Customer Reviews

Zabriskie Point: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The "Zabriskie Point" soundtrack was re-issued a few years ago, and this is a most welcome reissue, overseen by the (as usual) reliable folks at Rhino. What originally was a single CD soundtrack now comes to us in 2 CDs.

CD 1 (11 tracks, 36 min.) contains music by a variety of artists, including 3 tracks from "The Pink Floyd" (sic). It shows the band in pre-Atom Heart Mother/Meddle mode (all Floyd music for the soundtrack was recorded in Nov/Dec 1969). "Heart Beat, Big Meat" is a great mood piece along the lines of "Speak to Me"; "Crumbling Land" could have fitted nice along Meddle's "Fearless"; "Come in Number 51" is a retooled "Careful With That Axe Eugene". Jerry Garcia contributes the "Love Scene" accoustic guitar solo. Strangely there is also a 2 min. excerpt from the Dead's "Dark Star" that starts and ends with no rhyme or reason and begs the question: why? (Deadheads know what I mean).

CD 2 (8 tracks, 55 min.) is completely new. It is divided up between 4 Jerry Garcia tracks (more accoustic "noodling"), and 4 Pink Floyd tracks. The latter are fascinating, and what makes this reissue so good. "Country Song" is another one of those classic early-Floyd ballads; "Unknown Song" (a/k/a "Rain in the Country" on bootlegs) is a great instrumental with many undertones. "Love Scene Version 6" is Pink Floyd doing the blues. "Love Scene Version 4" is Rick Wright in piano solo (even if credited to the entire band).

In addition to the new music, the reissue comes with a fascinating 40 page booklet, with great liner notes and quotes (Roger Waters on the recording sessions for director Antonioni: "It was hell, sheer hell", haha!). For any Pink Floyd fan, or anyone interested in a slice of 1969/70 psychedelia, this is very much recommended, even if (like me) you've never seen the movie.

There is a unique mood set by this CD, that is wholly separate from the film itself. The weirdness of psychedelic Pink Floyd tunes juxtaposed with acoustic pieces, hurtin' country tunes, and the "Tennessee Waltz" no less (!), works together to create an entirely unusual head space. Open your mind, and the rest will flow. I owned this on vinyl originally, and jumped when I saw the double CD re-release. Besides 4 lengthy out takes from Jerry Garcia's beautiful love theme, it also has 4 unreleased Pink Floyd pieces, "Country Song", which sounds like something that would have been at home on "Atom Heart Mother", "Unknown Song", a breezy acoustic instrumental with psychedelic flourishes that is vintage Floyd, and two pieces that were Pink Floyd's original attempts at writing music for the love scene before film director Antonioni opted to go with Jerry Garcia's piece. Both are excellent, one an amazing, late night blues instrumental, the other a reflective piano piece. The second disk is a worthy addition to the package. The double CD also comes with some excellent liner notes that fully recognize the failure of the film to achieve the director's ambitions while at the same time recognizing the unique contribution its sound track made to rock history.

There are two possible questions that could be asked here:

1. Should I buy this?

2. I already have the original, should I now buy this.

The answer to both questions is yes. There is enough new material here to make this worthwhile for any Pink Floyd (or Jerry Garcia) fan. If you already bought the original for the 3 Pink Floyd tunes, it means that you are a big enough fan that you have to have this one too.

This was originally released as single album that contained the material on the first CD. It later came out as a single CD. Being a soundtrack, it was always a little more expensive than a standard album. It could be difficult to find at times. It contained 3 Pink Floyd tracks, a spacey track, a typical Pink Floyd movie soundtrack song, and a truncated version of Careful With That Axe Eugene (called Come In Number 51) which is very good and different from the original. The Jerry Garcia tune is a nice 7 minute solo acoustic instrumental. The Grateful Dead track is just a 2 minute expert of Dark Star. There are also some other interesting things here and somethings that may seem out of place (Tennesee Waltz). Even with the strange mix material, the flow of the CD is effective in creating the mood of the sixties. But in the end, you had to be a Pink Floyd fanatic to shell out the bucks for this one.

