: (Compilation) Among the
truly stunning disappointments in Hollywood's digital age has been the
lack of composing assignments for David Shire, one of the industry's
more illustrious artists in the 1970's and 1980's. His music existed for
films ranging from dramatic classics to cult favorites, with even a few
blockbuster musicals thrown in the middle. And yet, between 1988 and
2007, Shire fell almost completely off the map. Between George Romero's
horror film
in 2007, Shire's assignments never gained any box
office notoriety whatsoever. A tepid score for
isn't
encouraging that a full comeback is imminent, but it's still refreshing
to hear the composer in action once again. In an effort to help remind
people of his lengthy career, the Gorfaine-Schwartz Agency released a
solid promotional compilation of his works from 1974 to 1997 on an
officially pressed 1998 product for industry consumption. In 1991, the
Bay Cities label had released a 1,200-copy compilation called "David
Shire at the Movies," with Shire and eight soloists re-recording many of
his most famous themes. By contrast, the "David Shire Film Music" promo
of 1998 featured mostly the original recordings, with a few inclusions
of the later re-recordings (such as for
). The
newer compilation is well balanced in the selection of cues and the
running time of each entry; it truly is a perfectly rounded presentation
of Shire's compositions during the years provided. And right on cue in
'98, the release instantly mesmerized every Shire fan on the planet in
its first few weeks on the market. It is, after all, exactly the kind of
massive composer compilation of original recordings that any fan of that
composer would pay significantly for. The tricky question is whether
non-Shire fans would find much merit in it to use for pure listening
enjoyment rather than to only gain knowledge of the composer's
works.
The 70+ minutes of music is very evenly balanced, with
each track representing about 3 minutes of the score's main theme. No
selection runs much longer than 4 minutes, allowing the themes flow from
one to another in almost suite form, and you can lose track of them
quickly if you're not paying attention. There are, expectedly, a few
cues that contain such a wacky or outdated personality that you will be
jolted out of your seat. Shire isn't immune to the occasional dud,
though a cue such as the rejected opening to
The World According to
Garp is more humorously bad than simply lacking in merit.
Sequentially, the album begins with the pompous
Max Dugan
Returns, a cue completely at odds with the re-recorded theme from
The Conversation (sequencing is suspect in a few places). From
there, the London Symphony Orchestra flourishes with
Return to
Oz, a large-scale score that has always been very popular on the
secondary market. The selection here is the best that appears on the
original collectible CD itself. Issues of wildly varying sound quality
also plague the album at times. By comparison to
Return to Oz,
which is somewhat muted itself,
Raid on Entebbe is almost
unlistenable. The quality improves for the two guitars featured in
Paris Trout. The much sought-after
All the President's Men
follows, also making use of the guitar (the score is, as appropriate for
a Pakula film, dark and menacing in tone, but heroic in theme). There's
no doubt about the touch of James Bond in
Farewell, My Lovely,
but nevertheless, it's an enjoyable film noir remake score with the full
spirit of the alto sax. Not much can be said of the circus atmosphere
for
The World According to Garp other than it's no surprise that
the Beetles song was used instead of this particular cue. Two quiet
tracks follow;
Bed and Breakfast is impressively full of warmth
and depth, with excellent sound quality.
While Film Score Monthly has pumped a significant
amount of hype into
The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 over the years, it
is a horrifically dated score and thus extremely overrated. Shire's pop
style of the 70's will alienate many digital era listeners, and it
really doesn't build dark and realistic suspense in the film like it
could have. The selection from
2010 is exactly the orchestral cue
you'll remember from the finale of the film. Its message-heavy,
classically inclined tones will be worth the album alone for some
listeners.
Last Stand at Sabre River is a stirring Western score
for the 1997 Tom Selleck cable film, released on the Intrada label, and
one of its highlight suite-like cues is provided here. After
Straight
Time takes us on another journey into unfortunate pop rhythms of the
past, two remarkable tracks follow.
Old Boyfriends is a film that
was never released, and its viola solos are worthwhile. The IMAX film
The Journey Inside boosts the theory that composers always rise
for the occasion of the really big screen. It is more harmonically
upbeat and heroic in a larger scale than many of the other selections,
and celebrated the "new" invention of the Pentium chip (an exciting
sci-fi adventure at the time!).
Monkey Shines starts promisingly
with its faux lyrical and romantic orchestration, but degenerates into
the expectedly horrid mass of noise near the end.
One Night Stand
is a soft quartet piece that can easily slip by unnoticed.
The
Hindenburg suffers from a distant recording quality that stifles
some of its majesty, but the music is still whimsically perfect for the
Robert Wise film. Shire says that "accordions don't necessarily have to
be a curse," and he is right;
My Antonia is a pretty score. The
TV mini-series
The Kennedys of Massachusetts has never been one
of his stronger efforts, taking the combination of Gaelic and patriotic
tones to almost ridiculous levels.
Sarah Plain and Tall recalls
Old Boyfriends in style.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of any compilation
of 70's and 80's music like this how different tunes age differently.
After several decades,
Saturday Night Fever is still regarded
fondly by those caught up with its style at its release, but it is so
badly dated in sound now that it will only serve to annoy digital age
ears. Conversely, Jennifer Warnes' performance of "It Goes Like It Goes"
from
Norma Rae is as gorgeous now as it has always been. With
whimsy in its string and piano accompaniment and a recording quality
beyond its time, the song proves that one of its memorable lyrics is
true: "maybe what's good gets a little bit better." When Shire looks
back at his own career, and chuckles at the circumstances that brought
about this song at the last minute, he should be proud that it
represents his only Academy Award statue. It is, ultimately, the most
memorable track on the entire compilation. Overall, there's such a
variety of music on this compilation that there's bound to be a track
here that will tickle any fan of 70's and 80's films. As a promotional
product, its distribution to the soundtrack specialty market at the time
was likely done to cover its production costs, and the cost of the album
was not an insignificant one. Many of the cues are simply not available
anywhere else, however, even almost ten years after its release. One of
the disappointing aspects of this compilation is that it is still
largely representative of Shire's career, even upon another visit after
all these years. There is no doubt that there is place for Shire's
trademark piano works and beyond in today's industry, regardless of how
badly some of his most heralded music has aged. Wherever you stand on
that debate, this "David Shire Film Music" compilation is one of the
most relevant composer collections of original recordings of all time.
Often lengthy personal notes about each selection on the album makes for
a fascinating exploration of the circumstances surrounding his great
works. The album is, at the very least, an educational resource.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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