I first time saw Assault on Precinct 13 was when it was broadcast, complete and uncut, on one of our local UHF stations. By this time I was a rabid John Carpenter fan and, since we did not have a VCR at the time, I gathered together some audio tapes and recorded the broadcast that way.
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| Oakland Tribune - Saturday, January 30, 1982 |
The reason for my knowing and remembering this fact is due to my best friend (at the time) and I seeing a matinee of Evilspeak and Demonoid at the South Shore Twin Cinema that very afternoon and discussing our excitement at being able to see the movie John Carpenter made before Halloween.
I fell in love with the movie, of course, and listening to the recording I made, over and over, helped commit its score to memory. For years and years, which added up to decades, I wondered why a soundtrack album for the film had never been released.
Turns out it was due to the movie having, at most, only some twenty-six or so minutes of music. Its memorable theme, Carpenter shares in an interview for the album liner notes, was "a simplification of a Lalo Schifrin line in Dirty Harry, which in turn was a kind of rip of The Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin."
Having had that inspiration through-line pointed out, I can now hear the connection as clear as day. Incredible.
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