The Poseidon Adventure CD

News Flash! New John Williams CD in Silver Age Classics Series!

It's time to reveal just what our new John Williams CD is, the one we've been promising for a couple of months. This CD is announced in our July FSM, which is beginning to reach readers now (your copy should arrive within the next week--thank you for your patience), and is available exclusively through Film Score Monthly.

The CD is... drum roll here... the first-ever official release of The Poseidon Adventure, plus the complete score to The Paper Chase and the six-minute main title to Conrack.

The Paper Chase is the acclaimed 1973 comic drama about Harvard law students, starring Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, and John Houseman as the tyrannical Professor Kingsfield. John Williams wrote an eclectic score emphasizing the film's myriad social worlds: a beautiful love theme in the style of the light pop of the day, with characteristic Williams touches; pseudo-Baroque music (like Family Plot) and arrangements of Bach and Telemann for the academic environment; two jazz-rock source cues; and a haunting, noble theme ("The Passing of Wisdom") used for the students' fascination with Professor Kingsfield.

The Poseidon Adventure is the classic 1972 Irwin Allen disaster epic, for which Williams wrote a stirring, legendary main and end title theme for low brass building to full orchestra. The interior cues evoke dread and claustrophobia as well as the single-minded drive of the protagonists to escape alive. The score bridges Williams's television work for Allen in the '60s with the more symphonic style he used on his famous blockbusters of the late 1970s and '80s, and has been requested by fans for a quarter-century.

The CD also includes the six-minute "Main Title" to Conrack, the acclaimed early '70s Martin Ritt drama starring Jon Voight as a schoolteacher on a poor South Carolina island. The music features Williams's uplifting Americana writing, as heard in The Cowboys and The River, with a gentle bluegrass bent.

This album of previously unreleased John Williams tracks was drawn from clean, best-possible archival sources, with roughly 15 minutes surviving in stereo. The 16-page color booklet includes rare photos from the 20th Century Fox archives and track-by-track liner notes by Jeff Bond and Jeff Eldridge.

Here is the complete track listing:

The Paper Chase

1. Love Theme from The Paper Chase** (2:37). 2. The Passing of Wisdom (3:06) 3. Bach: "Little Fugue" in G minor (2:05). 4. Be Irrational* (2:55). 5. Kevin's House (source) (2:32). 6. Hart in a Hurry (1:16). 7. Thinking of Susan/Kingsfield's Study/The Empty Classroom (3:12). 8. Kevin's Tutor (source) (3:36). 9. To the Hotel (2:02). 10. Telemann: Concerto in D Major (Allegro) ** (1:39). 11. Real Identity/Into the Sea* (3:35). 12. End Title* (2:38).

Conrack

13. Main Title* (6:07).

The Poseidon Adventure

14. Main Title (2:13). 15. Rogo and Linda** (1:32). 16. To Love (source) (3:07). 17. The Big Wave* (4:01). 18. Raising the Christmas Tree (3:24). 19. Death's Door (5:02). 20. Search for the Engine Room (2:49). 21. The Barber Shop* (3:05). 22. Death of Belle (3:26). 23. Hold Your Breath* (3:06). 24. The Red Wheel (3:00). 25. End Title (3:34).

**Not used in the film. *Contains music not used in the film. Total time: 75:52

Tracks 2, 3, 9, 10, 20, 22 in stereo. A word about this: soundtrack masters from this era at 20th Century Fox were recorded on multi-track 35mm film reels, and to get any of this music in stereo today, the reels have to be painstakingly reassembled, synchronized and mixed. Sadly, only a portion of these scores survived the years in a state that could be mixed to stereo today, but we did our best.

This CD is a limited edition of 3,000 copies. It is available exclusively through FSM, the magazine and this web site, and we are not offering wholesale copies to dealers. YOU CAN'T GET IT ANYWHERE ELSE BUT HERE!

How to Order!

First things first: We do not have the CDs in stock yet. We just went through a hellish time on our first Silver Age Classics CD, Stagecoach, whereby the discs came back late from the pressing plant. We did our best to minimize this for Poseidon, but there's a phenomena we were unable to control: everybody who presses CDs in Los Angeles is a moron. (If you know of someone who isn't, call us.) We expect to have the Poseidon discs the first week of August and we will ship them out immediately thereafter.

For best results:

1) Print and mail or fax this form (link here to separate order form for easy printing).

2) Send an e-mail with your name, address, and order and include your VISA or MasterCard number and ex. date. We will be offering a secure-server thingamajig in approximately two weeks, but you know what? This is perfectly safe. Mail to: Order@filmscoremonthly.com. Remember:

1) Name

2) Address

3) VISA or MasterCard number with expiration date.

4) How many copies you want and the total cost. The disc is $19.95 plus shipping: U.S./Canada: $3.00 first disc, $1.50 each additional. Rest of world: $5.00 first disc, $3.00 each additional.

For easy computing:

If you're in the U.S. or Canada, it's $22.95 for one copy, or $44.40 for two copies.

If you're somewhere else, it's $24.95 for one copy, or $47.90 for two copies.

I hope this a happy surprise for people to read this morning over coffee. We're totally jazzed at the opportunity to do a John Williams CD and we've done our best to archive these scores for posterity. The sooner we get your order, the sooner we can get it ready for shipping. As always, send us your questions, comments and suggestions for future releases. Thanks so much!

-Lukas Kendall