This new release adds the second CD with 30 minutes of Jerry Garcia and 25 minutes of Pink Floyd. I kind of wonder if the Jerry Garcia material is mislabelled. Tracks 1, 2 and 4 sound like instrumental variations of Pink Floyd's Granchester Meadows, complete with birds chirping at the end of track 4. Maybe it is where Roger Waters got the idea. Track 3 is the only one that really sounds like Jerry Garcia. For the Pink Floyd tracks, there is one that sounds like the origins of Atom Heart Mother, one that is a typical Pink Floyd soundtrack song, a very good bluesy number and an excellent piano solo. The first disc sounds like it got remastered, with a boost in the very low end bass.

This album is a sort of "cult classic" that tends to be enjoyed mainly by Grateful Dead or Pink Floyd fans, and I am of the latter group. I'm afraid I'm not that much of a fan of the non PF stuff on here (though that "Dark Star" bit is quite enticing), but what drove the rating up from the 3 stars I considered giving the album as a whole, was the quality of Pink Floyd's work. Some of the other bands' works are not very enjoyable at all, and the liner notes, when describing Pink Floyd's work, seem inaccurate in places. These are notable flaws, and if I could give a 3.5, I would--but, given Pink Floyd's output, I chose to round *up*.

"Heart Beat, Pig Meat" seems in a strange way to foreshadow some of Mr. Waters' later interests in television and politics. Put in the form of a musical soundscape, however, it takes on a whole different flavour from his later lyrical harangues in Amused to Death. But, the ultimate message seems to be the same: the utter inanity of it.

"Crumbling Land" is a beautiful ballad that, although I can't hear clearly enough to be sure, seems to benefit from multiple layers of vocals including both Mr. Gilmour and Mr. Wright (the same combination that makes "Echoes" or "Burning Bridges" so beautiful). Unfortunately, no lyrics for this or any other song come with the album, so on some of it we're left to guess! But, what I can hear sounds beautiful, and the music certainly is wonderful. It doesn't seem at all "country-and-western", as it is described in the booklet, however. Other (non PF) songs on this CD seem more suited to that title.

"Come In Number 51, Your Time is Up" is a remake of the Pink Floyd staple "Careful With That Axe, Eugene." But transposed into the key of E (from the original D), and given a slightly different arrangement, this song takes on a unique character all its own. Rather than the frenetic stalking sensation of CWTAE, "Come in Number 51" seems to alternate between numb shock and explosive anger at the cataclysm it seems to indicate.

"Country Song" is not that remarkable, as far as Mr. Waters' ballads go (that's who I'm assuming wrote these lyrics), but has certainly got a more hopeful outlook than some of his later works such as those in Animals. It also features a very rare vocal combination--what sounds like a duet between Mr. Gilmour and Mr. Waters, in some parts of the song. This hardly occurs again except in "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II", and so it does make a piece of interest, as well as the rather unique guitar tone and technique used.

"Unknown Song" is a beautiful combination of the folkish guitar of "The Narrow Way, Part I", and a bass riff that later appeared in the "Atom Heart Mother Suite". What makes this piece particularly interesting is that these two components seem to play at odds with each other--layered on top of each other, they even seem to be in two different keys! The effect is to create a somewhat atonal, and VERY "Floydish" piece that is underrated and well worth the listen.

"Love Scene, Version 6" is a pretty standard Pink Floyd blues piece like what you'd hear in their live concerts, or in songs such as "More Blues" or "Biding My Time". Not THAT remarkable, but enjoyable. The last track, however...

