This News Friday 10/24/97

by Lukas Kendall

Varese Sarabande will issue a score album to L.A. Confidential (Jerry Goldsmith) on November 18. Also coming from them on that Tuesday are Mad City (Thomas Newman), The Man Who Knew Too Little (Christopher Young), and Volume 2's of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess (both Joseph Lo Duca).

Here is what has happened on Mad City: Thomas Newman was the first composer on the picture. The director, who wanted Philippe Sarde at first, wasn't satisfied with some of Newman's score and hired Sarde to rescore some sectrions. Newman retained front-titles credit; the Varese album will feature his music alone.

Edel America will release Newman's score to Red Corner in the next couple of weeks. Newman's Oscar and Lucinda will be out from Sony Classical on December 9.

Marco Polo is going through a change in management, so their Garden of Evil re-recording (Herrmann) won't be out until July 1998 at the earliest--horrors!

Also on the delayed front, Clash of the Titans will be out hopefully by the end of October. Settle down, Beavis. What is the movie where the schoolteacher says, "Laurence Oliver--which some of you might remember as Zeus," and the kids are like, oh yeah.

Attention AOL Users

I have a sneaking suspicion that some mail addressed to me from AOL accounts didn't go through last week. If you are an AOL user and I didn't respond to your e-mail, better write me again. Use this address: fsm123@earthlink.net.

Now Up on the Site

Andy Dursin's Aisle Seat just keeps going and going, just like Andy. Andy is a happy camper because I'm sending him a copy of the Blue Thunder promo. The newest installment of his Aisle Seat column went up last Wednesday.

Something Andy added to me in an E-mail that must be known of everyone:

There's a MGM promo reel from Logan's Run on the new laserdisc, and shown in this short is a "fashion show" from 1975. Modeling the male costume of Michael York is none other than David Hasselhoff! "Kitt, do I look like a totally bummed out disco freak?"

Wow, I must see that. Hey, who else thinks this year's World Series is lame? I guess people from Ohio and Florida are happy, but really...

We have also put up several Tony Thomas remembrances which I didn't have room for in Film Score Monthly, including the eulogy by Tony's daughter Andrea at his memorial service. Tony Thomas was a famous film music historian who sadly passed away last July.

Basil at Creature Features

L.A. residents: Basil Poledouris will sign Starship Troopers CDs at Creature Features in Burbank (1802 W Olive Ave; 818-842-9382) on Saturday, November 8, from 1-3PM, not the previous Monday as originally announced.

One rule: everybody fights, nobody quits. Waitaminute, this is the rule: if you want to get a Starship Troopers CD signed, you have to buy it in the store. The CD comes out Tuesday the 4th, so you might want to restrain yourself until the Saturday. By the way, it's on Varese, and is 35 minutes long, and that includes the 4-minute song by Zoe Poledouris which she performs at the high school graduation in the film.

Feel free to bring other Basil CDs like Conan, Robocop and Lonesome Dove and have those signed. But in order to avoid losing a shitload of money ("shitload" is midwestern for "a lot") the store will not allow other copies of Starship Troopers inside.

And see the movie on Friday, it rocks! We'll have reminders of this in the coming weeks.

Buying CDs in Los Angeles

A little postscript from Mike Shapiro:

Re: your list of soundtrack places in LA: You must check out Rockaway Records in Glendale. (I forget the address, but from the Hollywood freeway, get off at the Glendale Blvd. exit, go East, and look for the yellow sign on the LHS of the road after about 1-2 miles. It has a huge selection of used soundtracks, for about $5 each. Occasionally as low as $2. (In case you ever wondered where all those Richard Band promo CD's end up... this is it.) Also, Toward Clearance (not the regular Toward Records) on Ventura Blvd. (just East of the 405) also as a reasonable collection of used soundtracks.

Also, have you been to the Brand Music Library in Glendale? They have an decent, if electic, soundtrack collection and you can borrow something like 12 CDs at a time. It has a lot of bizarre soundtracks that you would never want to buy, but wouldn't mind hearing once or twice. If you browse through the LP section, you can also find things that are truly terrifying. I found a recording of selections from Star Wars for - I kid you not - a cathedral pipe organ. You have not experienced pain until you have heard the Cantina music rendered on an organ by someone who does not understand the concept of swing eighths.

Questions

Here are a couple of stumpers.

From Thomas Wanker, smotha@concentric.net

Do you know of any "orchestra contracting software" that organizes/splits up your cues into A, B or C orchestras if you feed it with information about the cues (instruments, size of string section...)?

This is a damn good question and I have no idea. There is definitely sequencing, timing and all sorts of other software, but I have never heard about contracting software. Anyone?

I think this was already answered last week, but another response to the question of what the trailer music to Philadelphia was:

From: Yumbo (Chris Caine), integtec@ozemail.com.au

It is the Jeff Rona performed, Philip Glass written brilliant score to Powaqqatsi. Available on ELektra. One of my faves - turn it up, esp. the bass line!

