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| Conti |
Rocky II: (Bill Conti) The greatest lesson of the
1976 popular hit
Rocky was that you can succeed without winning
the fight. The inevitable 1979 sequel,
Rocky II, failed to resist
the same temptations, allowing an initially reluctant Rocky Balboa to
defeat champion Apollo Creed in a high profile rematch. Allotted a
budget of twice the amount of the original film,
Rocky II was
another phenomenon at the box office, drawing in $200 million worldwide
despite split decisions from critics. On the whole,
Rocky II is
still a superior film to most of those that followed in the franchise,
retaining the cast of the original and further exploring the flaws of
the title character, his questionable spending, and his unyielding care
for his family. The music for
Rocky was itself a monumental
success, catapulting composer Bill Conti into the mainstream spotlight
and selling at rates rarely seen in the soundtrack industry. Like many
franchises, the sequel scores and their associated songs were bound by
the parameters of the profitable equation used in the initial entry, and
Rocky II and its successors thus contain a significant amount of
overlap in content. Interestingly, the city of Philadelphia would no
longer play a major role in the storyline after
Rocky II, with
this film and
Rocky Balboa in 2006 the only sequels to show the
famous character running through the streets of the city and glorifying
its landmarks. Accompanying these scenes very memorably, of course, is
Conti's main identity of the franchise, "Gonna Fly Now." Its fusion of
pop and symphonic elements came to define the style of the music that
Conti would provide for the initial three films, a blend that ensured
these soundtracks' popular acceptance while often testing the patience
of the collectors of strictly orchestral film scores. To his credit,
Conti mostly resisted the movement towards massive orchestral sounds for
motion pictures at the time (led by John Williams throughout the late
1970's), though there is some dramatic symphonic influence in
Rocky
II that serves as a precursor for a similar balance in Conti's one
James Bond entry,
For Your Eyes Only, a few years later. Because
the
Rocky II score combines many of the best aspects of
Rocky and would be largely regurgitated in
Rocky III, some
enthusiasts of the concept point to this soundtrack as the best single
representation of the franchise's music. If entering the realm of
Rocky scores for the first time, this one is the likely the
safest place to start.
The infamous brass fanfare from
Rocky and its
pseudo-song variation, "Gonna Fly Now," both return in full glory,
though Conti does make some interesting alterations to them. The song
has been increased in tempo, treated to more blatant disco effects, and
accompanied by children's choir (the last an important change to reflect
the crowd that Rocky draws while training in the film). In many ways,
this version is more obnoxious than the original (if you consider all of
these performances badly dated now), though Conti does compensate by
giving the theme a prominent role in several cues in the score. The
suite-like "Overture," combining the themes of the first and second
films satisfactorily, opens with the traditional fanfare and extends to
a more palatable disco version later on. The composer often alludes to
the theme in his material for Adrian and Rocky's infant son, usually on
elegant piano ("All of My Life") or in plaintive strings ("Vigil"). The
new, primary identity for
Rocky II, "Redemption," uses fragments
of the fanfare extensively. That redemption theme doesn't receive enough
airtime on the soundtrack to really establish itself as the heart of
this score, though its determined, minor-key progressions have better
stood the test of time than the title fanfare. Outside of the opening
performance on album, this deliberate theme is given an instrumental
variation in the last two minutes of "Overture." All three of the
secondary themes from
Rocky return as well, mostly encapsulated
in the lengthy "Overture" recording. That track transitions to the
adversity theme (which had closed the first film, strangely) right after
the primary fanfare, and this idea is also played as an interlude to the
new material in "Conquest." The more exuberant victory theme, heard
best in the second half of "Going the Distance" and "The Final Bell" in
the previous score, is the third theme to hold any length of time in
"Overture" here. The love theme carries over in striking variations
throughout the first two sequels, informing "All of My Life" in its
structure and "Vigil" in its sincere symphonic tone. Ironically, like
the adversity theme, there are even more coincidental similarities to
Howard Shore's later
The Lord of the Rings themes in the horn
solos of "Vigil." For casual listeners, the progressions of "All of My
Life" are unique enough to qualify it as an entirely new theme
representing Rocky's new family and its challenging circumstances.
Outside of this and the neglected redemption theme, the only other new
motif of note in
Rocky II is the disparate fight music heard in
"Conquest." This piece, hinted in fragments in the first few minutes of
"Overture," explodes with classical force in "Conquest," a cue reprised
in full in
Rocky III.
There has always been something odd about the tone of
the standout "Conquest" cue; it represents the ultimate in showdowns
between Rocky and Apollo, but the cue's driving string and snare
rhythms, punctuated by heroic brass hits, expose a troubling
Star
Wars influence (as well as occasionally bizarre Latin flare in some
of the trumpet accents that don't reference the adversity theme) that
still sounds more appropriate for Conti's later
Masters of the
Universe score. Honestly, some of this music will make you think
that Rocky is fighting Skeletor rather than Carl Weathers. The
interludes of quietly whining strings and burping tubas in this cue are
equally strange. It's impressive in the whole, and it makes for great
listening on album in parts, but it's just too monumental for even the
heavyweight bout on screen. Aside from the score, there are the usual
song contributions to be expected in any
Rocky soundtrack.
Nothing here lit up the charts like "Eye of the Tiger" would in
Rocky
III, though
Rocky II would still break into the top 200 on
the charts for five weeks in America. Vocalists DeEtta Little and Nelson
Pigford perform the pop variation of "All of My Life" in equally badly
dated form. Stallone's brother Frank had an increasing role in the
soundtracks, and his throwback tune "Two Kinds of Love" in the first
sequel is likeable but completely out of place. The album as a whole
will require some shuffling and combining with the other soundtracks in
the initial
Rocky trilogy (like the others), though this one has
the extra perk of the beautiful "Vigil" and "All of My Life"
instrumental tandem. The nine minutes in these two cues is as lovely as
Conti music gets, especially with the horn solos that have defined some
of his more memorable works. A rolling piano performance of the title
fanfare in the last minute of "Vigil," with the "All of My Life" (and
related love theme) material as counterpoint on strings, is fantastic.
Add the track "Mickey" from
Rocky III to these two cues and you
have the best strictly orchestral music from the franchise's early
years. The muscular "Conquest" cue will be of interest to some score
collectors as well, but it really does sound misplaced in this context.
The long "Overture" recording, expertly summarizing all of the themes
from the first two films, is the key to this album's recommendation, for
it clinches a strong rating for those seeking their first
Rocky
album. This is for casual listeners who weren't old enough to remember
the hoopla surrounding
Rocky in the 70's; otherwise, purists will
prefer the arrangements of the first score. If you can't tolerate the
pop or disco tones of that era encroaching upon the orchestra at all,
however, then the issue is moot. This is, after all, vintage mainstream
Bill Conti music.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
