Customer Reviews

Raising Arizona / Blood Simple: Original Motion Picture Soundtracks [2 on 1]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This CD is not bad at all for the music that Carter composed.
He borrowed quite a bit from other sources and you can find them
right here on Amazon. The banjo music and yodel is by Pete Seeger
from the CD "Darling Corey And Goofing-Off Suite". The wonderful
Monkey Chant is the Balinese Ramayana Monkey Chant and can be found
on the CD "Bali: Golden Rain" in its original 22 minute version.

I bought this for the fantastic Raising Arizona music (my favorite movie) and was a little disappointed. The music has been slightly redone, some of it pretty inexplicably (the main theme is done calypso style). And "Ode to Joy" on banjo, the music I most wanted from the film, is missing. But the dream sequence music is here, and it's all still enjoyable.

I was surprised to find I enjoy the "Blood Simple" music more. I've only seen the movie once, so I can't say whether it's intact. But it's very creepy, a strange contrast to the goofy fun of the Raising Arizona music.

All in all, a great CD, but lacking some of what I expected.

I bought this soundtrack for the great Raising Arizona music that I heard while watching the DVD--the best part is the end credits with banjo etc. and a variation on "Ode to Joy". IT IS NOT THERE. Only one or two tracks I find enjoyable on the CD for a grand total of about 2 minutes.

The Raising Arizona part of the CD is almost exclusively electronic and only one 90 second track of the great banjo that I remember from the movie. I recommend listening to samples before you buy.

I still think Blood Simple is one of Carter Burwell's best scores, and to get that along with Raising Arizona - a completely different style and mood - on one CD is a great deal.

Overall I like this CD very much, however I was hopeful that it would've included the end credits music that had a fade in of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" chiming in. Nutz

It is available on Amazon for download for $0.99. It is on an album called Darling Corey and Goofing-Off Suit by Pete Seeger. It is song number 20 on the list and it is titled Symphony #9. It is the EXACT same version that is used in the movie. Even has the whistling! Enjoy.

I became aware of Carter Burwell because of "Raising Arizona," and it is for that reason that I purchased this cd.

Carter is a great talent, and it is evident in both scores. Though they both possess a distincy stamp that is Burwell's style, each is unique and well suited to its drama. For the year that 'Arizona' was released, this score was daring. It is very ephemeral, and bounces between intense emotions such as fear, sadness, and whimsy by variations of the same melodies. It is a very balanced score.

Blood simple is more direct and intense, well suited to its film. Anyone who is a fan of film scores needs to get this.

Carter Burwell's music fits. I mean, if you like the zany but inescapable reality that the Coen Brothers (and you must or you'd not be reading this review)create, you gotta like Burwell's music. As a classical music fanatic and celtic music main-liner, I think the OST to Miller's Crossing is pure magic. I mean, the opening oboe solo [I'm an oboist] still haunts me (titled, The Long Way Around, in the album-- the melody is the well-knownLament for Limerick, but here woven into a great piece). OK. The album's great. Buy it. Listen. Enjoy. Burwell's a damn good arranger and imaginative composer.

The song "Way Out There" was done back in the 40's by the Sons of the Pioneers, a group of singing cowboys that once included Roy Rogers. They would sing and yodel in 4 or 5 part harmonies. They were amazing but mostly forgotten now a days.