{"id":1554,"date":"2010-11-18T02:51:12","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T07:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1554"},"modified":"2010-12-20T21:48:48","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T02:48:48","slug":"cd-hells-belles-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1554","title":{"rendered":"CD: Hell’s Belles (1969)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rating: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: La-La Land Records\u00a0\/ Released: September 14, 2010<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: 17 tracks \/ (41:22)<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Special Notes: 16-page colour booklet with liner notes by Randall D. Larson \/ Limited to 1200 copies<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Composer: Les Baxter<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review:<\/p>\n

Loosely riffing the James Stewart western\u00a0Winchester \u201973<\/strong> (1950),\u00a0Hell\u2019s Belles<\/strong> provided Les Baxter a diversion from the Poe and Beach Party franchise he was obliged to score for AIP during the better part of the sixties.<\/p>\n

Baxter\u2019s skills encompassed writing a solid theme, great orchestrations, and a knack for bouncing between genres.\u00a0The Dunwich Horror<\/strong> (1970) was a balanced fusion of rock and orchestra, but\u00a0Hell\u2019s Belles<\/strong> is really instrumental rock with zero orchestral elements. Working with drums, guitar, harmonica, tambourine, and a really fat electric bass, Baxter\u2019s score is based primarily around a tight title main theme (\u201cWheels\u201d) that\u2019s filled with bravado, and divided by a semi-melancholic tangent that foreshadows gang members’ viying for a specific cool bike, and the bickering between rival busty factions wanting a particular guy.<\/p>\n

The secondary theme is the vocal cut \u201cTravellin\u2019 Man\u201d with a repeated groove, elliptical lyrics, and sha-la-la background vocals heard in the theme\u2019s instrumental variants, (or on harmonica in the formal vocal versions). The score also has a melodic\/less instrumentally aggressive theme – \u201cTake it from Me\u201d – with trumpet at the centre, giving the score some needed balance when Baxter\u2019s theme variations recap the funky bass line, or are goosed with long organ solos.<\/p>\n

Thematically,\u00a0Hell\u2019s Belles<\/strong> is a bit repetitive, but it\u2019s nevertheless one of Baxter\u2019s most addictive scores. The backbeat is constant, the rich, electric bass frequently gets a stretch of bars to groove (as in \u201cHogin\u2019 Machine\u201d), and even the airhead lyrics of \u201cScoobee Doo\u201d are worked into a weird tune that\u2019s part rock, country, and trippy lounge (with an organ bridge that comes out of nowhere).<\/p>\n

La-La Land\u2019s CD presents the remastered soundtrack album that Curb reissued in 2000, plus adds 5 extra tracks, all previously unreleased. The album master is in stereo, but it\u2019s less warm than the bonus cuts (which are in mono). One suspects the album master consisted of multiple tracks that were bounced between tape to create a true stereo mix, whereas the bonus cues are the un-tweaked and original music stems. (And even if they\u2019re just mono mix-downs from missing stereo masters, their fidelity is superior to the stereo album cuts.)<\/p>\n

Most of the bonus tracks are edited suites of shorter cues, but they\u2019re score instead of the length vocal versions used for the album, and spun-off as singles. The extra material offers a variation of stripped down instrumentals (harmonica, bass, drums, and a slower tempo in some) or brief versions of the main vocal tracks, and there\u2019s an oddball comedic closer \u201cSnake or Rope\u201d in track 15 reminiscent of his Beach Party films, like\u00a0Beach Blanket Bingo<\/strong> (1965).<\/p>\n

La-La Land\u2019s CD is blessed with the film\u2019s amazing campaign art, and the CD booklet sports plenty of stills. Randall D. Larson\u2019s liner notes are excellent, and provide great background material on this forgotten MGM film, its cast, and its place in Baxter\u2019s extensive filmography.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2010 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Related links:<\/p>\n

CD: \u00a0Beach Blanket Bingo<\/strong> (1965)<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews . Rating: Very Good Label: La-La Land Records\u00a0\/ Released: September 14, 2010 Tracks & Album Length: 17 tracks \/ (41:22) . Special Notes: 16-page colour booklet with liner notes by Randall D. Larson \/ Limited to 1200 copies . Composer: Les Baxter . . Review: Loosely riffing the James Stewart western\u00a0Winchester […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[152],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-p4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}