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The Last Run/Crosscurrent/The Scorpio Letters (1971/1967)
Music by Jerry Goldsmith, Dave Grusin
The Last Run/Crosscurrent/The Scorpio Letters The Last Run/Crosscurrent/The Scorpio Letters The Last Run/Crosscurrent/The Scorpio Letters
Click to enlarge images.
Price: $19.95
Limited #: 3000
View CD Page at SAE Store
Line: Silver Age
CD Release: January 2007
Catalog #: Vol. 9, No. 20
# of Discs: 1

Released by Special Arrangement With Turner Classic Movies Music.

FSM presents a tripleheader of Silver Age scores from the "mod" era of the late 1960s and early 1970s: a feature film soundtrack album by Jerry Goldsmith, a TV movie score by the same composer, and a TV movie score by Dave Grusin.

The Last Run (1971) was an adventure film starring George C. Scott as a gangland driver who comes out of retirement to escort an escaped criminal and the man's girlfriend from Spain to France. The film featured picturesque Continental locations and sturdy direction from Richard Fleischer in what is essentially a character study.

Jerry Goldsmith's melodic score features a bittersweet melody for Scott's existential crisis, propulsive action cues with funk backdrops, and engaging source cues. This is Goldsmith's M-G-M Records soundtrack album of the music, which runs longer than the score as heard in the film itself (the master tapes to which are lost).

Crosscurrent (1971)—also known as The Cable Car Murder—was a busted TV pilot aired as a TV movie. Shot on location in San Francisco, the film was an ambitious attempt to give an African American actor (Robert Hooks) a starring vehicle, in this case as a homicide detective. Goldsmith's unorthodox score—performed entirely by rhythm section—is quite brief, but a jewel in its tense, angular "mod" action style. It features what would soon become Goldsmith's main title theme to Escape From the Planet of the Apes, in a rare example of the composer repeating himself.

The Scorpio Letters (1967) was a TV movie starring Alex Cord as a secret agent uncovering a blackmail ring in London and Paris. The project was the first feature-length assignment for Dave Grusin, who provided jazzy, moody music often resembling his work for The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. The score features Grusin's gift for melody and subtlety, foreshadowing his great "noir" scores of the 1970s.

This jam-packed CD is entirely in stereo with terrific sound quality, and features informative liner notes by Lukas Kendall, Alexander Kaplan and Jon Burlingame.

Jerry Goldsmith Scores on FSM
About the Composer

What to say about Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004), the reason so many of us are soundtrack collectors in the first place? The Los Angeles native knew early on he wanted to write music for the movies, had an extensive training in television in the 1950s (starting at CBS), and went on to an unparalleled career in the movies—capable of brilliance in every genre, and beloved by his peers and fans. FSM has released as many of his scores as we could get our hands on, from classic TV work like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to famous features (Patton) and obscure gems like The Illustrated Man and 100 Rifles...heck, make that all of them. Jerry, we love you and miss you! IMDB

Dave Grusin Scores on FSM
About the Composer

Dave Grusin (b. 1934) is a composer, arranger, jazz pianist and recording artist who has made major contributions to jazz and popular music as well as film, where his deft blending of orchestra and pop music (either/or, and often both!) has enriched projects in all genres—but he is especially known for his sensitive touch for acclaimed dramas. He has also composed a number of well-known TV themes, from The Name of the Game to Baretta to St. Elsewhere. FSM has released some of his earliest work on CD, including his TV music for The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.—our pleasure, as he was pretty much great from day one. IMDB

Comments (14):Log in or register to post your own comments
WBShop is releasing The Scorpio Letters on DVD.

http://www.wbshop.com/product/scorpio+letters%2C+the+%28mod%29+1000547834.do?sortby=ourPicks&refType=&from=Search

http://collections.new.oscars.org/Details/Archive/71302975

Thanks to the Academy's new written score archive on their website (which lists the physical holdings in their library), we can confirm that Jerry apparently included his complete score for this film on his original album recording. I guess it's possible he may have shortened or lengthened cues, or subtly changed orchestrations here and there before producing the new album recording, but we can confirm that every cue from the film is there, assuming "Spanish Coast" corresponds to "Jerry's Farewell" here (it would make sense that he would re-title that for album). Everything else matches up perfectly.

