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I share everyone's disappointment in the sound of the Varese CD. I can't help, in listening to it, feel that there is an earlier-generation source that could thrill us. Some of the sound is clear enough (like the woodwinds and tambourine in "To Scarborough") that it seems likely that lovingly remastered session masters could give us some sonic splendor.
I find it inconceivable that John Williams himself wouldn't, if necessary, provide some seed money to get one of his finest works in top shape. I've prayed to The Soundtrack Gods. Maybe I should pray to Lukas Kendall. This should be child's play compared to Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection. I bet Chris Malone would love a crack at this one.
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Posted: |
Mar 27, 2013 - 8:53 AM
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By: |
eriknelson
(Member)
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I had the MCA lp and it sounded much better, not a good as Arista's FURY, but good enough. The cd, though, is just terrible, with all the high end rolled off and the low end boosted beyond all reason. I wonder in all seriousness if the deal to distribute the album on Varese was done and then the masters couldn't be located at MCA - it sounds like a commercial cassette tape was used as a source and then heavy EQ applied. That's entirely speculation on my part, and I have no idea what difficulties the team at Varese encountered, so I'm reluctant to blame them; none of the other MCA reissues of that time were as disappointing.
I can confirm that the sonics on the LP are not bad. The problem is that it's a subpar MCA pressing with the requisite ticks, pops, etc.
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Yeah, this is at the very top of my Williams re-issue wants as well. A great score to a pretty underrated film.
It frustrates me that there has been no faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's excellent novel and the Coppola "Bram Stoker's Dracula" really offended me by pretending to be the most faithful and aside from adding some usually omitted characters being TOTALLY unfaithful and also incredibly BAD -- I have no idea why so many people really like this movie. Keanu Reeves is a horrible Jonathan Harker. Even Anthony Hopkins gives a bad performance in it as Van Helsing...maybe the only bad performance I've ever seen from him!
And I love Gary Oldman but I really dislike his Dracula and I think Frank Langella did a great job (even though I'd prefer not to have a "sexy" Dracula as that's just all the post-Dracula vampire baggage...the Dracula in the book is just a terrifying monster and not physically attractive at any point).
Yavar
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Yeah, this is at the very top of my Williams re-issue wants as well. A great score to a pretty underrated film.
It frustrates me that there has been no faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's excellent novel and the Coppola "Bram Stoker's Dracula" really offended me by pretending to be the most faithful and aside from adding some usually omitted characters being TOTALLY unfaithful and also incredibly BAD -- I have no idea why so many people really like this movie. Keanu Reeves is a horrible Jonathan Harker. Even Anthony Hopkins gives a bad performance in it as Van Helsing...maybe the only bad performance I've ever seen from him!
And I love Gary Oldman but I really dislike his Dracula and I think Frank Langella did a great job (even though I'd prefer not to have a "sexy" Dracula as that's just all the post-Dracula vampire baggage...the Dracula in the book is just a terrifying monster and not physically attractive at any point).
Yavar
I agree. I think Badham's Dracula ages far better than Bram Stoker's Dracula save for a couple of scenes (Mina and Dracula is still pretty terrific as well as the prologue).
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Soon we are going to read that John Badham is a better director than Francis Coppola...
Badham's film is good, and has very interesting moments (despite Langella's blow dry) but Coppola's is in a different league (even if indeed Reeves is terrible, which Coppola admits, too bad Johnny Depp was not hired as planned).
Bram Stoker's Dracula is borderline campy and unintentionally. Hopkins is no where near as good a Van Helsing as Olivier's and the screenplay by James V Hart is clunky as all get out (I like Hook in spite of its similarly incomprehensible script).
No Badham is not Copolla let's be clear on that. But everything was overwrought in BS Dracula. Two things I love about it were Oldman and Kilar's score.
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Soon we are going to read that John Badham is a better director than Francis Coppola...
YES, John Badham is a MUCH better director than the Francis Ford Coppola who made what I like to call "BS Dracula". There are two Coppolas: the one who made great films like the first two Godfathers (I guess the third isn't all bad) and the one who made crap films like Dracula. Sure, there are touches in it where you can see the old Coppola brilliance but they are few, far between, and overshadowed by all of the HORRIBLE acting, script, and story...
Badham's film is good, and has very interesting moments (despite Langella's blow dry) but Coppola's is in a different league (even if indeed Reeves is terrible, which Coppola admits, too bad Johnny Depp was not hired as planned).
Coppola's is in a different league, indeed. It might be my most hated film of all time. It's just trash. I find it as offensive as the Star Wars prequels. And it'd be one thing if it was just the horribly miscast Reeves being terrible (Keanu Reeves as a brilliant British lawyer? Come on!) but he's far from the only one in the cast who's terrible. It's my least favorite Gary Oldman performance and probably the only terrible performance I've ever seen from Anthony Hopkins (I love both actors in general). The supporting cast isn't much better but hey I guess with that script they don't have much to work with.
Didn't know about Johnny Depp. He would've been interesting but he couldn't have saved the movie from its other problems.
Yavar
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Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic should do a new recording of this on Deutsche Grammophon .
Universal/NBC already owns the record label and the movie studio.
This couldn't be more obvious even if flying saucers attacked The Black Tower demanding it.
Wrong. French conglomerate Vivendi owns Universal Music Group; Universal/NBC owns the current Universal Studios.
I still think that the Dracula movie ownership, and the music publishing/performance rights, and the Deutsche Grammophon ownership are probably aligned corporately close enough to make this a go in short order, should the parties I've proposed want it to happen. To reiterate...
That's John Williams' Dracula, performed by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, on Deutsche Grammophon, the label that Dudamel and the L.A. Phil are already under contract to.
Now who else besides John Williams has to get in this casket to make this happen?
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That's John Williams' Dracula, performed by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, on Deutsche Grammophon, the label that Dudamel and the L.A. Phil are already under contract to.
Now who else besides John Williams has to get in this casket to make this happen?
What? No UMG or Universal/NBC executives here on the board to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to this splendid idea?
What's this board coming to?
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To reiterate...
That's John Williams' Dracula, performed by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, on Deutsche Grammophon, the label that Dudamel and the L.A. Phil are already under contract to.
Now who else besides John Williams has to get in this casket to make this happen?
Is this idea just too good? Is the intrinsic excellence of this idea intimidating the establishment entertainment scene execs and functionaries I've referred to in my previous posts?
Well scratch my record, ladies and gentlemen of the mass media and associated arts communities that could make this sterling project happen! I'm not giving up on this one!
This idea for a holy grail done right will never die whilst I breathe, and you can take that to the bank, media honchos! Just like you could be taking money to the bank with this project!
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Hopefully I'm not telling tales out of school..
But my understanding is that at this time, the only scoring tapes available are MONO.
What folks tend not to understand is that the film was posted in England, not at UNIVERSAL in LA.
The Studio it was recorded at has long since closed and sometimes elements from the UK didn't seem make their way back to the US.
Such an example was LEGEND, where the scoring masters and the written score and parts went MIA on their way back from the UK.
The easy solution is get the score and do a new recording, I'm sure someone like Mr. Fitzpatrick would do an outstanding job on such a project.
All you need to do is write the man a check in order to pay for it.
Ford A. Thaxton
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