Greetings fellow RPF users.
I've been contemplating on whether or not I should do make a video about this a lot like some video reviewers out there, but unlike so many out there, I can't write, I can't act, I have a horrible voice and I'm just not engaging. So I decided to make it into a text based article in the mean time.
Part 1: Freud
We start out with Freud, a 1962 movie directed by John Houston about the psychologist Sigmund Freud. The music was composed by Jerry Goldsmith and was so well received that it earned Jerry Goldsmith an Oscar Nomination. The tone and mood of the score was also used by a lot of editors as temp tracks to a lot of films made in the following years. One such piece that most will probably recognize if the film's opening title, which brings us to....
Part 2: ALIEN
16 years after the release of Freud, Jerry Goldsmith was hired to do the score for the upcoming scifi horror film ALIEN directed by Ridley Scott. While Jerry Goldsmith did in fact compose music for the entire film, the editors who were editing the movie were using portions of Jerry Goldsmith's score he did for Freud 16 years earlier. As the production got closer and closer to the final product, it was decided that the portions of the temp track music from Freud would remain and that roughly three quarters of Goldsmith's music would remain. Goldsmith, not being a fan of his music being used as temp tracks to a movie he was composing for left unsatisfied with the experience, thinking that it would give people the wrong impression that he was copying himself. Now, for composers who do copy themselves, that brings us to the sequel to ALIEN....
Part 2: ALIENS
I'll be honest. James Horner likes to copy and paste his previous music cue and rearrange them into his later works. Not too big of a deal, but when it comes to certain portions of the work he did on ALIENS like the drop ship arriving at the colony, it's almost the same structure and sound as Khan's interrogation scene from his introduction in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. But even tactics like that didn't help matters for this young composer. The film was pretty much cutting corners in trying to meet it's release date and Horner found himself working over time to compose and finish music for the film with very little time. To make matters worse, some of the music he had done for the film was rendered useless by last minute editing changes of sequences that he had scored note to note for, so some of his score had to be dropped because it didn't fit. Enter the original Alien soundtrack. Like Freud, the editors of ALIENS used portions of music from ALIEN that Goldsmith had composed for the film (not Freud) and placed it in key points where Horner's score was either missing or didn't fit. Normally this would be the end of the line, except...
Part 4: Die Hard
Michael Kamen's score for Die Hard was working so brilliantly up to a point near the end of the film. During the film's final where Karl tries to gun down John but is taken out by Powell, a music cue was needed but Kamen wasn't providing. Enter one of the partially unused tracks from the ending to ALIENS that Horner had composed but was rejected and you get what you hear in the film. This portion of music was supposed to be used when the Queen gets sucked out of the airlock and Ripley and the remaining survivors enter hypersleep. In fact, after the exciting portion of the music is finished, you can actually hear the same music cues from the actual ending to Aliens used in Die Hard, especially during the scene where Holly punches Thornburg.
And that's the end of it pretty much. Now all that remains is are these soundtracks still available? Well, it's a tad bit complicated, but there is good news!
Frued:
As of this posting, the official soundtrack to Freud is still available via Varese Sarabande's CD CLUB selection, and is only limited to 3,000 prints. Since there are no warnings of it selling out (i.e. fewer than 500 remain like the Goonies soundtrack), you can still get this sound track no problem. I own it and I highly recommend it if you want to listen to some of Goldsmith's earlier works, or if you want to complete your Alien soundtrack.
ALIEN:
This is probably the best soundtrack on the list. It's a two-disc, non-limited set of Jerry Goldsmith's complete score he did for ALIEN. Not only do you get every piece of music Goldsmith did for ALIEN, you also get a remastered version of the original 1979 album, the 'film version' of the opening which was only available in a Jerry Goldsmith collection set, and many raw takes of various cues complete with crew chatter. To top it all off, you even get Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as heard in the film when Dallas is in the shuttle all by himself. Since it's not a limited edition, you have no need to worry about it going out of print anytime soon. A must have.
ALIENS:
Probably the most accessible of all the soundtracks, but by no means lower in quality or quantity. This soundtrack represents the score that Horner composed but were either abandoned or heavily reedited by the film's release. Some tracks that are on this CD are so freaking awesome that I'm surprised I haven't heard them in other movies, like the track "Combat Drop" which was replaced by simple drums. And if you like collecting action soundtracks, this one has to be on your list simply for Bishop's Countdown. Not only did they use it twice in the film, but Steven Spielberg himself used it for his Minority Report trailer music. It's that awesome.
Die Hard:
Sadly, this was one of the earlier Varese CD Club titles, and it has long since been sold out. I purchased my copy off of Ebay a year and a half ago for around $100 mind and it's still a tough soundtrack to come by. One of the nicer additions to this soundtrack is the inclusion of the "Let it Snow" source music that played at the gas station where Powell is purchasing his twinkies.
