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This is a comments thread about FSM CD: Klute/All the President’s Men
 
 Posted:   Sep 16, 2009 - 2:37 PM   
 By:   wayoutwest   (Member)

Well, I'm glad that *this* score wasn't rejected! And IMO it's infinitely superior to the one that was rejected at decade's end... Otherwise, the two years I waited to get the thing would've cost me hundreds!


Hundreds! big grin


Klute Certainly is Superior, great to see another Small release looking forward to hearing The China Syndrome in full and hard to believe that Comes A Horseman has yet to sell out.

Looking forward to seeing more Michael Small releases

 
 Posted:   Sep 18, 2009 - 5:21 PM   
 By:   rollon1959   (Member)

I am so relieved to be the recent proud owner of a copy of FSMs Klute. I never seem to tire of listening to the haunting love theme, which is so evocative. I Want to Speak to You, is also another excellent catchy cue contained in this wonderful score. For these two cues alone, it is worth the price of the CD to me. The inclusion of David Shire's All the President's Men, is just an excellent and welcome added bonus.

It would be great to see the original score from Nightmoves, which also contains nice work from Michael Small released at some point in the near future, perhaps as an FSM double header with David Shire's Straight Time. Now that I would pay good money for!

 
 Posted:   Sep 19, 2009 - 6:15 AM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

I am so relieved to be the recent proud owner of a copy of FSMs Klute. I never seem to tire of listening to the haunting love theme, which is so evocative. I Want to Speak to You, is also another excellent catchy cue contained in this wonderful score. For these two cues alone, it is worth the price of the CD to me. The inclusion of David Shire's All the President's Men, is just an excellent and welcome added bonus.


If one is merely listening to the one-minute samples online, the album may sound repetitious, but there are enough snazzy source cues to keep a balance with the darker passages when listening to the CD straight through.

A GREAT release.

 
 Posted:   Dec 3, 2009 - 4:44 PM   
 By:   'Lenny Bruce' Marshall   (Member)

Wonder why LK didn't combine short cues like he usually does?
One thing I prefer about FSM vs. Intrada is this practice
FSM releases usually max out at 25 tracks
this one has like 50!

The score does seem to foreshadow the COLUMBO scores of Dick DeBenidictis; check out those chromatic vibraphone figures.

On the other hand the 'la-la' female vocals are straight out of Morricone's BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE!

 
 Posted:   Dec 4, 2009 - 9:14 AM   
 By:   chriss   (Member)

On the other hand the 'la-la' female vocals are straight out of Morricone's BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE!

Yes, it seems that Morricone's score from 1970 was the template for Small's Klute in 1971 and Schifrin's Dirty Harry later that year!

 
 Posted:   Apr 8, 2010 - 9:19 AM   
 By:   David Sones (Allardyce)   (Member)

I'm currently reading Jane Fonda's autobiography. In the section about Klute, she praises all aspects of the film, including the score:

"Even now, when I watch Klute I admire everything about it. In these times of mega-special effects when we've grown almost numb to what we used to find terrifying, Michael Small's ominous music track is still heart-stopping..."

I am always thrilled when actors or other artists acknowledge scores as an important part of the film experience.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 8, 2010 - 12:49 PM   
 By:   Vermithrax Pejorative   (Member)

Hey Allardyce, you should check out cirtap's recent post about meeting Bruce Dern in a parking lot, while the music from Black Sunday was blasting out of his car. It's a fun tale.

 
 Posted:   Apr 8, 2010 - 2:04 PM   
 By:   David Sones (Allardyce)   (Member)

Hey Allardyce, you should check out cirtap's recent post about meeting Bruce Dern in a parking lot, while the music from Black Sunday was blasting out of his car. It's a fun tale.

I saw that. Stories of this nature are always a pleasure to hear about. Another member told a recent story about sending a copy of the Lonely Are the Brave score to Kirk Douglas and the positive response he received in return.

 
 Posted:   Mar 3, 2011 - 12:38 PM   
 By:   AlexCope   (Member)

The guys over at the offbeat San Francisco store Aquarius Records have listed the Klute soundtrack as one of their recommended releases on their website this week. It's neat to see FSM being singled out a little more here recently, first for Dr. T and now this, their appeal reaching beyond the usual soundtrack collector circle. This one inspired a lengthy write-up:

"Recently one of us here at Aquarius happened to rent and watch the classic psycho-sexual thriller Klute for the very first time. That noirish 1971 film stars Jane Fonda as a neurotic New York call girl being stalked by an obsessed john, and Donald Sutherland as a straight laced investigator attempting to solve a missing persons case, to which Fonda's character may hold the key.

It became apparent that not only was the movie indeed quite excellent, but so was its beautiful, sinister, sometimes groovy soundtrack, quite integral to the film's effectiveness. A quick search revealed that, yay, the Klute soundtrack is currently available on cd, released by the same label responsible for recent Record Of The Week, the 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T!
So of course we ordered it in, immediately. What with the Klute soundtrack's ominous atmospheres, occasional lush sentimentality, and also very '70s psychedelic vibes (the discotheque dancing scenes!), we know it's going to appeal to a bunch of you. Heck, much of this music's worthy of a Dario Argento giallo, and also has a passage that sounds more like an Eastern-inspired, krautrocky jam session. It was composer Michael Small's first Hollywood commission, and he innovated a more intimate, modern approach to suspense film scoring, as the very detailed liner notes explain. Ethnic instrumentation, languid jazz trumpet (leading the melancholic "Love Theme From Klute"), and acid rock guitar are all elements of this soundtrack, though what's most common to most of the twenty nine Klute cues indexed here (48'51" total time) is a shivery combination of eerie tinkling piano, sudden skittery percussion, and breathy, whispery wordless female vocals, the latter performed by singer Sally Stevens, who was also heard that same year on Lalo Schifrin's soundtrack to Dirty Harry. Those moody cuts, like "On The Roof", "Moonwall", and "Bree Followed On Street", are both quite lovely and downright creepy... play this alone late at night and we know you'll be checking to see if your doors are locked!

