AND ANOTHER THING...

Something which frustrated me about the otherwise excellent 30th anniversary celebrations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a couple of years ago was the way the new editions of the books referred to "all the various and contradictory manifestations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: radio, novels, TV, computer game, stage adaptation, comic book and bath towel".   Apart from the fact that there was no mention of the movie, or the various audio books (Stephen Moore's long out of print versions were particularly marvellous), the biggest frustration for me was the fact that they made no mention of one of my favourite versions of all, that being the LP releases on Original Records.

Unlike today, when you can access virtually any version of the guide at the touch of a button, in the 1980s we had the books (as they came out), abridged audio readings of the same and those records.   Re-runs of the TV and radio series were few and far between, and video and CD releases of those were a long time coming.   So, for a fan like me, the default "go-to version" was the records.

For those unfamiliar with them, the LPs (and cassettes, which I recently found in a shop in North Wales, woohoo!) provide an alternative to the first six episodes of the radio series, and are more in line with the subsequent TV version in terms of both plot and delivery of lines (there was some tweaking by author Douglas Adams after the original radio series broadcasts - lines originally attributed to Arthur are given to Ford, for example). The records contain the utterly marvellous Disaster Area element of the story, some great background music and really rather good sound effects.  Not to mention an excellent rendering of the ancient Betelgusian Death Anthem, a great new (at the time) version of the theme music and what is, to my mind, the best reading of Vogon poetry ever, which, if you've never heard, you really must seek out RIGHT NOW!!!

Over the years we've had a number of CD releases of the radio series (mastered, remastered, boxed sets with extras, a 'dynamic remastering') but a re-release of the records has never appeared and is long, long overdue.   Forget about waiting for Deep Thought to reveal the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything, we've been waiting a lot longer for these records to reappear!   If you haven't heard them, they can presently be found at the splendid Ripping Yarns blog courtesy of the links below, as is the equally important single version of the theme which includes Disaster Area performing "It's only the end of the world again" and which, legend has it, featured Douglas Adams on rhythm guitar.  They'd make great extras if the records ever came out on CD...!

The original double album version of Hitchhikers is HERE
The second album (Restaurant) is HERE
The single version is HERE

By the way, there's an app version of Hitchhiker's on the way, featuring new recordings of the original Arthur Dent, Simon Jones!  Holy Zarquon!