1979

[ehowton]

In 1979 I was 10-years old and my family had just moved to Dallas, within walking distance of now famous Greenville Ave (Lower Greenville) up from Corsicana, about an hour South. I remember riding my bike with my brother, the gay couple who lived next door always working on their bright orange BMW, eating figs off the tree from the old lady's house behind us, playing endlessly with Star Wars and G.I. Joe figures, and watching Monday Night Specials on our 12" black and white television. Endless summer nights in Dallas, watching a lifetime of movies.

And just like that pivotal scene in Ratatouille where the critic is transported back to his childhood instantly upon his first bite of an unlikely dish to serve, so it was with me when I put in No Escape - Music from the Planet of the Apes. I was pulled back to 1979, watching that black & white television with my brother as music long-since forgotten filled the air.

I've been listening to a lot of Flight and while I'm enjoying it immensely (it is just as good as anything else I've listened to so far, made moreso by including a lot of my favorite scores) I wanted to be challenged this morning on my drive in, so I chose No Escape knowing it would be a difficult listen.

What a complex album! I imagine you'd have to be pretty well versed in each of those films' scores in order to pull of a mix of this complexity, but once I was past the cleverly inserted surprise 'intro' I failed to recognize once again the discrete track changes through the transitions until I was on track five. For something as awkward-sounding as these short, almost staccato pieces to be glued together so effortlessly is a credit to your talent. Although based on my second paragraph I am obviously too biased to make a judgment call on its content by recommending it to others, I'm excited to hear the finale to see if you tie it together the same way you opened it (I'm on Track 23 currently).

Thank you for igniting those memories, thank you for the music.



I finished the album, and in hearing the end of what I now know is No Escape I said aloud in the Bank of American drive-thru, "That's the finale!" Just brilliant! I'll leave the rest of my comment on your post.

Comments

You said it

[nickdangerous.livejournal.com]

1979 = Tremendous year! Personally, musically, theatrically, culturally, even the weather was unusual. We had 6 inches of snow & people were skiing (yes, SKIING!) down Flag Pole Hill. Vinyl was still king. Pizza parlors were family owned (my local joint had a FULL Scandinavian steam pipe organ, whoa!). Arcade games were obscure contraptions more mechanical than electronic, housed in gargantuan cabinets that teased us with amazing new possibilities. It was the first time we could actually *control* the television... harbinger of the irreversable shift to come.

1979 was the last year the Old World was thundering ahead, full-bore, in all of its analog variety-show vacuum tube community bar disco rotary telephone locomotive-powered goodness. Nothing else felt quite like it before, or since. Then 1980 displaced it forever with automation, plastic, electronics, lasers, MTV, and a decidedly more conservative attitude spanning everything from drinking laws to sex. We X'ers are the last generation to witness that old world and I'm grateful to have enjoyed the best it had to offer. It was PROFOUNDLY different from the Google-it made in China designer-everything vegan yoga globalized culture of today. Not that this is a bad thing... not at all. But we have lost a good chunk of that magical, mysterious, and somewhat f'ed up energy that fueled our collective imaginations. A decent chunk of who I am is still 1979... and always will be. Still fighting to reclaim it.

Not quite 1979, but it has a worthy retro-good vibe that defies classification: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5spXHUCmWc

Re: You said it

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

All that idealization aside, I'm still angry that I had to grow up with T.V. shows such as The Jeffersons, What's Happening!! and Solid Gold.

Gah!

The 80s were good to me.

Re: You said it

[nickdangerous.livejournal.com]

What about Good Times, All In The Family, and Soul Train? The SAUUUOOOOOOLLLLLL TRAAAIN! hahaha

Them 80's were good to me too. Really damn good. Commodore 64 = unequalled computer bliss even to this day. But 1979 had its own special vibe, man. Nothing else quite like it.

Whenever an era is about to draw to a close, a clever eye can detect subtleties most people miss. In 1979, one of these clues was the song Cars by Gary Numan. Like a blinding laser straight into your brain from The Future... this sounded REALLY different from the arena rock staples of the day. To a lesser extent I would say that Pop Musik by M, also a 1979 hit, had "here comes the 80's" written ALL over it.

Nowadays when we think of the 80's, I think our cultural subconscious is most strongly attuned to 1983. It's the most 80's-ish year of the 80's. MTV. Duran Duran. Cyndi Lauper. The peak of video arcades (and Atari). Water parks. And the genesis of metal hair bands.

*sniff* such good times

Re: You said it

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

OMG Good Times. *That's* the one I couldn't think of. "Dyn-o-mite!" Ugh.

