If you can't get the Intrada, then this release is worth getting. The Intrada has the complete score (in mono) on disc one, whereas this release is the original OST album with a few bonus tracks. The recorded suite does include the majority of themes from the score, if I remember.
The Intrada has the complete score (in mono) on disc one
Not quite actually.
What Intrada seems to have got is a mono mix-down of the first round of recording sessions, but there seems to have been some subsequent sessions for revised cues they didn't get.
For instance, Barry clearly re-wrote the Moray Eel 'shock horror' motif and recorded new versions of the cues that included it. He also re-wrote the Shark Bait cue and revised the end titles.
None of these revisions were included. The album suite does contain the revised Moray Eel cues, but not the revised Shark Bait cue nor the revised end titles.
Nevertheless it is the most definitive and beloved release done to date.
I still hold out a vain hope that stereo or multi-track tapes of the COMPLETE recordings might get done one day. I do wonder, though, if the reason these masters don't exist any more is because maybe the 1977 album was created by taking scissors (metaphorically) to them to assemble the album suite.
That might sound like a crazy thing to say, but crazy things happen.
If you can't get the Intrada, then this release is worth getting. The Intrada has the complete score (in mono) on disc one, whereas this release is the original OST album with a few bonus tracks. The recorded suite does include the majority of themes from the score, if I remember.
The Intrada has the complete score (in mono) on disc one
Not quite actually.
What Intrada seems to have got is a mono mix-down of the first round of recording sessions, but there seems to have been some subsequent sessions for revised cues they didn't get.
For instance, Barry clearly re-wrote the Moray Eel 'shock horror' motif and recorded new versions of the cues that included it. He also re-wrote the Shark Bait cue and revised the end titles.
None of these revisions were included. The album suite does contain the revised Moray Eel cues, but not the revised Shark Bait cue nor the revised end titles.
Nevertheless it is the most definitive and beloved release done to date.
I still hold out a vain hope that stereo or multi-track tapes of the COMPLETE recordings might get done one day. I do wonder, though, if the reason these masters don't exist any more is because maybe the 1977 album was created by taking scissors (metaphorically) to them to assemble the album suite.
That might sound like a crazy thing to say, but crazy things happen.
Cheers
Well this and the fact that Sony has been lousy at keeping masters of their scores.
Given the atmospheric nature of this score and Barry's unusual electronic effects, I've also longed for the stereo tracks to be found. Would be a truly immersive experience...
As a side issue in relation to the original album release of this score, I've always wondered on the credits. It wasn't typical for Barry to plaster his name all over a cover ('Music By' or 'Music Composed & Conducted By' usually sufficed); yet here, we have Produced By John Barry, Composed & Conducted By John Barry, Arranged & Orchestrated By John Barry, and even (in this case) Lyrics Written By Donna Summer & John Barry. Given that he only arrived in his new homeland the year before, I've often wondered whether he was answering some criticism in his new land, or was he simply making known his full creative credentials...?
