This DVD arguably has everything for the Rocky Horror fan.

BUT...

When I did listen to the difference between the stereo and mono tracks, i.e. shuffling between them during the songs, I noticed something. While the new recording sounded fantastic, the original recording really seemed to do more "justice" to the film. I mean when I heard the mono track it whisked me back to the theatre. The memories of seeing the movie with a live audience flooded back more than with the stereo version.

Another VERY cool thing the DVD has is the original way O'Brien wanted the film to "look". Borrowing from The Wizard of Oz, the film opens in black and white and THEN abruptly switches to color. IT WORKS SO WELL!!!

Anyway...hey! Didn't we pass a castle back there? Maybe they have a phone we might use.

Regarding the stereo soundtrack...

The film was originally released in mono. There was a stereo re-mix created for its initial video release. What was basically done was a pretty decent phase shift job for everything except the songs that appear on the album, which were presented in full stereo. Although they are mostly the same recordings, there are some differences (listen to the Magenta verse in "The Time Warp") that don't synch up as well as they should.

The THX laserdisc of the title had a spruced-up version of the same mix.

I plan to buy the DVD of Rocky Horror soon, as it allows you to watch the film with "Super Heroes" intact (the first time I saw this film was at one of the [in]famous midnight showings in Manhattan, and the print had the "Super Heroes" sequence, so unlike most Americans, that to me is the official version of Rocky Horror). I am wondering about the soundtrack; has it been remastered even further, or is it merely just another presentation of the stereo track that accompanied the original video releases?

I FIRST saw it with my horrified mother and grandmother! I was 12 (1975, when it was first released), and both fine ladies had decided to take my brother and I to the drive-in (the old Stadium Drive-In near Anaheim Stadium). It was already very apparent that young Marky loved his Horror movies, so when Mom saw that this was playing (doubled up with an older pic - THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE), it was decided!

We still mention this from time to time. Mom was so shocked and horrified at all the sexual content/innuendo that my brother Daniel and I were made to "lay down and go to sleep" in the back seat of the station wagon! Car and Hatfields left early that night.....

Flash forward a few years. I go to a midnight showing as a 16-year-old, and am HOOKED. The "Don't Dream It, Be It" philosophy really spoke to me. So did the thrill of "being" someone else at the shows; eventually, I became a "Cast Member" at the theater (playing Riff Raff, 'natch) and went to the show a combined 213 times between my 16th birthday and my entrance into the Army not long after my 19th birthday. The film showed twice a night on both Friday and Saturday nights at a place in LA....and they showed the Tim Currie "videos", too! I was disappointed they weren't included on the otherwise-wonderful DVD release.

Haven't showed it to Laura yet (saving it for Halloween, I think). After a 3-year hiatus necessitated by the closing of the local Art theater here (don't they always show ROCKY HORROR at those places?), it is resurfaced with a great print at the local dollar-theater.

I'm gathering up rice, cards, toast, mustard, etc., to head out there this weekend.

1. Mustard? For what? I know the lyric that mentions it...but what do u do with it?

2. Tim Currie videos? Which?

Fave line:

"I didn't make him FOR YOU!!!"

You also need bells, a newspaper (preferably the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER), squirt guns, a lighter....

The "videos" were run on reels and projected, just like the movie; I have no idea if they were originally shot on film, or if they were shot on video and later transferred to film. They were of two songs from Curry's now-largely-forgotten pop music career. One of them - the one I still remember - was "I Do The Rock". Sorry, I don't remember the other right this second! I'll get back to ya when I do.

The "I Do The Rock" thingee was pretty cool; it was something of a name-dropping song, and at one point someone dressed as Franknfurter struts past. The look on Curry's face is priceless.

Dan (UK)

A LOT of it garbled!!!!

Yeah, I always thought one could write an interesting paper on the regionalisms of the participation sayings.