Flash!………….Ah-Aaahhhh!!!<\/p>\n
Saviour of the Universe<\/p>\n
Flash!………….Ah-Aaahhhh!!!<\/p>\n
He save everyone of us<\/p>\n
One of the things I remember from childhood is going to watch
\nthis B-movie masterpiece and loving every minute of it. From the
\nover-the-top performance by Max Von Sydow to the \u00fcber-coolness
\nof the Hawkmen to the very insipid acting of one Sam J. Jones as
\nthe lead character, this became one of my favorite movies as a kid.
\nOf course, as I saw it again on TV, I saw the high levels of queso
\n(that’s cheese for y’all) that permeated every scene of this movie.
\nHowever, one thing has remained as cool now as when I first heard
\nit back then. That is, of course, the soundtrack to this movie
\ncreated and performed by British rockers Queen.<\/p>\n
Flash!……….Ah-Aaahhh!!!<\/p>\n
He’s a miracle!<\/p>\n
Outside of a rare song appearing on a soundtrack, the members of
\nQueen had never done music exclusively for a movie. But producer
\nDino DeLaurentis felt that this movie would be completed with their
\nmusic throughout out. So Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, Roger Taylor
\nand Brian May went and created what’s become B-movie folklore.<\/p>\n
Now a warning: Unlike most other CDs, you cannot truly review
\nthis soundtrack track-by-track, though I will try. To fully
\nappreciate this music, you will have to hear it from start to
\nfinish. This is the type of CD that you do have to experience
\ncompletely to get.<\/p>\n
The first thing that shocked me in hearing this album is the
\nextensive use of synthesizers. For a band that had until a year or
\ntwo before this album proudly declared “No Synthesizers!” in every
\nalbum, this is somewhat of a shock. Every member of the band is
\ncredited with use of the synths! And believe me, they do use the
\nsynthesizer to its maximum.<\/p>\n
The second thing that confounded me was that along with the
\nmusic you will find pieces of movie dialogue spliced in. And I
\nain’t talking about small snippets at start and end. No, I mean
\nthey cut into the music with pieces of the movie’s dialogue. Every
\nnow and again this does get annoying, but you get the sense that
\nthis was meant to deliver sort of a mini-version of the movie. Like
\nI said, I wouldn’t have as big a problem with it if it didn’t cut
\ninto several tracks here and there. (But you have to hear the
\nwedding vows Ming takes. They are truly hilarious. Maybe those were
\nthe ones you should have taken, Chris!)
\n[Editor’s note: Just wait ’till<\/i>
\n
\nyou<\/i>
\n<\/b>
\nget married, Al!]<\/i><\/p>\n
Okay, now with all that out of the way, let’s talk the music
\nitself. The album kicks off with the hit “Flash’s Theme.” Yep, that
\ngreat piece best known for the “Ah-aaahhh!!!” If you were my age or
\nabout there when this movie came out, you remember it. It
\nencompasses the B-movie aspects of the character perfectly. It
\nappears and reappears throughout the score, particularly in “Flash
\nTo The Rescue,” “Marriage Of Dale And Ming” and “Flash’s Theme
\nReprise.” It also gets remixed into the Hero theme, which is
\nbasically a longer and more rock-oriented version for “Battle
\nTheme” and “The Hero.”<\/p>\n
But there are two other major themes in this soundtrack. One is
\nfor the evil Ming the Merciless. Featuring a greater use of the the
\nsynths, “Ming’s Theme” is minimalistic and spare, but fits his
\ncharacter well. It gets remixed in “The Ring” and reappears through
\nother cues. The other major theme is for Vultan, the leader of the
\nHawkmen. Also relying greatly on the synthesizer, “Vultan’s Theme”
\nis featured throughout the second half of the soundtrack. It’s
\ngreat fun, even if you do mind the synth overuse.<\/p>\n
What’s great to hear is the way that each member of Queen shines
\nin here. John Deacon’s bass is stellar, particularly on the main
\ntheme. Roger Taylor owns the second half of “In The Space Capsule,”
\nwith his rhythmic drums. Brian May delivers perhaps the best rock
\ntake on “The Wedding March.” (Now you know how
\nI<\/i> want to walk down the aisle!) And Freddie Mercury uses his
\npiano playing to master the synth and deliver the fun, if cheesy,
\n“Football Fight.”<\/p>\n
What’s not so great to hear is the bonus (and I use that word
\nloosely) remix of Flash’s Theme. Remixed by Mista Lawnge, this is
\nthe longest track here and, without a doubt, the worst of the
\nbunch. It’s not even bad, it’s terrible – ranking alongside the
\nremix of “We Will Rock You” done by Rick Rubin. Avoid it at all
\ncosts!<\/p>\n
So, who is going to buy this album? Are you a fan of this cheesy
\nmovie? Are you a hardcore Queen fan? If so, you will enjoy it.
\nAnyone else – even fairweather or new fans – would do best in
\navoiding this neo-classic. This is for the initiated and for the
\ngoofballs. Now everybody sing:<\/p>\n
Flash!………….Ah-Aaahhh!!!<\/p>\n
King of the Impossible!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":25561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6420],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36767","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soundtrack-by-queen","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36767"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36767"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}