Incredible Treasure Trove is a Cause for Rejoicing
E. Hornaday | Lawrenceville, NJ United States | 02/04/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This eight-disc CD set, The Complete Dark Shadows Soundtrack Music Collection, is an amazing and unique look at the show that wouldn't die, as well as composing unforgettable music scores for TV.
Dark Shadows, the first and only gothic soap opera, aired on ABC-TV from 1966-1971. During its much too short run, it established itself as a show that not only transcended its genre, but became an instant and enduring cult classic depicting supernatural suspence and romance.
Unforgettable characters, including a 175-year-old guilt-ridden vampire named Barnabas Collins (played to perfection by the classically trained actor, Jonathan Frid), a tormented werewolf Quentin Collins (portrayed with aching believability by David Selby), to a complicated research scientist and doctor hopelessly in love with the vampire, Dr. Julia Hoffman (brilliantly portrayed by the late and deeply lamented Grayson Hall), the show entralled viewers with an escape from the everyday doldrums of their lives.
Dark Shadows provided a gothic retreat of epic proportions focusing on the Collins Family of Collinsport, Maine and their many supernatural experiences. It offered the spooky mansions of Collinwood and The Old House, ghosts, incantations, witches, warlocks, as well as incredible romance, loyalty and time travel to the past and future and even other dimensions parallel to our own!
To make the unbelievable believable to audiences, creator Dan Curtis, who sadly died last year, developed a unique atmosphere that was remarkably maintained throughout its five-year run.
At the core of this gothic atmosphere were the brilliant compositions by Robert Cobert, some of the most memorable soap opera background music that was ever, or has ever, been written.
No fan of the show will ever forget the characters, the stories OR the music. The music instantly became such an intergral part of the fabric of the series that it was as if it was a breathing, living entity, a true supernatural feat in and of itself.
MPI Home Video had released four volumes of selected music on CD, including a disc remastered from a record album released at the height of the show's popularity in 1969. That album including spoken performances by Frid and Selby, as well music that included the haunting Josette's Theme and Quentin's Theme. Remarkably, the album, which hit Billboards Top 20 albums of 1969, remains one of the top five most successful TV soundtrack albums of all time, even receiving a Grammy nomination.
Now, for the first time, ALL of the hundreds of original music cues composed by Cobert for Dark Shadows have been digitally remastered and released in this one-of-a-kind eight-CD set.
It is nothing short of virtually unprecidented in soundtrack releases. Not only is every note in the vast Dark Shadows musical library included here, so are many rare and never-before-heard alternate and outtake selections never utilized on the episodes. Also, in each jewel case that includes two CDs each, a booklet provides vintage production listings for every track. There is also a new interview with Cobert.
In total, these eight CDs provide 7 hours and 45 minutes of, in my opinion, the best music ever written for a TV show.
This music not only evokes the haunting quality of the unforgettable show, but provides a unique glimpse into the creative process of composition. Every single cue fits into the whole and feel of the rest, a testament to the genius and dedication of Cobert, and is no small measure a contributory cause for the continued intense and passionate popularity of Dark Shadows more than 40 years after it debuted.
Anyone who loves Dark Shadows should have these CDs, as they provide a rich tapestry previously unavailable to the public. I am personally overwhelmed with gratitude that these gems were not only saved all of these years but have been released.
In addition, anyone who has an interest in scoring TV should get these CDs to learn how it's done right, how even the shortest cue can and does enrichen the whole.
Bravo to MPI for this release, and to the master himself, Robert Cobert, whose inspired soundtrack has been my personal background music since I first heard it in 1966."
Wow! I never thought we'd ever get THIS!!!
elgrego99 | South Carolina | 04/25/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have collected several of Robert Cobert's Dark Shadows music CDs over the past few years.
But I NEVER thought we'd see such a complete CD release as THIS!
These CDs claim to contain ALL of Cobert's output for Dark Shadows!
I am in shock at the huge number of cues in this collection...there are HUNDREDS of music cues to be heard!
The quality of the recordings is very, very good, considering that they were recorded in the 1960's.
The CD paper inserts contain a lengthy interview with Cobert himself.
This is a treasure trove for fans of Cobert's music for Dark Shadows!
"
Wonderful but....
Frank Maddalone Jr. | 01/19/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Wonderful Product but a little over kill. Do you really need 70 versions of London Bridge?
Frank"
The great interpretive power behind the performances
Keith James Thomson | Allentown, PA | 02/17/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I haven't bought the collection yet, but will be doing so very soon. I'm just finishing up a run of watching all episodes, some 1200 or so, during the last year. Prior to this I hadn't seen the series since I was addicted as a 5th and 6th grader in the late 60's. But I submit a review here of this collection because of the great power of this music, because of the total inadequacy of my owning presently only the selections able to fit on just one "long play LP," and because of my excitement over having all of the music represented in this complete collection. In the early 90's when the revival movie and brief series came out of Dark Shadows, which at that time was more than 20 years after I had last viewed the show, I was caught off guard by it's sounding on television one evening through my neighbor's apartment while standing in his doorway; the music suddenly and without introduction into my ears sent me into a spell of regression, back to those pre-pubescent years when I ran home after school so eagerly to watch the next episode, and no sooner than sitting on a chair in his TV room, on the spot in front of my neighbor I started crying, weeping in a spell cast by the music that simply brought be back in time right into the memory of a myself as a mere child. And now I've just finished listening to all the sound tracks as I watched the entire series this last year. I'm very eager for this music to be peppered through my random plays on iTunes. These themes are beautifully arranged and stand as monumental vignettes of 20th century music written for the humble purpose of filling in behind this theatre. For those who relate, the power of this music is nearly indescribable.
Update: I just purchased the collection and I could not be happier. Thrilled. Thrilled. Thrilled. I'm very pleased with the reading/inserts and pictures. It's a nice package and this product is what it says: It's every sample of music heard on Dark Shadows (and NO, there are not 70 versions of London Bridge as another reviewer stated, but there are 20 London Bridge shorts. This is ALL the music from the entire show's run. The total number of tracks is 490. Many of the tracks are short, under 30 seconds, maybe close to half of them, and then the rest are closer to 2 minutes. Often there are a number of tracks in a row that are a variation on the same theme.
Caution: On my purchase, three of the CD's were defective. I was unable to open them on my desktop iMac iTunes. However, I was lucky that I COULD open them on my laptop Powerbook iTunes for some reason. But the defective CDs only loaded track numbers with no track information. I purchased these CDs at a very good price so I'm going to bear with it and type in all the track info from the printed programs into my iTunes and can as well then reburn the defective discs onto new CDs if I get around to it so the collection is playable on hard copies/CDs. But if you only have one computer and they don't open for you it could go not as well for you as it did for me in getting to all the tracks, so you may want to pay full price or be sure it's from a dealer who will back up replacement for defective products.
I believe this music is such an integral part of what inspired Dark Shadows on to success. It's just fabulous."
Track Listings (66) - Disc #1