The most amazing piece here, is "Love Scene, Version 4". This is probably one of the best piano pieces Mr. Wright has ever recorded. I have no idea why the entire band is credited; it has all of the marks of a Rick Wright solo effort. This sometimes delicate, but always passionate composition conjures up images of a romantic candlelight dinner...a very different sort of "love scene" than Antonioni had in mind, perhaps, but you still have to wonder how he could have in his right mind rejected this piece. To drive home my point, another song by Mr. Wright that (somehow!) didn't make the cut later became "Us and Them". I suppose we should be grateful this jewel went to Dark Side of the Moon, but it ought to say something, that "Love Scene, Version 4" comes from the same creative burst.

In the end, despite Pink Floyd's wonderful contributions, I would give the overall album a 3.5...but for the sake of the Floyd, I've rounded up to a 4.

Without a doubt,this is one interesting soundtrack due to the diverse line-up of contributing artists.The best songs would be the three Pink Floyd numbers "Heart Beat,Pig Meat","Come In Number 51",the somewhat country-like "Crumbling Land" and the Grateful Dead's "Dark Star".A total of nineteen cuts on this 2-CD expanded reissue of the 1970 film score.'Zabriskie's Point' displays each artist's full-hearted attempt to provide a decent piece for the movie's love scene on the beach.But apparently none of the songs were suitable for the film's director Michelangelo Antonioni.It's been noted from Floyd bassist Roger Waters,"It was a sheer hell,there was no pleasing this man whatsoever".With this reissue,you get four extra tunes by Jerry Garcia and four extra instrumentals from Floyd as well.I liked "Love Scene Version 6" the best.Other performers on the CD include Patti Page,the Youngbloods,and Kaleidoscope.

Really good album anyway, and the bonus disc is really worth having. Several tracks by Jerry Garcia, plus several by Pink Floyd. The extra tracks are out-takes they didn't use on the film; the Jerry Garcia ones all from the Love Scene track. Very very nice.

And the booklet with the cd was really informative, lots of pages, lots of background info. Very good.

This sound track is chock full of out takes of a lot of the music from the age when this film was made. For those of us who lived at that time, it is reminescent of the music we came to know of at that time.

The Pink Floyd tracks are much of the music that followed the departure of Syd Barrett. Rather spacy and drifting.

The real gems are the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Youngbloods tracks. Listening to them carries me back to that time. Sitting around, sometimes present and sometimes drifting listening to this music was a great way to live at the time.

It is wonderful to have this sound track as a part of my collection.

I was always a great fan of this film, thought it was treated with vast indifference and unfair cruelty on its release. The "love scene" at Zabriskie Point is astonishing as cinema, and was very well complimented by Jerry Garcia's acoustic guitar playing. Fans of the film, and of that piece of music in particular, will be pleased to know that the four Garcia outtakes added to the soundtrack are very much of a piece with the version that was used, and since they run consecutively, can be set to repeat on your CD player (which they are currently doing on mine, as I type). These, for me, remain the high point of the disc -- and I'm not even particularly a Deadhead. They work quite nicely with John Fahey's piece, too ("Dance of Death"), which perhaps is no surprise: the detailed liner notes tell how the late Mr. Fahey was to score the love scene, but actually got into fisticuffs with Antonioni over an artistic issue, and had his music mostly pulled from the score. The late Mr. Garcia was sort of following in Fahey's footsteps here; it sounds that way to me, anyhow -- there's something of Fahey in his playing at times. There is, however, weaker/less interesting material on this disc, as well. A couple of the Floyd cuts are abstract and arty enough to hold my interest ("Heart Beat, Pig Meat," the music used during the opening scenes of the film, as the radicals argue, if I recall correctly; and "Come in Number 51," for the psychedelic explosion at the end). Both are outstanding moments. The other pieces of music, for someone like me, who finds Pink Floyd a little dull and overrated, add nothing to this soundtrack. Roscoe Holcomb's screechy bluegrassy folk tune, "I Wish I was a Single Girl Again," is fun, but kind of incongruous, as is Patti Page's "Tennessee Waltz." The attempt to draw on varied musical sources to compliment the movie -- also explained at lengths in the liner notes -- was interesting DURING the film, but doesn't make a very satisfying listening experience for me. With the exception of the "Dark Star" excerpt, much of the rest of the record is B-grade rock music (the Youngbloods, the Kaleidoscope). When I finally get me a CD burner I'll probably just sandwich together the tracks I like on this disc and ignore the original.

