ASTS 059: Listening To... GODZILLA! (The Showa Era, Part 2)

Greetings listeners! On the scaly heels of my previous episode, I now present the second entry in this "Listening To... " sub-series, covering the music of GODZILLA, the long-lived monster movie series from Japanese film studio Toho. This franchise currently encompasses 38 movies, spanning over seven decades of cinema history and is considered by Guinness to be the longest running continuous film series.

I first focused on the music of revered composer Akira Ifukube, who scored roughly half the movies during this original era of the GODZILLA series, called the Showa era, and now in this episode I will explore music from the guest composers. This includes Masaru Sato, Richiro Manabe, Kunio Miyauchi and Yuji Koseki, who, respectively, wrote scores and songs for beloved and even controversial classics of the series such as EBIRAH, HORROR OF THE DEEP, GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH and GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA.

How did each of these composers approach scoring a Godzilla movie - was it in deference to Ifukube’s style or was something tonally far removed presented? You might be surprised to hear the sounds of big band, swing music and surf rock from these guest composers!

Title playtime index:

Intro - 00:00

GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN (aka GIGANTIS, THE FIRE MONSTER) (1955) (Masaru Sato) - 00:03:41

MOTHRA (1961) (Yuji Koseki) - 00:08:00

EBIRAH, HORROR OF THE DEEP (aka GODZILLA VS THE SEA MONSTER) (1966) (Masaru Sato) - 00:10:33

SON OF GODZILLA (1967) (Masaru Sato) - 00:21:27

ALL MONSTERS ATTACK (1969) (Kunio Miyauchi) - 00:31:13

GODZILLA VS HEDORAH (aka GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER) (1971) (Richiro Manabe) - 00:37:05

GODZILLA VS MEGALON (1973) (Richiro Manabe) - 00:49:05

GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA (1974) (Masaru Sato) - 00:58:54

Wrap up - 01:11:16

Stay safe out there, take care of yourself and each other! 

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