Intrada Soundtrack Forum

2/4/06

Here's a common question we get asked. Why are some older Fox scores damaged, others from the same time period not? To paraphrase Topol in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF: this I can answer in one word.

I don't know.

It's true, actually. There's not a lot of reason to be had. Early stereo recordings made at Fox (and other studios) were done on 35mm magnetic film. Unlike tape, a product that came into common studio use later on, film stocks have to be run through projectors in order to transfer the materials. Emulsions and whatnot have proven to be unreliable in holding up over the years. Damaged film stock can't be readily repaired. Also unlike tape, the multiple channels for film were often recorded onto separate film reels ("A" rolls, "B" rolls, etc.) carrying different parts of the orchestra. This - of course - now requires multiple projectioning and synchronizing during the playback process. One damaged roll can screw up the entire enchilada. To our knowledge, no one's accurately determined any logic to what's survived and what's ruined beyond repair. Why Hugo Friedhofer's stuff is often toxic goo and Leigh Harline's stuff still sparkles is anyone's guess.

I like to think it's because those 35mm film rolls simply couldn't store all that Friedhofer genius for that many years. But that won't fly. You really just have to ask that big tape librarian in the sky.

One huge blessing with what does survive - besides the wealth of great music, of course - is that often these older scores recorded onto film are preserved in full stereo sound long before traditional stereo recordings were even being made and exploited in the public arena via LPs. Things that would've only been available as a mono album back then are now possible in true stereo. Things like Friedhofer's VIOLENT SATURDAY.

Looks like that's one of the ones our big librarian in the sky saw fit to keep around, I guess.

2/7/06

Back from a productive trip and the wheels are spinning. Amongst other things, I learned patience is a virtue and it's okay to dream big.

Of course, coming back means finding stacks of work to deal with. To those of you that read my new CD capsules I must say thank you for showing patience of your own. I'll be digging into the pile today. But be aware lunch comes first.

I've got my priorities.

2/10/06

This is useless but I had to share it, anyway. Businesses in manufacturing and retailing get these in spades. Actually, I guess no matter where you are or what you do, they keep coming. I refer - of course - to unsolicited phone calls. If you've never gotten one, you're from Venus. Just go back up there. For the rest of you, here's a gem.

It's morning. Just moments ago, in fact. I'm getting ready to spotlight some schedule highlights for the next couple of weeks when the phone rings. A junk call. Normally I'm polite with my responses, which to date remain rejections. I can say with a straight face I've never taken up one single unsolicited offer. Change in phone service, better business checking, new tires that never need rotating, doggie pooper scoopers that clean themselves, whatever. I just say no. Everytime.

But I'm polite.

So anyways there's this call a few moments ago as I start to write. A woman starts babbling. I said I didn't catch the company she said she was with but she keeps talking. I could've hung up but - sue me - I'm too polite. So I say again I didn't catch the name. Now she says her company name which god only remembers. I ask what the call's about and here's her pitch. I am not making this up. She says her company helps people like myself "learn to plan and use their time better".

So I did just that. Yep, I'm talking bonafide hang up. My first time, too. But I ask you with the same straight face. Try and think up a better use of your time.

As to our happenings over the next couple of weeks, you'll have to wait until the next column. Blame the junk phone call.

2/14/06

Valentine's Day. Make sure you give your spouse, partner, mate or significant other something special. Don't necessarily think a box of chocolates, either. Soundtracks take up less room and certainly last longer. Then again, they don't taste as good so... tough call.

We'll toss out our own valentine of sorts at the end of the week. Yep, another "Special Collection" comes to a warehouse near you. Well... near us anyway. But we can send a copy to you. Or near you, if our aim is off.

We've got a lot more following in the weeks ahead: some "Signature Edition" titles, a standard release or two plus several "Special Collection" discs that we think are spectacular. Then again, we think soundtracks are preferable to chocolates so what do we know?

2/17/06

She mates, she kills! Something like that. How else do you sell a movie called BLACK WIDOW? In Michael Small's case, he didn't work in marketing for 20th Century Fox so it probably wasn't a concern. It's a tagline that might've inspired him, though.

Last week I said I'd get past that one wacky junk call and submit to you another "Special Collection" title by the end of the coming week. I did and I did. By the way, thanks for those funny calls you shared right back. None of us will top what Jeff once did here in the office when his phone rang at the wrong moment. The sales pitch starts with "Can I talk to the person in charge of your phone service?" and Jeff just fires back "We don't have a telephone" and hangs up.

But I digress. Today it's all about BLACK WIDOW, our newest release. It'll appeal to fans of scary music. Michael Small's a veteran of seventies and eighties thriller-and-paranoia movie scores. He's no longer with us so we can't look forward to any new ones. He's also sadly under-represented on CD with the ones he did leave us. Maybe we can change that. Anyway, here's a really good start.

One of the neatest things in BLACK WIDOW is how Small addresses the "she mates" narrative with a judiciously-placed theme hinting at warmth, touching into sadness, yet staying just ever-so-aloof, too. I say judiciously placed because he opens with scarier stuff and really uses the theme in just a few key spots. Small also underlines the "she kills" parts. Here, his tools are strings weaving their own web, moving about in layers with electronic manipulations, then slicing through in the best of scary traditions.

He uses a large string section with nearly 50 players fiddling around back there. It's a lot as far as typical soundtracks go and these guys do stick out. But it's not just about them. We've also got flutes, oboes, clarinets and a quartet of French horns. There's a piano, some percussion, a harp, even a kitchen sink.

