Bless The Beasts And The Children (soundtrack)

[Must Hear This Album]

Several years ago, I stumbled upon and downloaded (from where, I do not recall) a copy of the original, now out-of-print soundtrack for the 1971 film, Bless The Beasts And The Children, which, along with the original (?) version of the title song by Carpenters, included a few other musical gems from that year, including the Paul Williams-esque tune, “Down The Line” and the evergreen, “Cotton’s Dream,” which, along with the title song, turned out to have longer legs than the actual film, being resurrected a few years later as the theme to the long-running soap opera, The Young And The Restless, as well as being appropriated and retitled, “Nadia’s Theme,” for 1976 gold medal gymnast, Nadia Comaneci. There are also a number of instrumental variations on the aforementioned songs, and all in all the album creates, for me, a fantastic, faded Polaroid of that wonderful era of popular music (that the siblings helped to define) and is well-worth seeking out.

At any rate, the title song’s various iterations/remixes by the duo are well detailed on this wonderful site, but I find the soundtrack version (the one with the vibraphone intro) absolutely wonderful. Particularly Karen’s innocent, slightly higher pitched (by my novice ear, anyway) vocals. I think this is my favorite era of Karen’s singing: 1970-1973. Her emerging instrument was like velvety, sweet milk chocolate. Her late 70’s vocals were no less engaging, but if there was a time when Karen was Pop Music’s Sweetheart, this was it.

 

[Harry]

Our thread from when the soundtrack was our album of the week:

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/threads/aotw-ost-bless-the-beasts-children-sp-4322.3086/

Harry

 

[GaryAlan]

The soundtrack version also appears on the single "4 Sucesssos"/ S7AMD-10029
also has postman single version.

 

[Dave60640]

The soundtrack version of BTBATC has never made it to cd or digital copy has it??

 

[GaryAlan]

To my knowledge it has not been transferred to digital/cd format.

 

[Harry]

Yes, it appeared on the Japanese Single Box set. The Japanese issued the song as a single with "Help!" on the b-side, so it was included in their single box set.

Harry

 

[GaryAlan]

I missed the boat on that Japanese Single Box Set, by the time I decided to order it, the set was sold out!

 

[Harry]

I missed the boat on that Japanese Single Box Set, by the time I decided to order it, the set was sold out!

It was probably THE release of the last decade, with a number of new-to-CD tracks and versions.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

That picture above (4 Sucesssos) has been flipped.

 

[Harry]

That picture above (4 Sucesssos) has been flipped.

Not to mention how odd it is that Karen is six inches taller than Richard. What...is he standing in a hole?

Harry

 

[GaryAlan]

I never realized, until now of course, how odd that picture sleeve is!
Thanks all for pointing this out to me!
By the way, I listened (today) to the US 45 of Bless the Beasts (1289 S) and I much prefer the
vocal fade-out on this vinyl release of the song compared to the trailing flute (?) on the cd .
Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Dave]

Well, here is actually a trailer for it:



'Course from all that violence there, you'd swear this was a trailer for THE LEGEND OF BILLY JACK--and not the kind of things the Carpenters had any connection to... (And the price of "tearin' out a wild buffalo has gone & increased way above the $40 it was those 40-odd-years-ago!)

Did you know The Boone Girls (Pat Boone's daughters Cherry, Lindy, Debby and Laury) also did "Bless The Beasts And The Children" as a single? (Just put in an order for it and some other '45' they made as my "latest, rare eBay finds!)


-- Dave

 

[cam89]

Hi Dave,
That's interesting. I've often loved the vocal harmonies of Debby and her sisters. I know that they went in and recorded Please Mr Postman, I believe before the Carpenters recorded theirs. I believe their manager was Mike Curb, and maybe he told the Carpenters, and they decided to record theirs....of course we know their's became the smash sensation. Of course, Karen was offered YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE and passed on it, and it became a mega MONSTER hit for Debby....

 

[Song4uman]

I hadn't heard that Karen was offered You Light up My Life ...

 

[cam89]

Does anyone have or seen the clip of Carpenters lipsynching to BLESS THE BEASTS at the Academy Awards. In the 1973 Program book, there is a photo of Karen and Richard there...she is wearing a puffy patchwork quilt material gown with a belt similar to the one she wore in the Hurting Each Other video, and a white beautiful blouse....and Richard is at the piano...

 

[cam89]

I found the photo but don't know how to put it on here....Maybe I could send it to Harry and he could put it on, as I am not good at this new technology!

 

[Harry]

Here's the picture Cam wanted to post:



Harry

 

[Mark-T]

Thanks, Cam and Harry!

 

[cam89]

Thanks Harry!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

That trailer is interesting in that it really doesn't feature much footage from the actual movie. The interview segments aren't in the film of course.

The movie itself, while it hasn't dated all that well, is well-made and follows the book pretty closely. It's a heartbreaking film even if you're not an animal lover.

The soundtrack...well, as an album it's never been a favorite of mine but it has some interesting tracks. The most interesting of course being the alternate Carpenters take on the title tune.

I just read over the AOTW thread and noticed that you said you've never seen the movie, Harry.... have you seen it in the intervening years? There is a "preview" for it on Youtube which gives almost none of the real flavor of the movie.

 

[Harry]

No, I've still never seen the movie. Just a couple of selected scenes on YouTube.

Harry