The Gauntlet Continues... Continued

by Jeremy Moniz

Back in October Jeremy Moniz, a longtime collector, wrote in to tell us about his personal mix tapes which he calls soundtrack "gauntlets." Here are his descriptions of two more of his favorite tapes.

GAUNTLET FOUR

#71 Carrie - "I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Want Someone Like Me" performed by Katie Irving

Classic Stephen King story as directed by Brian DePalma with Pino Donaggio doing a John Barryesque or Bernard Herrmannesquescore, depending how you look at it. The music is simple and to the point, but not too strong by itself. The cue "Bucket Of Blood" is cute but the cue "School In Flames" sounds like he just recorded the sound of a pocket radio changing frequency. The opening song featured here totally captures Carrie's lowered condition of self-worth and hopefulness and ranks up there with the song: "I ran out of ideas for a title, so I'll just be blunt and redundant about how much I love you, baby."

#72 River's Edge - "Fire In The Rain" performed by Agent Orange

This killer album of songs is quite irritating, but of a seriously better quality then Doctor Detroit. Featuring bands like Fates Warning, Lethal Tendencies & Slayer (four tracks) it truly suits the film about students who find a dead body of a girl by a riverbank, the score by Jurgen Kneiper is, of course, totally absent. The track I chose is obviously not about death, etc., it is, more or less, a teenage angst song.

#73 The Lost Boys - "Cry Little Sister" performed by Gerard McMann

This a great collection of songs if there ever was one, sadly not any Thomas Newman score tracks but his marina carnival theme "To The Shock Of Miss Louise" is the closing track.

#74 Around The World In 80 Days - "Around The World Part 1" by Victor Young

Great, lovely, Oscar winning, '50s score has yet to receive a proper reissue (nice art and liner notes, etc.). This and the three following titles were found in my late Grandmother's record collection when I ransacked it in early 1987.

#75 The Sound Of Music - "The Lonely Goatherd" performed by Julie Andrews and cast

The movie musical by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II was one of the few albums I heard every time I visited my grandparents (1972-6), besides The Chipmunks, so it will always be imbedded into my brain. Though listening to any of it is kind of embarrassing nowadays...

#76 Flower Drum Song - "Don't Marry Me" performed by Sammy Fong

Another musical by Rodgers & Hammerstein II, in grandma's collection because of her Asian American heritage. Similar in style the to TV Cinderella for they made simultaneously. Just a rather goofy and forgotten musical, this song here is rather touching, I think..... hee hee

#77 The Singing Nun - "I'd Like To Be" performed by Debbie Reynolds

All music arranged by Harry Sukman. This album is very good and includes the English translation of Dominique.... And I think I'm the only person who doesn't have a brain hemorrhage when I hear it. I chose this sad little longing song because to avoid inducing spontaneous violence.

#78 The Mission - "On Earth As It Is In Heaven" by Ennio Morricone

A very popular album in Utah believe it or not, the opening cue here is quite beautiful but my favorite cue from this release is "Alone," because it sounds like something from a horror movie. When I was at Utah State University working in a theater costume shop, someone actually brought in that album to listen to. I decided to voice my observation of the album and even went so far as to play it (Track #17 Alone) and walk around like Frankenstein in rhythm to the music. I don't think she ever touched that album again.

#79 The Princess Bride - "Storybook Love" performed by Willie DeVille The song is cool, the story is cute, the score... by Mark Knopfler, of Dire Straits fame, is a talented guitarist and the themes he composed for the film are good, which director Rob Reiner asked him to do, the fault is he relied on assistant Guy Hamilton to produce most of the score from a synthesizer instead of a small string ensemble. The result is a score that is minimally enjoyable because of the choice of medium, not composition, in other words it tends to drone ... badly at times.... And The Florin Dance features an annoying processed clap instead of a live one. The film production was intended to be simple, and it works but the cheesy quality of the music is just bad, and not very good on it's own ... but when Mark joins in with his guitar it's a whole different story.

#80 Patton - "Attack" by Jerry Goldsmith

The sound of war captured in a film score. On a simplistic note, I like marches, they are a cool symphonic manner of tooting your own horn and Patton is no exception, though my opinion of marches would be biased on how great this one is.

#81 The Delta Force - "The Delta Force" by Alan Silvestri

Alan and his Synclavier synthesizer produced a cool sound, not a breathtaking score but the opening boogie-like march is okay, but it gets a tad redundant. It actually is good for my first Silvestri album.

#82 Near Dark - "Mae Comes back" by Tangerine Dream

Superb action score for this early Katheryn Bigelow film about vampires. This music has eerie subtlety and bite (no pun intended) in its rock instrumentation but doesn't sound cheesy, it encompasses cool at all times. He first five minutes of the cue "Bus Station" is a standout, but I chose this cue because of tape time and I had to have the next selection intact. A true classic.

#83 Tron - "Ending Titles" by Wendy Carlos

Another of those holy grail albums, unlucky for me this cassette didn't have much life left, purchased used for $2.99, it began to squeak within two weeks and the tape was rather shallow in sound to boot. It is a very unique score in that Carlos used synths and composed the score in a classical manner, the result is close to what most classically trained composers come to, but Carlos' style doesn't have that "idiot with a synthesizer sound" it's hard to explain the nuances about her style, but it comes off great and the fact that she is composing the very first video game soundtrack is a plus as well. I was able to get an LP version from A1 Record Finders at the outrageous price of $20, but what could I do, better me that some rival collector right? And also of note are the two songs by the popular rock band (popular at the time) Journey, written for the film. One is an instrumental theme for the 1990's Arcade where "Flynn", played by Jeff Bridges, worked. So it acts as underscore. The other is an original song written for the film entitled "Only Solutions," but because it was a song written for "Tron" it makes absolutely no sense, as the band had no real inspiration to write it. Columbia Records felt it might sell more albums.

