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 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 8:42 AM   
 By:   Justin Boggan   (Member)

For quite some time since I heard about it, I've wanted to hear that rejected score. Now we will be hearing it. Just posted at another score board I post at by a reliable member:

Shire just announced at the Film Fest Gent (there's an industry day event happening right now) that his rejected score for Apocalypse Now will be released.

One of eight known rejected scores by the composer, Shire's work for it has been described as an electronic effort. Synthesist Bernie Krause worked on it. It was recorded in Los Angeles in 1979 at Parasound Studio. From my currently offline Rejected Film Scores site:
Shire tells in the book David Shire's The Conversation: A Film Score Guide (Juan Chattah) that he spent over a year working on the score and communication with the director, filming overseas, was spotty and rare at best. During that time he was offered "Norma Rae" and took the offer. Shire explained that when Coppola found out he took on another score while working on this one, Coppola got angry and fired him.


By the way, the film also had another rejected score. Also from my defunct site:
APOCALYPSE NOW -- Mickey Hart. As Hart has told before, especially at length on his site, he was asked to score the film (his score was not done in concordance with the other composers on the film), spending time watching the film over and over again until he was dreaming about it, in order to be there in the film's world, and made elaborate recording set-ups, rare, exotic, and unique musical instruments, and together with various members recorded a score that was somewhat improvisational (no word on whether he was before or after Shire). I have not seen an account of how much score he recorded, but the CD release of the score (which contained one more track than the LP), titled "The Apocalypse Now Sessions", contains just over 38 minutes. Only some of the score was used in the film.; The "Redux" extended cut of the film reportedly has a little more of Hart's score tracked back in. Part of his music was laid into the cues "Nung River" and "Clean's Death". [Carmine Coppola & Francis Coppola; Randy Hansen (additional), Nyle Steiner (additional and performance), Pat Gleeson (at least one sole cue, and performance); Mickey Hart (leftovers), Ed Goldfarb (additional leftovers, with[?] Hart).]

 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 9:35 AM   
 By:   Nicolai P. Zwar   (Member)

Whoa... I had no idea David Shire composed a score for Apocalypse Now, but I'm happy to find out about it in the very same posting that tells me it is getting a release.

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 10:09 AM   
 By:   Hurdy Gurdy   (Member)

So, Apocalypse Now.
White Buffalo.
What are the other 6?

 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 10:17 AM   
 By:   Bill Carson, Earl of Poncey   (Member)

Whatever Shire worked on was decent.
Was never a titan in the 70s in comparison with the big hitters but probably a retrospective titan when you fully appreciate his total body of work proved such a high standard.

 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 10:39 AM   
 By:   SchiffyM   (Member)

So, Apocalypse Now.
White Buffalo.
What are the other 6?


Well, "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey" was one of them.

 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 10:41 AM   
 By:   Scott Bettencourt   (Member)

So, Apocalypse Now.
White Buffalo.
What are the other 6?


Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
Crossfire Trail [TV]

(Those are the only other ones mentioned in Torn Music)

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 10:45 AM   
 By:   DS   (Member)

"Kramer vs. Kramer" is another rejected Shire score.

 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 10:46 AM   
 By:   Justin Boggan   (Member)

So, Apocalypse Now.
White Buffalo.
What are the other 6?


"White Buffalo" (listed under Rejected)
Released by Quartet Records


"Apocalypse Now" (listed under Rejected)
Coming from ?????


"Kramer vs. Kramer" (listed under Rejected)
Shire also talks about it in the same book.


"Deadlfall" (1993; listed under Rejected)
Composed with Jim Fox.
A "evocative electronic score with haunting wordless solo female vocals"


"Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey" (listed under Rejected)
Broughton's replacement score was done by Intrada. So far no label has said anything about covering Shire's effort.


"Crossfire Trail" (listed under Rejected)
The director called it an "outdated approach, and dramatically over the top" (so in other words, it rocked)


"March or Die" (listed under Un-used)
Not completed.


"Steel Magnolias" (listed under Demos)
Shire also talks about it in the same book, but it seems to imply the score was recorded was than demoed.


And maybe a rejected score for an episode of the TV series "Sarge", which he otherwise had surviving efforts for.



There are no unconfirmed ones for him on the separate Supposedly page, just ones he didn't get; "Flowers in the Attic"is kind of vague though.

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 11:14 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

I also had no idea Shire had a rejected score for this. Carmine Coppola's score is a bit hit and miss to me, but I'm curious to see if Shire had something other than synthetic sound design in his. Colour me intrigued!

 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 11:21 AM   
 By:   MutualRevolver   (Member)

Wonderful news! Is it too much to hope that this will be combined with the complete replacement score on the eventual release?

 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 11:22 AM   
 By:   Justin Boggan   (Member)

The last time Shire said a score was coming (in my interview with him), it arrived mere months later, so assuming it's the same here, we should find out before the year ends.

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 11:34 AM   
 By:   OnyaBirri   (Member)

He's been rejected more times than I have been hired!

