Search - Various Artists :: Zabriskie Point: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Myles M. from LOVINGTON, IL
Reviewed on 9/3/2012...

An amazing CD! Although my favorite cuts are (of course) the Pink FLoyd tracks, there are plenty of other great songs as well. Highly recommended!

Of special interest to die-hard fans of Floyd and The Dead

A Hermit | Southwestern Pa. | 05/17/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have never seen this film, and all I know is what I have read. It sounds like it might be interesting, but I can't say. But this soundtrack, on the merits of the music alone, is an excellent cross-section of styles and genres circa 1969-70. The sound is clear and solid, a huge improvement on the original not-so-good sounding release. This is a purely personal observation, as my old copy was a store-bought cassette. It sounded alright, but it pales next to this reissue.



The material is a juxtaposition (real word?) of mostly psychedelic rock and old-style American country music; when it was still good. No chubby smiling wannabe with his black cowboy hat crooning for the droves of clueless masses, etc. No, this is the real thing. A subversive mood is set with Pink Floyd's "Heartbeat Pigmeat." The title sets it up; it's strange and incongruous, as is the music. The cleaned-up sound really takes this to its extreme, and the swirling sounds and voices are perfectly reproduced. I won't belabor the reader with a song-by-song synopsis, this has been done into the ground, but a curious thing happens while listening to this whole disc, in order; the original recordings are of varying quality, but this is okay, as Patti Page's "Tennesee Waltz" has retained its smoky late 40's early 50's tone because of this. And the bluegrass song, Roscoe Holcomb's "Wish I Was A Single Girl Again" just wouldn't sound right if it were "State-Of-The-Art."



But, to the Floyd fan, anyway, the highlight is the set's closing number, "Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up." This is a superior remake of the 1968 classic, "Careful With That Axe, Eugene." The quiet part is more sinister and malevolent, and the other part is, well, to the uninitiated, a real adrenaline rush. The explosive nature of it, the booklet says, conveys a very violent scene in the movie. Again, I haven't seen it. I'm shooting in the dark.



The second disc is the bonus material, and the first four tracks are basically a half-hour of Jerry Garcia noodling away on his guitar. It's not particularly exciting to listen to, quite dull, actually, but it does show his talent as a very lyrical musician. It's relaxing, in fact, and one can cue these selections up when preparing for bed. Garcia was a good musician and a great guy, and he will be missed.



The rest of the bonus disc is taken from a month's torture Pink Floyd went through trying to satisfy the film's director, Mr. Antonioni. They just couldn't make him happy. But the material here is tastefully rendered, and once again, the analog sound has been digitized and sounds fresh and new. BUT! There is an error in the booklet's text. It says the track titled "Country Song" is sung by Roger Waters. Any Floyd fan, even a tepid one, can tell Waters' voice from Gilmour's and Wright's. The voice is clearly Gilmour's, even if Waters wrote the lyrics, which he probably did. These selections were obviously untitled at the time, the current titles convey this. "Country Song," Unknown Song," "Love Scene-Version 6" and "love Scene-Version 4," they lack the poetic value of other original titles, such as 1968's "A Saucerful Of Secrets." Original title: "The Massed Gadgets Of Hercules." 1971's "Echoes:" "The Return Of The Son Of Nothing."



But we now have, nonetheless, a very good soundtrack recording of an old subversive film, and some new nuggets from Garcia, and Misters Waters, Wright, Mason, and Gilmour.



I really wish people still did stuff like this."

Very entertaining curio

David Alston | Chapel Hill, NC, USA | 12/15/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Great to see this odd item back in print; Rhino has done an outstanding job with the reissue.



For me the main attraction was the relatively rare Pink Floyd material, along with the Kaleidescope. I'd say I've never liked the Grateful Dead, but if you're a fan I'd expect that the rather subdued Garcia tunes here would please as well.



The PF outtakes are all interesting, and of the officially released tunes, the two instrumentals offer variations on the kind of creeping atmospherics introduced on SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS, and perfected on MEDDLE and DARK SIDE. The exception - "Crumbling Land" - is a breezy piece of folk rock with a very pleasantly undulating sense of melody, further enhanced by the complex, shimmering harmonies.



As for the film, this was one of those problematic reflections of the times - Antonioni tended to prefer ambient sound (i.e. a lack of composed scores or songs) in his films, and his best films have no music, thus by all accounts this soundtrack collaboration was a strained working situation. Perhaps because of it, the soundtrack (and the film, which is underrated, but very, very challenging) should stand on their own merits, and throughout the soundtrack is always interesting, even if it isn't all great.



-David Alston"