I live in Pittsburgh, and let me tell you, people in Pittsburgh love their zombies.

It’s all because of George Romero. The director of Night/Dawn/Day/Land/Diary/Survival of the Dead was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and he set most of the films in the series in and around the greatest Pittsburgh area.

George Romero is known for keeping a semi-constant cast of actors and behind-the-scenes people with him. Both Gaylen Ross and Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead went to star on in other films by the director, and Tom Savini’s pretty much been his right-hand gore man since the beginning. He’s even had actors grandfathered into this films. “Chilly” Billy Cardille was in the original Night Of The Living Dead, and some 18 years later Billy’s daughter Lori was cast as the lead in Day of The Dead.

Another person who has stuck around with Romero over the years has been John Harrison. A friend of Romero, his work with the director goes all the way back to Dawn of the Dead, where he had the uncredited role of “Screwdriver Zombie.” A couple years later, Romero cast Harrison again for another bit part, this time in the drama Knightriders. From there, his work with Romero increased. He was credited as the first assistant director in both Day of the Dead and Creepshow, and more recently he served as an executive producer on Diary of the Dead.

But wait, there’s more! Harrison didn’t just work as an A.D. and bit-part cast member for Romero, he also worked as a composer (and I thought John Carpenter’s multi-tasking was impressive). Harrison composed the scores for both Creepshow and Day of the Dead. Unfortunately, both of those soundtracks are out of print and go for a damn fortune online, if you can even track them down. But hey, that’s why you come here, right?

 Creepshow – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Prologue/Welcome To Creepshow (Main Title)
Father’s Day
The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill
Something To Tide You Over
The Crate
They’re Creeping Up On You
Epilogue
Until Next Time…(End Title)
Creepshow is a pretty awesome movie, and one of the best examples of comedy/horror ever made. Each of the film’s five short stories work great on their own, and both as a larger conceptual piece that pays homage to the EC horror comics of the 1950s. It’s such a great movie that I don’t want to say that much about it just in case someone reading this hasn’t yet seen it. It’s on Netflix Watch Instantly, so if you have that, check it out and marvel at Adrienne Barbeau’s ability to transform herself into one of the most unlikable characters in the history of motion pictures.

The soundtrack to Creepshow is kind of a modern (well, modern for 1982) marvel. As the linear notes state, almost the entire thing was composed on a PROPHET V polyphonic synthesizer and a pair of grand pianos. While the score does have an undeniable electronic sound (which is one of the reasons why it’s so great), it also has a depth and complexity that deny its rather humble origins. Parts of this sound like they came straight from of an orchestra. It’s without a doubt one of the best synth scores of the 80s, and works both as creepy background music and as a standalone piece.

This recording is from my personal vinyl copy, which looks like it was well-loved by its original owner. There are some scratches in parts, but as a whole it sounds pretty good.

George A. Romero’s Day Of The Dead – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The Dead Suite
Breakdown
Escape Invasion
The Dead Walk
If Tomorrow Comes
The World Inside Your Eyes
Deadly Beginnings
Diner Of The Living Dead
Dead Calm
Bub’s 9th
Dead End
In the five-plus years (holy shit!) years I’ve been writing here at The Lost Turntable, I’ve posted more than my fair share of rare and hard-to-find recordings. So trust me that it means something when I say that this soundtrack might be the rarest and most difficult to track down recording I’ve ever posted.

The Day of the Dead soundtrack was originally issued on vinyl and cassette in 1982 1985. It was comprised of six tracks, with “The Dead Suite” taking up the entire B-side of the record. That version of the soundtrack is rare enough as it is, and you can usually find it going for somewhere between $20-$40 online.

However, like many soundtracks made for vinyl releases at the time, the score to Day of the Dead had to be severely abbreviated to fit on one record. It was not until 2002 when the soundtrack would be re-released on CD, courtesty of Numenorean Music. As far as I can tell, Numenorean Music no longer exists, and in their brief existence they only issued three releases: a 2-CD remaster of The Dark Crystal soundtrack, a release of the score to the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead; and this expanded edition of the Day of the Dead soundtrack.

