cover art for Day of the Locust

Day of the Locust

1975

LP: London PS-912
CD: Intrada Special Collection Vol. 122
CD: Intrada ISC 367 (expanded)

    Track Listing for standard LP and CD editions

  1. The Storyteller/Garden of the Locust (2:52)
  2. The Flying Carpet (1:47)
  3. A Picture of Love (3:01)
  4. Soft Shoe Salesman (2:38)
  5. Fire and Passion (2:14)
  6. Fashion and Fantasy (1:16)
  7. The Day of the Locust (4:20)
  8. Theme from "The Day of the Locust" Finale (1:35)

    Track Listing for Intrada expanded edition

  1. Theme from The Day of the Locust
  2. The Story Teller
  3. The Flying Carpet
  4. A Picture of Love
  5. Waterloo Sketches
  6. No Love Have I
  7. Rodwy Rumba
  8. Soft Shoe Salesman
  9. The Garden of the Locust / Lovers in the Valley
  10. Fire and Passion
  11. A Natural Clown / The Death of a Clown
  12. The Hungry Tart
  13. Fashion and Fantasy
  14. Pictures from the Past
  15. Unexpected Reunion
  16. Lonely Lover (film version)
  17. The Day of the Locust
  18. Theme from The Day of the Locust / Finale
  19. Who Needs Stars (vocal by Nick Lucas)
  20. The Garden of the Locust (shorter version)
  21. Soft Shoes Salesman (album version)
  22. Fire and Passion
  23. A Natural Clown (reduced orchestration)
  24. The Hungry Tart (shorter version
  25. Lonely Lover (violin version)
  26. Lonely Lover (woodwin version)
  27. Last Year's Dreams (vocal by Nick Lucas)
  28. Like Old Times (vocal by Nick Lucas)
  29. Tracks 29 through 43: additional period and source music


The Movie

Quite a rollercoaster of a movie for me. I started out fully expecting to hate it. I thought it was another idealistic young man is destroyed by the phoniness and decadence that is Hollywood. I thought it was going to be depressing, seedy and ugly. But I was surprised to find touches of humor in it, and warmth, and characters that I actually understood--or at least came close to understanding. And I grew up in LA (though not in that era), and I remember the old spanish architecture that was cool when it was new and now just looks like a relic, and brown lawns and the soft swishing of sprinklers, palm trees and cactus and oleanders and all the evergreens that thrive in a sky so bright and white you don't think you can see a shadow anywhere.

They lost me at the end. Since this isn't exactly Star Wars and everyone's seen it, I won't spoil it. But for awhile, when I realized the movie was in many ways an earlier version of Barton Fink, I was with it. But the ending went nuts and lost me. The movie may have been better received with a better ending. Well--maybe not. It was a strange movie all the way through.


The Music

I complain below that the LP is only partially Barry's music mixed in with period music. Now that I've seen the movie--there doesn't seem to be that much incidental music anyway. I generally don't care for much period music being used in movies--I think it's overdone and the songs often poorly chosen. I'm mixed on this one--"Isn't It Romantic" worked well in the movie. And the incidental music worked well, particularly the end music. And there doesn't seem to be that much elsewhere. Sometimes less is more and sometimes less is just less. In this case, it worked. Too bad the rest of the film wasn't as solid as the score.


Release Notes

The LP came out along with the movie and (like the film) was promptly forgotten. Only about half the album is Barry's anyway. The rest was given over to period songs--because where else are you going to find songs like "Jeepers Creepers" or "Isn't It Romantic?" (Yes, I'm being sarcastic.)

Intrada released a CD (Special Collection 122) of the original album in 2010, and followed it up with an expanded score (ISC 367) in 2016. At the moment they are still available and reasonably priced; who knows what the future will bring.


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