Unless you've been living under a rock, you know about drivingmissdaisy and his love of the score to "Rocket Gibraltar". He went on tow days ago to go into detail about how this came to be:
"Rocket Gibraltar" – Making My Dream Come True Proudest Moment Of My Professional Life!
I’m sitting here on a lazy Sunday afternoon June 24th the night before the wonderful folks at Intrada Records release to the world the first ever soundtrack album to "Rocket Gibraltar" composed and conducted by Andrew Powell all the while listening to the score for the 1000th time. I’m remembering just how much work this was for me to get released so others could hopefully fall in love with the beautiful melodies that Mr. Powell composed some 30 years ago. The journey of making my dream a reality will be an interesting read maybe for a few, if not keep scrolling to the next photo of someone on a red carpet with one of their feet facing forward.
For my family and friends back home, they’ve grown up with my “interesting” tastes in music, in particular film music. My Aunt Jean used to say, “for someone so silly and funny, your tastes in music are so mature.“ I saw "Rocket Gibraltar" years ago on VHS and was captivated by the story, the acting and most importantly the orchestral, lush, romantic, poignant, nostalgic score that Andrew Powell created. I was humming the themes after my first viewing and have continued to remember them and hum them now 30 years later. And interesting we found out during all of this that members of the band The Alan Parsons Project actually performed on a few cues!
For many soundtrack fans, we know Andrew as the composer to "Ladyhawke", which had a lot of synthesizers mixed in with the orchestra. Some fans enjoyed it, others not so much and would have preferred a more traditional, orchestral score for "Ladyhawke". Andrew’s score for "Rocket Gibraltar" is a side of Andrew that many soundtrack fans have never heard as he has not scored a lot of films during his career. He’s known mostly for his work with the band The Alan Parsons Project. Once you listen to this entire score I hope many will say, “This is a side of Andrew Powell I wasn’t aware of.”
Years ago, I sent Andrew a note through his website telling him about my absolute love and admiration for this phenomenal score that sadly never got the pomp and circumstance it so richly deserved. For many soundtrack fans, we call a score we really want released a “holy grail,” and this was mine. As Edwin and I starting down the road to a release, Andrew informed me he did, in fact, have tapes for this score including several alternates. Upon talking with my fiancé Edwin Wendler we thought, what if we did all the leg work so that we would present a pretty much finished CD master with finished liner notes to Varèse Sarabande Records, a place I’m very happy to be working at. We thought, if we could deliver to them a CD pretty much finished, and costs associated with tape transfers, liner notes (Randall Larson), mixing etc. all paid for by us, plus an 80 page binder filled with a ton of useful data I collected from various message boards showing people would buy this, there's no way they’d say no. Plus it would mean we could get this out this year in 2018 for the movie’s 30th anniversary. So we all worked so very hard, especially Edwin in cleaning up the audio. He used some stunning software that the pros use, and spent a couple of months cleaning up the audio. Talk about a miracle worker! Keep in mind this is a 30-year-old recording.
In the end, Varese wasn’t able to get this out, but in the end were glad to see my holy grail get released, and had a full plate of wonderful releases ahead of them. And a little bit later Varese was sold to Concord Music Group so the switching from one company to another and all the fun stuff that comes goes along with that etc. All the hard work and money Edwin and I put into this as well as the hard work from Andrew and his lovely wife and Randall's work on the liner notes etc., it looked like it would all be for nothing. It was very important to me to get this out this year for the film’s 30th anniversary. And here we are, no company to release this wonderful score.
In comes Intrada Records who've been producing top quality soundtracks for over 30 years and who were the first independent soundtrack company that I had became away of way back in the 1980's. Intrada quickly secured a license to release the soundtrack, and we were off to the races. They wasted no time in getting this into full production. Upon hearing the complete score that Edwin and I had in our possession, the folks at Intrada were eager to get this out to all of you. They quickly understood after hearing the complete score why I've been so in love with this score for 30 years. The music speaks for itself. Working with Intrada has been a dream come true. Their passion for soundtracks cannot be understated. They live and breathe soundtracks.
