INTRADA Announces Dee Barton's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

Roger Feigelson · **Joined:** Sat Nov 19, 2005 3:47 pm **Posts:** 3415

INTRADA Announces

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER
Composed and Conducted by DEE BARTON
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 217

Writing the music for Universal Pictures' High Plains Drifter (1973), composer Dee Barton would display his flair for the unusual. His highly unorthodox music balanced the requisite touch of Ennio Morricone (this being a Clint Eastwood western) with a sophisticated meld of early synthesizers, female voices, dry guitars, lively percussion and full orchestra. Barton’s music was tonal with its main themes and atonal in its suspenseful and violent moments, resulting in a fascinating soundscape to go with Eastwood’s images. The main theme is a strongly melodic minor-mode idea, saddled in appropriate western style, like Eastwood on screen. It’s a haunting tune that plays through the main titles, but even this very tonal music is preceded by complex, dissonant sounds in synthesizers accompanied by wailing female voices in a seeming freefall.

As originally envisioned, Dee Barton’s score was longer and much broader in scope than the finished picture suggests. Probably the most interesting aspect of the deleted cues is that Eastwood dropped virtually every one of the larger orchestral cues and sequences that suggested traditional western scoring and stayed with the experimental cues, the dissonance and most of the unorthodox material. This is particularly noticeable in the flaming finale. Barton added considerable brass to his orchestra and wrote several minutes of aggressive battle music. Like the other orchestral music, these exciting pieces were dropped. And, as with those other cues, they can be heard here for the first time since they were recorded.

To present this complete score on CD, Intrada was extremely fortunate that Universal Pictures vaulted every roll of the original three-track stereo session masters in beautiful condition, even though the film itself was only mixed in mono.

Clint Eastwood described High Plains Drifter's premise as “What would have happened if the sheriff of High Noon had been killed? What would have happened afterwards?” The protagonist known as The Stranger comes to the town of Lago to help the residents ward off three outlaws, painting the town red -- literally -- in the process.

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 217
Retail Price: $19.99
Available Now
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7792/.f

T. Newman Fan · **Posted:** Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:08 pm

Another big release for Intrada.

With the 70s and Universal in mind, hopefully a Universal 100th anniversary release of Airport (and possibly along with its sequels) is not too far off.

Freejack · **Posted:** Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:27 pm

I remember when I was a wee lad,,, standing in the video store looking at DVD covers...... I mean VHS covers. :mrgreen:

This was a cover that always stayed with me.

Nice to see that Intrada invites another new composer into their catalog.

Hope to see more westerns released down the line. :wink:

JohnnyUtah · **Posted:** Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:47 pm

Simply fantastic - one of my all time favorite western scores and a no-brain purchase for me, thanks Intrada gang!

chriss · **Joined:** Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:07 am **Posts:** 381

Wow, this is great! An instant buy for me!

H TRAIN · **Joined:** Thu Oct 21, 2010 12:25 am **Posts:** 539

Epic release.
Intrada is on a roll.
Thank you guys for this one.
'Bout time this town had a new sheriff.

JasonComerford · **Joined:** Sat Apr 07, 2007 6:45 pm **Posts:** 56

So excited to finally have this available. This is an absolutely tremendous score, and one that I have wanted for a long, long time. Truly one of the most fascinating and unique efforts of its decade (or any decade, for that matter.)

You really can't understate the impact the music has in the film; it's filled with creative and unusual choices. Most Westerns default to the Aaron Copland Americana sound, but Barton goes off in quite a different direction, and the film (my favorite of Eastwood's Westerns) is unimaginable without it.

I brought up HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER in the suggestion box a few years ago and Doug mentioned playing some of Barton's jazz works in college -- I'd be interested to hear his thoughts on how those works compared with Barton's film scores.

Bravo to all involved -- I can't wait to hear it.

CocoNut Joe · **Posted:** Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:12 am

I´ve been in hybernation since a certain score was released mid summer and haven´t bought anything that peeked my interest since then, but THIS was a TWOFER I could not pass...
Thanks for two great releases

T. Newman Fan · **Posted:** Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:58 pm

This is certainly one of the more fascinating soundtrack albums. While I can definitely see why the more traditional tonal music was largely dropped, it makes for an exciting listen away from the film and adds an enjoyable contrast to the highly experimental cues.

Perhaps my favorite part of this album is the unused vocal track. The uncredited singer's voice makes the main theme even more haunting. I wonder if it was Dee Barton who wrote the lyrics? I love songs like this that are so tightly woven to the film's narrative.

chriss · **Joined:** Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:07 am **Posts:** 381

Still enjoying this back then highly unexpected release!

That Intrada is able to release titles from the Malpaso catalogue is IMHO a greater miracle than even the Disney collaboration.

I wonder if now after the "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" blu-ray from Twilight Time a release of Barton's score and source cues (which are 70s-esque integral to the scoring) is possible!?

T. Newman Fan · **Posted:** Sun Jan 26, 2014 7:36 am

chriss · **Joined:** Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:07 am **Posts:** 381

T. Newman Fan · **Posted:** Sun Jan 26, 2014 8:36 am

There's certainly plenty of gold in general under Universal's ownership. Between Universal and Disney, Intrada has a very busy future ahead of them. We just need those studios to keep their doors open, and people like us to keep buying the albums.

chriss · **Joined:** Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:07 am **Posts:** 381

Well, here's my Malpaso wish list:

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Barton) UA (complete and with all the source cues)
Play Misty for Me (Barton) Universal (complete and with all the source cues)

The Gauntlet (Fielding) WB
The Outlaw Josey Wales (Fielding) WB
The Eiger Sanction (Williams) Universal
The Beguiled (Schifrin) Universal
Two Mules for Sister Sara (Morricone) Universal

I suppose the Fielding, Williams, Schifrin and Morricone scores are most likely to come to CD. If there's a chance for Barton - time will tell.

T. Newman Fan · **Posted:** Mon Jan 27, 2014 11:10 am

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