Ron Grainer * The Prisoner (Variation On A Theme)

[@ChicagoJoe1908]

Wow! This is sooo 😎 Ms Bond. You always manage to acquire the most interesting & obscure music content. As a long time Prisoner fan (I was 9 in 1968 and remember watching it on CBS here in Chicago). Great to hear Mr Grainer's process in developing the iconic theme. Thanks for sharing!!

[@garethbramley1]

Age of Elegance is such a majestic melody. I've always liked it ever since I had the flexi disc from Six of One. The tune is there but McGoohan wasn't happy with it at all - he wanted more punch (thankfully) and by golly he got it as Grainer came up with what must surely be his best theme ever along with Man in a Suitcase? I can't recall Joseph's effort right now as I haven't played it for ages but Farnon's theme was quite good, sounded to much like The Big Country. We may never know what inspired the uptempo version he recorded for RCA but see below***. It has some great orchestration and I guess it blended in nicely with the general pop scene at that time. I didn't like it at first but it grew on my a long time back. I had a spare copy many, many years back and sold it to someone running the fan club. These different takes are great. There was two final versions of The Prisoner theme - one for the first ep and the other for the other episodes. The first was longer and had different drums / timpani when the butler walks up the No.6's door. Also, another version was recorded for the opening titles of 'Fall Out' and this, to me, is the very best version. It's much shorted but was tagged onto another track on one of the CDs from Siva Screen. This can be heard here - in it's unedited state - 16:30 - 17.27, before the End Tiles. BTW there was another, unused, version of the End Titles. It was common practice for composers to release 'commercial' versions of TV themes in those days (even Man in a Suitcase was newly recorded). A slightly larger orchestra would have been used too. This also avoided any copyright issues with ITC. ***This is taken from an interview with Eric Mival, music editor on the series. Printed in the “Village World” fan club booklet by Max Hora in 1987. Eric states that Ron Grainer “produced the music and it was recorded at Anvil Studios at Denham. My main memory of it was Pat not being satisfied with it entirely, but feeling that it didn’t have enough ‘guts’. I was quite amused to see him time and time again get Ron out and talk to him. It was a bit like you see him in Fall Out at the end, trying to describe how he wants the drums up and certain things held back and basically beefing it all up. Now I know that Ron was somewhat miffed at the time by all this. In fact, I was very sorry that when he brought it out on record that he reverted to his original way of doing it”. I suspect Eric’s memory failed him slightly in the last sentence quoted here i.e. it wasn’t the original “Age of Elegance” theme that came out on RCA. But Grainer clearly wasn’t happy with McGoohan’s input and wanted to put his own version out. Also the label on this 45 correctly makes no reference to this being from the series i.e there’s no subtitle - “from the ITC television series” which you see on most tv theme 45. I think this business about McGoohan simply stems from the fact that he played drums in a film called 'All Night Long' in 1962. He was, however, only miming. Astley was snowed under with his other work for ITC at the time so we'll never know what he would have come up with - at a time when his music was at a peak with Danger Man, Saint and the two films in the Saint films series for which he wrote charming themes.

[@bondbrookebond]

I wonder what McGoohan would have thought of an Astley theme had he been able to provide one, and what it would have sounded like. But then had it been accepted, we would never have the theme that did happen and that we all know and love. Yes I think Grainer's RCA single when he released it, he had intended to arrange for a more dance orientated public. 💃It's lovely to have all these versions he left for us to admire, perhaps it was a good thing that McGoohan was fussy about what he really wanted for his baby.

[@garethbramley1]

Agreed.

[@tomsmedley9886]

This is why i love the score to THE OMEGA MAN because of THE PRISONER was 5 in 67 and like dr who theme the music coming out of a little B/W telly was great .

[@bondbrookebond]

Ooh...must put some Omega Man up then, Ron Grainer, nobody wrote quite like him. Yes, whatever happened to Tv ?? It's just one huge celeb fest.

[@ChicagoJoe1908]

Thanks for the Network #, ebay info and shipping advice. I'll check it out.

[@ChicagoJoe1908]

I just read your description notes and was not aware of the 3 CD original soundtrack set. I have a vinyl & cd versions of the score which also contains Farnon's version. Another item for my want list.

[@bondbrookebond]

Thanks for your kind comments, the Network 3 cd set is superb, in 2017 they followed up with their 6 cd set. Goes for a price now I think.

[@frederickwarrick1294]

@@bondbrookebond not sure which iterations i have, but i do have two different 3 cd sets in my itunes library. the first release is called the Prisoner Files which may have been released as 3 separate cds if my memory serves me

[@ChicagoJoe1908]

6 cd set!! Ok, thanks for the additional info. Funny how those wish/want lists always seem to get longer and longer and... 😊

[@bondbrookebond]

Network 7959049. Some places are charging ridiculous amounts for it, ebay is cheapest, but you may have to ask where they are willing to ship? Good luck.

[@ChicagoJoe1908]

Thanks for the Network #, eBay info & shipping advice. I'll check it out.

[@Scatscar1985]

It's certainly possible that the Great Forehead played the drums on this (see also Bob Crane playing the drums on the "Hogan's Heroes" theme music) as opposed to the urban legend about Jack Lord playing the trumpet on the "Hawaii Five-O" theme music!

[@bondbrookebond]

Yes thanks for that, and apparently Bruce Lee played drums on Joseph Koo's "Way Of The Dragon".

[@EdwardMyddelton-u3o]

Please get in touch kind regards Edward