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Cabin Boy, probably the worst movie that Tim Burton was ever involved with, was released in 1994. That was the year that Burton and Danny Elfman were feuding. So, how the heck did Steve Bartek end up scoring this film? Wasn’t that kinda…awkward? Granted, Burton was only a producer and probably didn’t even show up to the scoring sessions but wouldn’t Elfman be upset that his close friend and musical partner was working with the guy he just got into a big fight with? Just imagine if in 2004, Steve Bartek had scored The Grudge remake for Sam Raimi.
Wow…we have hit the bottom of Elfman related stuff to discuss. Yeah, I bet things were pretty awkward for Bartek when he refused to remove Burton from his Top Friends List during the “Black Beauty” scoring sessions. And don’t forget, BB director/TNBC screenwriter Carolyn Thompson was an old flame of Danny’s…
Wow…we have hit the bottom of Elfman related stuff to discuss.
Well…I guess. I’m not too familiar with Steve Bartek’s composing career, so when I saw his name in Cabin Boy credits I was a little surprised.
And don’t forget, BB director/TNBC screenwriter Carolyn Thompson was an old flame of Danny’s…
I thought they were still dating at the time.
The real question is will there ever be a release of the Cabin Boy score?
I’m sure La La Land Records will get around to it eventually. The interesting thing about the Cabin Boy score is that it sounds like Danny Elfman, which of course, only added to the rumors at the time that Elfman didn’t write his scores. I remember reading an interview with Steve Bartek where he complained that everyone hired him to score movies with the assumption that he was Danny’s ghost writer.
I love the score to CABIN BOY, and I have a soft spot for the movie, awful as it is.
The movie came out in really early 1994, as I recall, and I have a hunch that Disney decided to dump it there after it didn’t test well. So… it was probably completed mid-1993, which is probably around the time the Burton-Elfman dustup happened. My suspicion is that Elfman felt he ultimately deserved more credit for shaping the film than he got, and that was part of the trigger. That probably happened when the film was in its home stretch.
Anyway, regardless of that, I’m sure Elfman was very happy that Bartek got the job or any other one. I don’t hear a lot of Elfman in Steve’s music , honestly, but there are certain phrasing things that the two certainly have in common. I’d love for this score (and much of Bartek’s other work) to get out someday. Hell, I’d even take a good bootleg of it, but I don’t think even that is in circulation.
I don’t have a bootleg of the whole score, but I have a suite that represents it fairly well. I can’t hear much Elfman in it either, to be honest.
I don’t hear a lot of Elfman in Steve’s music
I can’t hear much Elfman in it either, to be honest.
Not the main title theme per say but a lot of the tracks sound like rejected Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure music.
I’ve just started watching it.
The main titles were mostly pretty different to Elfman, except for a few Elfmaney phrases here and there, but at the very start of the title music, those rolling flutes instantly put me in mind of Serenada Schizophrana, (Bells and Whistles to be precise.) I wonder if those were both examples of things Bartek has added in himself.
I’ll hear what else I hear later in the film.
Btw, where is the suite from? Is it from the original recording?Yes, it’s from the original recording – it’s part of a Steve Bartek sampler that I’ve had for a few years. Includes a few bits of unreleased items that are culled from various sources.
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