My sound page has an RA clip: http://www.ozemail.com/~integtec/radio.htm

"Elfmaniac" adds that this was "Anthem Part 3" on the Powaqqatski album.

From John Kulsea, john@SMCCORP.COM

I am trying to identify a song in one of my favorite old movies. The movie is Donovans Reef, staring John Wayne and Lee Marvin. The song, is probably Hawaiian, and is featured in the opening and several scenes in the movie. Can you tell me the Title and also the Artist or group.

Any help, guys?

Last week I gave my fond memories of a muppet trailer that I saw once in a theater in New York. This was a promo reel by the muppets singing don't smoke, watch the exits, etc., and being silly, well, muppets. It's great, and David Koran mentions that it can be downloaded at

http://www.theatres.sre.sony.com/trailerpark/index.html

Super News

There's been buzz that Warner Home Video is embarking on a Superman restoration DVD for release next year, with the movie in a new transfer and supplemental sections of the added scenes from the TV version. Well it's true. It probably won't be out until late 1998 but Warner is in fact beginning the project. Gee, Lois, that's swell! Still no word on whether it will have isolated music, however.

Rykodisc Update

From Jeremy Moniz, AgentYoshi@aol.com

Is the album to For Your Eyes Only in the Rykodisc/UA catalog and do they plan to reissue it at some point? It has no official CD release like Octopussy did and does again, but is not really in demand. I enjoy it anyway for Bill Conti's funking up James Bond's world. I did get the new Octopussy, it's nice to see a Bond score get the royal treatment but the sound bits were a disappointment, the last two in particular. The first one was good, dialogue bits are fun as long as they're clever. Even Archnophobia had good ones, just the sound editior on that one deserved to be shot. I'm really curious as to what they're going to pick for Carrie because I never thought this album would ever reach CD form. Rykodisc was always cool and the new soundtracks they've done are superb.

Reactions to the new Octopussy CD have been positive... a few people wanted added music tracks, but is there really anything else of note from the movie, that's not already on the CD? I did find the dialogue tracks relatively unobtrusive, and if you look at the James Bond newsgroup, people seem to dig the dialogue.

I don't know if For Your Eyes Only will be coming. It all depends on whether its rights reverted to MGM, or whether it is still the property of whatever label released it (I forget). It's like this: when a deal for a soundtrack album is made, it's either for a term, or in perpetuity. The term can be 5, 10, 20 years, whatever. If it's in perpetuity, the record label owns it forever. For example, the Return of the Jedi soundtrack was a term license of 10 years (I think), which is why in 1993, 10 years after the movie came out, the rights reverted to Lucasfilm to re-license to another label to do another CD, the box set on Arista. However, the Alien 3 soundtrack was bought by MCA Records from 20th Century Fox in perpetuity, so if Fox ever wants to do an Alien box set, it would have to go back to MCA to get Alien 3, they can't just wait it out. Fascinating, captain.

Also on the Bond front, there was recently some buzz in U.K. press about Barry finally "claiming" after all these years to be the actual author of the James Bond theme. For those who don't know, Monty Norman was the composer on Dr. No and was originally hired to write the theme for the movie. The producers didn't like the version as recorded, so they hired Barry to come in and do a re-arrangement--and that became the James Bond theme we all know and love. Norman has always retained credit, but the theme pretty much sounds like Barry and to this day no one is really sure (other than the participants, who have been vague) how much of it he created himself. And after all, it was Barry, not Norman, who scored so many of the subsequent films.

Anyway, Norman has always claimed that he wrote the theme, and has sued people who stated otherwise. Barry has been vague, except to say that if he wasn't responsible for the theme being as great as it was, why didn't they keep hiring Monty Norman? I guess he recently repeated this rhetorical question to the British press, and it was picked up by Mojo magazine as some scoop, but it's nothing really new.

From Robert E. Bowd, bbowd@interlog.com:

The Ryko releases have not shown up, in Canada, at this point. Depression setting in. However, I did see the sampler, in a used shop, and looked at the insert.

I noticed that two separate numbers appear for The Magnificent Seven and Return of the Seven. Are these different recordings, or is it a mistake? I didn't think The Magnificent Seven got a release, which leads to the question: what is the archival source for this release, Elmer Bernstein's 1/4 inch copy of the orginal sessions, which were rumoured, for release, at one time, as evidenced by information on the laser of Magnificent Seven/Return of the Seven? I hope.

The only Seven release coming soon is a CD of the album to Return of the Seven. This is somewhat confusing. The Magnificent Seven, 1960, never had a release of the original soundtrack. When the sequel, Return of the Seven, came out in 1966, Bernstein recorded an LP called "The Magnificent Seven Return in Return of the Seven" (or something) which featured music as purportedly heard in the sequel, but pretty much in the arrangements heard from the original film.

The OST to the original Magnificent Seven is definitely on Ryko's "to do" list, but they have yet to schedule a release date.

