2001 SPACE ODYSSEY SCORE MOVIE
2001 SPACE ODYSSEY SCORE UPDATE
2001 SPACE ODYSSEY SCORE UPGRADE

The audio on this one sounded brighter than it had on other releases for the most part, if a little on the thin side. Ligeti's 'Requiem' and 'Atmospheres' were merged together similarly to the way they appeared in the film yet Strauss' 'The Blue Danube' remained in one piece. The track order was again re-arranged, this time to more mimic the flow of the music in the movie. This one was from CBS SPECIAL PRODUCTS (AK 45439) and it looked pretty interesting, though the cover screamed 'budget!'. But this album was an interesting attempt at improving the soundtrack.Ī few years later in 1990, as I browsed a local record store, I spotted yet another different version of the soundtrack on CD. This one (Choir of Norddeutscher Rundfunk under Helmut Franz) didn't have the distortion problem on the loud passages like the one it replaced (Stuttgart Schola Cantorum conducted by Clytus Gottwald), but neither was it the original. There was also a substituted recording for Ligeti's 'Lux Aeterna'. 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' was listed as 18:13, and now included more than just the opening overture. 'The Blue Danube' wasn't split up into two anymore, and this album included a much lengthier initial track. Clearly superior on vrtually all of the tracks, I thought this was the final time I'd need to buy this album. I bought it, hoping that since it was of German origin, that Polydor may have gotten closer to the original German master recordings. It was on Polydor and looked like a replica of the old MGM album's cover with the Robert McCall painting as its base. Looking more closely at it, I could tell it was some kind of foreign update/alternate release.

While in Europe a year or so later (1987), I saw a different covered CD in the racks. It might have been my first disappointment on CD, as I could clearly hear that my old LP from 1969 still sounded like it had more oomph and life than this new digital thingy.

I was wrong, as the CD pressing was just as muddy as the LP, but quieter. Not too long after that, I found the identical version, now on the newfangled CD format (MCAD 39049 JVC 505), and I bought it, figuring I would finally have the 'perfect' version now since CD's didn't suffer from noise like vinyl did. There were no liner notes at all, and the pressing itself was muddy and uninteresting. This was truly a budget effort (MCA 39049), with the incorrect title and artwork, and standard MCA rainbow label on the record itself. Curiously, it still had the 'VOLUME TWO' designation on the cover, though the titles of the tracks were a straight re-do from the old MGM soundtrack. Instead, it turned out to be the original soundtrack re-released under MCA's label with an MCA Classics moniker on the front cover.

2001 SPACE ODYSSEY SCORE UPDATE

In the mid '80s, I spotted in the LP racks a record that looked like an update of the VOLUME TWO album. Other than the odd 'VOLUME TWO' LP with other music 'inspired' by the film, those were the versions that got me through the '70s. The quietness of the music brought out any flaws in the vinyl af all of these versions, and I always somehow gravitated back to the original as it seemed to be the brightest and punchiest of my vinyl versions. A third LP (without the 'X' in the catalog number) had a yellowish color on the label, and was housed in a plastic inner bag instead of paper.

2001 SPACE ODYSSEY SCORE UPGRADE

A replacement, purchased later to upgrade the sound after the original's grooves started wearing had a matte tan colr instead of the gold on the label. The first one we got was the one with the genuine 'shiny gold' and blue label. I've got three LP's of the original soundtrack on MGM Records (S1E-13 ST X). A buddy and myself, totally absorbed in both the film and the actual moon landing in 1969, purchased the original album the morning after that landmark event and it's been a rollercoaster of a ride ever since.

2001 SPACE ODYSSEY SCORE MOVIE

Since way back in the '60s, I've tried to keep up on whatever the latest incarnation of the soundtrack album of this movie might be. The unfortunate passing of Györgi Ligeti had my thought turn to my favorite movie of all time, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, as well as the music used therein.

2001 space odyssey score