Each of these releases were given extremely limited runs. They printed 5,000 copies of the Dark Crystal soundtrack, and only 3,000 each of the NOTLD and Day of the Dead soundtracks.

Today, these go for insane prices online, if you can find them at all. A new copy of the Dark Crystal score goes for almost $90 on Amazon, and for about $70 on Discogs marketplace. A copy of the NOTLD soundtrack is for sale for $70 on Discogs also, but the highest it has ever sold for is $32 bucks.

Then there’s this soundtrack. As of right now, someone on Discogs is trying to unload their copy for a whopping $425. They’re probably asking a bit much, but Discogs records show that the CD has actually been sold for as much as $112. I tried to find out if that price was an anomaly, but I couldn’t. I could hardly find anything about this release online. I don’t know how much it routinely sells for because, quite frankly, none of the 3,000 people who have a copy seem to be looking to let it go.

I don’t even think anyone has even ripped a copy and shared it online before, which means I’m making history here tonight!

So how is the soundtrack? It’s good enough. Unlike the score to Creepshow, it actually features some full instrumentation thanks to Pittsburgh band Modern Man. Two of the tracks also feature vocals by the awesomely named Sputzy Sparacino and a gospel singer who goes by the name Delilah. While the soundtrack to Creepshow is an awesome product of its time, parts of this score are a little dated, and the two pop songs are just downright silly in the context of an apocalyptic zombie movie. The 20-minute “Dead Suite” remains a highlight though, as do many of the other instrumental pieces on the record.

And in case you’re wondering how I got a copy of this bad boy, my mom bought it for me at a used CD store for 10 bucks. Go mom!

I love horror movies.

I also love their soundtracks. It always amazes me how many soundtracks to great (and…not so great) horror movies end up going out of print! A well-crafted horror movie soundtrack can be just as memorable and creepy as the movie’s villain. Think of a movie like Jaws or Halloween, those movies are scarier because of their amazing scores! It’s a shame that so many soundtracks to lesser horror films have become lost over the years.

While I’ll be the first to admit that none of the soundtracks I’m featuring tonight can hold a candle to the films I just mentioned, they are still worth mentioning and might serve as great background music to your Halloween party, if nothing else.

The Fog

Matthew Ghost Story
Main Title Theme
Walk to the Lighthouse
Rocks at Drake’s Bay
The Fog
Antonio Bay
Tommy Tells of Ghost Ships
Reel 9
Can anyone else name a director who also scores most of his or her films? I sure can’t think of one – John Carpenter walks alone. With awesome keyboards.

For a long time John Carpenter’s scores were nearly impossible to find, but over the past few years many of his best soundtracks have found their way back into release. Today you can easily pick up the scores to such classics as They Live, Prince of Darkness, Escape from New York,  and the first three Halloween films, complete and uncut! The soundtrack to The Fog was available on CD for a while too, but for some reason that version has lapsed back out of print. It’s a shame. It may lack some of the hooks or melodies that made Carpenter’s other scores so memorable, but I still enjoy it immensely. It has a atmospheric, brooding feeling that perfectly encompasses the slow dreadful feeling you get from the film as you see the zombie-filled fog slowly roll its way across the town, killing anyone who gets in its path. I haven’t seen The Fog since I was in high school, I really have to re-visit this movie. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

Just avoid that remake. Ugh.

It’s Alive 2 (AKA It Lives Again)

Main Title
Birth Traumas
Lamentation
Savage Trilogy
Nightmares
Beautiful and Bizarre
Revulsion
Basement Nursery
Evil Evolving
Living With Fear
Stalking The Infants
Climax
It Lives Again, the sequel to the only movie that I know of that put my mother into shock while she saw it (true story – Hi mom!).

Despite what my mother might tell you otherwise, the original It’s Alive is an awesome movie, and not just for its schlock and shock value. For a movie about a mutant killer baby, there’s a lot going on there! It talks about women’s rights, the environment, government corruption, prejudice, and tabloid journalism. Deep shit!

