The Flash TV series that aired on CBS in 1991 was before its time. To this day, it still stands as one of the best attempts to produce a live action super hero weekly series. For the budget, the series had great costume design, FX, and of course, music. I’m shocked at how many people (those who remember the show) think that Danny Elfman contributed the weekly score. That honor would actually go to Shirley Walker, whose work never got the release her mentor’s did. Well, that all changes thanks to La La Land Records.
La La Land is slowly but surely challenging the bootleg soundtrack market. For soundtrack fans, buying/downloading the bootleg is sometimes the only way to get your hands a beautiful score that was never released due to studio incompetence or legal issues, or both. Two great examples of this are Christopher Young’s score for Spider-Man 3 and Elliott Goldenthal’s score for Batman and Robin.
No doubt taking their cue from the sell-out run of Batman: TAS, La La Land rolled out a first-ever release for The Flash, and man is it a winner. There’s so much to like, and for the price, it’s a steal. You get two discs fully loaded with music, and featuring both Elfman’s original contributions for the main title theme and Walker’s edited air version.
For those of you who love Elfman’s sound from that era, buy this. It’s clear that Walker is still referencing some of his work. The track “Bikers Embarrass Police” is extremely close to “First Confrontation” from Batman, with it’s heavy violin march, but it is still an effective continuation. Listening to the first set of tracks on disc one – those created for the pilot – you hear History in the making. Walker clearly has her own style, and is confident weaving Elfman’s main theme in. But you can also hear her playing with themes that she would go on to use in Batman: The Animated Series.
The traces of themes that would eventually be used for Catwoman and Two-Face are present, as are some of the light jazz work that would be used in “Almost Got ‘Em” and “A Bullet for Bullock.” Walker’s real talent was in the way she made even the most routine action beats interesting. Going through the rest of the collection, Captain Cold and Ghost in the Machine pack some of the more interesting cues.
If there is one negative about the set, it’s that Randall D. Larson’s notes seem a bit brief – especially compared to the copious notes provided in the Batman release. It’s not Larson’s fault – his writing and observations are spot on. I just wanted more of it, particularly because Walker was taken from us too early.
This release is limited to 3000 copies. If the Batman release was any indication, it should go fast. It can be ordered here.
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