The amount of hard work I put into this as I look back now is a bit bewildering, as I can’t believe we actually made it to the finish line. There were so many obstacles to overcome on so many levels it makes my head spin looking back. So much work was done in the last several years on this by so many people. Andrew was a pure joy to work with and even in times when we didn’t see eye to eye - just explaining to him my deep, deep love and devotion to this score and my decades of listing and buying soundtracks - he always came around with, “Peter, I trust you.” And with that trust, I only hope he’s happy. I along with Edwin, Roger, Doug, Kay and many others put our heart and soul into this release.
Thank you Kay for the beautiful package you put together. Randall your notes were beyond what I could have asked for. Edwin, your tireless devotion and organization and editing this never went un-noticed or un-appreciated. Roger and Doug my goodness gracious, I'm eternally grateful to you both from the bottom of my heart. THANK YOU. Andrew, thank you for above all creating this magnificent score that now after 30 years the world can finally enjoy!
I’ve not produced a lot of soundtrack albums, but I will tell you this, I am the proudest I’ve ever been right now as a producer on this release. Intrada gave this score the respect it deserves. This score has resonated with me on such a personal level for over 30 years, and I hope it will touch your soul like it has touched mine. The road to this release was a long one, filled with quite a few potholes, but we made it to the end. One final thing worth mentioning is the catalogue number Intrada gave to this release, #411. What’s interesting about that number is, Edwin and I share the same birthday which is April 11th (4/11). When we found out the catalogue number was going to be 411, we just knew this was destined to come out on Intrada Records!
A final plea to my fellow soundtrack friends. You probably have not head of this movie nor seen it. You may not have enjoyed the score to "Ladyhawke", but please do not let that be a factor in you at least listening to the audio samples and hopefully adding this to your collections. I know many of us have been burned in buying a soundtrack that we were told was great and right up our alley only to listen to it and say, "well I just waisted $20." I myself have been burned many times, but you won't be this one time around. I can whole heartedly say this would be one of those times you say after you listen to it and say, "glad I took a chance on this." Maybe folks are saying, "hey Peter you keep harking on us to buy it, you must be getting paid for each one sold." NOPE. Edwin and I make zero from this project. I'm pushy because I know this is a great solid listening experience that folks who take the chance will enjoy it. I have always known how good this music is, so I'm hopeful I can get a few more people to say WOW lovely score!
I give to you one of the most beautiful scores you’ll ever listen to, "Rocket Gibraltar" by Andrew Powell.
So, with that in mind, what is your "Rocket Gibraltar"? I don't mean some score everybody and their grandmother knows and has asked for a deluxe edition.
Something obscure and good that you wish people know of, aside from the rare few you might have seen over time bringing it up.
Please say something about it, not just list the name and composer, and if possible, links to one or more clips on Youtube.
I have my title picked, but I'll let other people start off the thread before I jump in.
Great thread, Justin! Nicely more specifically oriented towards the obscure than the usual "Holy Grail" threads. Thanks for starting it.
For me it's Roy Webb's Sinbad the Sailor (only about 5 min released on that rare OOP Cloud Nine compilation) -- this is my #1 holy grail, either the original tapes being released complete or a re-recording...you can hear a little of the score in the trailer here:
And here's a portion of the opening cue as Sinbad begins his tale...several of the main themes given brief appearances here as he introduces several key characters:
Best Sinbad score ever written, hands down. Also best Sinbad movie, though it's still campy fun.
Yavar
P.S. Jeff Alexander's Support Your Local Sheriff was another grail of mine, but thankfully that score at least got released complete as an isolated score track on the Twilight Time Blu-ray...but I'd still buy a CD release of course, hint hint Kritzerland/Quartet....
Shirley Walker's CHILD'S PLAY 2 is pretty much my only holy grail left, in terms of scores that either in need of expansion or in this case has gone unreleased entirely. I know, it's credited to Graeme Revell, but there's nothing in it that doesn't sound like miss Walker going to town and contributing the best Chucky score ever.
