Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Despite not have the long list of credits that some of the great composers do, May is without doubt one of my favorites. His sound was uniquely his own and he was one of the few composers that didn't annoy me by mixing in classical music into his wonderful compositions.

We all know his Mad Max scores, but I was wondering how many here were fans of his Frog Dreaming or Road Games scores?

He also had some very playful scores such as Race For The Yankee Zephyr and The True Story Of Eskimo Nell. For a more dramatic flavor, you might consider his work on Harlequin or Return To Eden.

For horror, we have many choices, such as: Freddy's Dead, The Day after Halloween, Thirst, and my fav Dr. Giggles.

So, what say ye film music lobers... any other fans out there?

Tai

When I first saw The Road Warrior I was convinced May would become a major force in film scoring. In fact I predicted the top composers of the 80s, 90s and beyond would be Basil Poledouris, Trevor Jones, James Horner and Brian May.

Oh well...I was partly right. In any case May was a unique and formidable talent. He was also one of the few who did not work with an orchestrator. I think had he moved to Los Angeles his career would have really taken-off.

The Road Warrior remains one of the greatest action scores ever. I am less familiar with scores like Ford Dreaming and Race For The Yankee Zephir, but I'm glad to see I wasn't the of the only person on Earth who purchased Return to Eden!


Paul

One not to miss is SKY PIRATES. Great, action/adventure score. One of his top scores. My own favorite, but sadly unreleased, is CLOAK & DAGGER. Similiar in style, actually, to SKY PIRATES.

I've often wondered if it's the same musical person :

http://www.brianmay.com/

Apparently no...

While I do own Sky Pirates, it is not one of my own favorites. I can only listen to about half of the CD before It begins to wear on me for some reason. Brian experimented with cacophonous sounds in his music which were used to great effect in The Road Warrior, but left me cold when it came to Sky Pirates and another of his releases, Death Before Dishonor. I don't dislike either score, they just don't rank very high for me.

I think one of the reasons May never made it big was because he fell into that "he's a horror movie composer" rut. When you look at three of his most diverse sounding scores: Road Warrior, Frog Dreaming, and Road Games,you can see that he was far more than just another Bump, Jump and Boo composer. It's too bad we will never get to hear what else might have been inside of him waiting to get out. After hearing The True Story Of Eskimo Nell, I would have loved to have heard more comedies scored by him.

Tai

Aye, Bloodmoon is one of his better efforts.

However, I haven't seen any May composition that beat Mad Max and Road Warrior in any discipline. The harsh dissonance, the tragic main theme, this still blows me off my chair.

Sky Pirates is a nice combination of action cues, nothing more. And I don't like his horror efforts, he did not put much time and skill in this.

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No matter where you go, there you are....Wait a minute! That's how it always works out.

Well if I may make one suggestion to any of you that have enjoyed any of May's music at all? Pick-up Frog Dreaming.

It is seriously his finest work in my opinion.

Though out of print, it is still fairly easy to find on eBay:



Tai

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"Now I don't wanna kill you and you don't wanna be dead!"

I'd recommend hunting down THIRST.

This is Brian May's take on horror with orchestra and chorus a la THE OMEN style.
The film is about a cult that believes they are like Vampires.

HARLEQUIN was the first May score I heard and I loved it immediately. MAD MAX and the too-short ROAD WARRIOR are now personal favourites and I hope RETURN TO EDEN makes it to CD sometime in the next 40 years (maybe a Varese Club disc?).

On the subject of MAD MAX, I have an old compilation LP on Milan, though most of the titles appear to be from Varese's old soundtrack issues (PATRICK, THE DAY TIME ENDED, TOURIST TRAP etc). One track from MAD MAX plays at the wrong speed!

I have to say I was disappointed with FREDDY'S DEAD, though.