Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

Interesting.

I actually have the BBC LP's of the series that were released back in '80s.  They differed from slightly from the actual radio plays that were broadcast at the time (a few more episodes were actually broadcast that were not included on the LP's).  Had a full set on cassette of the broadcast shows, but those are long gone.

Was a great series as are the books.

Are we talking THE Eagles here? If so, I certainly didn't know that.

Wasn't Douglas Adams a Naim user himself?

That's what surprised me so much - I had to look it up to check.  I thought it was a typical composed by th BBC tune - ended up being pretty wrong on that one!

Journey of the Sorceror is on The (yes, The) Eagles' album One of These Nights which was released the year before Hotel California. Not being a huge Eagles fan, I bought OoTN simply to have the Hitch Hikers' theme on CD and I remain staggered to this day how it sticks out on the album like a neon thumb. The rest of the tracks are standard Eagles fare (and pretty listenable to my ears), but absolutely nothing like Journey of the Sorceror. Does anyone know how this totally anomalous track ended up on the album?

A mini project of mine over the last few months has been to get all of the albums which were used for background music to the Guide sections of the original radio series. It's been fascinating and I've discovered some unusual new music. May well post a summary once I buy a few more.

Mark

I'm taking a flyer here but The Journey of the Sorcerer is Bernie Leadon's (he ex of The Stone Ponies and Flying Burrito Brothers) contribution to the album. Bernie came from a background in American traditional bluegrass music and is a very good banjo player. Bernie left The Eagles following this album as he allegedly wasn't happy with the more mainstream rock direction the band were taking and, of course was replaced by Joe Walsh for Hotel California. I don't think that the track was written for the series and I guess Bernie maybe wanted to do something different before he left the group.

Pedant's Corner.

Glenn Frey has been known to get his panties in a wad with regard to incorrect usage of the definite article at the front of the band's name. Apparently it's 'Eagles'.

John.

It's not at all typical of the Eagles. As a fan since 1972 it's a piece of filler, muzak, nothing more. The Eagles are beautiful harmony based light country rock. If that's not your taste then look elsewhere.

Well, since you asked, the source I've used to help me track the music down is this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...(radio_series)#Music

It seems that the use of the banjo on Journey of the Sorceror was one of the reasons it was specifically chosen. The background music used for Peter Jones' narrated sections in the original six episodes of the radio series are rather eclectic with an emphasis on works which bridge 70s prog into early ambient/electronic music. Albums I've bought so far from the list on the Wikipedia page are:

Evening Star (Robert Fripp & Brian Eno, 1975). Track 1 (Wind on Water) instantly brought back memories. This album is one of Eno's earliest forays into what would become known as ambient music, but I find the album starts to drag after the first two or three tracks.

Another Green World (Brian Eno, 1975). Track 2 (Over Fire Island) was allegedly used in Hitch-hiker's, but it rings no bells with me and doesn't really sound like the other music used at all. The upside is that Track 7 (Another Green World) was used as the theme tune to BBC2's Arena for many years, so I got a memory rush from that at least. Tracks 6 and 10 (I'll come running and Golden hours) sound a little like early Floyd. A fascinatingly eclectic album in its own right.

Go (Stomu Yamashta, Steve Winwood and others, 1976). This one surprised me. Tracks 7 and 8 (Space Theme and Space Requiem) are used quite obviously in Hitch-hiker's. The rest of the album, perhaps bizarrely, is prog/concept rock - well executed, but a bit dull. The newly remastered version has very detailed sleeve notes.

I already had Oxygene (Jarre) and Snowflakes are Dancing (Tomita). Next on the list to purchase is Terry Riley's Rainbow in Curved Air and Einstieg by Gruppe Between, though the latter (the mystical drumming/chanting music used on the Magrathea episode) is tricky to locate on CD.The Stockhausen and Ligeti are going to be even harder to track down, I suspect.

It's been fascinating to explore this music - they weren't albums that were likely to have crossed my radar otherwise. As one who listened repeatedly to my cassettes of the radio series, it's surprising how well I knew the music without ever having paid it much attention.

Mark

According to Discogs, there has been a release of Einstieg in 2005 on a German label. The trick is, it's not under Gruppe Between, but Between alone. You'll find it easily on Amazon.de as Einstieg Re-Entry.

Ligeti's Melodien has been released as part of The Ligeti Project, Vol. 1 available on Amazon.

Stockhausen on CD is a mess.

Very interesting research, Mark, thank you. Intriguing music. I didn't know Tomita recorded Debussy's La Cathédrale engloutie.

Maurice

Thanks for the info - I had seen the CD release of the remastered version but hadn't yet seen it for a reasonable price anywhere. Didn't think of amazon.de...

Tomita's Snowflakes are Dancing was his most famous release, in 1974:

I have the Tomita album and probably listened to it twice. I think it is time to have another play and listen to it from a different perspective.  I just love this forum sometimes. Thank you gents! 

Stockhausen on CD is a mess

Cheer up, Howard ! Here: a little Helikopter-Streichquartett, just for you.

Mark, thanks for the recommendation. I came across Tomita's music a few times, but I never really clicked. I still have a double live vinyl somewhere, that I used to like in my teens. I must really listen to his Pictures once.

Wat, you know me too well! 

Often the case with good music! Something I once did with Snowflakes are Dancing was to play the original piano piece first (from Jean-Yves Thibaudet's excellent complete Debussy piano music), then immediately played Tomita's version. Doing it one track at a time brought out some fascinating comparisons and made me listen to it afresh.

Just to clarify something I said earlier - my mention of dodgy translations was referring to the translations of the track titles from French to English (which are rather 'free'; understandably so since I doubt those involved were totally fluent in either language), not the translations from piano to synth.

Mark