Okay, no sink. But you've probably got one in your home already. Anyway, now you can add an icy score by Michael Small to wherever you keep your CDs.

Which hopefully isn't in the kitchen sink!

2/21/06

Time to go figure. Yesterday I was playing hookie when I should've been mastering stuff. If you think we've released a lot over these last few months wait until you see what's comin' up ahead. Anyway, I was joining normal people and having a holiday with the family. I think it was President's Day. Outdoor activities, a trip down to Davis, dinner out, odds and ends. You know the drill. So how do we finally settle in for the night? We watch TV, of course!

So here's a random observation. Movies have become routine, predictable - TV has become not routine, not predictable. Seems like something's out of whack but damned if I know what it is. When I was growing up it was the other way around!

Anyway, we watch FLIGHTPLAN. It's good, it's solid, it's... well, it's predictable. Is Jodie Foster gonna die? Will her daughter get blown up? I mean, come on. Do you doubt the outcome? None of us did. Sure, not every movie is like this now. But lots of them are. I'll bet FIREWALL is. So maybe that's the idea nowadays, I don't know. But anyway, we also watched a TV show or two. (Praise those full season DVDs!) So what happens? We couldn't predict a darn thing, really. THE SHIELD, DEADWOOD, a BUFFY from one of the early seasons. Now some of these shows are weird, yes. But they aren't so predictable!

I'm generalizing but think about it. The movies - where they take months to film and cost a fortune for effects and whatnot are getting awfully routine but the TV shows, which are cranked out day by day, hour by hour non-stop are the ones that are different. Something's askew somewhere!

Maybe it's why the movie industry keeps remaking these TV shows for the big screen. Of course, we then promptly go out and grab their movies off the DVD shelves so we can see them back on the little screen where they belong.

Go figure!

2/22/06

Hookie's over, back to work. We've got another early arrival. Our next "Signature Edition" made it to the warehouse a lot faster than we expected. We'll post it on our site by the time we leave work today. It's a little out of the ordinary so you might find it pretty cool.

For those beautiful customers that order every Intrada release as soon as they get announced, we wish we could've predicted an early arrival so you could've bundled it with last week's BLACK WIDOW. But my apology feels muted because I'm glad our plant was so efficient, too. Which, by the way, means our next release may be showing up within the next two or three weeks, too.

We've got a whole lot coming up ahead so we'll be giving that same plant a solid workout. Stuff by old guys, stuff by new guys. There'll probably be something for just about everyone.

And if you're still one of those beautiful customers that orders every release, I think you'll need a bigger boa... oops, I mean shelf!

2/25/06

Every couple of years or so I shed a spotlight on some composer who's getting neglected as far as CDs are concerned. I remind myself - and anyone who's reading - that sometimes these guys really do fall between the cracks. I refer to ones that did get their fair share of records out in those ol' LP days but are AWOL now, when we're listening a lot more. There're plenty of guys who don't have much on CD out there. Roy Webb, David Buttolph come to mind. But they didn't have much to play way back then, either. Maybe we'll get our fill, someday. But right now I'm talkin' about somebody who used to fill my record shelves.

Kenyon Hopkins. He pops into view because I was watching THE FUGITIVE KIND last night. It's a 1959 Marlon Brando drama. Anyway, so what's the poop?

You could play this last one anytime because United Artists gave us a record to it. It was cool because the movie features Brando as a drifter/guitar player but Hopkins scores it more for solo woodwinds, accompanied by brass when he's in the mood. There are guitars, sure, but not in the foreground the way you'd expect. Anyway, when you were done you could then play Hopkin's music to THE HUSTLER, one of the all-time film greats. After that you could switch over to LILITH or THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED or THE YELLOW CANARY. If that wasn't enough, you could dig around in those shelves further and pull out MR. BUDDWING or even THE STRANGE ONE. And to top things off, if you got tired of the movie stuff he had a lot of TV scores on record, too. THE REPORTER was a good jazzy one, so was EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE. It got a bit more symphonic with ELEVEN AGAINST THE ICE but only because the guy was so versatile. Man, this guy occupied a hefty spot in my library.

We did see BABY DOLL come out on CD. I don't know what kind of fanfare it got when it happened. Just being the first Kenyon Hopkins soundtrack to come out on CD should've caused John Williams to write something in celebration. Sure, the Olympics are important but we're talking a Kenyon Hopkins CD debut here!

I don't know what the future will hold but this guy really needs his due. In the meantime, if you're curious about his music you'll just have to dust off one of those old vinyl thingees.

Now, if only my turntable still worked.

2/28/06

Two pieces of random trivia, more or less connected.

I had Monday off so I watched DOMINO instead of doing something smart. I can't defend my choice but it made lunch hour more entertaining. Anyway, I'm watching it, absolutely loathing the score by Harry Gregson-Williams. Then without warning, along comes the theme from MAN ON FIRE. It's also by Gregson-Williams, but it's for a different movie than DOMINO. The old Ridley Scott thing, only this one's made by brother Tony. I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if we're watching some random movie and all of a sudden some character blurts out something like "I could've been a contender" and another one says "may the force be with you" and the movie asked us to take it seriously. Us soundtrack fans are cursed because we recognize stuff that normal people don't, like all these random music cues. But still, come on guys? Why do you have to taunt us?

The other piece of trivia, related in some weird sorta way. Last night I was playing a Zubin Mehta CD of THE PLANETS. It's also got suites from STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. So anyway, I'm playing THE PLANETS and "Mars" is pounding away and suddenly two family members come downstairs where I have the music going and ask if I'm playing THE RIGHT STUFF?