The movie was directed by Larry Cohen, a twisted genius of a filmmaker who also made The Stuff, a movie about killer ice cream, and Q: The Winged Serpent, an AMAZING movie about a giant winged serpent that lives on top of the Chrysler Building and eats people. Seek those movies out, they will change your life.

The score for It’s Alive 2 is just a slightly modified version of the score to the original film, which was composed by the legendary composer Bernard Herrmann. During his illustrious career, Herrmann composed the scores to countless classics, including Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, Cape Fear, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jason and the Argonauts and Sisters. The last movie to feature one of his scores to come out before he died was It’s Alive, his actual last score was for Taxi Driver, but that didn’t come out until after he passed away.

Of the three scores I’m featuring here tonight, this is my favorite. Just like a great horror film, it’s filled with mystery, intrigue and the occasional jump scare. I also love its subtle use of electronic instruments, something that Herrmann was known for as far back as the 1960s.

This recording sounds amazing too, because until about three hours ago, my copy was sealed and had never been played.

Killer babies!

Leviathan

Underwater Camp
Decompression
Discovery
One of Us
The Body Within
Escape Bubbles
Can We Fix It
Situation Under Control
It’s Growing
Too Hot
A Lot Better
In 1989, three underwater-themed horror/sci-fi movies were released in American theaters; The Abyss, Deep Star Six, and Leviathan. Of the three, The Abyss is rightfully the most remembered. It was directed by James Cameron, had a huge budget with jaw-dropping and revolutionary special effects, and a touching story that managed to simultaneously deal with small, interpersonal relationships as well as the dangers of the military-industrial complex and cold war paranoia (at least it did in the Director’s Cut).

Deep Star Six, on the other hand, is a horrendously awful underwater monster film by Sean S. Cunningham, the director of Friday The 13th. It’s only redeeming quality is it’s incredibly bizarre cast, which includes Nia Peeples from Fame, Miguel Ferrrer (The Stand) and that dude from B.J. and The Bear. Don’t see it.

Somewhere in between (although admittedly closer to Deep Star Six) is Leviathan.

Leviathan certainly isn’t a good film by any means, but it’s not horrible, and is definitely entertaining. One thing is for sure, it has a pretty stellar cast of B-movie stars and characters actors, including Peter Weller (fucking Robocop!) Ernie Hudson (a fucking Ghostbuster!), Richard Crenna (fucking Trautman from Rambo!) and Daniel Stern (fucking….Daniel Stern! Dude was in Home Alone! And CHUD!).

It also probably helped that the film had a halfway decent director in George P. Costomas, a work-for-hire director who churned out entertaining films of questionable quality during the 80s (Cobra, First Blood: Part II, Of Unknown Origin) before somehow scoring a gig directing Tombstone in 1993 (although Kurt Russell would later claim he ghost-directed that film). The man knew how to work with a limited budget, and manages to make the most out of the rather silly practical monster effects throughout the film.

The plot of Leviathan is almost identical to that of Alien, so it’s probably more than just coincidence that they hired the composer of Alien, Jerry Goldsmith, to do the film’s score. It’s not the most creepy of scores, but it does feature whale songs! So hey…that’s something I guess.

Random thought: Wouldn’t it be fucking incredible if the heavy metal band Mastodon made their album Leviathan to be in sync with this movie? Hey, you potheads out there, go find that out for me.

By the way, the babies in the It’s Alive movies could totally fuck up the monster in Leviathan.

Man, you all gave me a lot of great guesses what the stupidest movie of 1983 was! And while none of you were right (okay, maybe you two who guessed Superman III were) I’m going to go out on a limb and say that neither was I. But here’s the soundtrack to one of the stupidest movies of 1983

Krull Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
After doing a bit of research I’ll no longer claim that Krull was the stupidest movie of 1983. That was the year when both Amityville 3-D and Jaws 3-D were released, and they are both some of the most epically stupid films ever made.

But before I defend the movie I previously bashed, I should probably tell you all what its about, since I’m willing to bet that most of you have barely even heard of the flick.

