Xanadu soundtrack on CD (pt2)

When I think of "higher pitch", I usually think of a baseball catcher asking the pitcher for a high fast ball, but yeah, I guess it isn't the best phrase for even the U.K. XANADU CD...

 

You see...I am the reason of this second thread...

 

I seriously doubt I am helping to sell it, and after discovering how bright it is (I hope Pizza noticed this new bright comment?..., I can't honestly recommend it to anyone, even for $10. People are better off adding another $20 and getting the Japan CD.

I think Harry even likes the U.S. CD a lot, and put in a good word for it a while back?

 

Here is my Xanadu Laserdisc

 

Here are some scans of my Xanadu Marvel Magazine

 

Here is my original Xanadu poster I got when the movie came out. It's used but has many memories!!!

 

All of this reminds me that XANADU was the very first movie I ever saw demonstrated as being in stereo on home video. This was long before I ever saw the movie, but I recall walking through Macy's in King of Prussia, PA and they had a little demo room off of the main appliance section. In it was a huge TV for the time, probably 25", and a LaserDisc player attached, hooked up to a stereo system and speakers. It was playing XANADU - and one of the big selling points was that it was now possible to have a movie soundtrack in your home in stereo.

Much later, when I finally took the LaserDisc plunge, XANADU was one of the titles I looked for. By then I'd seen the movie on HBO and wanted a better copy.

Harry

 

I have that issue. (There are two printed versions of that cover, one that the paper stock is flat and one that has a beautiful thick glossy shine to it.)
I also have the original Discovision release of Xanadu. It was one of the first Laserdiscs I bought. (The Olivia TV special was the very first one I bought.)
What's interesting is I think it looks like there is less airbrushing on Olivia's face in this version. Her face doesn't look as blown out, or as Futurecity would say, as bright when I see this image used elsewhere.

 

I remember going into Circuit City and watching those movies in their sealed rooms often with a laserdisc playing, then it was the big thing and they were pretty expensive to own. The laserdisc I owned was a Pioneer and it played both laserdiscs and cd's and was the kind that had an auto reverse so you did not have to get up to turn over the laserdisc which was an added extra cost feature. When DVD's hit the market, I sold my Laserdisc player. I ended up keeping some titles just because I liked the cover art. I have Physical and Two of a Kind but sold 2 versions of Grease. It's interesting that some of Olivia's tv specials were only released on Laserdisc and not on any other format, even to this day. It behooves me that her most famous tv special, Let's Get Physical, was never released on DVD but only VHS and Laserdisc.

 

And I really like the Olivia Down Under special. I had to import that one from Japan.

 

Yes, that's a nice one too, I have that on VHS. I converted so many of these VHS tapes to DVD-R years ago just to preserve them. Down Under is extra special because it creates a story line and it's filled with all these videos in between. I think this aired on HBO as well. I have an advert I clipped from the booklet with it aired.

 

Here is the advert that I clipped for the HBO special "Olivia-Down Under". I kept it inside the VHS tape of Down Under, folded and all.

I like the song & scene of "An Old Fashioned Man" with the nerdy guy at the beach, falling for Olivia, I thought it was cool how they used "Let's Get Physical" interjected into this song. Tutta La Vita is also another one she shows off her charm with the guys. The highlight is, It's Always Australia For Me" love that song and you can see Matt on the ski lift with her.

 

I think the LaserDisc was also a bit brighter and at a higher pitch, but I can't recall?

 

I actually own two very rare Japanese Akira Ifukube music/concert LDs (Pizza should know who he is?), but never picked up an LD player to watch them. DVDs finally started to take off in Japan, so I held off on an LD player and didn't buy any more LDs.

 

So how about we post a waveform of Magic or Xanadu from the Laserdisc...just to be sure of brightness....

 

Nice video editing on this one...I like how they incorporated the names inside those bubbles on the still shots. Wow Olivia looks super amazing here, I'm sure Cliff loves all this touching going on too.

 

Yes, nothing worse than a bright laserdisc...

By the way, are you still posting your ELO CDs...have you heard any others lately?

 

Song4U, ah, I just noticed that you did finally update your ELO thread. Check it out though, I left you info on two very excellent ELO live CDs that you might want to pick up one day. One features a live version of Daybreaker and one features live Fire On High!

 

I finally saw the ONJ ICON CD in Walmart today ($7), they had two copies, but after looking at the tracklisting again carefully, I found myself passing on it! There's nothing on there that I need, since I have the '01 MAGIC comp, and from reviews on this thread, the sound quality might be a mixed bag, so I held off. It's really only good for someone who doesn't currently own an ONJ comp. If it was a 2-CD ICON, then I could see getting it, if it sounded better than GOLD, but as it stands, it's just not essential.

At least she has a CD back in stores now, as I haven't seen ANY ONJ CDs in an actual store in years...they just don't seem to carry her catalog anymore.

 

Here is the full "Making of Xanadu"...Jeff Lynne and John Farrar appear at about 12 min mark and Jeff & Olivia again at 18 mins, you can tell Jeff is a bit of a comedian.



Also interesting that Xanadu was the first time that Jeff Lynne had ever produced another artist.
Rare Jeff Lynne interview 1980

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5oIEta5H-c

 

Actually, that comment Jeff made was a subtle (and most British) joke about how all his earlier outside production work failed spectacularly - most didn't even appear on the music world's radar! For starters, he produced tracks for Elton John and Del Shannon in 1974, though neither of these collaborations resulted in anything that was released at the time. He also gave the song Indian Queen to a group called Sight And Sound, but in the end all that came of this venture was vocalist Kelly Groucutt being poached to join ELO. Later, he cut the track Poor Little Fool with Helen Reddy, but again this went nowhere commercially. There's also the unused theme song ELO recorded for the short lived ITV music show Supersonic, plus his little-known solo debut single, Doin' That Crazy Thing. Further back, he pitched Follow Me Follow to a band known as Tinkerbell's Fairydust before recycling this composition for the first Idle Race album. Jeff's certainly got a dry sense of humour about things, and I'm sure he's eternally grateful that Olivia broke his run of bad luck outside main projects, even if it's clear he quickly distanced himself from the slick, overproduced sound last heard on the Xanadu soundtrack.

 

I ran out and bought the 12" of Doin' That Crazy Thing when it was first released! I have to be honest and admit I was disappointed when I first played it. I can understand why it didn't do well.
I always thought it was a shame he did a disconnect with Xanadu because the music is amazing!

 

Well, it seems that Jeff's disconnection with Xanadu didn't last too long - he remade the title track at some point in the late '90s for the Flashback compilation after rediscovering this song and realising how good the chord construction was all along (underneath the glossy production, which he clearly didn't want to revisit). Also, if the rumours are true, he cut a solo re-recording of All Over The World more recently as one of the many such ELO recreations left off the Mr. Blue Sky collection... this might end up on the second volume, providing this ever gets to see the light of day!