I've long believed "Sing the Wee" as heard on the album was just a demo -- the singers are all performing in trained, operatic style; they're not trying to mimic the characters in the film. I suspect Ridley Scott after hearing the demo ultimately decided "Thanks, but no thanks" and abandoned it -- but Goldsmith was so fond of the song he used it in the end titles, and included the demo on the album.
I agree with him. I often do, obviously, but here, specifically, keeping it in the score just because it's great music is justified by how great the music really is. It makes the concept of "music inspired by" feel less inherently criminal.
I agree, I always loved the song and how it works within the score.
Just listened to your awesome podcasts Yavar.Great job and it makes me wanna buy the MUSIC BOX Version as well to my silva.One of my top ( oh man its hard to make a top ten list for Goldsmith)Goldsmiths. I also need to check out THE STRIPPER again. I didnt like it when I first got it..I have to revisit it again.Also SPYS which I never hated as much as the folks here on the forum.
Thanks so much for the kind words, moolik! Don't wait too long on the Music Box Legend, honestly. In fact I thought it had already sold out, like Lionheart!
I think my love for this score and movie are clear through this thread. To me, Legend is at the same peak for Goldsmith as Star Trek: The Motion Picture. And I think Music Box's excellent presentation of the Silva Cues + the other odds and ends are as complete as this score will ever be unless the original masters turn up (which seems highly unlikely). Who knows when this will be reissued after Music Box runs out, so its now or never.
I doubt those 250 copies will last long, for such a beloved score. Frankly I'm surprised this release has lasted this long, considering the Lionheart expansion released earlier the same year sold out in a matter of months. That had 500 fewer copies made, sure, but the film was also much more obscure so I understand Varese's thinking even if they sadly underestimated demand. Both expansions similarly added just ~4 minutes of previously unreleased music too... I get that might not be much to most folks, but in both cases IMO it's a good/important few minutes and worth double dipping.
Made a neat discovery recently thanks to Jon Burlingame, which I thought I'd bring up in this thread since I suspect some folks may not have noticed it in the Waltons thread. While Goldsmith composed only six original scores for the series after the Homecoming TV movie pilot, he did contribute a piece of original music to a seventh episode of the series, in pre-production (Arthur Morton wrote the actual score for it) -- the song "My Parents' Child" from "The Minstrel", with words by John Furia Jr. (who wrote the episode itself):
Now there are shades of Goldsmith's "Tomorrow Is the Song I Sing" from The Ballad of Cable Hogue a few years earlier, here... BUT for the title phrase "My Parents' Child" (and later in the song, "tomorrow's child"), Goldsmith's accompanying musical phrase to me strongly connects to the notes of the title phrase in "My True Love's Eyes" from Legend, which he penned over a decade later. Listen and let me know if you hear it too!
I’m sure someone could attempt to compile that info, but it’s going to be a bigger number than most people expect. Are you talking only things with lyrics, or do all the instrumental rock covers of Black Saddle count?
By the number of "lost" scores that have emerged in the last few weeks, does anyone with more knowledge than I have any idea how actually lost the Goldsmith Legend tapes are? Is it one of those rumors or actual knowledge the tapes are missing?
Asking for a friend who'd love nothing more than a complete Legend with alternates and Goldsmith's emergency synth rescue attempts.
By the number of "lost" scores that have emerged in the last few weeks, does anyone with more knowledge than I have any idea how actually lost the Goldsmith Legend tapes are? Is it one of those rumors or actual knowledge the tapes are missing?
Asking for a friend who'd love nothing more than a complete Legend with alternates and Goldsmith's emergency synth rescue attempts.
Well, no one's ever found the session master in nearly four decades. I think everything that survives was on the Music Box release.
I doubt those hastily-rendered last-minute cues got preserved.
By the number of "lost" scores that have emerged in the last few weeks, does anyone with more knowledge than I have any idea how actually lost the Goldsmith Legend tapes are? Is it one of those rumors or actual knowledge the tapes are missing?
Asking for a friend who'd love nothing more than a complete Legend with alternates and Goldsmith's emergency synth rescue attempts.
Although people in the so-called know have been proven time and again to be preposterously and stupidly wrong. So, I'll keep my mind and my options open.
I remember an interview with Jerry Goldsmith, where he says, no, he has not forgiven Ridley Scott, why should he?
Iirc wasn't the reason his score wasn't used in legend was because a producer didn't like his score?
Not really. The film was looking to be an expensive dud (which was ultimately true) and the studio, with Scott, opted to cut the film way down and score it with more contemporary music from the people who’d scored the Tom Cruise hit the year before.
I remember an interview with Jerry Goldsmith, where he says, no, he has not forgiven Ridley Scott, why should he?
Iirc wasn't the reason his score wasn't used in legend was because a producer didn't like his score?
Sid Sheinberg, not just any producer, but the head of MCA at the time. He thought Tangerine Dream would be a more fitting choice for a movie starring Tom Cruise, since RISKY BUSINESS was such a hit. Ridley Scott was very happy with Goldsmith's score (which is why it is in the director's cut and in the European cut of the movie, because the movie was not distributed in Europe by Universal/MCA. If I remember correctly, Edgar Froese told Ridley Scott he was unsure what to do, Legend already had the perfect score, to which Scott replied "I know". It's important to note that Ridley Scott did not have the clout back then he has now. His only hit movie had been ALIEN, and his last film, BLADE RUNNER, while by now an undisputed classic, had been a flop... and now LEGEND threatened to become a flop as well.
Well after what happened on Alien and Legend, my trust would be gone too, and then it doesn‘t matter if it was the producers, the director, the editor.
I'm just grateful that Goldsmith opted to record Legend at CBS Studios with Mike Ross-Trevor, and not at his initial choice, CTS.
It was Mike Ross-Trevor who made the safety / archival DAT of the master tapes (from which the Silva album was mastered), whereas CTS trashed their tape archive when the Wembley location was going to be razed.
)Goldsmiths.
