Anyone who’s experienced THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW has likely got a story or more about their experience with the titillating 1975 cult movie musical. I know I do. I worked at the Neptune Theater in Seattle’s U-District in the early ’80s as a janitor, cleaning the closed balcony on Friday and Saturday nights while the movie was shown to the patrons on the main floor. I say “shown” but, as you may already know, you don’t just watch Rocky Horror. You participate! In the case of Seattle fans at that time, you in the audience may have noticed the shadow of my broomstick or mop float across the screen here and there. Or maybe you heard someone joining in the fun from up in the balcony. That was probably me. In my year or two in that janitorial position I learned all of the audience partici-“say it!”-pation responses – and once the movie was over and the auditorium cleared out, I learned how to sweep rice, playing cards, raw hot dogs (i.e., frankfurters) and more from underneath theater seats. Oh, I got an education from Dr. Frank N. Furter & Company, alright.
For its 45th anniversary, Ode Records has reissued the soundtrack to Rocky Horror on a very cool picture disc. Yes, vinyl fans, you can now learn to do the Time Warp in the creature comfort of your very own home while gazing into the eyes of Tim Curry as the sweet transvestite he will always be associated with. Picture discs don’t lend themselves to high fidelity listening, of course, but it’s likely you’ll be cranking this baby up while dusting off your dance moves (“Say, do any of you guys know how to Madison?”) and not paying attention to the surface noise inherent in such vinyl pressings. You can always hunt down a proper vinyl or CD copy for critical listening; this pic disc was designed for fun!
The front of this Rocky Horror picture disc shows Curry-as-Furter in a pseudo-pscary pose which I guess is more exciting than the iconic red lips (at left) that have accompanied advertising and VHS/DVD covers over the years, while the back of the record is a collage of movie theater marquees where the film’s played countless times during its rise to being perhaps the (c)ultimate horror/sci-fi/comedy musical of our time. This release will certainly make a great gift for the Rocky Horror fan in your life (even if you’re buying it for yourself), and with Halloween coming right up it’ll make for some great listening, too. I mean, you’ll probably want to just go ahead and watch the movie, yes, but since you can’t do that 24/7 between now and 10/31, – or maybe you can! – you could at least toss this baby on the ’table and toucha, toucha, touch yourself while getting down with Frank, Riff Raff, Brad, Janet (yay, Janet!), Magenta, Columbia, Eddie and the rest. – Marsh Gooch
3.5/5 (Ode 000011, 2020)
NuDisc 