END OF SIDE ONE

#84 Prince Of Darkness - "Hell Breaks Loose" by John Carpenter & Alan Howarth

Absolutely boring horror movie about glop in a canister which essentially "Satan in a Can" and some college kids go and study it. The music style here is slick and brooding and that is all it does is brood, away from the film it is great atmosphere stuff, not too intense. And Howarth has assembled a fine synth ensemble, very good sound. There is little bad to say of this score because the film sucks so very, very much.

#85 Invaders From Mars - "End Titles" by Christopher Young Not officially my first title from Chris Young, the composer here is David Storrs. Yes, the guy who got hired to replace Chris' wonderful alien stuff (which would finally be utilized in SPECIES). Storrs creates an interesting score which sounds like most electronic music, while Young created a soundscape WAY ahead of it's time full of unique twisted sounds, so kudos to Young. But the orchestral score Young composed for the film's open ing, finale and military moments was used in the film and issued by Intrada as part of Cinema Septet as a ten minute suite, which is where the cue I chose is from. Young did later revisit the rejected score and enhance it with new sounds into a thirty minute suite on CD with the score to The Oasis. All complied together this soundtrack runs 76:47 which would make a cool CD of it's own.

#86 The Untouchables - "The Strength Of The Righteous" by Ennio Morricone

This promo piece Morricone used to get the scoring assignment is way cool as is the rest of the score which doesn't reprise this theme at all. The score goes in many different directions including a seven minute dark lullaby for the train station shoot out. Magnificent.

#87 The Running Man - "Micks Broadcast" by Harold Faltermeyer

You can't always count on personal taste, but this score IS really good. Faltermeyer's pop mentality makes this score fun and I think It's one of the best electronic scores out there. Being one of only three score albums he's released (the others being Kuffs & Thief Of Hearts) he does do a good job when given the opportunity.

#88 Three O'clock High - "Weak At The Knees" by Tangerine Dream

Strange high school film about gossip and the kid who's going to have his ass kicked at three o'clock is a mishmash of material. Varied, short cues by Tangerine Dream, additional score by Sylvester Levay of Airwolf fame and a lousy vocal song. Levay has the best material here.

#89 Link - "End Link" by Jerry Goldsmith

A variation on the Gremlins idea which does unnerve people who listen to it. A nutty calliope like theme with electro drums and then the orchestra joins in. My favorite Goldsmith! Yep, I'm a loony!

#90 Flowers In The Attic - "The Attic" by Christopher Young

This is my first young score and it is cool, in a depressing melancholy sort of way. The best cue is "The Attic" where a solo piano comes midway in with a simple melody, after this little melody the score then returns to the main theme but magically has a new sense of hope to it. It's the highlight of the score, check it out.

#91 The Great Train Robbery - "End Title" by Jerry Goldsmith

A very brief album, but lively and spirited with 1900th century flavor. So much diversity that is Goldsmith, it also helps that this cassette sold for $6.99. Good music.

#92 Hannibal Brooks - "Elephant Shake" by Francis Lai

On the shelf next to Great Train Robbery sat this cassette, something completely new should be good ... at least it is different. And different it is, teetering between lame and goofy! The main title sounds alarmingly like the our national anthem, Austin Powers style, but then this is the same guy who composed "A Man And A Woman" & 'Love Story." The album is mainly comprised of reprises of the title theme emphasizing different instruments ... romantic mandolin, romantic strings, romantic horns, romantic accordion... get it? ... And source music ... church organ, shagadelic grooves, etc. Even though film is about evacuating an elephant out of Munich during WW2, it sounds like music for a Harlequin romance novel. John Barry eat your heart out.

#93 The Terminator - "Garage Chase" by Brad Fiedel

A classic score to the sci-fi mega-hit. This is an album I desperately needed to get... you know, just because it was to a cool movie. The original album contained six score cues with Ross Levinson on electric violin and then five lame rock tunes (all of which were edited into the bar sequence where the Sarah Connor first comes face to face with her assailant). I wasn't thrilled by this music at all, but I had it, which was good. The complete score CD reissue is a little better, sans rock songs, and was reprocessed ... so it is, in certain cues, not identical to the in-film score. For fans of the film only.

#94 Dune - "Big Battle" by Toto

Actually David Paich is more responsible for this incredible score than anyone else. Upon the instruction of David Lynch, who handed him a copy Shostakovich's Eleventh symphony and said, "Keep it slow and low." This end result is on my top ten list for best score of the eighties. No matter what you think of the film, I found it fascinating.... And overlong by the way, this music is an odyssey in itself.

#95 Taxi Driver - "All The Animals Come Out At Night" by Bernard Herrmann

The First CD in the collection, and my first real jazz album from someone who doesn't do jazz, Bernard Herrmann. The music had a strong bend toward the dark, in the jazz and the score, which really appealed to me. Don't know why, but this score is very cool for Herrmann's final work, and I really like it.

#96 Vacation - "Holiday Road" performed by Lindsey Buckingham

Ralph Burns composed the score for this film in with a small jazzy ensemble in a Brady Bunch kind of vein. The rest of the album is peppered with a motley crew of pop recordings from The Ramones, June Pointer, Vanity 6 and the selection above to name a few. Burns, as I have noticed, is a jazz composer and arranger who's work always has this happy, bubbly feeling ... even moreso than on other albums.

END OF SIDE TWO

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