Pink Floyd Music:

		List Price: $24.98		Label: Rhino / Wea Salesrank: 23488 Released: September 16, 1997
		Our Price: $123.15
		Used Price: $24.95
		Media: Audio CD

Zabriskie Point: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Reviews:
Of special interest to die-hard fans of Floyd and The Dead
2008-05-17 - 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.

For a PF fan and collector....
2008-04-24 - I know it's hard to enjoy any Antonioni's film, however, the songs PF prepared for this movie are teh preparing songs for some of DSOTM songs such as Us and Them....

It's not all PF, however, it's to date the most complete set of PF songs dedicated to this movie.

A must have until a better PF-only OST comes along. (If it ever does)

3.5 Stars-A collection of gems, almost-gems, and curiosities
2008-01-08 - The soundtrack to Michelangelo Antonioni's somewhat controversial (and commercially disastrous) late 60s cult film is a strangely compelling mishmash of (mostly) 60s underground sounds, a blend of dark post-psychedelic acid rock, experimental flourishes, and eerie country and folk explorations. The original album (which makes up the first of this reissue's two discs) featured three early Pink Floyd tracks, recorded when they were still basically an underground group. Of these three, "Crumbling Land," with its wistful and dreamy folk melodies, is an accessible gem. On the opposite side of the spectrum is "Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up," a howling acidic freak-out. It's basically just "Careful With That Axe, Eugene," but with a different name. It's also awesome. On the other hand, "Heart Beat, Pig Meat" is a horribly dated and utterly directionless bit of background filler. The other popular band here is the Grateful Dead, who are represented by a two-and-a-half minute excerpt from their live epic "Dark Star." It's a fine bit of music, but anyone who owns the Live/Dead album will have little use for this. However, the other track to feature a member of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia's "Love Scene," is a beautiful and somewhat elegiac guitar solo that brings to mind some of the man's best moments. Outside of those two legendary groups, we have the sinewy "Dance Of Death," courtesy of cult folk artist John Fahey, and two eerie folk numbers entitled "Tennessee Waltz" and "I Wish I Were A Single Girl Again," by Patti Page and Roscoe Holcomb respectively. Aside from that, the songs tend to be fairly forgettable- there's a decent country/folk romp from the Youngbloods, and a couple of similarly minded, similarly effective numbers from the Kaleidoscope. The resulting package is a nice little artifact that is occasionally very entertaining and sometimes even beautiful. Pink Floyd and Grateful Dead completists will certainly want to purchase this puppy, especially considering the fact that this edition features a bonus disc with four out-takes apiece from each from Jerry Garcia and the 'Floyd. Garcia's numbers are all alternate improvisations of "Love Scene," and for they sound just plain lovely. Pink Floyd's numbers include the surreal and hypnotic "Country Song," as well as two rejected (but still very nice) attempts at background music for the same "Love Scene" that Jerry's improvisations were created for. They're both very pretty and piano based. Also included is a certain "Unknown Song," which is a pleasantly languid mixture of accoustic and electric guitars. All in all, a nice little document of the late 60s.

Floyd music is terific
2007-03-11 - It is certainly a very good double CD. If you are a Pink Floyd fan, you need this album for your collection and you won't be disappointed with the Floyd music.

Very entertaining curio
2006-12-15 - 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