Krull is a bizarre sci-fi/fantasy hybrid set on the semi-magical world of…Krull. A young princess and prince are about to wed, but on the day of their wedding an evil space alien referred to only as The Beast crashes the party and kidnaps the bride-to-be, hoping to make her his own. Now its up to the prince, with his awesome boomerang of death called the Glave,  to rescue her! It’s just like Super Mario Bros. but with less magic mushrooms. On his quest to rescue her, the prince and his merry band of cannon fodder encounter one calamity after another, including surprise quicksand, shapeshiting demons and seemingly endless armies of evil cyborgs with lasers. In the end, the prince and the princess literally defeat The Beast with the power of love and live happily ever after.

No, that’s not a spoiler, did you really think he’d fail?

1983 saw a lot of sci-fi/fantasy combos, and Krull isn’t even the stupidest one of them. There was the atrocious rotoscroped monstrosity Fire And Ice; the straight-to-video scholckfest of Deathstalker; and  the notoriously bad prehistoric/sci-fi abomination Yor, the Hunter from the Future.

But why so many sci-fi/fantasy mashups? Just think about it.

It’s 1983, Star Wars is tearing up all box office records. What’s another big hit? Conan The Barbarian. The hacks of Hollywood (and Italy, in the case of Yor) must have collectively thought “Man, if Conan is big and Star Wars is huge then if we combine them we’ll be unstoppable!”

Of course, they all bombed epically, Krull included.

And yeah,  Krull is big stupid bomb, but its a really fun big stupid bomb! While a lot of these flicks are obvious rush jobs designed to make a quick buck, you can at least say that a lot of heart went into Krull. The sets are gorgeous, the action not half-bad, and lot of the actors (including Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane -who is dubbed) make the most of the corny material.

More on topic, it also has a great score by James Horner! Its so great that he blatantly stole portions of it while doing the score to Aliens a few years later. Listen to the last few tracks, and you will totally hear the finale to Aliens. Aside from (or perhaps because of) that, it’s a pretty great score, very heroic.

Tonight I am sharing a rip of the vinyl soundtrack to Krull. This is not the complete score. That is only available on a two-disc CD set that costs a bloody fortune now. And, I’m sorry, while I love Krull, I don’t love it that much.

Enjoy it. Listen to it while mountain climbing or something.

I’m tired, so let’s just cut right to the good shit.

The Decline Of Western Civilization Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II is one of my favorite movies of all time, but Part 1 is pretty damn good too. Unlike Part II, which is full of unintentional hilarity, Part 1 is a semi-serious look at some seriously damaged individuals and their seriously great bands (um…and The Germs).  The early footage of X and Black Flag is mesmerizing, while the live train wreck that is the Fear show never ceases to amaze. Just like Part II (and the rarely seen Part III), it’s not on DVD, and I don’t believe the “official” website’s claim that anyone is working on those discs at this point. I have a bootleg. You can watch it on YouTube, and you can find it on a bay where pirates hang out. Get it that way. If they can’t be bothered to put the fucking thing out by now then that’s their problem.

Just like the movie itself, the soundtrack to Decline Of Western Civilization is woefully out of print. The copy I’m offering above is from a less-than-stellar vinyl copy I bought last month. It’s a little scratchy in parts, but it kind of adds to the dirt-punk charm of it all. The X songs sound great at least.

In case you’re wondering, here’s the complete tracklisting included in the zip file above:

Black Flag
White Minority
Depression
Revenge

The Germs
Manimal

Catholic Discipline
Underground Babylon

X
Beyond And Back
Johnny Hit and Run Pauline
We’re Desperate

Circle Jerks
Red Tape
Back Against The Wall
I Just Want Some Skank
Bevery Hills

Alice Bag Band
Gluttony

Fear
I Don’t Care About You
I Love Living In The City
Fear Anthem

I separated some of the speaking parts into separate tracks. Basically if it doesn’t have anything to do with the song that’s playing before it I made it a separate track. Otherwise it’s just like the original version.

Oh, and I put up highlights to Part II a while ago, get them too.