Search - John Carpenter :: John Carpenter - Greatest Hits V.1

Wonderful Assortment of Carpenter's Early Work

Mr. | USA | 05/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Track Listing-Dark Star: 1. Main Title (6:26) Escape From New York: 2. Main Title (3:38) 3. Up The Wall/Airforce #1 (2:28) 4. Engulfed Cathedral (Debussy)(3:35) 5. Chase Across The 69th Street Bridge (2:48) 6. Over The Wall (3:40) Prince Of Darkness: 7. Darkness Begins (2:52) 8. Through The Mirror (5:33) The Fog: 9. Reel 9 (10:57) Halloween: 10. Halloween Theme-Main Title (2:56) 11. "The Haunted House" (3:33) Halloween II: 12. Laurie's Theme (2:52) 13. The Shape Stalks Again (3:05)I have been a diehard fan of John Carpenter for some time now and have always felt that he deserved better recognition for his musical talent. This Greatest Hits CD celebrates the early days of Carpenter's music genius, starting with his very first movie, Dark Star. The Dark Star soundtrack was handled poorly when released on CD. They just split the entire thing into two long tracks, basically signifying the LP side 1 and side 2. No additional work was added which is pretty annoying if you want to listen to a particular piece. The track used on the Greatest Hits CD is basically certain parts of the album spliced together into a sort of collage. Sadly, the title song, Benson Arizona is not present. Assault On Precinct 13 is Carpenter's second film, but Varese Sarabande does not own the rights to it and so no music from this great film was incuded here. Two key tracks are taken from Halloween (Carpenter's third film), the signature main title and "the haunted house", which is basically Laurie Strode's theme. These tracks are from the original soundtrack and not the 20th Anniversary edition. Following those tracks are two additional tracks from Halloween II, which Carpenter did not direct but did compose the music for. Listening to all 4 tracks together really gives you a nice contrast on the different flavor the similar music gives when done with different instruments. Very creepy and very John Carpenter. One track from The Fog (Carpenter's sixth film) is present: Reel 9, and since it's nearly 11 minutes long I guess they figured that was enough but I wouldn't have minded them including the main title theme which'll send chills up your spine. Escape From New York (Carpenter's seventh film) receives the most attention, with 5 tracks chosen for this album. Escape From New York is a favorite of mine and these tracks are just beautiful. I just wish they would release the entire version of the main title that includes about thirty seconds of additional music. You can hear this music by watching the end credits of the movie. Prince Of Darkness (Carpenter's twelfth film) is the final film to be included, with two bonechilling tracks that will make your hair stand on end. Other Carpenter music (Big Trouble In Little China & They Live) are not present because, again, Varese Sarabande does not own the rights to these scores. And the music for Carpenter's The Thing (his eighth film), Starman (his tenth film) and Memiors Of An Invisible Man (his fourteenth film) are not included because Carpenter did not score the music for these films. But in retrospect, I think they should've been included anyway, since they still have that Carpenter sound to them (except 'Memoirs). Any other film after that would not have been available since this CD was released in 1992. However, Varase Sarabande does own the rights to Halloween III, which was composed by Carpenter, but this score seems to have fallen through the cracks of this greatest hits collection. The music score for Christine (Carpenter's nineth film) is not included. But it is present on John Carpenters Greatest Hits Volume II, which I don't recommend because only about half the album contains original Carpenter music and most of that is off of the Christine score. So just do yourself a favor and buy that soundtrack instead, unless you're a collector like myself. The only sad note is that this CD is now out of print and very hard to come by (it took me a year to find one). But even so, I highly recommend it to all John Carpenter fans who I'm sure would love and appreciate it. Hopefully, some day, it will be re-released and include much of the missing music. Until then, keep listening and watching the movies and music of John Carpenter."