Regardless of the composer's poor opinion of many of
his early scores, Zimmer's fans continue to appreciate the hard rock
tone that he explored in
Days of Thunder, even if his ideas for
the movie would mature into better incarnations in other projects,
including the similarly themed Ron Howard racing film of 2013,
Rush. Although the composer was just starting to dabble in
orchestral recordings at the time,
Days of Thunder, like many of
his other notable works in the early 1990's, is completely synthetic.
Stylistically, in retrospect,
Days of Thunder sounds like a
direct cross between the bad-ass attitude and electric guitar-dominated
style of
Drop Zone and the easy-going romantic sensibilities of
Green Card. It offers nothing spectacular for a veteran Zimmer
collector when looking back at it, but the composer really is too hard
on himself in regards to the effectiveness of the score. While it was,
for a long time, difficult to recommend due to its rare album release,
there's nothing inherently wrong with either Zimmer's approach to the
topic or the quality of his result. Albeit generic compared to its
successors,
Days of Thunder is a functional and occasionally
entertaining score. A satisfying theme with rock ballad-like
progressions (and a few surprising allusions to Zimmer's
Driving Miss
Daisy) anchors the score, heard on Jeff Beck's wailing electric
guitar solos in some of the score's victorious moments such as the end
of "Car Building," the beginning of "The Crash," or the end of "Victory
Lane." The ripping explosions of hyperactivity in the slapping
percussion and rambling keyboard rhythms established by Zimmer in the
first half of the score typically refer to fragments of this theme, two
of which meander off to form sub-motifs to address different emotional
needs of the story. Of arguably more interest is the softer, new age
keyboarding of a wet ambience that Zimmer uses to address the
relationships in the film. Perhaps more dated in its tone, these
portions either foreshadow progressions to later be heard in
Green
Card ("Drafting") or
The Lion King ("Dawn" and "End Titles").
Most of the application of Zimmer's faux woodwinds (mostly his typical
pan flute effect, which in this case is seemingly mixed very far back
into the soundscape) and faux piano are pretty standard to his sound of
the 1980's, though at least he manages to largely avoid repeating
elements straight from
Rain Man.
The only really interesting technique that Zimmer
applies specifically to
Days of Thunder is an altering of pitch
within notes in the keyboarding to simulate the sound of passing cars, a
neat effect though somewhat challenging on album. The guitars, of
course, are able to emulate this slurring effect as well. The action
music in the score is a relative weak point, not really establishing an
effectively increasing pace or congealing into truly glorious
power-anthem performance until the end of the score, where it really is
guilty pleasure bait. Some listeners may find these moments fleeting on
album, meriting only about five minutes of cohesive anthemic bravado to
merge with another ten minutes or so of the pretty character material to
form a memorable suite. Overall,
Days of Thunder is not as bad a
score as Zimmer claims, but its success for the listener is either tied
to an affection for the film or for the composer's early hard rock
mannerisms, this work spearheading his period of power anthem glory. For
more than two decades, no retail score album existed for
Days of
Thunder. Pieces of it floated about the market for years on bootlegs
masquerading as promos (and even in Zimmer's concert arrangements), but
the usual "First Born Records" bootleg label for many early Media
Ventures recordings contained 47 minutes of the score in perfect sound
quality outside of some studio noise during a transition in "End
Titles." Long circulating on the secondary market, this album is missing
some music, including Mark Mancina's much sought reported contribution
to the final scenes, but it was sufficient for most listeners. In 2013,
La-La Land Records finally pressed a limited CD of
Days of
Thunder to conveniently coincide with the debut of
Rush. This
album fills its expanded running time in mostly the bonus tracks,
featuring alternate mixes that aren't particularly noteworthy by
themselves, and the song, "The Last Note of Freedom," both with and
without the vocals. There is still no Mancina material to be heard or
even mentioned in the album's notes, raising questions about the
veracity of reports indicating his involvement. Sound quality on the
2013 product is not appreciably improved, and those familiar with the
prior bootleg will need to adjust to a different arrangement of the cues
into longer suites. La-La Land re-issued the same 2013 offering for
another limited run in 2020. On any album, the lovely and melodic
pre-race music near the end of the film is the main attraction outside
of context. Expect some redundancy in the whole listening experience,
but the highlights will make
Days of Thunder worth the investment
for devoted Zimmer enthusiasts.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
