This News Friday 4/17/98
by Lukas Kendall
Doug Adams and I interviewed Mark Snow on Tuesday about his score for
the upcoming X-Files feature film (this will be our June FSM cover
story). Although he was sworn to secrecy not to give anything away about
the plot, Snow did mention something interesting about his score: he is
making a lot of use of the X-Files theme (the whistling-like motif)
which he has rarely if ever done in the series. He is harmonizing it and
developing it in a lot of different ways, using it as a recurring "calvary
is coming" type melody.
In Jeopardy Again
A week or two after film music was a subject on Jeopardy!, James
Bond theme songs was a subject on (I'm told) the 4/13 show. The answers
revolved around the singers, and Guy McKone reports that they were Nancy
Sinatra, Sheena Easton, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Duran Duran. If anybody
saw this and can provide the actual answers/questions, send them in!
Current Events
From: Michael Hollowood <doggman@anv.net>
If anybody wants to know Horner's Deep Impact will be released on
5/5. But the reason I am writing is Basil isn't scoring Les Miserables
is he? I thought Gabriel Yared was. Maybe I'm just wacky. Also was Wind
ever out on disc? I love this score.
Yared's score to Les Miserables was rejected; Poledouris has
written the replacement score used in the film. The confusion over this
is that some trailers and posters are still listing Yared. Wind (Poledouris)
was on a Japanese CD only which is very hard to get now.
From: Iain Herries <Iain@quinnster.demon.co.uk>
On BBC Radio 3's 'In Tune' programme on Monday (13th April) there
was a lenghthy interview with John Barry. He talked about his musical education
and the writing of 'The Beyondness of Things'. The title track was played
at the end of the interview. Around five minutes of 'The Lion In Winter'
were also played during this programme.
Reportedly Barry has been on a lot of TV and radio shows recently, as
he gears up for his concert tomorrow night in London. I'm assuming it's
sold out, but the number to call was 171-589-8212.
From: Topher Yorks <cay112@psu.edu>
Can anyone help me put my mind at ease by telling me who is scoring
Spike Lee's new film, "He Got Game?" I saw the trailer yesterday
and swear that I saw the words, "Music by Aaron Copland." Now,
I know he is dead, but stranger things have happened.
Copland's music has been adapted or tracked directly for the basketball
scenes in the film. I guess he's being given this credit for that reason.
To which I say, cool!
From: Karl Scott <karl_scott@opcode.com>
re: Glass's The Truman Show: saw this film last week. A cross between
Lucas THX 1138, Orwell's 1984 and Logan's Run. The score was subdued as
is Carrey. No mugging, no slapstick antics he just gets to act. Glass covers
the bases okay but nothing new or innovative here. Much of the film is
a serio-comic version of Ozzie and Harriet. Not sure what audience they
are looking for. Definitely not for kids.
I saw a screening of this back in October--I loved it but now some people
have been dismissing it. Hmm. At the time I thought it would be a big hit.
It's a very unusual film and well made--Peter Weir is a good director.
What Soundtracks Sell
From: LogieD <LogieD@aol.com>
Checking the FSM website and reading the monthly issue there was
always something missing and it dawned on me: You can always fine sales
information on movies, books, and popular types of music like rock and
country. Most the the Soundtracks that make the charts are compilations
of type and aren't of as much interest to score fans. When you make a comment
about Forever Amber that hints at poor sales, what are the sales and compared
to what, how is it doing?
I would like to know how the Varese yearly compilations are doing,
why is the 95 harder to find than 94 and 96? How are the studio compilations
doing compared to the years of original compilation themes done before.
How good has Tibet sold compared to Rosewood or Amistad?
Did Bond sell well? How many CDs are pressed and why on a given score?
Is a Goldsmith, Barry, Williams score destined to sell a specific fan amount
for a given label. How are TV movies selling compared with regular movies?