Yavar

THE LAST RUN/WILD ROVERS - Chapter Three
.
Now available for trade or sale on my Trading Post!

WBShop is releasing The Scorpio Letters on DVD.

http://www.wbshop.com/product/scorpio+letters%2C+the+%28mod%29+1000547834.do?sortby=ourPicks&refType=&from=Search[/endquote]

Poor Phelpsie.
Nobody cares about his posts.
:)
:(

Just as I did with FSM's release of THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE/ TWILIGHT OF HONOR, I am making the first "useful" contribution to this thread, in order to talk about the music. I know in this case the CD came out thirteen years ago, but I didn't get around to ordering it until a few weeks back. And so here are my first thoughts -

I "have" the LP of THE LAST RUN in my mother's living room upstairs, but it's been thirty years since I ventured up there, so it's almost like not having the vinyl at all. Although I remember it note for note. On recent re-listen I was glad to confirm that it's as good as I'd remembered it, even better with the improved sound quality.

One or two things about THE LAST RUN - I'm fascinated by the background to this, as touched on in LK's introductory notes. Goldsmith was going through hell during this period (which includes CROSSCURRENT but obviously extends both further into the past and further into the future than the exact schedules for those two movies). He'd just got divorced, he then did a fair bit of drinking and "carrying on" (LK's words) in Hollywood's Chateau Marmount hotel, his movie career inexplicably dried up after PATTON, he tried England, where he recorded WILD ROVERS and scored and recorded THE LAST RUN, he got engaged to a young Danish girl, then went back to Los Angeles, broke off the engagement with the young Dane, got married to Carol and had to move into TV Movies and series. Now, this all sounds very turbulent to me, but - and I know it's a cliché - it does make me wonder exactly how all this affected his writing. LK mentions both THE MEPHISTO WALTZ and "Music For Orchestra" as being among his most aggressive works, but draws no conclusions (logically) about a possible link between the turmoil in his personal life and his writing at the time. It may be irrelevant soap opera material for some, but I would love to get a further insight into how (if) Goldsmith's crazy life at the time was reflected in his scores. Perhaps it's for another thread, but I'll just finish by saying that for me it was the very peak of a long fertile period.

More on THE LAST RUN - I won't describe the music because you all know it. So some "semi-technical" questions. The song for the album was produced by Don Costa apparently. The album "proper" is a re-recording. Does it differ much from the film tracks? Now, I could have sworn that Yavar posted something about how the score sheets match almost exactly the re-recording but I can't locate that post right now. What about the End Title? Alexander Kaplan's liner notes state that the music for Garme's (George C. Scott) death does not appear in the film and does not appear in Goldsmith's sketch of the cue, and thus was most likely composed for the album. It's quite a great "non-easy listening" preface to the End Credits. Conclusion? I don't know. Then there's the source cue "Yo Te Amo". Right, I never liked this, even the first time I heard it on LP. It doesn't much sound like a Goldsmith composition, and it certainly doesn't feature a "typical" Goldsmithian-Arthur Mortonian orchestration. Was this arranged buy someone else too? Don Costa? I'm kind of reminded of Jimmie Haskell's (I think) arrangement for LOGAN'S RUN.

THE LAST RUN is pretty great music.

And CROSSCURRENT is even greater! I know it was dressed up shortly afterwards for ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, but this is the gritty bare bones of that mod sound. It's savage. Right now I'm thinking that the 12-minute assembly made for this disc by the FSM team is the most riveting sustained 12 minutes of music in the composer's canon, and could easily be programmed as a concert piece. It would be preceded by the equally amazing - and completely different - "The Artist Who Did Not Want To Paint", just for another 12-minute balance in my concert.

