Time for another guest post from Mike Solof, and this one looks at the story behind one of the best horror films ever made, and how the soundtrack had almost as intriguing a story as the film itself.
Mike Solof here with a strange post about one one of my favorite movies THE SHINING!
I've always loved creepy horror music soundtracks, and this one has always been one of my favorites. But what a tough nut to crack in terms of compiling this version I've created.
The movie itself went through many struggles in its creation. Here's WIKI to tell you about the different cuts:
After its premiere and a week into the general run (with a running time of 146 minutes), Kubrick cut a scene at the end that took place in a hospital. The scene shows Wendy in a bed talking with Mr. Ullman, who explains that Jack's body could not be found; he then gives Danny a yellow tennis ball, presumably the same one that Jack was throwing around the hotel. This scene was subsequently physically cut out of prints by projectionists and sent back to the studio by order of Warner Bros., the film's distributor. This cut the film's running time to 144 minutes.
For its release in Europe, Kubrick cut about 25 minutes from the film. The excised scenes included: a longer meeting between Jack and Watson at the hotel; Danny being attended by a doctor, including references to Tony and how Jack once injured Danny in a drunken rage; more footage of Hallorann's attempts to get to the hotel during the snowstorm, including a sequence with a garage attendant; extended dialogue scenes at the hotel; and a scene where Wendy discovers a group of skeletons in the hotel lobby during the climax. Jackson and Burton are credited in the European print, despite their scenes having been excised from the movie. According to Harlan, Kubrick decided to cut some sequences because the film was "not very well received", and also after viewers had complained about its ambiguity and length. The scene when Jack writes obsessively on the typewriter "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" was re-shot a number of times, but changing the language of the typed copy to Italian, French, Spanish, and German, in order to match the respective dubbed languages.
Three alternative takes were used in a British television commercial. For the international versions of the film, Kubrick shot different takes of Wendy reading the typewriter pages containing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" in different languages. For each language, a suitable idiom was used: German (Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen / "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done today"), Italian (Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca / "The morning has gold in its mouth"), French (Un «Tiens» vaut mieux que deux «Tu l'auras» / "One 'here you go' is worth more than two 'you'll have it'", the equivalent of "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"), Spanish (No por mucho madrugar
amanece más temprano / "No matter how early you get up, you can't make the sun rise any sooner.").
Also causing me massive headaches was the fact that although a complete score was produced by Walter/Wendy Carlos for the film, Kubrick discarded almost all of it except for the two opening cuts used at the beginning of the film, much too the dismay of Carlos who spent two years creating the score, but never signed a contract to do so. Therefore he had no recourse but to let the score go unused and unheard from 1980-2005. Kubrick, in its place, instead choose to use the temporary score that had been added to the film during dailies, and the soundtrack album on LP was withdrawn due to problems with licensing of the music.
It also doesn't help that every single version I can find of both the soundtrack and the score has a different order of songs, and contains very different track lists!
What my version is, is my attempt to combine everything I could find and place it in as proper an order as I can (being that the same tunes sometime pop up in various scenes throughout the entire move) and the notes for these various versions often contradict each other. So here is my best effort to combine into one giant musical experience, the original soundtrack, along with the unused original score, and with some key dialogue from throughout the movie to spice things up a bit.
WARNING: this is a hard and uncomfortable listening experience. You don't relax to music like this. But you do put it on during cold and wintery nights, climb under a warm down blanket and just try to survive the night!
Enjoy
I've always loved creepy horror music soundtracks, and this one has always been one of my favorites. But what a tough nut to crack in terms of compiling this version I've created.
The movie itself went through many struggles in its creation. Here's WIKI to tell you about the different cuts:
After its premiere and a week into the general run (with a running time of 146 minutes), Kubrick cut a scene at the end that took place in a hospital. The scene shows Wendy in a bed talking with Mr. Ullman, who explains that Jack's body could not be found; he then gives Danny a yellow tennis ball, presumably the same one that Jack was throwing around the hotel. This scene was subsequently physically cut out of prints by projectionists and sent back to the studio by order of Warner Bros., the film's distributor. This cut the film's running time to 144 minutes.
For its release in Europe, Kubrick cut about 25 minutes from the film. The excised scenes included: a longer meeting between Jack and Watson at the hotel; Danny being attended by a doctor, including references to Tony and how Jack once injured Danny in a drunken rage; more footage of Hallorann's attempts to get to the hotel during the snowstorm, including a sequence with a garage attendant; extended dialogue scenes at the hotel; and a scene where Wendy discovers a group of skeletons in the hotel lobby during the climax. Jackson and Burton are credited in the European print, despite their scenes having been excised from the movie. According to Harlan, Kubrick decided to cut some sequences because the film was "not very well received", and also after viewers had complained about its ambiguity and length. The scene when Jack writes obsessively on the typewriter "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" was re-shot a number of times, but changing the language of the typed copy to Italian, French, Spanish, and German, in order to match the respective dubbed languages.