As you all know it's FLUPPY DOGS by Shirley Walker.
I don't know the score by heart, but I adored the film growing up. Years later I learned it was scored by Shirley Walker, and my admiration for the work has grown. Listening to the music in the single episode that you can find on YouTube - it is emotional, and reminds me at moments of David Newman's work on the Ducktales film.
The music showcases the bond between a boy and his dog, and adventure!
If I had the means and access to the music, and being able to produce a ready to go product as Peter had the opportunity to for RG, I'd be all over it. Any inquires I've made with Fred Wolf, and others over the years have gone unanswered.
I have no idea if Shirley wrote MORE music than what appears in the episode - I'd imagine there might be something as additional cues, demos etc. I'd love to see it as an add on to another Shirley Walker release.
Roy Webb's MIGHTY JOE YOUNG getting a complete rerecording is, I presume, an impossibility. But I still have some microscopic glimmers of hope that I foolishly cling onto.
It was definitely the Craig Safan scores to seven episodes of The New Twilight Zone (1985/86), which has now been and gone thanks (again!) to Intrada. The Safan disc of that three disc collection from 2016 is probably the best thing that ever was.
As I posted on FB recently about the film: I stumbled across this film on HBO during one of my trips to NYC in the late 90s to attend an Audio Engineering Society conference. The opening credits alone reeled me in, with its combination of old family photos and the gorgeous yet bittersweet music of Michael Convertino.
Well, it has to be the score that made me interested in just film scores: Graeme Revell`s Dead Calm. When I watched that movie for the very first time I thought to myself that hey, I like this music, I like it a lot. I can honestly say that if it were not for this score I would probably not to this day own over 2000 CD soundtracks. I for sure would not be aware of sites like this and I definitely would not have attended any Fans of Film Music events or even film music converts/festivals, that`s for sure. All thanks to Graeme Revell and his score to Dead Calm.
Gorgeous, melodic synth score to Nicole Kidman's final Aussie TV work. It's an epic drama/thriller about a young woman wrongly imprisoned for drug smuggling.
I even own the damn thing in glorious quality but there's about ten minutes of essential material missing, which hopefully can be found via another source. No idea why John never released this one himself, it appears he even prepped it to go for his JOS label but now it's just meandering in obscurity.
By Saturday night, I should have ROCKET GIBRALTAR in hand, and I'm very much looking forward to discovering Peter's discovery. Meanwhile, let me please second in no uncertain terms Yavar's admiration for SINBAD THE SAILOR, both score and film. After first finding it, as a child, on the old black and white Million Dollar Movie broadcasts, I'm grateful to have lived long enough to experience it, once, in all its Technicolor glory on a big Los Angeles screen. (Yavar, have you ever seen THE FALCON IN HOLLYWOOD, with one scene set on the RKO soundstage featuring the SINBAD ship?)
My biggest childhood film score wish, happily, is no longer the obscure object of desire it once was, and I take comfort in the fact that there are now many people besides me who would love to have a recording or re-recording of Walter Schumann's THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. Meanwhile, I may weigh in later on some other of my more off-the-beaten-path scores, from Antheil's THE JUGGLER to Salter's FLESH AND FURY.
But for now, I kvell to declare, one of my biggest all-time obscure dream film score albums has become a reality, in the form of the Kritzerland combo, O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE by Alfred Newman, and the Newmanesque score by his colleague, Cyril J. Mockridge for THE LUCK OF THE IRISH. I hereby express publicly my profound gratitude to my two angels: Nick Redman, who took me at my word that these two scores were worthy of investigation and preservation, and proceeded to unearth them from Fox's files and then convinced my second angel, Bruce Kimmel, to release them together on CD. Any of you who wishes to know more about my personal relationship to these two films and scores is invited to read my liner notes for the Kritzerland album, my dream come true. And if you haven't yet bought a copy, what the hell have you been waiting for?
