The Adventures Of Conan, Suite in Five Parts - Basil Poledouris (Paintings by Frank Frazetta)

The Adventures Of Conan: A Sword And Sorcery Spectacular (1983) by Basil Poledouris. All Paintings by Frank Frazetta.

Orchestral Suite in five parts:
Part I - 3:36
Part II - 1:13
Part III - 0:51
Part IV - 9.26
Part V - 3:39
Total Time - 16:32


The Adventures of Conan: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacular: (Basil Poledouris) In the early 1980s, Americans were consumed by the need for adventures from the mythical age of sword and sorcery. With films such as Dragonslayer, Excalibur, and Beastmaster came audiences' desire to see even more of such fantasy epics. The most successful film of the genre is, of course, Conan the Barbarian, and not only did the film inspire a full-length motion picture sequel (the substandard Conan the Destroyer), but it also led to the creation of a live-action Conan stage show located at Universal Studios in 1983. The show, formally titled The Adventures of Conan: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacular, ran for ten successful years before being replaced by newer, more technically sophisticated attractions such as Jurassic Park: The Ride. The Conan show was scored in between the two feature films starring Schwarzenegger, and it was therefore logical to ask Conan master Basil Poledouris to score the show as well.

The show isn't all that long, lasting for about 20 minutes, but its intense Hyborean Age action required almost constant underscore of sufficient volume to give the audience a consistent rush of Conan fever. Poledouris tackled the assignment with the same seriousness as for the original film, employing orchestrator Greig McRitchie and the large London Studio Symphony Orchestra and Voices to duplicate the pounding depth of the music from Conan the Barbarian. The resulting quarter of an hour of music by Poledouris remained a difficult item to obtain on CD for quite a while. The suite which comprises the second track on this album had appeared on a few Poledouris compilation bootlegs, some of which selling for hundreds of dollars at online auction houses. This new, limited album from Super Tracks, a soundtrack specialty label, is devoted to only the Conan show and includes two tracks, the music alone and with the original dialogue from the live action on stage.

The music itself is a viable extension of Conan the Barbarian. While neither the title nor love themes from the motion picture score are directly translated into the show, bits and pieces do appear in mutations throughout. For instance, a bar of the title theme from Conan the Barbarian is inserted at (6:50) and the finale in the second track, as the pulsating rhythm of Crom occurs at (8:30) in the same track. Avid fans of Poledouris and the Conan series will recognize many of the composer's woodwind and brass styles continuing from the film as well. A strong timpani and a few new thematic twists keep the live-action score distinct enough to enjoy apart from Conan the Barbarian (unlike the Back to the Future: The Ride score, for which Silvestri just took his original film themes and pieced them together into a suite for the ride). Poledouris' score is heavy with choir and brass in a dramatic effort, with only the shrill scoring for the slaying of the dragon at the end providing a weakness in its musical content.

Taken from analogue originals for digital mastering onto this CD, there is a noticable tinniness to the sound of the music in general, but that's to be expected from a 1983 recording. The first track features select portions of the dialogue and music together, while the second track includes only the expanded score of 16+ minutes by itself. The digital transfer has caused a few notes of interest for those of you running your audio out on Dolby surround systems. On a regular stereo, the CD sounds much more uniform, but audio fanatics such as myself will notice that the music is of slightly poorer quality on the track with the dialogue (it has a small treble hiss). Making this artifact more noticable is the booming, digitally superior quality of the dialogue. On the whole, however, the album is a grand addition to the collection of a devoted film music fan... It is like traveling back in time to the early 80s and living in the the great age of Conan mania all over again, with a fresh Poledouris score! Personally, I love the dialogue version, with a rumbling and majestic narrator who will be certain to awaken your neighbors at any hour of the day or night. The man portraying Conan needs to work on his Austrian accent, though...