This is a fascinating topic. Unfortunately it's hard to give solid information
to relay to fans, for a few reasons: 1) Labels don't give sales reports.
2) People lie anyway. 3) The only reliable information is from Soundscan,
and that's copyrighted so that it is illegal to use the figures without
permission.
However, we can give rough figures, which is that scores in general
sell in the tens of thousands rather than hundreds... man, I'm sorry folks.
I'm writing this late and my brain has gone to mush. Here's an example:
we've moved around 1,800 copies of our Deadfall
CD by John Barry. Probably if a major label with major distribution
released Deadfall it would do more like 5,000, because they would
get it in more stores. I'll bet the typical John Williams score to a new
film does in the 50,000 range.
In general for score albums, you're looking at 1,000 for some of the
specialty pressings to 10,000 for more mainstream films, to the occasional
break-out that does much more. Maybe some people at labels would like to
volunteer information. Again, people have told me things in the past about
their sales, but I can't reveal most of this, certainly not without asking.
Answer City
A lot of this is to tie up loose ends, things that had been asked in
past columns:
From: johnnyvegas@juno.com (benjamin h cluff)
A couple people asked about the trailer music to Disney's Mulan:
the big melodic part is from Randy Edelman's "Dragonheart." This
score is used in a whole lot of trailers and it was also used at the Oscars
this year, but you knew that oh guru of film music.
From: MHazotte <MHazotte@aol.com>
Concerning "The fifth element," the song used during the
cab-chase is from algerian-born-rai-singer Khaled which is very well known
in France. Luc Besson, when he was editing his film, worked with that song
to find a good rhythm (Eric Serra's score was not ready yet) and finally
decided to put it in the final cut. It's certainly possible to find this
song on Khaled's albums available in France.
From: "David Kobussen" <davidk@dtrend.dtrend.com>
I saw your comment on "This News Friday" about "Ma
Vie En Rose." It was released in 97 on Mercury France. The CD is approx
40 minutes long and contains the Dominique Dalcon score with the song "Rose"
performed by Zazie and one bonus remix of the main song ("Rose goes
to the Disco"). It is symphonic with a couple of the tracks utilizing
a drum & bass style of percussion. You can mail order the CD from Footlight
Records (www.footlight.com).
From: Guy McKone <guymck@cims.net>
Re: R.R. Bennett: Murder on the Orient Express was available, in
more or less complete form, on a Toshiba-EMI CD back in 1991. The Bay Cities
CD contains just a "suite" - I believe just "The Orient
Express" cue running some 10 minutes.
Also - Sony had a reissue, with extra tracks, of Far From the Madding
Crowd. Now - if we could only get a disc of Yanks, with the complete end
credit roll!
Re: Gaudeamus: Another example: It's also used in Neal Hefti's "surfin'
dude black'n'white rockin'poppin'jazz" score - better known as Lord
Love a Duck (1966, UA Records UAS-5137). Especially the "Gaudeamus
Hey-Hey-Hey."
Also about this tune, "Gadeamus Igitur," heard in In and Out--last
month we quoted a reader as saying Cary Grant conducted it in the finale
of The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer ('48)--Alan Lasky tells us it
was People Will Talk (1951). Thanks!
Vinyl Reply
From: Jerzy Sliwa <george_s@friko.onet.pl>
There are few things more disturbing than vitriol in the service
of crass stupidity. "What if CDs had been invented first?" asks
Mr McDermott in his vituperative response to my praise of the LP (This
News Friday, April 3). If he had thought for one nanosecond before
typing in his letter, he would have spared himself the global guffaws that
undoubtedly greeted such ill-considered twaddle. The twilight world he
writes about is one in which the car was invented before the wheel, colour
television before the cathode ray tube (and, I suspect, one in which a
James Horner doppelganger writes ORIGINAL film music). "Overwriting"
is one thing, Kev, writing nonsense is something else!
