At The Movies

All the Keith Emerson movie soundtracks in one package. Includes recent Godzilla "Final Wars" movie. I have most of these on LP, it's been years since listening to some of them. Great to hear it all in one package. "Inferno," and "Best Revenge" are some of Emo's best work along with the "Nighthawks." As with soundtracks, some songs are filler, some with cheesy lyrics, but it is a nice package and would recommend it to any Emerson fan, he is an amazing composer and keyboardist. The liner notes are interesting to read.

The main draw of this triple disc set is the first appearance of the Nighthawks soundtrack on CD. Out-of-print since the 1981 LP release, it finally shows up in this collection of Emerson's film work.

A very good score featuring some nice Emerson keyboard work in full late-70s-early-80s glory. A perfect combo of live band funk and keyboard work that was never drowned out of the film. A very good theme, along with some very tense tracks that folks will recognize from the action. Best of all, the music is the same you hear in the film, meaning the original tracks were not chopped up. It's all here--the tense music of The Chopper, Tramway, and I'm Coming In, during the cable car ordeal and the riverside showdown. Two songs are also included from the club scene, Nighthawking and Emerson's cover of Traffic's I'm A Man (sorry, no Brown Sugar). A long time coming, this was a very nice compliment to one of Sly's more low-key flicks (which naturally couldn't break the Balboa spell).

Worth it for Nighthawks and Inferno alone, this release has plenty of music, though I can't comment on the Godzilla bits.

This is Keith Emerson's music for Italian, American and Japanese films, one disc for each. Those films are:

Inferno (1980)
Nighthawks (1981)
Best Revenge (1982)
Harmagedon (1983)
La Chiesa (1989)
Murderock (1990)
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

I would suppose at least 95% of shoppers visiting this site are Emerson fans checking his film music, not film music fans checking out Emerson, so the relevant question is: will this less familiar stuff please ELP and Nice fans? It depends which part you're listening to. I've had NIGHTHAWKS, BEST REVENGE and INFERNO on LP for years and have always liked them, especially the two American ones. I've also had LA CHIESA on CD with music by Goblin (mostly) and Emerson and that's cool, too - Goblin's creepy atmospherics and Emo's several Gothic organ tracks and edited Bach organ Prelude 24. It's difficult to imagine any fan not warming up to these.

NIGHTHAWKS replicates the LP exactly. This is a very brassy and aggressive score. Whether it's great film scoring or not can certainly be argued, but it's indisputably interesting and suspenseful music, especially the Fairlight sequences such as those in "Face to Face". The vocal numbers, "Nighthawking" and "I'm a Man", are both tremendous.

BEST REVENGE's old LP sides One and Two are reversed in this release, so the 15:28 Orchestral Suite is followed by the shorter items. Highlights are the melody of "The Dreamer" and "The Runner" (it's the same) and the incredible Brad Delp's vocal for "Playing for Keeps", the main title theme. Unfortunately, the LP's very appealing Levon Helm number, "Straight Between the Eyes", has been omitted and replaced by "For Those Who Win".

INFERNO here is the same as it was on the LP, but with a bonus, "Inferno Extras", a slightly longer version of "Cigarettes, Ices, Etc."

Keith's contributions to HARMAGEDON and LA CHIESA were more limited, but fans should find at least nine of the ten tracks immediately appealing. Only the vocal number from HARMAGEDON might be less of a sure thing.

GODZILLA and, especially, MURDEROCK are weaker scores. In the CD booklet, Emerson explains that his GODZILLA suffered from inattention. In 2004, ELP was committed to a US tour and he couldn't give the new score the time he needed. Also, naturally, the requirements for the film changed as it was pieced together. Emerson says he eventually just sent what he had finished to Toho and wished them luck. To my mind, most of it is not up to Keith's usual standard, although "Godzilla vs. Gotengo", "Cruising the Cirro Stratus" and the "End Titles" are very cool. The synth rendition of Akira Ifukube's "Godzilla Theme", also.

So, to MURDEROCK. It has to have been one of the more questionable decisions ever for director Luciano Fulci to have hired Keith Emerson for an Italian "Flashdance" (Keith's words, not mine). All nine tracks are uncomfortably weak. The vocal, "Not So Innocent", is particularly strained; the melody is neither singer-friendly nor even appealing. If anyone other than Keith Emerson had done MURDEROCK, I'd not even have given the score a complete listen. As it is, I listened through from start to finish four times to be sure of my opinion - and liked it less each time.

The booklet is attractive and informative with some beautiful photos of Keith and three of the old LPs' album art, but could have been improved had the editors identified the singer in "Nighthawking", Paulette McWilliams, and cleaned up some grammatical errors.

A great purchase overall.

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