Here’s an excerpt from Geoff Elliot’s tribute documentary about the classic film Forbidden Planet.
Forbidden Planet, released in 1956, featured a groundbreaking score by Louis and Bebe Barron. It’s considered now to be the first electronic soundtrack, though at the time the Barron’s work was referred to as ‘electronic tonalities’.
The video features Bebe Barron talking about the music and sound effects that she and her husband created for the film.
This is cool. I love old Sci/Fi movies, especially the music.
Great Vid.
WOW !!! i did not know that . thats some old time futuristic ish .well done
I love that film. It shows some facts of life:
1. Musical experiments are great!
2. The captain gets to choose first.
3. Woman are here to mate boys. Nothing else.
4. You have to excuse the boys! They haven´t seen a woman for a long time.
5. Fathers! Protect your little (21) girls. Give them only to the captain.
The real spirit of the 50ties. 😉
all guys want is booze and beeing the captain – ’cause the captain gets the doll ^^
The first time I watched the film, in the seventies, I was spellbound! I had never heard anything like it before; the only other thing was even remotely similar, was Dr.Who, but it sounded so different, and was such a perfect accompaniment to the film, it felt like it was a main character in it, rather than an incidental.
It’s still a perfect example of science fiction, and it’s awesome that we are still talking about the people that had the imagination, foresight, dedication, and willingness to create and experiment with electronic sound.
I’ve decided to remove the extra three paragraphs I’d typed, as I don’t want to turn it into a rant about how much I respect the people that invented and pioneered electronic music – I’ll leave it for another day! Lol.
I saw this in the MGM theatre in Vegas back in like ’78-’79, just a week after seeing Day the Earth Stood Still. Those two movies left an indelible mark on me as a filmmaker, story lover and musician. I was so fascinated by the soundtrack, and now, when I make all my little bleeps and bloops, I can directly connect it to that soundtrack. Did they ever release just the soundtrack? Probably not, due to the whole “non musician” thing (what a crazy load of crap), but it would be amazing. I’d listen to it all the time.
Can’t wait to find this Blu-Ray and watch the Doc.
Oh, looks like they did! Gotta get it!
http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Planet-Original-MGM-Soundtrack/dp/B0000059UG
on tape even 🙂
Amazed Louis and Bebe Barron were able to do so much without Audiobus.
I want to see this entire documentary. Unable to be nominated or even recognized. Shows how musicians can be great forward thinkers and inventors, as well as close-minded reactionary gits at the same period in history. Hasn’t every musicians union of any kind fought tooth and nail to have music workstations banned from the planet? Oh well, it’s the doing of it at the time that’s important. History does as it likes with the carcasses.