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The original album presentation was put on CD by grey market label Tsunami but it was a vinyl to CD transfer and inherently dodgy.
I haven't checked myself but presumably you could recreate the original album presentation by selecting and sequencing tracks from the Intrada CD, no?
Cheers
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I must surely love this film, as I go back to it once a year or so to revisit on Blu-ray. I would have voted in Goldsmith's favor if I'd had an Academy Ballot that year. I'd also have voted for Joseph MacDonald's (Color) Cinematography that year as well. Remember that scene where 1st Officer Bardellis leads a small crew up to rescue those at the mission? When the sailors reach the summit of all those countless steps up the side of the steep hill, for just a moment, the camera rests and takes in the lovely background and the river far below; gorgeous! I'd also have selected Steve McQueen over the eventual winner for Actor, Paul Scofield. Scofield was undoubtedly impressive as Sir Thomas Moore in 'A Man for all Seasons', but he was (to me), simply too saintly, and too one dimensional compared to McQueen who's character varies immensely throughout the film. 'The Sand Pebbles' was a film that came out, I think, at just the right time to incorporate all the talents visible, (and audible), onscreen.
An addendum: I'd mentioned in the past of the incident regarding the purchase of the original soundtrack album of 'The Sand Pebbles' from a used record dealer. In 1973, the soundtrack album was out-of-print I think. But I found the fold out 20th Century Fox album for cheap, and bought it. When I got home I had side one of 'The Sand Pebbles' and side two of 'The Bible', also a Fox soundtrack. I should have held onto that one!
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THE SAND PEBBLES by Jerry Goldsmith is one of my favorite film scores. I also think it is a very good movie.
While I am usually quite fond of re-recordings and I enjoy the Varèse re-recording of the score for its excellent excellent sonics (the best sounding THE SAND PEBBLES for sure), in this case, that re-recording is no match for the original soundtrack recording, neither in performance but even more so in content, as some of the finest pieces of music Jerry Goldsmith ever wrote were not on the re-recording, especially not his original overture. I always thought that odd, as Goldsmith included it on the original soundtrack LP release back in the day, much like he included his original Main Title on the ALIEN LP instead of his revised film version. I guess when Varèse did the re-recording, they wanted to have the overture that was eventually used.
I originally missed the Varèse release of the original soundtrack recording of THE SAND PEBBLES, I traded it with someone (probably from this board... for IIRC THE WIND AND THE LION, of which I had an extra copy) years ago.
Anyway, for me, at the heart of THE SAND PEBBLES was the relationship between the characters played by Richard Attenborough and Emmanuelle Arsan, and the music Goldsmith wrote for this relationship (which he also used in his original overture) is completely absent from the re-recording, yet is among the most moving music Goldsmith ever wrote. So that's why that recording is not quite up to par in my opinion, even though I enjoy it a lot for what it has to offer.
There is also an excellently recorded suite conducted by Nic Raine on Tadlow's THE BLUE MAX album, which includes Goldsmith's original overture.
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I've only got the Varese Deluxe Edition and RSNO recording. I'll check soundtrackcollector.com to reference the original album and see what I can do with the DE.
Here's the best I can do. I think it's pretty good until the very end.
LP Tracklist...................................................Varese Deluxe
01 - Overture (2:55).................................. 29 - Overture (Alternate) [2:54]
02 - Main Title (2:56)................................ 02 - Main Title [2:57]
03 - Getting Acquainted (3:52)................. 03 - Getting Acquainted [3:53]
04 - Repel Boarders (2:37)....................... 08 - Repel Boarders [2:40]
05 - Death Of A Thousand Cuts (4:45).... 10 - Death Of A Thousand Cuts [4:46]
06 - Chang-Sha (1:00)............................. 12 - Entr'acte [1:02]
07 - And We Were Lovers (2:35).............. 28 - Exit Music [2:39]
08 - My Secret (3:59)............................... 14 - My Secret [4:00]
09 - Maily's Abduction (2:50)................... 21 - Maily's Abduction [2:49]
10 - Final Mission (3:42)........................... 22 - Final Mission [5:46]
11 - Almost Home (3:02)...........................26 - Almost Home (Finale) [1:00] & 27 - End Title [0:38]
"Almost Home" seems to be three cues, Almost Home [1:46], End Title [:59], and Cast Credits [:38], but the timings don't match. I'm pretty sure tracks 26 & 27 on Varese are the first half of the LP track 11, but I've no idea what would fill it out.
The other matches came from the liners in the Intrada, where cue names and track names were linked up pretty well, which is why I trust the Entr'acte and Exit Music ones.
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I remember getting this album and thinking it was cool that it was the first time I saw what Jerry Goldsmith looked liked. Cool Gatefold LP Album had a small photo of Jerry at that time. I always thought he looked more like an airline pilot, than a musical composer in that photo for some reason.
That same photo of Goldsmith was used in Tony Thomas' first edition of "Music For The Movies" as he was going through different stages of his hair growing.
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...
