Dark
Shadows Elsewhere might be a more accurate title for this
CD album of novelty recordings and audio oddities, which celebrated
the show's 30th anniversary. Indeed, actual recordings familiar
to the show's viewers are few and far between, but once the
listener gets beyond this minor culture shock the Dark
Shadows 30th Anniversary Collection provides a treasure
trove of rare treats in a genuinely nostalgic vein.
Opening
with Alexandra Moltke's wistful opening narration from the
show's first episode, the album swiftly moves to an unused
variant of the opening theme with an unsettling reverb. Perhaps
lacking the sublety of its classic counterpart, it's a more
remote, doom-laden confection than the regular arrangement.
The
majority of the album's tracks are culled from the work of
Charles Randolph Grean, a producer who, during the show's
original run, turned re-recording Robert Cobert's incidental
library into a minor industry for the easy listening market.
The results are interesting, but usually on the right side
of twee, with a scope and depth to the orchestration that
the show's budgets usually fell a long way short of. Romantic,
classical and played on a big canvas, it's either Dark
Shadows writ large or upmarket lift music, depending on
your tastes.
Quentin's
Theme is probably the best of the bunch, with a nice line
in nostalgic charm and old-world finesse, while Ode to
Angélique is florid and evocative, with a subtle
taste of the contemporary bubbling beneath the surface. Missy,
Victoria's Theme is understated and tinkling, but true
enough to its original, while the Theme From Dark Shadows
varies from wistfully evocative to outright loungy and
back again. Back at the Blue Whale and #1 at the
Blue Whale sound every inch the B-sides they are, but
it's nice to have them included.
Meanwhile,
proving that soap spin-off singles didn't begin with Kylie
Minogue and an 1980s bubble perm, David Selby and Nancy Barrett
narrate a sugary version of I Wanna Dance With You.
This piece even warranted its own dubious music video on the
show, in the form of a dream sequence during the 1897 flashback,
preceding the advent of MTV by 20 years, with a monstrous
intruder popping up at the end for good measure. The spin-offs
are rounded off with Barnabas performed by The
Vampire State Building, whatever that might be, seemingly
offering a frightening collusion between Bela Lugosi, a phychadelic
chorus and a lost glee club, and Barnabas' Theme from
the First Theramin Era, a charged evocation of whistling weirdness
and outright camp courtesy of the mythical theramin. Scary
stuff indeed!
Other
quaint rarities include Jonathan Frid delivering an audio
message for fans of the original Dark Shadows fan club,
apologising for the inevitable sackloads of unanswered fan
mail, and a couple of gloriously tongue in cheek radio spots
for House of Dark Shadows; "Come see how the vampires
do it!" promises the tagline, which doubtless left certain
patrons sorely disappointed.
A
selection of bona fide music cues from the series and films
stops this from becoming a loose collection of cover versions
and oddities. The two Music Cue Medleys compile a wealth
of the distinctive "stingers" heard on the orginal
series, the short momentary bursts of musical melodrama that
punctuated the cliffhangers and overwrought revelations. Whilst
hardly easy listening, they were undoubtedly the most crucial
pieces of music that defined the Dark Shadows mood
on television, so a proper release for the most memorable
was long overdue.
Elsewhere,
an insipid version of "London Bridge" can be found
under Sarah's Theme, along with a previously unheard
gem, in the form of an infectious jazzy version of Quentin's
Theme, originally recorded as an unused opening for Night
of Dark Shadows. Finally, Joanna, the second film's
main theme, gets a bombastic revamp that loses much of the
original's pathos and subtlety.
This
is a diverse album which no one will wholly enjoy, nor should
be expected to. The show's music has played a major part in
its merchandising history, sometimes to great effect, sometimes
less so. As a cohesive album of the show's music it has obvious
limitations, but as unashamed fun and an overview of the show's
history on vinyl, it offers a diversity and rarity of material
unsurpassed on any other CD.
US Readers: Order
this CD from Amazon.com
UK Readers: Order
this CD from Amazon.co.uk
Back
