The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires Soundtrack LP

I had watched several movies directed by Roy Ward Baker before it finally registered with me that this guy was becoming one of my favorite directors.

I wasn't seeking his movies out because his name was attached to them. It happened backward. I kept watching British horror movies I liked and eventually noticed the same name appearing in the credits.

The Monster Club. Asylum. And Now the Screaming Starts!. The Vault of Horror. Five Million Years to Earth.

There was something about the look of these movies that I kept responding to. Baker could make relatively modest productions feel atmospheric and substantial, and he was particularly good at the sort of colorful, slightly lurid British horror that I apparently could watch forever.

His career was much larger than the horror films through which I discovered him. He had been directing movies since the 1940s and worked extensively in British film and television, including A Night to Remember, his acclaimed 1958 account of the sinking of the Titanic. But by the late 1960s and 1970s he had become associated with exactly the sort of movies I was gradually collecting and obsessing over: Hammer horror, Amicus anthologies, vampires, crypts, monsters and Peter Cushing.

Which brings me, naturally, to records.

While looking through Baker's filmography I discovered that there is a soundtrack album for The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, the gloriously unlikely Hammer/Shaw Brothers kung-fu vampire movie he directed in 1974.

There is a Seven Golden Vampires soundtrack?

Holy stromboli. I'll be back in a few minutes.

Oh yes. It exists.

And Peter Cushing narrates it.

This is how collecting works. You begin by attempting to learn something about a film director and fifteen minutes later you're shopping for an LP narrated by Peter Cushing.

Then I discovered something else I apparently needed: the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack featuring Goblin's music from the Dario Argento-associated European version of the film.

There is a Seven Brothers Meet Dracula soundtrack? Holy stromboli, I'll be back in a few minutes...

Oh yes, it exists.  And with Peter Cushing narrating none the less. I found out this also exists...

,

Dawn of the Dead original movie soundtrack by Dario Argento and Goblin. My record collection could be up to as many as three by Halloween. Perhaps four, if...

Yes

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