The Burning (1981) lost soundtrack songs

The Burning was a 1981 horror film based on a summer camp story dating back to the mid 70's. It came out the same year as Friday the 13th part 2 and is often considered a rip-off of the first movie, using the same campsite and also having Tom Savini manning the special effects. It was heavily banned for extreme violence and the uncut version was all but lost up until a full length Australian VHS was discovered.

The music, which was composed by Rick Wakeman, is one of the most original aspects of the film, but most of the tracks seem to have been lost, as they aren't on the official soundtrack release, or anywhere else.

The songs
As most of the musical arrangements went unused for the OST, these are what the album listed, with notes as to what is original and what is changed.



1) Opening Theme This sounds similar to the original, but the instrumentation is all wrong

2) The Chase Continues (Po's Plane) Seems to be a redone version of a theme used later in the film, with a completely different percussion segment and too strong a beat

3) Variations on the Fire Might be an unused track set, closer to the music used in the film until about 33 seconds in

4) Shear Terror and More Very close to being from the movie, but too complex and simply doesn't fit. At all.

5) Campfire Story The music is actually right for once, but the version of the story used is completely different from the theatrical cut

6) The Fire Actually a full length track! From the scene where the villain is set on fire early on, has a lot of popping sounds suggesting it might be from an old record

7) Doin' It Plays on the radio in the background, is actually about 5 minutes long

8) Devil's Creek Breakdown A very out of place song that actually was in the movie, it's in great shape.

9) The Chase A theme used much later in the movie, near the climax. Full original, same issue with popping

10) Shear Terror Full length and in the best shape of the surviving tracks from the film. Is noticeably out of order in the tracks, should be number 9

11) End Theme The quality is strange, with a lot of popping, but it is actually the end credit music.

Music used in a pile of scenes is missing. Some is similar to The Chase, while most of the missing tracks from the end are very different, with a marked change in the sound of the piano. There are no known recordings of the missing tracks.