Poe on LP in Old Time Radio and Audio Horror Forum

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Poe on LP

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japfeif	Poe on LP	Lead	[-]
Mar 9 05 9:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Does anyone remember those old record albums that were always offered for sale in the pages of Famous Monsters, the ones of Edgar Allen Poe stories, narrated by Richard Taylor? I believe the 5-record set conststed of: Nightmare, Horror, Terror, Fright, & Strange. I recently found 3 of them on eBay (Nightmare, Terror, & Horror), and gave a listen to the one I remember having as a kid, Nightmare. It had the Tell-Tale Heart on one side & the Pit & the Pendulum on the other. They gave me the same shivers the other night as they did when I was a kid. Especially The Tell-Tale Heart! Wow! If you've never heard these records & you ever get the chance, give 'em a listen. Something about Taylor's reading that will send the proverbial shivers up one's spine! I occasionally see these 3 on eBay, but I've yet to find Fright or Strange. The other 3 do pop up from time to time.
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Unregistered(d)	Unknown	#1	[-]
Dec 31 04 5:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	(This post is missing and can not be restored)
Unregistered(d)	Unknown	#2	[-]
Dec 31 04 5:00 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	(This post is missing and can not be restored)
Unregistered(d)	Poe's Greatest Hits	#3	[-]
Jul 23 05 6:46 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I always loved these LPs, not so much for Richard Taylor's New Yawk-intoned readings, but for the background music, which, as nearly as I can tell, was lifted in excerpts from episodes of THRILLER. You'll notice the music tends to shift or cut off unexpectedly; this is apparently because someone recorded them directly off the TV, using any passages of sufficient length without dialogue, then splicing them together, or looping them, hoping that the cuts would be buried by Taylor's voice-over. My favorite Taylor reading gaffe comes during "Masque of the Red Death" where he makes reference to "a BRASSIERE of fire." If you're a fan of Poe on LP, try to find the old CMS sets Ð they did about fourteen or fifteen "volumes," covering the usual stuff, with later volumes containing readings of stories that weren't recorded as widely, such as "The Gold Bug" (3 sides) or "Descent into the Maelstrom." Many of these were read by famous radio voice Nelson Olmstead, who can be glimpsed in the TWILIGHT ZONE episode "To Serve Man," for which, if I'm not mistaken, he also did the voice of the Kanamit.
Unregistered(d)	Oops	#4	[-]
Jul 23 05 3:14 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Oops, my mistake: Nelson Olmstead read Poe for the Vanguard TALES OF TERROR album, which also includes two sides of stories by Dickens ("The Signal Man"), Gautier ("The Mummy's Foot"), Bierce ("An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"), Fitz-James O'Brien ("What Was It?"), and Stevenson ("Markheim" and an abridged version of "The Body Snatcher"). The (many) CMS Poe albums were read entirely by Martin Donegan and Ugo Toppo.
Scoundrel	Re: Poe's Greatest Hits	#5	[-]
Dec 4 05 7:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The Caedmon releases of Poe's tales featuring Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price have been reissued on CD under the title of the Edgar Allan Poe audio collection. It is a 5 disc set that retails for around 30 bucks.... S.
japfeif		#6	[-]
Jul 26 09 10:08 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	japfeif wrote: Does anyone remember those old record albums that were always offered for sale in the pages of Famous Monsters, the ones of Edgar Allen Poe stories, narrated by Richard Taylor? I believe the 5-record set conststed of: Nightmare, Horror, Terror, Fright, & Strange. I recently found 3 of them on eBay (Nightmare, Terror, & Horror), and gave a listen to the one I remember having as a kid, Nightmare. I occasionally see these 3 on eBay, but I've yet to find Fright or Strange. The other 3 do pop up from time to time. Wow, hard to believe that I posted this 4 years ago!!!! Anyway, just a few weeks ago I found on eBay one of the elusive "Fright" albums! I had never seen this offered for sale before (or since) and did pay a rather hefty price for it ($60...well, maybe it wasn't THAT hefty!). I also found a web site devoted to these albums (the URL escapes me right now though). The author acknowledged the first 4 albums, Horror, Terror, Nightmare, & Fright (with Fright being far & away the rarest & hardest to find, as it was produced in lower quantities than the other 3). However, he said he believes the 5th album, Strange, was advertised but never actually produced. Oh well, I am SO glad to finally get this (apparently) final album in this series!
Red Gargon		#7	[-]
Jul 27 09 8:04 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	These are some of my favorite Poe recordings too. The guy really sounds deranged, and the little bloopers, fluffs and erratic background music just add to that feeling. Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, John Carradine and Nelson Olmstead are great too, but these albums are more in the realm of "outsider art". They'd make a fantastic little CD box-set, if such a thing were economically viable anymore.