I enjoyed the freedom of the seventies, or at least what I, as a child, could perceive of it, but I'm an 80s baby through and through, having been crafted from that changing era. Sometimes unfortunately it permeates every aspect of my life.

You should've been at my last party, it was a New Wave extravaganza! Perhaps you can make the next one ;)

[swashbuckler332.livejournal.com]

It is indeed an unlikely dish, one that was very out of left field even for me to make. I just happened to pick up the Conquest/Battle CD for the Tom Scott score and realized that there was a mix to be made... I was particularly struck by the music from the television series, which sounds like Goldsmith without sounding like Goldsmith. It's a rough disc, but one of the ones I'm most proud of because of how uncompromising it is.

The finale of No Escape is the title track, it is the chase sequence from the first film. This was also the last track on the original Project 3 LP; it is the only resolution in the entire Planet of the Apes score. I was debating adding Charlton Heston growling "Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" but decided that was too gimmicky, especially after having opened the album with the excerpt from the Sacred Scrolls.

Flight is one of my first concept albums. There are things on it that I could update... there are remastered versions of Heavy Metal and Superman, for example, but I don't want to change it because it works fine the way it is and if I break it apart, I'd be tempted to tinker it into oblivion. The same is true of The Farthest Reaches.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I hadn't read your Ape Shit (http://swashbuckler332.livejournal.com/285042.html) entry since its publication, and didn't re-read it again until yesterday after I'd finished the album, which was very comprehensive.

Indeed, what a great quote that would've been. While I wouldn't personally have found it gimmicky, I see where you're coming from and concede that its exclusion defined the album as serious work. The track you did use was absolutely conclusive, and anything after that point would've certainly detracted from the sense of finality. While I may occasionally fancy myself able to place tracks in a specific order, I am humbled by your ability to do so with this particular album. NOT an easy task, yet you were able to make hoots and howls and drum beats actually transition in such a way as to be indiscernible to the casual listener.

I've not forayed into The Farthest Reaches yet, wanting to completely sate myself on Flight first, but I can't imagine the album as a whole would be improved any by the replacement of just a few tracks which have been updated, as it is, in a word, flawless.

[prog-guy69.livejournal.com]

Dude, I didn't know you were from Corsicana!?! That rocks! My Mom grew up in Rhone and went to Navarro Junior College before transferring to Baylor. Every time we went to Corsicana to visit my aunt and uncle or Rhone to visit my grandparents we would go to the Chuckwagon for awesome greasy burgers. Boy do I miss those burgers...

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I was born in Garland, but spend my early elementary years in Corsicana. I attended James C. Collins Catholic School there, and my mother was an LVN who also attended Navarro Junior College! Small world dude.

We always ate the 'Scotchburger' there in Corsicana.

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

"I attended James C. Collins Catholic School there"

Is that where the nuns beat you with rulers?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Sister Ignatius carried with her at all times a large, think ruler with the words The Golden Rule inscribed upon it. Stories of her wielding it were legend, and I was terrified of her.

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

You know, you hear comedians make jokes about that all the time but in my 6 year Catholic school experience I never once heard of that or saw that. The most I was ever threatened with was having to clean the inside steps of the entrance from the school to the church with a toothbrush and even that never happened.

Sure there were nuns that were nicer than others. Our nun principal sister Ann was quite a bitch but there were others that gave a stern appearance but were sweet and tender on the inside when you really got to know them. I had my worst time with the lay teachers, my Fifth grade teacher Ms. Bazan was quite a bitch to me.

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

So growing up in Corsicana than you must be familiar with the goodness that is known as Collins Street Bakery??

I made many a trip with my great grandmother to that fine establishment. They still have the best Pecan pies ever and I don't even like Pecans and there Rum Cake is just awesome. My great grandmother had to modify the room cake though and actually poor a bottle of Rum on it. That made it even better!!!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Good stuff that. Our real estate agent was a Collins, and my first grade teacher was a Collins. They were everywhere down there.

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

My great grandmothers mother was a Collins and that is where my Irish side comes from!!!

[photogoot.livejournal.com]

You must have taken the long way to work if you had time for more than one track. ;-) I enjoyed the picture you painted of 1979.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Boy has tutoring during the day on Tuesday and Thursday. This requires that once I drive to work, I drive back home to bring him across the street from work for an hour, then drive him back home an hour later, then come back to work before leaving for the day.

Good times.

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

"and watching Monday Night Specials on our 12" black and white television"

I remember doing that too!!!

Channel 8 also had an afternoon matinée. That's when I remember watching the Planet of the Apes movies, Godzilla VS everybody movies, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Werewolf and more!!!

[drax0r.livejournal.com]

We watched mostly KTVT Channel 11.

~ Eric @ drax0r's