Intrada Soundtrack Forum

5/02/06

It's fun to read predictions for releases prior to actual announcements. Sometimes they're close, sometimes not. But they're usually things worth releasing. If only we could just win that lotto. Anyway, as you can now see, our latest Special Collection title offers two more dynamic scores from that glorious fifties 20th Century Fox "Cinemascope" era. Both have been mastered in superb sounding stereo from original scoring elements that were preserved in beautiful condition. In the case of Hugo Friedhofer's work, this is a luxury not always available!

The main theme for Mamie Stover has always been admirable. Friedhofer uses the jazzy melody in rich settings, then cadences with this tiny little motif using what's best referred to as "sort-of two-part harmony". It's a little melodic figure that plays over distinct "Hugo" chords, moving around in opposite directions. That method of closing a phrase was a unique signature from this most extraordinary composer.

David Raksin was no slouch, either. Often sophisticated, often complex. His music for Hilda Crane, especially the string writing during latter dramatic sequences, is superb. The Main Title's a pretty neat curtain-raiser, too!

It's a joy to hear all the highlights of these scores in stereo with such good fidelity. Let's collectively cross those fingers and toes and pray more of these aging film canisters hidden in the Fox vaults will reveal such undamaged treasures!

5/10/06

A moment for movie taglines. Then one of our own, sort of. Taglines get your attention but they can be all over the map. I got an email from someone who wanted to know some of the best ones. Like I'm an expert? Anyway, I was a good boy and did my homework. Here's what I learned from perusing posters shoved into boxes in my laundry room.

Some are cheesy, others stilted, some are bland, others inspired. For fun, I'll toss out a few - without benefit of the connected movie. Golly. When I'm finished I'll list the movies in similar order. Maybe you'll guess them first, maybe not.

Pretty cheesy old one: "Like Going My Way But With Brass Knuckles!" Yep, someone got paid for that. On the other hand, here's a simple one that pretty much sums up the movie: "They Were 7! They Fought Like 700!" Sometimes the taglines were perceptive (especially for those fabulous seventies movies): "All It Takes Is a Little Confidence". Or maybe you recall this one: "His Whole Life Was a Million to One Shot". "This Is the Weekend They Didn't Play Golf" certainly intrigues. And "The Damnedest Thing You Ever Saw!" just calls it like it is. Here's another good one: "They Wanted Gold. He Gave Them Lead Instead!"

Some were really unimaginative: "Dwarfing the Mightiest! Towering Over the Greatest!" Or this one, which is even lamer: "Now, Add a Motion Picture to the Wonders of the World!" Heading off way up there, you get stuff like this: "In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream." You probably know that one, so try to recall it's relative a couple of years later: "Even In Space the Ultimate Enemy Is Still Man." Anyway, that one got my butt into the seat. And one you know: "A Long Time Ago In a Galaxy Far Far Away."

Before I give you a really bad one and a really good one, here're the movies that match the above: ON THE WATERFRONT; THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN; THE STING; ROCKY; DELIVERANCE; NASHVILLE; BIG JAKE; ZULU; TARAS BULBA; ALIEN; OUTLAND; STAR WARS.

Okay, so here's a really bad one. It's long, starts with a bang, ends with a whimper: "Remember the Pounding Excitement of THE GUNS OF NAVARONE? Remember the Spine Tingling Suspense of THE GREAT ESCAPE? Now You Will Feel It Again In... THE MACKENZIE BREAK". Okay. Right. Which one of those movies do you NOT recall? Okay, and here's one that clicks. Well, actually it's such a cool campaign that we get two taglines, depending on which size poster you look at. One says "Meet Inspector Callahan. He Doesn't Just Break Cases, He Smashes Them!" And on the other poster we get: "Meet Inspector Callahan. You Don't Assign Him to Cases, You Just Turn Him Loose!" Either way, DIRTY HARRY comes out on top.

Shift to our next release. We should have it next Monday, maybe even by this Friday if the gods are smiling down on us. Watch for a proper announcement tomorrow evening or so. Anyway, our own tagline might read: "Keep Telling Yourself It's Only a... ". Oops. Sorry about that. I meant to say: "You've Heard the Rest. Now Hear the Best". Nope, That's someone else's, too. Dang. It's a good thing I don't get paid to make up taglines. Guess I'll just say it's a good one.