Dave Grusin! THE SCORPIO LETTERS. I'm enjoying this a lot. I don't know any of his THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E scores to which it is likened in the notes, but it's very listenable. It strikes me as being less generic sounding than some of his later TV scores, such as ASSIGNMENT: VIENNA for example, good though that is. So THE SCORPIO LETTERS might not be the height of Art (that's CROSSCURRENT!) but it plays very nicely, and the most important thing is that I'm getting a LOT of enjoyment out of it. Oh wait - there are actually two tracks near the end which go way beyond what the rest of the score does. Tracks 32 ("Flight") and 33 ("Last Chase"/"Scorpio Finis") are so great that they remind me of some of the work that Oliver Nelson did on "The Six Million Dollar Man" - Really intense militaristic percussion with a jazz leaning, and some spectacularly effective piano rumblings. Artie Kane played on both this and the Nelson scores, although he seems to also have played on half of the CDs released by FSM alone.

So, whatcha all think thirteen years down the line?

Next week, another of my latest purchases - SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL (Hefti)/ THE CHAPMAN REPORT (Rosenman) - released by FSM in 2007 too.


Thanks for your nice words. I really like this album!

Lukas

I suspect that we all have favorites--albums that we intellectually know aren't among that artist's best, but that we just love. The Last Run album is like that for me. It's not The Blue Max or Patton or Planet of the Apes or A Patch of Blue or any of the other Goldsmith classic scores that and the preceding era, but I just love it. The theme really sticks with you and I don't mind the endless variations. The action music is dazzling and the source cues are lovely. This album, along with Sebastian and Justine, are among my Goldsmith favorites.



More on THE LAST RUN - I won't describe the music because you all know it. So some "semi-technical" questions. The song for the album was produced by Don Costa apparently. The album "proper" is a re-recording. Does it differ much from the film tracks? Now, I could have sworn that Yavar posted something about how the score sheets match almost exactly the re-recording but I can't locate that post right now. [/endquote]

Hey Dumbo, Yavar's comments are on this very thread. October last year. Schmuck.

Having unpacked my CDs to my new place, this album was on my list to revisit. I only had tracks from THE LAST RUN on my iPod and iPhone and nothing from the other two scores, plus I don't even remember what THE SCORPIO LETTERS sounds like! I am looking forward to revisiting it!

Regarding your last comment, I actually just revisited that SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL/CHAPMAN REPORT album and loved it! I already loved the Rosenman score, but found the Neil Hefti music it's paired with an absolute delight.



More on THE LAST RUN - I won't describe the music because you all know it. So some "semi-technical" questions. The song for the album was produced by Don Costa apparently. The album "proper" is a re-recording. Does it differ much from the film tracks? Now, I could have sworn that Yavar posted something about how the score sheets match almost exactly the re-recording but I can't locate that post right now. [/endquote]

Hey Dumbo, Yavar's comments are on this very thread. October last year. Schmuck.[/endquote]

You should be kinder to yourself! :)

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Track List
Instruments/Musicians
Click on each musician name for more credits
For more specific musician lists for the scores on this album, go here:
Crosscurrent (TV Movie)
The Scorpio Letters (TV pilot)

Leader (Conductor):
Jerry (Jerrald) Goldsmith, David Grusin

Bass:
Keith "Red" Mitchell

Oboe:
Gene Cipriano

Bassoon:
Charles A. Gould

Woodwinds:
Justin Gordon, Harry Klee, Ronald Langinger (aka Ronny Lang), Don Lodice (Logiudice), Ted Nash

French Horn:
John W. "Jack" Cave, Herman Lebow

Trumpet:
Uan Rasey, Anthony "Tony" Terran, George Werth

Trombone:
Hoyt Bohannon, Robert Knight, Richard Noel

Piano:
Caesar Giovannini, Artie Kane, Pearl Kaufman (Goldman), Roger W. Kellaway, Michael A. Lang

Guitar:
Robert F. Bain, Alton R. "Al" Hendrickson

Fender (electric) Bass:
William Pitman

Harp:
Catherine Gotthoffer (Johnk)

Accordion:
Carl Fortina

Drums:
Larry Bunker, Frank L. Carlson, John P. Guerin, Emil Radocchia (Richards)

Percussion:
Ralph Collier, Frank J. Flynn, Sheldon "Shelly" Manne, Joe Porcaro, Emil Radocchia (Richards), Louis Singer, Jerry D. Williams

Orchestra Manager:
James C. Whelan, Kurt E. Wolff

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