In my original letter, I rallied support from 30/40-somethings -
i.e. those people old enough to have built up a sizeable vinyl collection
before CD, but too young to develop deep-rooted prejudices. A gentleman
aged over fifty takes umbrage, saying that HIS comments praising LPs are
on record. I'm sorry, Mr Logie, however young you may feel at heart, your
critical remarks are completely out of place!
Anyone who cared to read my letter carefully - Mr Kendall's comments
clearly showed that he, at least, did so - would immediately see that I
made absolutely NO mention of the primacy of vinyl sound over that of CDs.
I spoke about the superior LOOK and FEEL of LPs. Indeed, Mr Kendall himself
makes a similar point in his review of the Alien Trilogy CD. He acknowledges
in the aforementioned review that the CD cover is "the best in recent
memory," but adds, "It would have looked even cooler at 12"
by 12."" Draw your own conclusions!
Finally, flattered though I am by the association, I think that
anyone who feels compelled to criticise a lowly vinyl fan AND Jerry Goldsmith
in the same breath, should be writing not to FSM, but to his local shrink.
Clearly, some re-conditioning (sic) is long overdue!
Composers as Actors
Here's something cool that people bring up from time to time. Did you
know all of the following? Send in your additional examples if you want.
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
I find it interesting when composers step before the camera. Everyone
laughs when Bernard Herrmann shows up to conduct in Hitchcock's 1956 The
Man Who Knew Too Much, and probably the next-best known are Danny Elfman
as an Oingo Boingo member in several films and as the singing voice of
Jack Skellington in Henry Selick's Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Often the composer appears as a musician or a conductor, such as newcomer
Christopher Lennertz as a bassist in Art House but can anyone add to the
following list of composers trying their hand at actual acting (something
James Horner ought to do)?:
In each case, these composers wrote the music for the film they
acted in:
Danny Elfman as Satan in Richard Elfman's Forbidden Zone (1980)
(which I've read is in black and white, not making full use of his flaming
red hair)
John Massari as "Bob"-worshipping composer Steve Shostakovich
in Mike Jittlov's The Wizard of Speed and Time (1988)
Jerry Goldsmith as a frozen yogurt customer in Joe Dante's Gremlins
2: The New Batch (1990) "No rats"
David Newman as Officer Graves in Willard Carroll's The Runestone
(1990) (Willard has a tendency not to name many of his characters until
the end credits.)
I know some people have kept frightfully complete lists of composers
cameos as actors. So, send them in!
Plea for Help
From: Ralph Apel <CsinoSkunk@aol.com>
I have been listening to film scores since I was a child. At the
age of five, my mother gave me the casette of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I listened to that damn thing until it got warped. I later got Ghostbusters
soundtrack. I seemed to love the music by Elmer Bernstein, more than any
of the other songs on the album. My first CD (and I remember the day I
got it) was Back to the future. I bought it, because I love Huey Lewis
and the News. But as it turns out, I got into the stuff by Alan Silvestri
and the "Out of Time Orchestra." One of my favorite movies soon
after, was Summer School, with Mark Harman. And I loved the opening song,"Happy"
by Danny Elfman. I started to take notice of his name, and his band (Oingo
Boingo) on the radio.
Around this time, I tossed Summer School aside, and started getting
into Beetlejuice. My sister loved it too, so much in fact that she bought
the soundtrack. She loved the two songs by Harry Belafonte. After she listened
to the two songs to death, I somehow got a hold of it, and noticed the
name that I had grown to love, Danny Elfman. For the past 9 or so years,
I have been building my collection of CDs, I had almost all Danny Elfman
CDs, and some works by other composers.
