Wednesday, October 24, 2007

And People Thought "Across the Universe" Was a Big Deal

Apparently, said people never saw All This and World War II.



It's one of the most, er, wiggy cult classics of all time, a mixture of vintage WWII footage (including Nazis edited to march back and forth in time to the music) with a soundtrack of Beatles classics, as rerecorded by Ambrosia, Elton John, the Bee Gees, Leo Sayer, Bryan Ferry, Roy Wood, Keith Moon, Rod Stewart, David Essex, Jeff Lynne, Lynsey De Paul, Richard Cocciante, The Four Seasons, Helen Reddy, Frankie Laine, the Brothers Johnson, Status Quo, Henry Gross, Peter Gabriel, Frankie Valli, Tina Turner, Will Malone, and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Released in 1976, it spent a week in theatres, and then vanished, never to be seen on home video. According to Wiki, Terry Gilliam was supposed to direct, but mercifully declined the opportunity.

All I can say is -- eat your heart out, Julie Taymor.
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9 comments:

  1. Anonymous10/24/2007 1:37 PM

    Are you sure it's not from "Kentucky Fried Movie"? Heh. Thanks!

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  2. Anonymous10/24/2007 1:56 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  3. Anonymous10/24/2007 2:05 PM

    The soundtrack is finally available from Hip-O Select.

    I'd imagine that this will become quite collectible some day.

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  4. steve simels10/24/2007 2:13 PM

    Kid Charlemagne said...

    The soundtrack is finally available from Hip-O Select.

    I'd imagine that this will become quite collectible some day.

    Holy shit. I'm on their promo list...

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  5. Anonymous10/24/2007 5:23 PM

    "The soundtrack is finally available from Hip-O Select."


    I have it on vinyl.

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  6. Anonymous10/24/2007 5:35 PM

    I meant "finally in print" in the fact that it has been out of print in any format for about 20 years.

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  7. MBowen10/24/2007 8:09 PM

    I have it on vinyl, too, though I never listened to it all the way through. I remember that Rod Stewart's "Get Back" and Roy Wood's "Polythene Pam" were both pretty good, Keith Moon's "When I'm 64" was OK, and Peter Gabriel turned "Strawberry Fields Forever" into a dirge.

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  8. Cleveland Bob10/25/2007 1:15 PM

    Wow. I had completely forgotten that I had a cut-out of this album until I sqw this post. Holy flashback, man.

    mbowen remembered far more than I did about the particulars although I do recall that the Gabriel piece was indeed an abomination.

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  9. dave™©10/25/2007 2:18 PM

    Actually, I am on record as saying Gabriel's version of "Strawberry Fields" is one of the greatest Beatle covers EVER.

    Seriously. It's the best thing on the album, and a great, great version.

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