Recently reissued by Voiceprint, distributed by MVD in the USA, Rick Wakeman’s soundtrack to the 1981 horror film The Burning. Both the movie and soundtrack are recently get the revamp treatment. The album is split into two parts “The Wakeman Variations” which contains Rick’s take on the soundtrack. I’d gather this was done after the soundtrack but can’t say for certain. The second part of the CD, “The Music From The Film”. Which is just that, the soundtrack.
On the ‘variations’ part, I noticed that especially on “Theme From the Burning”, it reminded me of some of the work at the time of Goblin, Claudio Simonetti (Goblin) and even Fabio Frizzi . It would have been nice if this track was longer but the point is well taken.
There's something very important I must point out there is one song on soundtrack part that was NOT done by Rick Wakeman called “Devil’s Creek Breakdown” is a country hoedown with banjo and pedal steel guitar. It could easily be on the Deliverance soundtrack! The rest of the soundtrack is mainly sound effects created by Rick.
Unfortunately the CD reissue contains no bonus tracks and the only redeeming factor on this album is Rick Wakeman’s full band arrangements in the first five songs. The rest you can program out on your media player of choice for full enjoyment. Recommended to Wakeman fans.
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on December 21st, 2007
