It can be a disjointed listen, but I like having the whole thing and choosing the best bits for myself. I will always maintain that I'M the best producer around when it comes to picking music I want to hear. I much prefer the expanded Not With My Wife You Don't that FSM released over the first LP edition, which was missing some fun score tracks. I've never seen the film AGFTMM and at this stage of the game, I doubt I ever will.
It can be a disjointed listen, but I like having the whole thing and choosing the best bits for myself. I will always maintain that I'M the best producer around when it comes to picking music I want to hear.
Leaving that whole discussion aside (you know where I stand, and I know where you stand), it's not really comparable. The albums Williams did in the 60s were mostly re-recordings where he went into the studio to record the main themes from the film in a slightly new fashion, sometimes even adding themes that never appeared in the film. They were their own thing, really -- moreso than contemporary methods where a producer assembles an album from the actual score tracks. Sadly, a lost artform.
Has anyone attempted an album presentation-style redo of AGFTMM? I'm starting to see the lack of an album as a great lost opportunity with what Williams may have done had there been a commercially-released album. I'm a long-time fan of the movie so the score is a personal favorite of mine, and unlke many of my fellow FSMers, I actually didn't mind Williams' resequencing of tracks on stuff like The Empire Strikes Back on the old 2-LP set but then maybe that's nostalgia more than anything else.
The albums Williams did in the 60s were mostly re-recordings where he went into the studio to record the main themes from the film in a slightly new fashion, sometimes even adding themes that never appeared in the film. They were their own thing, really -- moreso than contemporary methods where a producer assembles an album from the actual score tracks. Sadly, a lost artform.
The re-recordings were probably done more for economy than art, but often the necessity for the one leads to the creation of the other.
Has anyone attempted an album presentation-style redo of AGFTMM?
That can't be achieved unless I had access to an orchestra and could go into a studio and re-record it. But yes -- I have tried to assemble a playlist of sorts. I've also tried to do the same with JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOME -- a rather weak score, hampered even more by its presentation. It's basically unlistenable in its current format. The only thing that could have saved this as a listening experience is if it were re-recorded (the thematic strains are certainly there). In creating a playlist for GOLDFARB, I ended up with a 24-minute program, and even that has its issues. I think -- with the material we have -- one would need to micro-edit certain tracks to make it work.
But GOLDFARB is rather unique that way. GUIDE is more accesible, and has more independent setpiece tracks from which to build a decent album.