Three alternative takes were used in a British television commercial. For the international versions of the film, Kubrick shot different takes of Wendy reading the typewriter pages containing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" in different languages. For each language, a suitable idiom was used: German (Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen / "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done today"), Italian (Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca / "The morning has gold in its mouth"), French (Un «Tiens» vaut mieux que deux «Tu l'auras» / "One 'here you go' is worth more than two 'you'll have it'", the equivalent of "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"), Spanish (No por mucho madrugar
amanece más temprano / "No matter how early you get up, you can't make the sun rise any sooner.").
Also causing me massive headaches was the fact that although a complete score was produced by Walter/Wendy Carlos for the film, Kubrick discarded almost all of it except for the two opening cuts used at the beginning of the film, much too the dismay of Carlos who spent two years creating the score, but never signed a contract to do so. Therefore he had no recourse but to let the score go unused and unheard from 1980-2005. Kubrick, in its place, instead choose to use the temporary score that had been added to the film during dailies, and the soundtrack album on LP was withdrawn due to problems with licensing of the music.
It also doesn't help that every single version I can find of both the soundtrack and the score has a different order of songs, and contains very different track lists!
What my version is, is my attempt to combine everything I could find and place it in as proper an order as I can (being that the same tunes sometime pop up in various scenes throughout the entire move) and the notes for these various versions often contradict each other. So here is my best effort to combine into one giant musical experience, the original soundtrack, along with the unused original score, and with some key dialogue from throughout the movie to spice things up a bit.
WARNING: this is a hard and uncomfortable listening experience. You don't relax to music like this. But you do put it on during cold and wintery nights, climb under a warm down blanket and just try to survive the night!
Enjoy
Michael
Track listing
01 Warner Bros. Logo
02 The Shining Title Music
03 Danny
04 Colorado
05 Rocky Mountains
06 Grady's Story
07 The Overlook
08 Lontano For Orchestra (As From A Distance, Sustained With Expression)
09 Visitors
10 A Ghost Piano
11 Greetings Ghosties
12 Come Out And Play With Us Danny
13 Horror Show
14 A Haunted Waltz
15 Subliminal Ballroom
16 Masquerade
17 It's All Forgotten Now (Ray Noble & His Orchestra)
18 Paraphrase For Cello
10 Two Polymoog Improvisations
20 Paraphrase For Brass
21 Setting With Medea
22 Clockworks (Bloody Elevators) Trailer Music
23 Heartbeats And Worrying
24 The Awakening Of Jacob (aka The Dream Of Jacob)
25 Psychic Shout - Room 237
26 Danny Bells Ascending
27 Danny's Gone Away
28 Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta
29 'Dies'
30 A Horrible Nightmare
31 Psychic Scream
32 Thought Clusters
33 Day Of Wrath
34 Fanfare And Drunkenness - Dies Irae
35 Jack Takes Control
36 Where Is Jack
37 Polymorphia (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
38 Hair Of The Dog (incorporating Home by Henry Hall & The Gleneagles Hotel Band)
39 New Rules For Wendy
40 Bumps In The Night
41 Utrenja (Ewangelia) (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
42 Here's Johnny
43 Utrenja (Kanon Paschy) (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
44 De Natura Sonoris No. 1 (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
45 De Natura Sonoris No. 2 (Kryzysztof Penderecki)
46 Maze Madness
47 Canon for 52 Strings And Tape Delay
48 Maze Madness (Encore)
49 Midnight, The Stars And You (Ray Noble & His Orchestra)
50 Postlude
51 Trailer Music (Alternate Version Clockworks - Dies Irae)
52 Nocturnal Valse Triste
53 Reprise
54 Alternate Main Title
55 Alternate Main Title 2
56 Dance Of Death Op. 457 - Dies Irae (Paraphrase Excerpt)
57 Snow Chase Music
58 Concerto For Cello And Orchestra (alt. Show Chase Music 2)
59 Home (Henry Hall & The Gleneagles Hotel Band)
60 Midnight, The Stars And You (Ray Noble & His Orchestra)
61 The Shining (Ambient Mix)
PS: I have thrown in a bunch of great bonus cuts for you to help soften the blow of this terrifying experience. These include some alternate versions of some of the cuts, a beautiful 18 minute suite of Ambient music from the film, a copy of my Beatles a Rama Christmas show from 2018 that is built around the film - listen for how the songs reflect what is going on in the film and how the songs help to examine what is going on in each character's mind during different parts of the film. And finally I've included something cool to watch to if you like conspiracy theories. It's a documentary on Kubrick, and skip to 35:04 to see how The Shining is actually a film about him confessing that he helped stage and film the Moon Landing of Apollo 11. I find it a fascinating take, but don’t believe it for a minute!!
Keep that night light on Kids!
M
Keep that night light on Kids!
M
