More Superman Reviews

Compiled by Lukas Kendall

Jeff Bond and I are still the only people who it seems have NOT heard this new 2CD set recording by Varese Sarabande. Here are more reader reviews:

From: Daniel S. Lee, Dsl1999@aol.com

I write this as the new recording of the Superman soundtrack is fresh on my mind, and plays through my Sony "Digital" headphones. As with most music, it is always a little dangerous to record first impression reactions without time for reflection and analysis. However, as with most fans, John Williams' music (as it is heard in the movie and as it exists on record and CD) is as familiar to me as the "Happy Birthday' song. It would be a mistake to directly compare Mr. Debney's arrangement and conducting to that of Williams', given the material constraints that Mr. Debney was forced to deal with (i.e., lost music, lost arrangements). However, such comparisons are (unfortunately warranted) in several key pieces, namely, music never before released on record such as "Prologue," "Jonathan's Death," and "Helicopter Rescue." (Some of this music is in fact on record in Ken Thorne's Superman II score, but that is a whole other matter.) It is my belief that the missing music should be the key focus on the merits of this release, since the original soundtrack is readily available through Warner Bros records (albeit in truncated form).

Keeping in mind that I my grateful for Mr. Debney and Varese Sarabande for giving the fans what we have been clamoring for over 20 years, with no thanks to the WB for their laziness, I offer my overwhelming impression of the "new" previously unreleased tracks: the tempo is just too damn slow....and I don't just mean too slow in certain places, but too slow overall. One could excuse this as artistic license on the part of the conductor, but I don't think that is the case here, because nothing could warrant it. I mean, this is a soundtrack to a film, and the tempo of the music should correspond to the action on the screen. I have heard reports that Mr. Debney did not have access to the film for guidance, but surely he could have simply rented the WB home video, played it on a hi-fi VCR the night before the recording, and noted the original tempos accordingly.

As a result of the slower music, the aural experience is frustrated because the experienced listener (i.e., Superman movie fan-geek) can tell immediately that the sound (when compared to the film's original soundtrack) is slightly off kilter. I don't mean to suggest that the cues should match Williams' original timing note for note. However, the overall tempos should be more consistent with visuals of the scene. The three most important tracks, "Growing Up," "Helicopter Rescue" and "To the Lair" suffer considerably under the seemingly slow-motion speed of the music. "Helicopter Rescue" should be frenetic and tension-filled, but instead just sounds slightly anemic. "To the Lair" should have been kinetic and bouncy to correspond with Superman's searching flight over Metropolis, but instead just sounds lazy. In that respect, I almost prefer Ken Thorne's arrangement from the Superman II disc, re-written as "Clark Fumbles Rescue." Someone previously wrote that "Growing Up" sounds like young Clark Kent is walking with the train, and that is an accurate assessment of this piece.

The more I listened to these tracks, the more I had the urge to speed them up in some way, like playing a 33-1/3 LP at 45 speed. Had it not been for the tempos of those tracks, I would be far less critical of this release. Of course, I also have some reservations against the combination of the opening "concert" horn arrangement with the "Prologue;" I would have preferred that we hear the original film version in its glory. I also miss the timpani and presence of the pizzicatos in "The Flying Sequence." However, "Jonathan's Death" while not as sweeping as William's version, is a welcome track as is "The Penthouse," "Pushing Boulders," and "The truck Convoy." For any collector, these tracks alone are worth the overall asking price, and Varese is to be commended for putting out this score for long-awaiting fans.

Having heard this two-disc in its entirety twice-over as I write this, my hope is that Warner Bros will eventually get off their fat corporate ass and do something about resurrecting Williams' masterpiece. In the meantime, this double disc set will whet our appetites for that day when Superman The Movie is restored and remastered.

From: Kevin Field, UWgrad1996@aol.com

In response to the reader who posted that they were having problems finding the new Varese SUPERMAN recording...

I had the same problem too, as I was checking under "Superman" in stores' soundtrack sections. Unfortunately, it's technically *not* a soundtrack -- it's a rerecording. Try checking under "John Williams" in the film composer/film compilations section, rather than in soundtracks.

For a while, it sounded like no store in LA had any of these to sell -- after calling plenty of Towers and Virgins in Southern California and hearing that the title was "in the computer" but there weren't any on the shelves, I visited a few stores in person and found SUPERMAN in the compliations area. So... don't count on the employees to find it for you if you call, and make sure to check those other areas in stores.

From: Tbsis1@aol.com

Though many argue that the new superman varese score is not complete because certain music is missing, or not authentic beacause the great John Williams had nothing to do with it, remember that if Warner Brothers or Williams wanted a better score they would have done one themselves. For now though, I'm happy with what is available on the two disc set.

