Monday 12 May 2008

OST - 3rd Part

Apologies in advance for the delay in posting the third and final part of my little survey of the soundtracks for most of Ringo's filmography.

So, last stop was Son of Dracula (and remember you can download it for free on that Harry Nilsson blog I mentioned below) and I guess that next I'll be talking about one of the most troubled title of all of Ringo's filmography: Lisztomania, that crazy whirlwind of a motion picture that continues to be absent on the DVD market as of now. Come on, Warner Brothers - move those behinds, ok?! But first things first. Its soundtrack was composed by Yes frontman, Rick Wakeman, of prog-rock fame. He went ahead and adapted some of Franz Liszt's original compositions in a style all his own. You can imagine the results, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, yes. They're over the top, alright. But strangely and imaginatively effective. But as we will see, we have now two different soundtracks for that particular movie: you can find the original one here and a recently (as of 2003) released and revised version is also out on CD. Get it here. Here's what the Amazon product description says about it:

This is an extremely rare find as the master tapes were long since considered destroyed, back in 1975 Rick was asked to oversee & write a lot of the music for the film 'Lizstomania' which was directed by Ken Russell. Rick was also given a part in the film & played the god Thor. A soundtrack album was produced by Rick which was subsequently turned down by A&M records. A&M then produced a soundtrack of their own which had very little of Rick on it & yet they thoughtfully put his name on the front cover. Rick was furious to say the least & hated the soundtrack album & told the press accordingly. It sold accordingly as well! The film became one of the cult films of all time & to find this original soundtrack is quite unbelievable as there was only one master ever produced & somehow it has survived more than 25 years in a box amongst some old football shorts!


I wonder whose shorts they were from! Anyway, both editions are out and for completists only, get them just to get a clearer picture of how things turn out.

Next on the list is the Mae West vehicle, Sextette. I cannot seem to find evidence that a LP was ever issued back in the day and since the movie was such a bomb at the box-office, I reckon nothing ever came out. However, the ever trustworthy Imdb has a soundtrack listing here that is of some help.

Finally, we have that glorious pre-historic comedy, Caveman, one of the most treasured among Ringo's movies and a landmark in itself on his private life (curious to know how, ain't ya? Well, you just have to wait until I post about it, ok?). Famous composer Lalo Schifrin wrote the score and sure enough, it's out on CD. Get it here.

Well, that completes my little survey and I hope I've been of some help. Do you feel yourself getting more and more into the Ringomania vibe? If you do, watch this space for even more and more of his erratic film career and my crazy ramblings. However, I could not leave you without posting what I just found: a picture of two of my favorite people, Ringo and Ms. Shelley Duvall. Together!

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