Grant		#8	[-]
Jul 27 09 10:28 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I own very few audiobooks, but I have a set of Poe stories read by Paul Scofield. It includes lesser-known things like three of his weird comedies (Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherezade, Some Words With A Mummy and Hans Phaal).
mormovies		#9	[-]
Jul 28 09 10:18 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The Richard Taylor albums are INSANE! I think his masterwork is THE TELLTALE HEART! It's the closest thing to listening to a real, deranged psycho spilling his guts on death row! His readings are truly unnerving and the abstract electric guitar strumming and pitch alteration of his voice is pure genius. These are all available for mp3 download. Taylor's bio is pretty mysterious. Anyone know anything about this guy?
Grant		#10	[-]
Jul 28 09 10:40 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Were his versions the ones with those very simple black and white covers? Because I had Tell-Tale Heart and Pit and the Pendulum read by an actor just like the way Taylor is described, I just didn't remember the name for certain. I remember that "Pit" was edited in a way that gave it an unhappy ending (!), making it pretty certain that he DOES fall into the thing.
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japfeif		#11	[-]
Jul 28 09 12:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Grant wrote: Were his versions the ones with those very simple black and white covers? Because I had Tell-Tale Heart and Pit and the Pendulum read by an actor just like the way Taylor is described, I just didn't remember the name for certain. I remember that "Pit" was edited in a way that gave it an unhappy ending (!), making it pretty certain that he DOES fall into the thing. Yep I imagine the one you are referring to is the one by Mr Taylor. "Pit" and "Heart" were on the same album, Nightmare (I believe, I do not have it in front of me). And yes, "Pit" did give an unhappy ending to the Poe story, if you have ever read the Poe original. *SPOILER HERE! In Poe's original story the hero is rescued at the end right as he is about to fall in to the pit by the burning walls closing in upon him. Taylor's ends with the hero falling into the pit with one of the most blood-curdling screams I've heard (which is a bit odd, as the story is told as if it had happened some time previous & not in "real time", indicating that he would have survived to "tell the tale").
TServo4		#12	[-]
Jul 28 09 12:59 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Those Taylor records in hindsight are great for a "so bizarre it's funny" sort-of laugh, but anyone expecting something out of them has another thing coming. Awful! J. Theakston Capitol Theatre, Rome, NY
Saturday8pm		#13	[-]
Jul 28 09 11:04 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Among the tons of read Poe on tape, album and CD, I own the edition with Christopher Lee. Dunno if it's still in print.
mormovies		#14	[-]
Jul 29 09 10:50 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Lee did a few Poe audio collections. Most of them are downloadable.
bipolarber		#15	[-]
Jul 29 09 3:23 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	These are all wonderful recordings, yes. But of more recent albums, I don't think you can beat "Closed, On Account of Rabies" the double CD set that includes some really wonderful artists, including Marianne Fithfull, Christopher Walken, Iggy Pop, Deamanda Galis, and my personal favorites: Gabriel Byrne reading "Masque of the Red Death" and Ken Nordine's recitation of "The Conqueror Worm"... "[The audiance] will populate the darkness with more horrors than all the horror writers in Hollywood could think of. If you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for the dark patches." -VAL LEWTON
Red Gargon		#16	[-]
Jul 29 09 7:40 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	That's a good one bipolarber ... overall kind of hit and miss, but Dr. John's reading of "Berenice" on that might just be my favorite Poe recording, ever!
Monstroso Sabroso		#17	[-]
Aug 15 09 7:58 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Last Edited By: Monstroso Sabroso Mar 12 10 8:58 AM. Edited 1 times.
Lawrence Nepodahl		#18	[-]
Aug 19 09 8:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I wouldn't mind seeing a list here of ALL the actors who did audio readings of the Poe Stories. Then, from that list, which ones are still available for purchase and or download. Finally, a healthy discussion, on which, from that list, are the better recordings and why one thinks so.
Red Gargon		#19	[-]
Aug 29 09 7:30 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, in terms of classic genre film actors, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone are the biggies with numerous recordings each. John Carradine did "Poe With Pipes" on Electric Lemon that is fun. James Mason did an album, can't recall the name of it, but "Shadow" was excerpted for a Rhino CD called "Scary Stories for Halloween". Lugosi did that recently rediscovered "Tell-Tale Heart" recording that was distributed on this board a couple of years ago. If you broaden the scope beyond readings and standalone albums to OTR adaptations of Poe, you'll be able to bring in Karloff and Lorre, and a lot more credits for the others. As has been noted, the Price and Rathbone Caedmon recordings were reissued on CD, so I assume they're out there for legit download. I like them, but they're very "straight" with no added music or sound effects, which may or may not be to your tastes. Poe with Pipes was reissued on CD. If you want to go outside the classic horror actors world, there's a long list of lesser-known names who've done Poe recordings.
Wich2		#20	[-]
Aug 29 09 10:45 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Edgar Russell III is doing a recreation of ESCAPE'S "Fall of the House of Usher" this year at FOTR; as well as a Bicentennial panel on Poe and Lincoln that he's asked me to be a part of. Come around, if you can: http://www.lofcom.com/nostalgia/fotr/update09.php3 -Craig
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