I have a vinyl recording of the soundtrack from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’ve always wondered:
In the movie, Rocky, when he comes to life, sings a song, “Sword of Damocles.” Why is that song not on the album?
The last song on the album is “Superheroes.” Why is that never in the movie, when I see it in the theaters? (The song is from the final scene, after the castle/ship takes off – which I have seen only once, at a science fiction convention, when they played a videotape of the film, subtitled in Japanese.)
Also, I remember there being a song sung by Franknfurter right before he starts Medusa Ray-ing the bunch of them that starts out “You better wise up, Janet Weis!” Never heard it in a soundtrack album yet…
:dubious: It’s not? I recall it being played over the end, as the remaining humans crawl out of the wreckage of the recently departed house.
I also thought I recalled “Sword of Damocles” and “Janet Weiss” on some soundtrack I owned…at least I never noticed them missing. But I had the movie and the play soundtracks.
It couldn’t be because the movie Rocky wanted to disassociate himself from it and had it taken off? (Just a thought, although I don’t think he actually sang it anyway.)
Actually come to think of it I don’t know if the song was sung…but the Narrator intones some of the words…do you have the movie or the play soundtrack?
When songs were left off of LPS, it was usually because the single LP would only support about an hour’s worth of music. It was a case of "too much for one LP and not enough for two).
Well, the album (movie) added some stuff and dropped some stuff. The Roxy (stage) version of the album had some surprises for those of us who only saw the movie, like an added verse (by Brad, between Janet and Riff Raff) to “Over At the Frankenstein Place”:
Also, in “Sword of Damoclese” (sic), there’s an added verse in the middle for the narrator:
In my memory, I conflate these with the movie and its soundtrack, but… they ain’t there. As for “Super Heroes”, the guitar riff that introduces it is sort of carried over from the execution scene and you hear it when you see Brad, Janet and Scott writhing in the rubble of the castle. Looks like a last-minute cut from the movie, but I’m glad it made it onto the soundtrack.
The scene was cut from (most) prints for American release but appeared in foreign releases. “Science Fiction/Double Feature (reprise)” over the closing credits was also replaced on the American prints, with a repeat of “The Time Warp.”
I’m confused by Annie’s link, as the text indicates that the listing is for “The Rocky Horror Show” original cast recording (stage show) but the cover art is for the 25th anniversary edition of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” soundtrack (movie). I haven’t seen the stage show although I have the Roxy OCR which ends with “Superheroes.” I’m unfamiliar with most of the greyed-out tracks listed (“Floor Show”? Different from “Rose Tint My World” etc.? “Spaceship”? “Transylvanian Tekkno”?)
I have a RHPS box set issued for the 15th anniversary, all on CD, and the missing tracks weren’t restored to the soundtrack, although a remix of “The Time Warp” and the TW backing track were. Also included in the box set is the Roxy OCR, a disc called “Rocky Horror International” which compiles a soundtrack from various foreign language soundtracks and OCRs (“Science Fiction/Double Feature” in Spanish! “Over at the Frankenstein Place” in Norweigian!). This CD includes all of the missing RHPS tracks: “Sword of Damocles;” “Once In A While” (sung by Brad in a fit of post-coital angst); and “Planet Schmanet, Janet.”
The 20th anniversary DVD includes as a bonus feature the cut “Once In A While” number performed by Barry Bostwick. I like the song a lot but I have to agree that cutting it was the wise move. It’s sung over a series of flashbacks to the bits of the movie we’ve just seen and really would have brought things to a screeching halt. IIRC the DVD includes “Superheroes” restored in full as well as “SF/DF (reprise)” over the closing credits, of both of which I heartily approve.
As to the “Superheros” song at the end. It was cut from US versions, though it is in the UK/International versions of the movie. Gosh knows why as it was a rather good ending.
I know my copy of the 21st anniversary CD re-added “Swords of Damocles”, but not “Wise up Janet Wiess” (even though in the sleeve the did include the lyrics for “Janet Wiess”… go figure). It also had all the extra stuff as mentioned, “Once in a While” from the Roxy recording, Sweet Transvestite karoke, a couple of radio adds and an extended Time Warp (just with Columbia’s tap dance).
I have wondered why they included the Roxy version of “Once in a While” and not the Barry Boswick version which was recorded, but simply cut.
Actually come to think of it, the re-added “Swords of Damocles” was of very poor quality on the soundtrack, like they ripped it straight from a print of the film and not from a studio recording.
Otto
I have always assumed that the “Floor Show” was just an arcing name for the three songs “Rose Tint My World”, “Don’t Dream It” & “Wild And Untamed Thing”.
Not an actually song itself, but one can easily rename “Rose Tint My World”, “Don’t Dream It” & “Wild And Untamed Thing” as Floor Show Parts I, II & III.
Cause on my soundtrack the three songs are slightly indented from the rest of the songs as if they where three parts of the Floor show trilogy. Maybe the person who wrote the web just didn’t use proper indentation?
That was my assumtion anyway.
Never heard of the other two, but now now quite curious. Though judging by the fact they are on the end, they are just end credit melodies. (Just a guess)
The website lists the three floor show songs individually as songs 14, 15 and 16 then lists “Floor Show” as song 19.
But then, looking at it again, it lists “Science Fiction” as song 1 and “Double Feature” as song 2, so it’s just as likely that “Floor Show” et. al. are mistakes too.
To clarify, the greyed out songs are those that are not included on that particular recording. The site I linked to is a musicals (i.e. cast recordings) site, but it does list movie soundtracks of stage shows.
You can click on the show’s title to see all the recordings (and with Rocky Horror, that’s a bunch. It did very well on stage).
If you’re extra curious, you can find an astonishing amount of information of the various Rocky Horror soundtracks at www.rockymusic.org. The site is maintained by an old friend of mine and even contains a few reviews by me, written in 1996, as well as a picture of me in costume from around that time.