100 Rifles CD by Jerry Goldsmith

New FSM Silver Age Classics Release!

News Flash by Lukas Kendall

It's that time again, for us to make available our latest limited edition soundtrack CD from the glorious "Silver Age" of film music, roughly defined as the late 1950s through the mid-1970s. This is an explosive Jerry Goldsmith western score from the 20th Century Fox archives, 100 Rifles (1969), commercially unavailable -- until now!

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Happy 70th Birthday Jerry Goldsmith! b. February 10, 1929

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Hopefully, longtime Goldsmith fans will be drooling at the mere mention of the title, 100 Rifles. For the uninitiated, this is a South-of-the-Border adventure starring Burt Reynolds, Jim Brown and Raquel Welch. The score takes Goldsmith's western style from Rio Conchos, Bandolero! and Hour of the Gun and elevates it to a new level of excitement and aggression, with Goldsmith's avant garde sensibilities blending brilliantly with Mexican gestures.

The main title alone is a robust tune for horns counter-balanced by mariachi rhythms and effects that ends in an audacious brass flourish. The rest of the score maintains the energy level and should be pure ear candy for Goldsmith aficionados: it flows with memorable melodic nuggets at the same time as it rattles with prepared piano, unusual percussion and even an Indian sitar. Goldsmith fans are well aware of the composer's genius for using instruments in weird ways and in the extremes of their ranges, especially brass; 100 Rifles is full of such bellicose outbursts.

This FSM release presents the 100 Rifles score not once but twice: first in stereo, with all but three cues (which were lost) newly remixed at 20th Century Fox; and then in mono (complete) from the original mix made for the film. Yes, this sounds silly, but if it was totally stupid we wouldn't be doing it. Each mix has its pros and cons: the stereo mix is, obviously, stereo, but the mono mix contains nuances and sweeteners (not to mention the three lost cues) which are no longer unavailable. Rather than switch back and forth between sources, we have decided to give all of the mixes to you, to decide which you prefer. It's sort of "200 Rifles"!

It's not often that we say, trust us, you'll like this CD, but this is one heaping helpin' of Mexican morsels that will fill you with delight. It's a complete Jerry Goldsmith score (twice!) from his glory days of the late '60s, and both mixes of the score are in excellent sound quality. The 16-page booklet features photos from the 20th Century Fox archives and liner notes by Jeff Bond, Doug Adams and Lukas Kendall.

100 Rifles is $19.95 plus shipping ($3 U.S./Canada, $5 rest of world). Ordering is a breeze:

1) Use our online ordering form (100 Rifles is at top) to transmit your credit card information securely over the Internet.

2) Print and mail or fax this form, either with your credit card information or with a U.S. funds check, if you don't want to do the above, or have a problem with the online mechanism.

Stereo: 1. Main Title 1:25. 2. The Hanging 3:08. 3. Escape and Pursuit 3:52 . 4. The Church 1:13. 5. Journey to the Fort 3:54 . 6. I Want Their Heads 1:37. 7. Cliff Fight 1:21. 8. Burn and Pillage/Retribution 5:00. 9. Burning the Stronghold/New Morning 3:56. 10. Lyedecker and Sarita 2:30. 11. Across the Plains 1:04. 12. Ready for Ambush 1:31. 13. I'll Go Back 1:33

Source Music: 14. Mariachi #1 (stereo). 15. Mariachi #2 (mono)

Mono: 16. Main Title 1:24. 17. The Hanging 3:08. 18. Escape and Pursuit 3:52 . 19. The Church 1:12. 20. Journey to the Fort 3:54. 21. Our String Has Done Run Out 2:12. 22. I Want Their Heads 1:38. 23. Cliff Fight 1:22. 24. Downhill Ride 5:12. 25. Burn and Pillage/Retribution 5:00. 26. Burning the Stronghold/New Morning 3:54. 27. Lyedecker and Sarita 2:30. 28. Across the Plains 1:04. 29. Ready for Ambush 1:30. 30. Eulogy for Sarita 1:28. 31. I'll Go Back 1:32

Total time 77:08

We normally have a complete information blackout at FSM on bootleg CDs, which we'll lift for this paragraph to address the German bootleg CD of 100 Rifles from a few years ago. Basically, our CD blows that one away by a good 60 or 70 rifles, and here's why: besides the totally delinquent packaging, the German boot was mastered from a second or third generation copy of the mono tapes we've used for the back end of our CD (plus it left off "The Church" for no reason). It's the exactly same source, but we went DIRECTLY to the source tapes instead of from a cassette of a dupe of a cassette, etc.-- a privilege of actually licensing and paying for your album releases. So on our CD, you can hear everything that the boot had, in explosively clean sound-- PLUS you get around 75% of the score in newly remixed stereo, the two source cues, good liner notes, artwork, etc.

We're confident that our CD is the definitive presentation of 100 Rifles and will allow you to use the bootleg CD, if you have it, as a coaster, or perhaps to see what happens when you put a CD in the microwave.

Whenever we announce a new CD, I get many emails along the lines of, "Hi, it's me. That sounds great. I'll take one. Bye," and I'm like, "who is this?" In the next 48 hours we are going to endeavor to ship at least a couple hundred of these CDs. PLEASE, use the online order form, or the printable one. That way we'll get everything out quicker. Thanks so much.

Also, don't forget: you can sign up to be a member of the "Classics Charter Club," in which we have your name, address and credit card # on file, and send you automatically each new release as it comes out (which you can return if god forbid you don't like it). If you want to sign up for the Club (we'll be releasing a CD almost every month), in THAT case email me with your info -- you can take A) Everything, B) Silver Age Classics titles only, or C) Golden Age Classics titles only (first one a Franz Waxman score, due in April).

Or of course, do email me if something chokes up with the other ordering methods.

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!

Please send your comments, any questions you might have, or any suggestions for future CDs to:

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com