Intrada Soundtrack Forum

None of us know what the details behind this release were. There is a possibility that contractually Varése could not release more of the music. I seem to recall a few Intrada releases (e.g. Mary, Queen of Scots) where they had the option of either releasing the original LP or not release the score at all.

Regardless of how much some people may have wanted the complete score (I certainly would have) the fact remains that the album has been out of print for several years and there are many people who have never had an opportunity to pick it up for a reasonable price until now. I would rather a collector who missed out on the original Chinatown CD be able to pick up something rather than nothing.

Oh, hogwash -- there's plenty of unreleased fil mand television work still out there. They could have left this alone and let some label release it in due time. I think they never owned the rights in perpetuity, and that remained with ABC/MCA Records who did the original LP. ABC is part of Disney, right? I smell an Intrada...

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"Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself"
"Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages."
"Everyone votes for a dictator."
THE PRISONER

It is obvious that I'm happy to have this reissue, but I do wonder why no other label jumped on the opportunity to work on a complete version of this score if the complete elements are actually available. It is as iconic as a score can possibly be, was highly requested, and was out-of-print on CD for a long time.

I guess I'm saying that it seems a bit unfair for LLL to criticize Varese if they had the opportunity to work on Chinatown themselves rather than some 90s score.

I just checked -- yes, ABC was bought up by Disney in 1996, prior to that Varese released the same contents on CD in 1995, before the buy out, so then Disney owned it, and nobody was getting access to Disney until a few years ago when Intrada rekindled ties.

I'll just bet this was one of the first titles they inked deal with, and that it's jsut taking tiem to clear up the ABC rights issues (assuming there is no issue with MCA and Varese). Couple that with their regular schedule of releasing other titles, some they had to do by certain times, others that got pushed back, etc., and it's just been time and rights issues that's pushed it down the road, and that sooner than we think, WHAM, BAM, thank you man -- they'll release.

_________________
"Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself"
"Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages."
"Everyone votes for a dictator."
THE PRISONER

Yeah, it might've been just too tangled a "rights issue" to release an expansion at this time. Who knows.

I am happy for those who don't have it, though. God, what a score.

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Most Wanted: Moonraker - complete; Inside Moves (John Barry), Volunteers; The Hand; Brainstorm - complete (James Horner); MacArthur; Supergirl -expanded (Jerry Goldsmith).

It is confusing, but would ABC/Disney have any bearing at this point since ABC Records was acquired by MCA Records, which itself is UMG?

Given that, wouldn't the rights issues surrounding Chinatown's soundtrack be a concern of just UMG and Paramount (in similar fashion to LLL's recent release of Rosemary's Baby)?

I know this is the internet but I wonder, could we stop making up stuff? I wonder how long it will take for people to start DEMANDING the full fifty-odd minutes of Goldsmith's score that someone created out of thin air a few posts back. All these back alley deals that everyone is CERTAIN about rank right up there with Richard Gere and the gerbil.

Hell, why stop there? I want the full ninety-seven minutes of music that Goldsmith wrote for "Chinatown" and I DEMAND that they give it to us NOW, dammit!! I mysteriously but unarguably KNOW it exists and that M.V. Gerhard and Bruce Kimmel are MALICIOUSLY CONSPIRING to keep it from us!! Lynch 'em!!!!

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Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

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Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

With all the hub-bub over Varèse's decision to do a straight reissue…
The damage is done.
And those who don't have it, can now get it… Hooray!

As far as more material goes… if there is more great!
I thought THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY was a rather brief score,
and then what a wonderful surprise Intrada made with their MAF release.

Considering Philip Lambro's rejected score, perhaps the next pressing could mirror Kritzerland's MOLLY MAGUIRES and feature that after the album presentation and also include any additional Goldsmith material, alternate edits etc… whatever.

Since, Varèse is tight lipped about their business deals, we can only speculate about why us spoiled collectors/fans were deprived of a true "definitive" release…
and so we complain…
but talking about it is better than absolute silence, I suppose.

I quite enjoyed that label heads MV Gerhard (La-La Land) and Bruce Kimmel (Kritzerland), as well as independent producers/liner notes writes Ford Thaxton and Jeff Bond posted publicly their criticisms of the Varese's re-issue of Chinatown on the FSM board.

Roger or Doug, do you want to make any public comments about Varese's reissue here?

ABC for the LP, so -- unless it's different from this -- they should have the music rights. Paramount was the film distributor, so they'd have to be involved, too, especially for art usage and signing off, so now it's even mroe convoluted.

_________________
"Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself"
"Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages."
"Everyone votes for a dictator."
THE PRISONER