If you've never seen Klute, by all means do so, it's a great movie, with Fonda's performance in particular quite impressive. But whether you've seen the movie or not, the soundtrack is one of those that can be enjoyed by itself, apart from the story and visuals.

It's paired here on this two-on-one disc with the soundtrack for 1976 Watergate drama All The President's Men, composed by the great David Shire (The Conversation, The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3). Naturally, it's also pretty good! The movie ties in with Klute as another example of paranoid seventies thriller cinema, and also shares the same director. Its soundtrack, while not quite as idiosyncratically striking as that of Klute, is certainly cool to have on this disc, offering 30 more minutes (24 tracks) of suspenseful sounds... And while not as "sexy" in subject matter as Klute, we'll note that All The Presidents Men, both film and book, contains a prime example of the cultural mainstreaming of porn in America, with "Deep Throat" famously being used as the code name for the Woodward and Bernstein's mysterious White House informant.

The label, Film Score Monthly, does their usual exceedingly expert job in presenting these two soundtracks, the extensive notes in the thick, full color illustrated cd booklet providing commentary well versed in both music theory and cinematic history. Recommended! "

 
 Posted:   Mar 3, 2011 - 2:01 PM   
 By:   David Sones (Allardyce)   (Member)

That is AWESOME!!!

 
 Posted:   Mar 4, 2011 - 6:01 AM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

Glad to see this most cherished release get some attention outside of this board. It remains among my favorite score releases by any label. I think my previous posts in this thread reflect that (as well as my own madness!)

 
 Posted:   Mar 5, 2011 - 4:21 AM   
 By:   Josh "Swashbuckler" Gizelt   (Member)

This was such a good movie. I particularly liked how the focus wasn't just on the suspenseful situation, but who these characters are and why it is effecting them the way it is. I particularly like how self-aware Fonda's character is in the film, certainly not your typical movie victim.

Small's music is really prickly stuff. The tinkling piano and vocal segments are both suspenseful and sensual at the same time; how many composers can accomplish that!?! I also really like the source music, which I think integrates well into the score.

When I visited San Francisco late last year, I kept hearing this score, Schifrin's Bullitt and Herrmann's Vertigo run through my head, as those are films with distinctive scores wherein the city itself is sort of a character.

 
 Posted:   Aug 18, 2012 - 6:54 AM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

I never seem to tire of listening to the haunting love theme, which is so evocative. I Want to Speak to You, is also another excellent catchy cue contained in this wonderful score.

I'm listening to KLUTE right now and wanted to say the same thing regarding the love theme. The trumpet is mesmerizing and evocative of the "1970s Big City Sound" that came about at decade's end.

We've already mentioned "I Want to Speak to You" and in hearing it now the track hits an emotional high water mark beginning at 0:58, with the piano and electric guitar kicking in. I realize this was a source cue but to me it's more of a feminist power anthem! Probably the Fonda persona's influence.

Oh, and "Goldfarb's Record" is good enough to have been the main title of a film. It's spellbinding, absolutely spellbinding.

 
 Posted:   Aug 26, 2012 - 8:05 AM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

When I visited San Francisco late last year, I kept hearing this score, Schifrin's Bullitt and Herrmann's Vertigo run through my head, as those are films with distinctive scores wherein the city itself is sort of a character.

I'd add Schifrin's Dirty Harry to that list, along with your selections. It's one thing to have a wonderfully memorable score, but it's a notch better when the music is itself a character in the film and in the best sense of what that implies.

It's raining because of the tropical storm on its way, and I'm listening to "I Want to Speak to You" from KLUTE on a continuous loop.

 
 Posted:   Apr 5, 2015 - 12:14 AM   
 By:   ZapBrannigan   (Member)

I just saw KLUTE on Turner Classic Movies and thought the score was great. And of course I find the CD is out of print now. And FSM is done making CDs. I don't want to pay nosebleed prices on eBay. Any chance somebody re-issues it in the future?

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 5, 2015 - 8:16 AM   
 By:   bobbengan   (Member)

It's a great score. Very conceptual and fascinating. As much as I love my big lush/ravishing/thematic/bombastic sound above all else, scores this creative really hook me as well. Chris Young's fascinating and very original DREAM LOVER makes a good back-to-back listen with this.

 
 
 Posted:   Sep 29, 2019 - 8:27 AM   
 By:   OnyaBirri   (Member)

I'm planning to spin "All the President's Men" today.

 
 Posted:   Sep 29, 2019 - 10:44 AM   
 By:   'Lenny Bruce' Marshall   (Member)

I just saw KLUTE on Turner Classic Movies and thought the score was great. And of course I find the CD is out of print now. And FSM is done making CDs. I don't want to pay nosebleed prices on eBay. Any chance somebody re-issues it in the future?

If it makes.you feel any better, I had the FSM but traded it.

 
 
 Posted:   Sep 29, 2019 - 12:48 PM   
 By:   ZardozSpeaks   (Member)

I'm planning to spin "All the President's Men" today.

So Rozsa's "VIPs" is not Sunday Afternoon listening - but this Shire opus is?
... what type wine, praytell, does Onya drink whilst listening to '70s political paranoia on a Sunday Afternoon in the 21st century?

 
 Posted:   Sep 30, 2019 - 3:56 AM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

I'm planning to spin "All the President's Men" today.

Vote yourself another pay raise, like how Congress (perpetually) does (for themselves).

 
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