From: Rgutowski <Rgutowski@nycds.org>

Correction: The Williams/Pops LP that features two tracks from SUPERMAN (including the slightly longer Main Theme - one addtional bar) is "Pops In Space," not "Out of this World." My mistake!

From: Dave Johnson <cybrdave@spacelab.net>

Superman: The New Recording - You'll Believe A Man Can Cry

I dragged myself from Brooklyn to Tower Records to spend $28 on this recording which has a few good parts and many stupifying parts. Perhaps these orchestrations are based on original sketches, etc, etc and perhaps I'm just over used to my LSO original but this is a mess for all the reasons everyone has previously said. I will add these points:

One of the things I love about John Williams scores and/or their recordings is his apparent love a dramatic bass presence - those basses rumble strong and their subtle pluck is always audible and in this new recording they're mixed way away - most notably in Trip To Earth where the original has such a smooth flowing bass presence driving it along - this one seems driven by a celesta or some such instrument.

My cherished "Growing Up" sounds often like the train has run into the orchestra. On the positive side, I think the subtle increasing tempo as we catch up with train is fun - but this conductor has not challenged the orchestra to meet the original's tempo (maybe the original was sped up?).

And as someone else has pointed out - the natural pauses in the original that match or allow for some bit of business on the screen are completely condensed here as though they were ever concious of fitting the music on the CD. HOW ANNOYING.

Can anyone tell me what calamity befell the horns in Chasing Rockets - Track 7? Am I wrong - isn't there a terrible trumpet player after just after the little Lois in jeopardy motif?

I guess I have to say ok thanks for trying - I'm not completely unhappy I have it perhaps it's a testament to the score - perhaps it really requires the time they had for the original to get it as they did. I hear the RSO didn't have much time with it - but for $28 smackers I just wish they had bothered a bit more.

From: Donny Gilbert <BflatM@concentric.net>

Like a lot of other John Williams fans, I went down to the local CD store and purchased the 2CD set of "Superman". After listening to the recording, there were a few things that stuck out, like noticable mistakes in the orchestra, lack of power in some of the bombastic sections (Williams bombastic? You bet. One of the reasons that I really like him). But this recording I did not take with a grain of salt because I approached this like a new Williams soundtrack. I was listening to the parts that struck me, and then started comparing the recordings, and the things I noticed were not the things you hear, but what you don't hear. If that doesn't make sense, let me elaborate.

All the responses I've read were fairly negative to "The flying sequence". When the full-blown love theme appears when Lois and Superman launch, it was the little things in the new recording that struck me because they were audible, as opposed to the previous recording wherethe material is there, but is very difficult to hear. These tiny details are what I mean. Finally hearing the piano part, the woodwind runs and sonorities, etc. gave me a better appreciation for the type of writer Williams is. Again, it is not the things you hear, but what you don't hear. The texture is such that if a certain understated part of the orchestra was left out, you wouldn't consciencely notice it, but you would feel something was missing.

This new recording is actually a nice companion piece to the original soundtrack because of the things you don't hear on the original. This lends to the creditability to Williams as a composer of serious music, which is what all his movie scores are. This recording of Superman is a different way of hearing the same thing, which is what needs to happen. People get so used to one viewpoint (earpoint) that they don't realize the different things that are heard in the new recording are part of the older recording, and vice-versa. This duality between the recordings should lead to an overall increased appreciation of the score as a whole. The big things and the little things together, whether heard or not, make up a score that captures the image brilliantly and lifts the listeners along with the characters. Let there be appreciation for both recordings, both augment each other and serve to give us a greater appreciation for the man who penned the music.