5/11/06

Amazing Stories has personal meaning to us. But more on that shortly. In the meantime, now you can finally get all that incredible music. You can play it whenever you want. And I say with a straight face this music is truly amazing stuff!

If you love warm and rich melody, what John Williams created for the pilot ("Ghost Train") will be right up your alley. If you love his more cerebral "outer space" stuff, he's got it here, too. What a cool score! I'm also big on the "Alamo Jobe" score by James Horner. He's got a great Americana-ish tune that plays on harmonica, then lets everything get all worked up for the battle - where he turns his orchestra loose. It's highlighted by the final action music. With everyone in the orchestra racing about, Horner brings in his tune in all it's glory. (For perceptive Horner fans, no pun is intended.)

It was an incredible experience to put this first anthology together. Universal gave us access to every multi-track master from the original sessions. We mixed everything right there at Universal using their state-of-the-art equipment, then built hours and hours of Pro Tools files to bring back home and assemble. I was in digital heaven!

We're now offering the first anthology, covering ten incredible complete scores. We're already knee-deep (ear-deep?) in the mastering of our second anthology, too! You'll soon get Jerry Goldsmith's terrific "Boo!" and Leonard Rosenman's intense and exciting "No Day at the Beach" and Michael Kamen's pounding and dynamic "Mirror, Mirror" and a bunch more. The entire series will culminate with - of course - the masterpiece of the series: "The Mission". John Williams at his most exciting and impressive! We've even dug up a rarely used alternate version of his dynamic opening credits, a never-used alternate, some cool bumpers and more!

These scores aren't just mere background tidbits. World-class composers were encouraged to write full-blooded, feature-film quality orchestral music and record it with top Hollywood session players in the best facilities available.

For those of us here in our little part of the soundtrack world, working with actual masters for John Williams doing Steven Spielberg is as good as it'll get. And their personal approval makes it worth the enormous work, indeed.

So the personal meaning. When we launched our label in 1985, we were sitting in a mixing studio with Basil Poledouris and members of the MGM scoring crew for RED DAWN during the month of April. Under construction was our very first release for August of that year. We had no idea that at that exact same point in time John Williams was recording his music for the premiere episode of AMAZING STORIES in another studio. Not in our wildest dreams could we have imagined ever producing an album from those very masters he was preparing.

Sometimes dreams do come true!

5/16/06

Well, here's a big surprise. We're backlogged on orders for AMAZING STORIES. It's the kind of backlogged we like, of course. Hopefully we'll be on top of things in time for delivery of Anthology Two. In any case, we've got two more releases coming in first. Watch soon for our next Signature Edition as well as another Special Collection "two-on-one" release! Of course, we'll also keep you posted on the arrival date for AMAZING STORIES Anthology Two. That's where Jerry Goldsmith's "Boo!" will be. And, of course, John Williams gets the spotlight for Anthology Three with "The Mission". What a finale!

By the way, we found something cool while mixing. Williams recorded a special Christmas version of his Amblin logo. We're talking twinkling bells, xylophones, celeste, woodwinds and triangle galore! It should make for a terrific little fanfare after Thomas Newman's "Santa '85"!

So, as they'd say in TV land, stay tuned!

5/19/06

Not too long today. I'm sure you'd rather me back in the mailroom working on the backlog. Of course, you're taking your chances when I do this. I always get put on "address label and meter strip" duty whenever I go back there. Which really just means if you get the wrong order and it's got today's date on it, I won't be able to blame Jeff or George.

So anyway, I invite you to reveal your age. I don't mean like just give it out, but play with it a little. I've even set up a little spot on our forum for you to do this.

How? Think Jerry Goldsmith. When you first encountered him, when he started weaving that spell on you, whatever. We'll assume you were old enough to catch the bus to school by yourself but not old enough to drive yet. That'll narrow it down to five or six years or so. Close enough.

Now, if you were listening when he was conducting his Los Angeles City College orchestra on one of those old Studio One radio programs I say "congratulations!" You've been sticking with movie music for half a century! On the other hand, if you say it was while watching LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION, I guess I'll just say you've got lots to discover in the years ahead!

Okay. So I'll stick my fanny out first.

I grew up in the military. SAC for all you other military brats. I was sitting in our base theater, preparing to watch A GATHERING OF EAGLES, pumped up because I was actually gonna see a movie about life in the Strategic Air Command. Life meets art, or something like this. Anyway, so up comes the picture, in come those credits, all those B-52's are taking off under the titles and... wow! The most exhilarating music I'd ever heard. A guy named Jerry Goldsmith wrote it. I discovered this because it said so, up on that screen, right over one of those huge jets taking off.