Fun from William Zarvis

From time to time readers do their own cool, obscure research which is worth sharing. Now is one of those times.

From William N.Zarvis, WnZarvis@cc.berkshire.org

This being my first time writing to your web site, I thought I might share some info and ask some questions. If anyone is interested to know that:

1) The strange cresendo sound effect for the THX logo can be found on Kevin Braheny's Galaxies(track 2).

2) Anyone who has heard of "Star Hustler", an Astronomy show, will want to know that the main title is Tomita's "Snowflakes Are Dancing" by Debussy.

3) That cool "Cure" like song that is heard in Silence Of The Lambs -but not on the soundtrack- when the killer is dressing himself up as a women is "Good Bye Horses" By Q.Lazzarus. It was also used in Married to the Mob. I know, it's weird.

4) I'm sure most people know this, but for those of you who don't, the music at the end of the first Die Hard movie when the long blond haired, Euro-terrorist jumps out of his body bag with his state of the art machine gun still in hand and proceeds to try to kill Bruce Willis again!, but the large black cop who hasn't drawn his gun in years shoots the bad guy before anyone can blink and the music bursts, climbs and swells in triumphant glory and sounds amazingly superior to the rest of the score is James Horner's unused cue from Aliens. (track 9) Can I breathe now? 5) O.K., here is one for you. Why was the good but dissapointing J. Goldsmith "Klingon" theme used in Star Trek First Contact instead of the great Deep Space Nine Fanfare/Theme, when the Defiant, captained by Worf, comes on the screen? I'll tell you why. Keep in mind though I'm just a filmscore pundit. A few moments after we hear the Klingon theme the Enterprise-E warps onto screen and we hear the first four notes to the ST-Motion Picture/ ST-Next Generation theme. Sure it would have been great to hear the DS9 theme and the STNG theme together. Unfourtunately, the DS9 theme begins with the same first four notes as the STNG theme! Play theme out if you don't believe me! It's a conspiracy! It would have sounded strange or at least awkward as Goldsmith would had to have changed keys and perhaps tempo to mask the similarity. Or, I could be full of it...

I'll offer my idea for #5, which is that Goldsmith quoted the Klingon theme but not the DS9 theme because he wanted to use the music he had himself written! And yeah, both the TNG and DS9 themes start with scale steps 1-4-6-5.

I'm Back...

OK, I'm literally back from a really cool dinner event, got in 15 minutes ago, it's 12:18AM Friday morning. The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America was honoring film music agent Richard Kraft for his support of the foundation. Richard lost his brother, David, a legendary film music fan and mensch, to Crohn's in 1993--the disease is an inflammation of the intestines which kills two million Americans a year.

Richard represents a number of A-list film composers and performing at the dinner at the Regent Beverly Wilshire (where Julia Roberts stays in Pretty Woman, folks) were Wendy & Lisa (Prince's former back-up singers who just scored Soul Food), Marc Shaiman (who did a great song about film music agents, rhyming "anal warts" with "Gorfaine Schwartz" amongst other lyrics), Danny Elfman, Elmer Bernstein, Basil Poledouris, and Jerry Goldsmith. Shaiman was the MC of the performances--Rene Russo was MC overall--and also performed "What's This?" from The Nightmare Before Christmas on piano while Elfman sang Jack's vocal. Bernstein, who just turned 75 and is in amazing shape (he's scoring Coppola's The Rainmaker, plus Magic Hour, Paul Newman's next film), performed the theme from To Kill a Mockingbird on piano--now that was a special thing to watch. Basil Poledouris, who just got a hair cut (you know, like how Steven Spielberg just went short), performed Lonesome Dove on piano, also a unique, intimate event. And finally, Jerry Goldsmith conducted a small ensemble in the main theme from Rudy, saying that he was asked to perform a theme on piano, and replied, "No!"

Also in attendence were some of Kraft's other clients who kindly lent their time and support: Graeme Revell, Nick Glennie-Smith, lyricists David Zippel and David Goldsmith, and I sure hope I'm not forgetting anyone. Also honored were Teruhisa Tosaka, a benefactor and art-store owner who wears dark aviator sunglasses indoors at night, and Marvin Ament, M.D., whose experimental treatment of Crohn's extended and bettered David Kraft's quality of life.

I plugged the dinner a few weeks ago and I suppose not many, if any, fans attended, as it was $250 per plate. But this really is a good cause: Richard gave a very moving speech about how his brother lived in pain for 25 years from this killer disease. Even if you just want to donate $10, do it: Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, 4201 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 624, Los Angeles 90010. It's a tax write-off, by the way.

Good night!

As usual, send your feedback: Lukas@filmscoremonthly.com. Yeah, the U-Turn article yesterday was partially about the movie and not just the music, but I thought it was very well written and wanted to run it. And what the hell, here at FSD, if you don't like the column, come back tomorrow, there's another one! Except for this one, gotta wait until Monday.