Published on Sep 25, 1999
Question: When is a soundtrack not a soundtrack? Answer: When
you add the dialog from the movie to the music.
Another question: What can happen when you remove the dialog
from the music? Answer: You make the final product weaker.
I wouldn’t have believed this was true until I heard the
recently released soundtrack for
King Kong, the 1933 picture that made Fay Wray a household
name at the time. When the soundtrack switches gears to the “King
Kong Music Suite,” it’s almost as if something is lost in the
translation. And while the visual effects are still needed to
capture the power of this film, the dialog-heavy first half of the
soundtrack is incredible.
First, a bit of personal history. I used to be a big fan of
old-time radio cassettes, and would borrow them from the library
every chance I got. I loved “Lux Radio Theatre”‘s take on “Pride Of
The Yankees,” starring Gary Cooper. These shows forced me to do
something a 9-year-old raised on a healthy diet of television
wasn’t used to doing: I had to use my mind to fill in the missing
pictures. The actors took care of all the rest.
So, while it was a bit startling to hear the actual movie dialog
from
King Kong on the first 45 minutes or so of this soundtrack,
it was kind of like listening to “Lux Radio Theatre” again. The
only difference is that some of the impact is lost in the
audio-only translation, such as any scene featuring the giant ape
himself. (Admission: believe it or not, I have never seen the film.
If this isn’t blasphemy enough, I’ve never seen
The Wizard Of Oz, either… you can pray for my heathen soul
at your discretion.) Without seeing the havoc Kong is wrecking on
the village or in New York City, the soundtrack occasionally boils
down to a lot of screaming over bass notes. (Good thing George
Steinbrenner wasn’t owner of the Yankees at that time; he’d have
tried to sign Kong to the team.)
And while the “Story Of King Kong” portion of this soundtrack
obviously doesn’t try to cover every second of the film, you get a
good idea of what is happening in the story line just by following
both the music and the dialog. This is an interesting thing to
experience, especially if you’ve never heard an old-time radio
broadcast in your life. It is truly an experience to be had.
So why does the music-only portion of
King Kong let me down a little bit? It just seems a little
disjointed – and for good reason, as these selections were the only
remaining isolated tracks that could be found. Sometimes, it’s hard
to believe that these selections were culled from old 78s; having
owned a few of these in my lifetime, I know they’re not the
cleanest-sounding pieces of vinyl one could own. But the sound
quality of these is to be applauded; the people responsible for
cleaning up the sound are to be commended for their work.
Be all this as it may, it’s more difficult to get into the flow
of the music when it keeps getting interrupted – and the dialog
guides helped to keep things moving, I will freely admit.
It may seem odd for a 66-year-old soundtrack to be re-issued,
but
King Kong was no ordinary movie – and this is indeed no
ordinary soundtrack. Anyone who grew up with the film will
obviously fall for this disc faster than the ape did a triple
gainer off the Empire State Building. But this is a disc that
everyone – young and old – should listen to, if only to gain an
appreciation for an art form that is, sadly, almost extinct.