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 1:38 PM   
 By:   JamesSouthall   (Member)

Shire tells in the book David Shire's The Conversation: A Film Score Guide (Juan Chattah) that he spent over a year working on the score and communication with the director, filming overseas, was spotty and rare at best. During that time he was offered "Norma Rae" and took the offer. Shire explained that when Coppola found out he took on another score while working on this one, Coppola got angry and fired him

This presumably can't be the full story, if they're releasing it. (If he had been fired while Coppola was still filming it, it doesn't seem very likely there would be anything to release.) He was in the process of separating from Coppola's sister at the time (and divorced her the year after) which may have made the collaboration a little uncomfortable (but I'm speculating wildly).

 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 1:56 PM   
 By:   Scott Bettencourt   (Member)

"Kramer vs. Kramer" is another rejected Shire score.

According to Torn Music, John Kander did a rejected Kramer score. Were there two?

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 2:08 PM   
 By:   mikael488   (Member)

Wow..this is excellent news!

I never thought I'd get to hear David Shire's version...

As far as I know the score was not 'rejected', instead David Shire (along with his team of synthesists including Dan Wyman/Sound arts, Michael Boddicker and Bernie Krause) was fired because of a dispute between him and Francis F. Coppola. From what I understand this had nothing to do with the music itself, which according to Bernie Krause was beyond brilliant - one of the most inventive and lyrical pieces of cinema music he had ever heard.

Krause was soon re-hired and became part of the 'new' team of synthesists working for Coppola.

Here's an excerpt from an article by Bob Moog on the making of the Apocalypse Now synthesizer score:

"Francis was influenced by the works of Japanese synthesist Isao Tomita. He went to Japan and spoke to Tomita through an interpreter. He was even interested for a while in having Tomita do the synthesizer portion of the score. But contractural obligations interfered, and Francis decided to make other arrangements. Carmine explains, "Tomita was under contract with RCA and that meant that the original score album would have to be an RCA album. But Francis was using some of the Doors' music ['The End'], and in order to do that, he was obliged to give the album to Electra."

"Early in 1977, while Francis was still filming in the Philippines, he contacted film composer David Shire about writing the synthesizer score. Shire then retained Sound Arts, a Los Angeles-based electronic music production company, to help design an electronic music studio at Omni Zoetrope, and then to realize Shire's score. The Shire-Sound Arts team began to produce music when Francis returned from the Philippines. For reasons that we can only speculate on, neither Francis nor the Zoetrope staff accepted any of the cues realized by Sound Arts. Other synthesists were brought in, and Carmine composed music for some of the cues, but the musician-filmmaker communications link never became clear enough for Francis to feel that the music agreed with his own vision of the film. After more than a year of work and $100,000 in music production expenses, Francis turned to Carmine to compose the entire synthesizer score, and to David Rubinson to assume the role of Film Music Producer and do whatever it would take to satisfy Francis's requirements."
(source: Contemporary keyboard, jan 1980)

The new team began working on Carmine's score in early february 1979, so Shire's version was most likely recorded back in 1978. The film was originally scheduled to be released in april '78 but it was postponed several times until it finally premiered in august '79.




 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 2:09 PM   
 By:   Justin Boggan   (Member)

"Kramer vs. Kramer" is another rejected Shire score.

According to Torn Music, John Kander did a rejected Kramer score. Were there two?


Yes (with Ebb). From my defunct Rejected Film Scores site:
On top of doing an arrangement of a classical music piece, EBB & Kander did a score for the film, but it was too "urban" and distracted from the emotion of the film.

It's one of two or three dozen films that had two or more scores rejected.

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 2:15 PM   
 By:   odelayy   (Member)

"Kramer vs. Kramer" is another rejected Shire score.

According to Torn Music, John Kander did a rejected Kramer score. Were there two?


Yes (with Ebb). From my defunct Rejected Film Scores site:
On top of doing an arrangement of a classical music piece, EBB & Kander did a score for the film, but it was too "urban" and distracted from the emotion of the film.

It's one of two or three dozen films that had two or more scores rejected.



Eventually they went with Vivaldi and Haendel. I guess they were fed up with all this and kept the (possible) temp music.

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 17, 2017 - 8:32 PM   
 By:   MCurry29   (Member)

David Shire is an all-time favorite and to learn his rejected score for 'Apocalypse Now' is coming on CD is BIG news!

 
 Posted:   Oct 18, 2017 - 12:04 AM   
 By:   Paul MacLean   (Member)

The "Redux" extended cut of the film reportedly has a little more of Hart's score tracked back in. Part of his music was laid into the cues "Nung River" and "Clean's Death".

The score by Hart / The Rhythm Devils score is more a series of improvisations rather than a "score" as we would think of it. I own it, it's kind of interesting in its way, though most tracks are fairly lengthy and static, and don't really develop. (Maybe it's a more meaningful listen while bong toking, I don't know.)

https://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Now-Sessions-Rhythm-Devils/dp/B0000009N8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508305616&sr=8-1&keywords=rhythm+devils+apocalypse+now

One track, "The Beast", is used in the scene (included in Redux) where Willard steals the surfboard , while the track "Napalm for Breakfast" serves as the end title music (the film version is embellished with more instrumentation however). If I recall right, a couple of other tracks, "Hell's Bells" and "Trenches", appear in the film as well.

"Hell's Bells" and another track, "Kurtz", were also used in Hearts of Darkness.

 
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