It was only a matter of time until we arrived at The Omega Man. As an adaptation of Matheson's novel, it's far from faithful, but for fans of similar post-apocalyptic scenarios, it's actually a lot of fun. And one of my favorite things about it is its score by Ron Grainer.
I was familiar with Grainer, as he composed the theme for the British television series, The Prisoner (which was my favorite TV show until Twin Peaks came along to bump it out of the top spot). In fact, if you listen for them, echoes of his Prisoner theme show up in his Omega Man score. (According to the liner notes, the final day of scoring was on Vonna's 10th birthday!)
The movie opens with Robert Neville popping an 8-track into his 1970 Ford XL Convertible. We'll forgive the fact that he pops in a Sinatra 8-track, when the music that plays is in fact Max Steiner's theme from A Summer Place (which I regularly torment Vonna by referring to it as the theme from The Omega Man whenever we hear it), before the film kicks off with Grainer's theme music.
For years I longed for a release of the score, which I assumed would never come. And then in the year 2000, Film Score Monthly released a limited edition CD (which I immediately bought multiple copies of) one to open and listen to, and one to keep sealed.
And then, out of the blue, in 2018, a vinyl release was announced as part of Record Store Day (RSD). Now, if you're not familiar with it, RSD is a day when numerous exclusive releases are released specifically to support independent record stores. That's the cool part. The bad news is that not all stores get all releases, and what they do get is in limited quantity. So people line up in advance, hoping to get their top picks, should they be available at the shop they went to. Frankly, after several instances of disappointment, I stopped going to the stores on RSD altogether, just to avoid disappointment. Oh, and I forgot to mention, The Omega Man was a UK RSD exclusive... so forget lining up somewhere even if I had wanted to.
As is to be expected, copies do turn up online (stores can sell them after some waiting period, plus there are plenty that surface on eBay — often before they have officially gone on sale!). I sourced and purchased two copies of the limited, UK exclusive Record Store Day vinyl soundtrack from two different retailers. I picked up the first on eBay, and then bought an affordable second copy to leave sealed from a store that still had a copy a week later when they could offer them online.
The 2-disc set came in an attractive gatefold sleeve, and I was surprised to see that they were individually numbered (out of 1000).
The specific numbers of limited editions don't really mean a lot to me (sure, it would be cool to get #1, or #1000); I was just happy to get copies without having to pay the premiums that some RSD releases demand. But I was actually shocked when, days apart, my two copies arrived in the mail — from different vendors, mind you — and they were sequentially numbered. 0780 and 0781. Talk about surreal.
In case you've never heard it, here's Grainer's amazing theme for the film.
Come back next week for another item from the I Am Legend Archive!