Yesirree. I was hooked. Back when I was (barely) old enough to catch the bus to school, but still way too young to drive. You can figure out the age, close enough, from there.

Your turn.

5/25/06

Well, enough people are writing in with queries about what's gonna be on Anthology Two that I figure no one wants surprises anymore. But I'm still holding out hope. So I'll spill a few beans but not the whole pot. Which is another way of saying we're still editing so things can change. But read on for answers to some of the most common inquiries.

No, "The Mission" isn't coming up. Not on Anthology Two, that is. We consider this one the crown jewel, the book closer, so to speak. After that triumphant final landing cue comes to it's poetic close, we figure that's as good as it gets. Williams starts things on Anthology One, he'll be the one who closes things on Anthology Three.

Yes. David Newman's episode makes the team. For mysterious reasons we've been asked this a lot. So watch for "Such Interesting Neighbors" on the second set. Newman wrote quite a few sequences that didn't make it into the show, too. So for those rabid fans of this one, they've got some treats in store. People also want to know if we're doing the Fred Steiner show. Yep, we are. "Life On Death Row" is scored for a large string orchestra. It's dark, it's intense, it's on set three. And will there be more David Shire? Yes. His other show is titled "Hell Toupee". It comes with set two.

"Boo!" shows up in this next set, too. It's Jerry Goldsmith doing Joe Dante. Think EXPLORERS meets GREMLINS on a smaller scale. Strings cross with noodling electronics, a super sweet melody for flute plays against wild fiddle parts with quirky attitude. Stuff like that.

To the lone question about what Leonard Rosenman's score sounds like, I'll just say two things: It's Rosenman, it's WWII. In other words, think COMBAT but with state-of-the-art sound.

Some final tidbits on "The Mission". The big one. Those of you only familiar with the re-recording on Varese will enjoy finding an exciting new cue called "Off We Go" that starts the on-screen mission itself. Williams opens with the familiar Air Force tune, then takes off with swirling strings and soaring French horns. It's a goose bump moment. And for completists - yes - we're also including the special "bumper" Williams recorded for reel three's act break plus the short cue that follows. By the way, his imaginative titles for these are actually listed as "Act Break" and "Fade In" on Universal's cue sheets. John calls them like he sees them. And he scores them like no else.

Anyway, there's plenty to look forward to coming up ahead. We'll have Anthology Two out shortly but we've got a couple other releases to offer first. Keep your ears tuned here.

5/30/06

A young-ish customer came into our store this last week. His agenda, a birthday present. He picks up RIO CONCHOS, says it's one of his dad's all-time favorites. Wow, I thought! A dad who likes soundtracks. Jerry Goldsmith westerns, in fact. Jeff thought this was pretty cool. I thought it was a pretty cool forum topic. So today I'm writing about dads and moms and soundtracks. I'll even finish with a punchline of sorts. Feel free to pop over to the forum and share your own memories.

So. What soundtracks did your parents play?

My dad was military, all the way. Music didn't interest him. So if he heard any soundtracks, it's because I played them in my bedroom while I did my homework, went to sleep, whatever. Mom was a different story. She liked music. Easy listening stuff. However, the only soundtrack I ever saw her play was WINDJAMMER. It's got a handful of Morton Gould tracks but mostly it's just around-the-world source music. Anyway, every once in awhile, when she went out to our Base Exchange, she tried to find some soundtrack she thought would interest me. Good ol' mom. She usually missed the mark. But I do remember one time when she didn't.

It's after school. I go into my room, find an LP on my bed. THE SWIMMER. So what's up with this one? Somebody named Hamlisch. I don't know him from Hamlet. But it sure looks better this afternoon than my math book does. So I'll give it a spin. Wow! What a surprise!

So anyway, I can't say where my movie music passion comes from. Apparently not my dad and mom. Which brings me to my punchline. It's lame, maybe. But interesting in context. Just once, while I was watching TV one night with my dad, he surprised me. I remember this as if it was yesterday, too.

We're watching a western. There's a wagon crossing a river. Music's blaring. Great stuff! Anyway, my dad - who never talks when he watches TV - suddenly turns to me and speaks.

"That's good music."

We were watching RIO CONCHOS.