I re-watched "Phantom Of The Paradise" the other night and remembered, "Hey! I own a copy of that! Let's write about that!" Paul Williams was always Little Enos from "Smokey and the Bandit II" to me, the guy who wrote all the good Muppets songs and stood about four foot nothing. It wouldn't be until Scream Factory released their Collector's Edition in 2014 that I would even recognize it as a thing; maybe I confused it with "KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park" and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom Of The Opera", both of which I was both overexposed to and underwhelmed by in my youth.
(Sidebar: when I was a kid, I lived near Virginia Tech in southwestern Virginia. All of my extended family lived in the metro Atlanta area. So I'd end up in the back of my mom's 1982 Mazda 626 an awful lot, heading down I-81 with three tapes in the center console: Basia's "Time and Tide", Barbra Streisand's "Memories", and "Michael Crawford Performs Andrew Lloyd Webber". You want to know why I glommed onto noise? There are exhibits A, B, and C. Cruising through the Appalachians, hearing the same Broadway shit over and over and over again. Merzbow was a fucking relief.)
(Second sidebar: I have mixed feelings about KISS. Gene Simmons can go screw, and everything they did, the Ramones did better. But "Detroit Rock City" is a jam, and "I Was Made For Loving You" is a great disco cut.)
Back to "Paradise". It's a horror/musical, a black comedy without any of the theatre kid campiness that comes along with "Rocky Horror". It was independently funded by Edward Pressman, the heir to the Pressman Toy Company, and directed by Brian De Palma in his follow up to "Sisters". The songs were written by Paul Williams and performed by the cast: long-time De Palma collaborator William Finlay, Jessica Harper (in her debut role), longtime L.A. jazzman Raymond Louis Kennedy, and Williams himself. These songs totally slap. It's a mix of mid-70s pop, glam/shock rock, Beach Boys homage, and doo wop. It was nominated for Best Original Score at the 1974 Academy Awards, and rightfully so. It's a really cool soundtrack. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is Ben Folds' Fear Of Pop project. Williams would move on create the music for "Bugsy Malone", another outstanding 70s cult film that's due for rediscovery.
This rip comes from a copy of the 2001 Japanese CD reissue that I found for $10 in a store north of me. I would have gladly paid twice as much. There also exists an extended version of the soundtrack and score, released in 2015 on bootleg cassette by a Canadian label. If you're sitting on a copy you're willing to part with, holler at your boy. Because that's the only way I'll be able to cop one until I get to start making my own reissues.
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