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Rating:  -
I had forgotten this album until recently. I too owned an original vinyl copy. I used to watch the program everyday after school. I remember the first episode I saw, and it might have been the actual first episode, in 1964 when I was about six years old. Dark Shadows captivated me right up through high school. Recently though, I had a flashback kind of experience. A passing school bus and the feel of the day reminded me of childhood. I searched Amazon and found this listing. I played the opening theme. It was exactly 3:00PM EST. The feeling was extremely surreal. For a moment, the music transported me to a different time. A time when things I thought about might have been a little lighter, but a time in which the Shadows were always Dark!
Rating: -
I own an original pressing of this - bought when it was first issued, and for me, the best parts are a the recitations by Jonathan Frid, particularly "Prospero's Breaking of the Spell" ("Our revels now are ended, these our actors, as I foretold are all spirits and have melted into air. Into thin air..)and the very sensual "I, Barnabas. Robt. Cobert's composition stand by themselves in the world of soundtracks.
Rating: -
If you grew up sneaking over to the neighbors' house to watch "Dark Shadows," this one's for you. From the instantly recognizable opening theme(s) to the familiar suspenseful background music, this CD is a guilty pleasure from beginning to end. Beautifully remastered, it sounds way better than it did on TV. You can almost see Angelique mixing up a potion, groovy 60's couples dancing at the Blue Whale and the perpetual thunderstorms over Collinsport. The spookiet part, however, is the radio program featuring many now-dead (?) stars of the show at the end of the record. Lotsa fun!
Rating:  -
If you watched it when it was on TV the sound track is a must
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The soap opera that every kid had to run home from school to watch from 1966 to 1971. As one reviewer wrote, it is like coming home.
Despite syndication around the world, the show had quickly been forgotten after it last aired in April of 1971. It had lain dormant from the mainstream for many years until a plethora of products of the show were released in the past decade (thanks to the persistent fan club interest).
With the MPI video and DVD releases, one can see the many flubs of this gothic soap opera about vampires, werewolves, ghosts and witches. It was perhaps too ambitious of a show for the soap opera format.
While many of today's viewers find those imperfections unforgivable, there is a campy charm to its contradictions. There is a certain irony in the supernatural characters and the less than supernatural portrayal of them by the actors as well as the enthralling ambience of the show and the less than enthralling execution of it. The ambience of the show was enhanced by Robert Cobert?s music.
The opening themes feature a theramin with an orchestral backing. While the instrument is by no means new to spooky shows, Cobert has arranged the music in such a fashion that it still evokes shivers instead of laughter (as with most uses of the theramin at the time).
The music is elevated in universal appeal by offering narration over familiar themes by the Shakespearian actor Jonathan Frid (Barnabas) on 'I'll Be With You Always', 'Meditations', 'Epitaph', and 'I, Barnabas'. A young David Selby also reads the lyrics to 'Shadows of the Night' over the music that became 'Quentin's Theme'. These all provide a kind of theatrical err about the album.
The intense 'A Darkness At Collinwood' is a treat that successfully incorporates many of the familiar background themes into a structured piece. 'The Secret Room', 'Night of the Pentagram' and 'The Old House' are all spooky offerings sure to evoke the scariest moments in 'Dark Shadows' to those familiar with the show and enrapture those who are not.
Colbert's only downfall was writing the rock numbers that admittedly come off as condescending. Colbert did not understand or care about Rock music. But it was a way of throwing the teenagers a bone at the time. Luckily those numbers are confined to two tracks -- '#1 At the Blue Whale' and 'Back At the Blue Whale.' But even '#1 at the Blue Whale' has enough melodic interest that could have provided the rock world a bluesy instrumental classic -- that is if someone like Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck had gotten ahold of it. Unfortunately Colbert's studio musicians only played what was on the page and did not have the feel to make it anything more than a jukebox backdrop at the fictional Blue Whale tavern.
While there have been several volumes of "Dark Shadows" music released in the past 30 years, this first release is the best. It retains the feel of "Dark Shadows" while giving it a relatively universal appeal independent of the show.
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