So that's it. . . . . . . How did I do? Did I get most of the info right? :confused
I've been contemplating on whether or not I should do make a video about this a lot like some video reviewers out there, but unlike so many out there, I can't write, I can't act, I have a horrible voice and I'm just not engaging. So I decided to make it into a text based article in the mean time.
Part 1: Freud
We start out with Freud, a 1962 movie directed by John Houston about the psychologist Sigmund Freud. The music was composed by Jerry Goldsmith and was so well received that it earned Jerry Goldsmith an Oscar Nomination. The tone and mood of the score was also used by a lot of editors as temp tracks to a lot of films made in the following years. One such piece that most will probably recognize if the film's opening title, which brings us to....
Part 2: ALIEN
16 years after the release of Freud, Jerry Goldsmith was hired to do the score for the upcoming scifi horror film ALIEN directed by Ridley Scott. While Jerry Goldsmith did in fact compose music for the entire film, the editors who were editing the movie were using portions of Jerry Goldsmith's score he did for Freud 16 years earlier. As the production got closer and closer to the final product, it was decided that the portions of the temp track music from Freud would remain and that roughly three quarters of Goldsmith's music would remain. Goldsmith, not being a fan of his music being used as temp tracks to a movie he was composing for left unsatisfied with the experience, thinking that it would give people the wrong impression that he was copying himself. Now, for composers who do copy themselves, that brings us to the sequel to ALIEN....
Part 2: ALIENS
I'll be honest. James Horner likes to copy and paste his previous music cue and rearrange them into his later works. Not too big of a deal, but when it comes to certain portions of the work he did on ALIENS like the drop ship arriving at the colony, it's almost the same structure and sound as Khan's interrogation scene from his introduction in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. But even tactics like that didn't help matters for this young composer. The film was pretty much cutting corners in trying to meet it's release date and Horner found himself working over time to compose and finish music for the film with very little time. To make matters worse, some of the music he had done for the film was rendered useless by last minute editing changes of sequences that he had scored note to note for, so some of his score had to be dropped because it didn't fit. Enter the original Alien soundtrack. Like Freud, the editors of ALIENS used portions of music from ALIEN that Goldsmith had composed for the film (not Freud) and placed it in key points where Horner's score was either missing or didn't fit. Normally this would be the end of the line, except...
Part 4: Die Hard
Michael Kamen's score for Die Hard was working so brilliantly up to a point near the end of the film. During the film's final where Karl tries to gun down John but is taken out by Powell, a music cue was needed but Kamen wasn't providing. Enter one of the partially unused tracks from the ending to ALIENS that Horner had composed but was rejected and you get what you hear in the film. This portion of music was supposed to be used when the Queen gets sucked out of the airlock and Ripley and the remaining survivors enter hypersleep. In fact, after the exciting portion of the music is finished, you can actually hear the same music cues from the actual ending to Aliens used in Die Hard, especially during the scene where Holly punches Thornburg.
And that's the end of it pretty much. Now all that remains is are these soundtracks still available? Well, it's a tad bit complicated, but there is good news!
Frued:
As of this posting, the official soundtrack to Freud is still available via Varese Sarabande's CD CLUB selection, and is only limited to 3,000 prints. Since there are no warnings of it selling out (i.e. fewer than 500 remain like the Goonies soundtrack), you can still get this sound track no problem. I own it and I highly recommend it if you want to listen to some of Goldsmith's earlier works, or if you want to complete your Alien soundtrack.
ALIEN:
This is probably the best soundtrack on the list. It's a two-disc, non-limited set of Jerry Goldsmith's complete score he did for ALIEN. Not only do you get every piece of music Goldsmith did for ALIEN, you also get a remastered version of the original 1979 album, the 'film version' of the opening which was only available in a Jerry Goldsmith collection set, and many raw takes of various cues complete with crew chatter. To top it all off, you even get Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as heard in the film when Dallas is in the shuttle all by himself. Since it's not a limited edition, you have no need to worry about it going out of print anytime soon. A must have.
ALIENS:
Probably the most accessible of all the soundtracks, but by no means lower in quality or quantity. This soundtrack represents the score that Horner composed but were either abandoned or heavily reedited by the film's release. Some tracks that are on this CD are so freaking awesome that I'm surprised I haven't heard them in other movies, like the track "Combat Drop" which was replaced by simple drums. And if you like collecting action soundtracks, this one has to be on your list simply for Bishop's Countdown. Not only did they use it twice in the film, but Steven Spielberg himself used it for his Minority Report trailer music. It's that awesome.
Die Hard:
Sadly, this was one of the earlier Varese CD Club titles, and it has long since been sold out. I purchased my copy off of Ebay a year and a half ago for around $100 mind and it's still a tough soundtrack to come by. One of the nicer additions to this soundtrack is the inclusion of the "Let it Snow" source music that played at the gas station where Powell is purchasing his twinkies.
So that's it. . . . . . . How did I do? Did I get most of the info right? :confused
