon is conveyed by the horn section. The piece slows and fades out gradually like the army has marched past you. 3 Stars.

Disc Wars is percussive and immediate. It is the first heroic sounding track; strangely full of hope. The 8 bit keyboard returns and adds further urgency until it builds into something grand. Possibly my favorite on the soundtrack. 5 Stars.

C.L.U. features urgent strings again with dark undertones provided by synthesizer. They give way to calculated keyboards before resuming with horns accompanying. The overall effect is the feeling of someone slowly losing their temper until they hit the snapping point. Danger fills the soundstage and it stays that way until the end. 3 Stars.

Arrival conveys a sense of weariness after a long journey. This slower synth piece has a pervasive melancholy about it. 3 Stars.

Flynn Lives reprises the theme from Overture with the addition of whirling beauty to accompany the sadness. This is what the entire score has been building to. 4 Stars.

TRON Legacy (End Titles) is a heavy electronica version of what was first presented in The Grid. This restatement of the main theme simply sounds like an end title. Which it is supposed to, right? 4 Stars.

Finale is the final track of the score. Featuring mournful and elegiac horns that give way to strings, it moves to a more optimistic sound when woodwinds introduce the final crescendo. Seeing light at the end of a dark tunnels is how I would describe this track. 3 Stars.

iTunes Bonus Tracks:

Father and Son is a slow piano reprise of the main theme, with the addition of subdued strings and horns. It is another melancholy piece. 3 Stars.

Outlands, Pt. II is a variation on Outlands, but more urgent and layered in sound. Mysterious and dark by comparison, it begets a sense of dread before an organ makes it funereal. 3 Stars.

Amazon Exclusive Track

Sea of Simulation continues the burbling brook electronica of Solar Sailor. It is slightly more contemplative than that track. 3 Stars.

Thoughts

Daft Punk did an outstanding job in composing Tron: Legacy.  It is a wonderful and masterful blend of synth and orchestral elements that always flows with nary a misstep. I ended up loving it long before I finally saw the movie. The impressions are hopefully the ones from before viewing the film.

Like the movie, this is not a cheerful work. You’ll notice I used the word melancholy to describe multiple tracks and that is the over all mood of the album. But there is a purposeful sound to it that makes it very easy to keep in your music rotation. Make no mistake about it, it is beautiful music.

Not all soundtracks can stand on their own from their associated film, but this one easily does. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes music.

Technical

iTunes included what they call a Digital Booklet (it’s a Acrobat file) with the downloaded album. Scans of the entire CD insert make up the booklet and contain some small interviews.

Daft Punk was inspired by the original TRON as can be seen by their helmets they wear in concert (and movie cameo). Influences on them include Wendy Carlos, Bernard Hermann, and Hans Zimmer. Aspect of all three composers can be heard in the structures of the tracks.

Sound is clean, near CD level and will sound great on any system. iTunes files have come a long way over the years.

I’d like to eventually get the CD because my sound setup does show a difference between lossless and lossy sound files. Most people won’t notice the difference, but the soundstage is much wider on my Boston Acoustics speakers and Sennheiser headphones when playing complex music.

A Day in the Life

It looks like this post will be made up of bits and pieces of random thoughts, as I’m a bit fuzzy today.
Finally, a good night’s sleep indicates I’m finally getting over the respiratory infection. Still not recovered from it, but it is fading out and the coughing has subsided.

By making myself post regularly, it is helping with being able to write even when impaired by illness. So I’m pleased with the results of prioritizing writing and hope to get started on some fiction.

My sister, her husband and step kids are arriving tomorrow and the place is a wreck. The two weeks of being sicker than usual were supposed to be devoted to cleaning which isn’t going to happen. Irritating. And messy.

The weather is nice and I want to see if the new Hogue grips I put on my Ruger pistol will help with accuracy. It has helped other owners of the same model. But I’m way too shaky at the moment and need to use my energy for other tasks. If I don’t get the improvement I’m hoping for, I’ll probably have to do some trigger work to lighten the pull. While I love a military style pull on a rifle, it appears to give me problems on pistols.

Why does iTunes importing CD’s default to 128 bitrate AAC when their store doesn’t sell anything less than 256?  I’m glad I moved to Media Monkey Pro a long time ago. FLAC is the best way to go if you have decent speaker or headphones, but 256 AAC isn’t bad at all. I do most of my purchasing at Amazon MP3 these days and take advantage of the cloud storage.

Having become a fan of Jack Wall’s soundtracks for video games, I was happy to score the Jade Empire Soundtrack for $1 from a vendor on Amazon. I wish his soundtracks Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 had been put out on CD as well. But the CD is in trouble and digital delivery is the future.  And yes, I did buy them digitally and burned CD’s, but I’d like the higher quality.

I got a bicycle pump to modify for cleaning electronics. A spring around the hose base is needed to guarantee air flow and so far the basketball needle adapter has worked well. The setup will be a lot cheaper than buying duster cans.

Democrats arguing that having a debt ceiling violates the Constitution shows what amazing hypocrites they are. All of the talk coming out of them lately is how the Constitution isn’t really law, is out of date, and was only meant to be a rough guideline. Two faced doesn’t begin to describe them, especially since there was a default on federal bonds under Roosevelt in 1933. I have no faith in anyone dealing with the economic calamity that is upon us.

Was John Lennon a closet Republican?  Maybe, but I doubt Yoko was.

Mystery Science 3000 is an excellent medication when ill. Watched Werewolf and Laser Blast among other bad movies with Mike, Joel, and the Bots the last couple of weeks on Netflix streaming.  The new settings allowing lower quality streams has been very helpful on our measly 1 MB DSL.

Also saw John Wycliffe, the biography on John Wycliffe, the man who laid the foundation for the Protestant Reformation. Classic early 1980’s video quality but very good. Many Christians know who Martin Luther was, but how many know the man who first translated the Holy Bible into English in the late 1200’s?