From: Shaun Patrick Rutherford <whisper@keyconn.net>

There I was, late Monday night, waiting for the clock to place both of its hands on the number 12. Superman was less than five feet in front of me and they wouldn't even let me look at it! Bastardos! (in homage to Titanic, which follows the rule that if a foreign person in a film speaks English, to actually be foreign, he must speak one foreign word per two sentences) Anyway, midnight arrives, and they finally let me look at the damn thing while I wait in line behind all of the Black Sabbath fans (their CD came out Tuesday also), who were making fun of me. "Pooperman, dude. Pooperman," they said, choking out a laugh that sent a cloud of marijuana remnants over my head to land on the guy behind me (poor guy was only there to buy Pat Boone). OK, so the Sabbath fans leave, and it's my turn. Along with Superman, I purchased H20, Soldier, and What Dreams May Come, and the total came to $60! I come home, open up the case, the booklet falls out (and continues to do so), and I put the discs in the player. Just call it deja vu all over again because when the march started, I was like, "Whoa, haven't they learned from the Patton recording?" It was like they recorded it in a cave with a microphone sitting outside. And while I've read various other complaints about the score not being presented in film versions, I don't care. All I care about is whether or not it is good. And it isn't. Incidentally, what is the big deal with "The Helicopter Sequence"? Other than the use of Williams' excellent love theme in a heroic context, there isn't anything there that knocked me off my feet. They ruined "Turning Back The World", which was my favorite cue, with the jaunty-sounding music underneath the love theme. Man that used to be a great cue. It sounds like a funeral procession now! Everything is either too slow or too orchestrated. That might sound stupid, but they have every instrument doing a flourish of some kind at the same time in some of the cues! Well, I know what I'm talking about, but I can't figure out a way to write it. Anyway, after listening to the original album again, the Black Sabbath fans weren't all that wrong after all. I dub thee..."Pooperman".

From: mleneker@webtv.net (mark leneker)

It has to be noted that this poor orchestra were given 2 mere days (August 3,4) to record over 80 minutes of music. The LSO probably had at least 7 for the original recording. This must have resulted in a time-crush and rush job, which (and you'll know this when you two hear it), probably brought on the necessity of choosing tracks that contain major flubs (Chasing Rockets) and annoying outside sounds (The Love Theme). The slower tempo was also a result of the need to bring in the product in a limited time without delivering an unrehearsed quality. I know that other re-recordings (such as Midway or Somewhere in Time) were recorded in 1 or 2 days but they weren't overly "brassy" scores that exhausted the players. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is a stong, visceral score they did in 2 days, and I recall some people complaining that some of the playing was technically "weak", and perhaps this is another case of player burn-out. Bob Townson himself said that he had rcorded "about a dozen scores in a month". That's a lot of notes!

I do not know how long the orchestra had to rehearse these scores, but if re-construction of the Superman score started in early summer, I am sure that it wasn't until July when they finally got the new written parts (and they were probably busy recording other scores at that time as well). Can anyone verify the timeline involved in this? It says in the liner notes that "many months" went into locating the original parts, but how many months did it take to re-do them? How long did the orchestra have to rehearse? Why only 2 days to do it?

In a perfect world I suspect Townson would have loved to have given the orchestra more time to polish the performance, but I suppose the scourge of finances soured the milk.

And responding to the criticisms of this album...

From: Corey C. Witte <galt1138@aol.com>

It never ceases to amaze me how ungrateful fans can be when something doesn't live up to their (often unrealistic) expectations. I grew up buying a lot of scores and the one company out there (at that time) that consistently showed dedication to The Cause was Varese Sarabande. I assure you, folks, that we are much better off now with soundtrack releases than we were twenty years ago. I am, like many others, a rabid fan of the Superman score and through the years have gone through four copies of the LP before getting the Japanese import. But, having just watched the movie again on laser and listened to the new recording, I must say we should all be grateful. John Debney, Robert Townson and the RSNO did a fine job on what was always described as a companion to the original soundtrack. Varese Sarabande never claimed they were presenting the complete score or the final word in Superman music.

Mr. Rgutowski states that it sounds like the orchestra hasn't seen the movie. All the hoopla about the Helicopter scene seems a bit reactionary. The actual scene in the film contains music with numerous edits. The cut as recorded by the RSNO is more a complete musical statement. And many of the performances match the power of the films scenes very well. Watch it again people. This is a pretty damn good recording.

Yes, the synth parts pale in comparison to the original and are a bit distracting. Yes, the tempo on a couple of cuts is slow. But on the whole these guys have done a great job at presenting an interpretive performance of the score that does a fine job of maintaining the feel of Williams' original. THIS IS NOT THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK! Why do so many of you expect it to be? When I went to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform a popular piece, I knew they would bring certain nuances that only exist with that orchestra and the conductor at that time. That is the beauty of artistic interpretation. It's the same with jazz or seeing different stagings of a play.

The reaction of Brian Donohue is to be remembered. This recording does bring back that great time in the late seventies when film studios were making popcorn movies that actually entertained. We were still a number of years from the mindless bludgeoning of Simpson & Bruckheimer. I personally want to thank all of the Varese Sarabande crew for taking the time and putting forth the effort to make this recording. It brought back memories of why I even wanted to make movies. No one at the studios is doing the kinds of things Robert Townson, FSM, Intrada and a few choice others are. This effort far surpasses what could have happened with a Silva screen type approach. As the saying goes, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Please do continue to send your thoughts about this recording. Tomorrow: Andy Dursin's Aisle Seat column!

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