Search - Jack Nitzsche, Anton Weber, George Crumb :: The Exorcist: Music Excerpts From (1973 Film)

Exorcist CD: The Version You've Never Heard (& STILL Haven't

Eric C. Rawlins | Manhattan, NY/Rutherford, NJ United States | 06/06/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"As an ardent and lifelong fan of cinema and all things horror, I had been looking for the soundtrack to this film for quite some time. I was quite excited to see it pop up as a "You Might Also Enjoy" response to a previous Amazon purchase, although more than a little daunted by the price...but I figured what the heck, I'm STILL listening to the Psycho soundtrack after four years, I'll certainly get my money's worth out of it. Boy was I wrong!



First, the liner notes are in Japanese - and only the track names were in katakana, so I couldn't make heads or tails of anything but the titles ("TU-BU-RA BE-RU-ZO" (Tubular Bells), etc.). Yes, it's an import, but if you were hoping for insider insights from the packaging, better brush up on your kanji.



Second, the tracks are exactly what the CD title says: musical EXCERPTS. All the cuing, level dynamics, etc. are intact - these are not the evenly modulated source recordings of the score, they are the non-dialogue, non-sound-effects sound tracks from the movie, with all the stops and starts and dynamics added on top of the original recordings to suit the action in the movie. For long periods at a time, there will be EXTREMELY low or even NO sound coming from your speakers (when Friedkin was putting the sound track together, he wanted periods of ABSOLUTE silence to creep out the audience; to this end, he not only recorded nothing onto the sound track, he had the engineers put TAPE over those portions of the celluloid so that there would be absolutely no audio output! This is great and innovative cinematography, but makes for a lousy CD - I really don't relish paying an arm and a leg for NO audio data on a disc!). Then, in the space of about three nanoseconds, the volume will swell to tweeter-busting levels.* I found myself forced to play remote jockey so much I could never sit back and enjoy the music.



None of this is to detract from the brilliance of the score (and please note, this is NOT a Michael Oldfield work, as a previous reviewer described - he contributed the song everyone knows from the movie, Tubular Bells, but did not compose the film score). All of these tracks successfully contribute to the film's brutally suspenseful effect on the viewer. But the tracks, as delivered on this CD, were never meant to be experienced independent of the visuals. This is why smart marketers will put "The Original Soundtrack" on film score albums (and PUT the original soundtrack on the disc in the first place), so that people will know the recording is the ORIGINAL recording of the music, and not the highly remixed version used on the actual film.



So, if you want to spend an hour jamming furiously on the Up and Down volume buttons of your stereo remote, please be my guest and buy this CD, but know that mine is collecting dust on a shelf, where it's been since immediately after the first listening. If you are a true fan of the movie, you probably have the DVD - check to see if your version has the music as an isolated track. If so, you have no need of this CD.



*On a technical note, for those of you postulating these level problems are the fault of my equipment, I have a high-end Denon Dolby Surround receiver and a Kenwood pre-amp, and used my [expensive] Sennheiser headphones to listen to the CD. Not sound engineer-level stuff by any means, but certainly good enough to be able to give a decent listen, so I would have to fault the CD, not the equipment, in this case...."

Is your sound system good enough to play this CD?

M KIRK-DUGGAN | El Cerrito Fellowship, CA USA | 08/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have the LP, which is labeled "Promotion Copy" andwhich was ensnarlled in the legal shennanigans regarding film credits for Mercedes McCambridge, the "voice" of the resident devil. I have played it lovingly and respectfully for the music on the disc and the quality of the recording. I also have the two Oldfield recordings of Tubular Bells as well as the LSO version...but I had to have it. Non compos mentis explains my compulsive obsessive disorder. My prior example was in the 1980s when I tracked down an original soundtrack of King Kong, and paid a similar price.Was it worth it? You had better believe it! Now I finally have a recording that makes selections from "The Absolute Sound" pale in comparison. [I refer particularly to "Hearts of Space"!] I now have a recording that makes my investment in full size Klipschorns with AdCom Monoblocks register their full beauty.Each and every selection has a full range of clarity and crispness. Each hit of percussion is fully exposed. And the music selections match my desires.Don't buy this if you have a Bose box or car. The clarity exposes every fault in a less than extravagant system. I doubt if even a Watts Puppy can handle the quality of this recording. If you want pure music wafting into your consciousness, then buy this CD fast before the limited import quantities make it only available on E-Bay.Superb Music + a Superb Mastering = A CD to Die for."

What are you waiting for?

N. P. Stathoulopoulos | Brooklyn, NY | 05/02/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Chances are, if you're interested in the soundtrack to this excellent film, then you're a big fan and should just buy it. It's that simple.Scary? Uh, you better believe it. You may not have noticed all of the music on this disc while watching the film, but much of it was there, beneath the layers of scary atmosphere and creepy visuals. It's well known that director William Friedkin literally threw Lalo Schifrin's original score out the door when he heard it. Friedkin then went out and bought albums of the type of music he wanted and selected these 'pindrops'. The result is fantastic.Notice that another great horror film, Kubrick's The Shining, uses the film of Penderecki to great effect. 'Polymorphia' is used in both films. An amazing piece with an absolutely incredibly buildup from silence to a nearly deafening wall of tension and the slow, deliberate trickly-like sound of bows slapping violin strings. 'Night of the Electric Insects' is perfect if you really want to scare the pants off someone. Screeeeeeech! This is a great disc. Why, oh why, is it only an import in America? Makes no sense. Nevertheless, it's worth the extra money for the import. An absolute MUST for any die-hard Exorcist fan."