Still, there's at least 40 minutes of very beautiful, passionate music between these two discs, much of it newly discovered and only available on this version. And the liner notes make an interesting read, particulary if you care about the film... which you should SEE, by all means. 'Tis well complimented by an altered state of consciousness, too, something I don't think a lot of early viewers appreciated well enough... Got me? Anyhow... 'nuff said.

I have never seen this film, and all I know is what I have read. It sounds like it might be interesting, but I can't say. But this soundtrack, on the merits of the music alone, is an excellent cross-section of styles and genres circa 1969-70. The sound is clear and solid, a huge improvement on the original not-so-good sounding release. This is a purely personal observation, as my old copy was a store-bought cassette. It sounded alright, but it pales next to this reissue.

The material is a juxtaposition (real word?) of mostly psychedelic rock and old-style American country music; when it was still good. No chubby smiling wannabe with his black cowboy hat crooning for the droves of clueless masses, etc. No, this is the real thing. A subversive mood is set with Pink Floyd's "Heartbeat Pigmeat." The title sets it up; it's strange and incongruous, as is the music. The cleaned-up sound really takes this to its extreme, and the swirling sounds and voices are perfectly reproduced. I won't belabor the reader with a song-by-song synopsis, this has been done into the ground, but a curious thing happens while listening to this whole disc, in order; the original recordings are of varying quality, but this is okay, as Patti Page's "Tennesee Waltz" has retained its smoky late 40's early 50's tone because of this. And the bluegrass song, Roscoe Holcomb's "Wish I Was A Single Girl Again" just wouldn't sound right if it were "State-Of-The-Art."

But, to the Floyd fan, anyway, the highlight is the set's closing number, "Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up." This is a superior remake of the 1968 classic, "Careful With That Axe, Eugene." The quiet part is more sinister and malevolent, and the other part is, well, to the uninitiated, a real adrenaline rush. The explosive nature of it, the booklet says, conveys a very violent scene in the movie. Again, I haven't seen it. I'm shooting in the dark.

The second disc is the bonus material, and the first four tracks are basically a half-hour of Jerry Garcia noodling away on his guitar. It's not particularly exciting to listen to, quite dull, actually, but it does show his talent as a very lyrical musician. It's relaxing, in fact, and one can cue these selections up when preparing for bed. Garcia was a good musician and a great guy, and he will be missed.

The rest of the bonus disc is taken from a month's torture Pink Floyd went through trying to satisfy the film's director, Mr. Antonioni. They just couldn't make him happy. But the material here is tastefully rendered, and once again, the analog sound has been digitized and sounds fresh and new. BUT! There is an error in the booklet's text. It says the track titled "Country Song" is sung by Roger Waters. Any Floyd fan, even a tepid one, can tell Waters' voice from Gilmour's and Wright's. The voice is clearly Gilmour's, even if Waters wrote the lyrics, which he probably did. These selections were obviously untitled at the time, the current titles convey this. "Country Song," Unknown Song," "Love Scene-Version 6" and "love Scene-Version 4," they lack the poetic value of other original titles, such as 1968's "A Saucerful Of Secrets." Original title: "The Massed Gadgets Of Hercules." 1971's "Echoes:" "The Return Of The Son Of Nothing."

But we now have, nonetheless, a very good soundtrack recording of an old subversive film, and some new nuggets from Garcia, and Misters Waters, Wright, Mason, and Gilmour.

I really wish people still did stuff like this.

It is certainly a very good double CD. If you are a Pink Floyd fan, you need this album for your collection and you won't be disappointed with the Floyd music.