Last October, my truck got broken into, all 43 of my Danny Elfman/Oingo
Boingo got taken. I am sure tht the person who took them did not appreciate
them, and I am possitive the are somewere buried in a landfill. Since October,
I have had all my relatives, friends, and complete strangers helping me
in the effort to gain back all my CDs. As any film score collector knows,
even some of the most recent scores, can be hard to find. Well guess what,
I did it! In the search, I got all of my Elfman CDs back, and even the
ones I didn't have before. I completed my Danny Elfman collection. Everything
from "Forbidden Zone" to "Flubber." My collection was
totally complete for two weeks before they got taken fro my Mom's car this
weekend.
If there is any suggestions you might have to ease the burden of
regaining my CDs once again, I would appreciate them. I have lost energy
to search for them a third time, and would appreciate any help.
There you have a it folks: all I can say is, if you feel like helping,
you know where to write (CsinoSkunk@aol.com).
By the way, my truck was broken into and my suitcase of $100,000 was stolen.
Can everybody help me re-acquire the money? :)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Here's something you kids will love. And no, there are NO plans for
a longer CD of this score:
From: "Jeff Eldridge" <jeldridg@edcc.edu>
Since this question comes up a lot, here's a list of all the music
in TEMPLE OF DOOM. Cue titles are mine, except for those which appear on
the album. Also included are side/chapter stop/times info from the widescreen
laserdisc. The film is only 118 minutes long, so all but 10 minutes features
music. Even though there is over an hour of unreleased music, I do think
Williams chose the best 40 minutes of music for the existing album.
CUE TIME LD S/CH/TIME
Anything Goes 2:58 1 01 00:38
piano music [source] 1:14 1 02 03:38
Club Obi Wan 6:20 1 02 04:52
Fast Streets of Shanghai 3:38 1 03 11:12
Lao Che Airlines 3:27 1 04 14:50
Slalom on Mt. Humol 2:36 1 04 18:17
Mayapore 0:50 1 05 20:53
Sivalinga 3:37 1 05 23:22
The Child 1:09 1 05 26:59
Sankara 0:25 1 05 28:08
Fortune and Glory 0:43 1 05 28:33
The Journey (Shortround's Theme) 2:26 1 06 29:16
The Jungle at Night 1:20 1 07 34:32
The Journey Continues 0:47 1 07 35:53
The Statue 1:31 1 07 36:40
Pankot Palace 0:31 1 08 38:11
dance music [source] 1:45 1 08 39:30
The Feast [score/source] 4:40 2 01 00:02
Dessert 0:37 2 01 05:07
Nocturnal Activities 5:54 2 01 06:37
Bug Tunnel 3:20 2 03 12:30
Death Trap 3:38 2 03 15:50
The Temple of Doom 6:51 2 04 19:30
The Shankara Stones 2:31 2 04 26:21
Children in Chains 2:40 2 04 28:52
The Blood of Kali 5:00 2 05 31:32
Slave Children at Work 0:20 2 05 36:32
Willie's Sacrifice 6:32 3 01 00:00
The Rescue 3:25 3 02 06:32
Slave Children's Crusade 2:02 3 02 09:57
The Rock Crusher 2:31 3 02 11:59
Escape to the Mine Tunnel 2:23 3 03 15:30
The Mine Car Chase, part 1 1:50 3 04 19:45
The Mine Car Chase, part 2 1:05 3 04 21:52
Water 1:37 3 04 23:08
The Swordsmen 0:55 3 05 24:45
The Bridge 2:06 3 06 25:40
Fight on the Cliff 3:29 3 06 27:46
British Troops to the Rescue 1:01 3 06 31:15
Return to Maypore 3:19 3 07 32:16
End Credits 5:00 3 07 35:35
Total Time: 108:03
Film Music Critics Jury
Mikael Carlsson at MovieScore (mikael.carlsson@mbox302.swipnet.se) has
launched this survey of soundtrack reviewers' numerical ratings. Some of
us FSM kids have contributed. Check it out at http://home6.swipnet.se/~w-67269/pages/main/fmcj.html.
MovieScore's home page is http://moviescore.home.ml.org
See you next week! Send your comments: MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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