The Sugarland Express

[Wojo 2,453]

Where's your apology? 

[Bespin 8,475]

4 minutes ago, WojinPA said:

Where's your apology? 

 

[Thor 7,462]

Analyzed the bootleg? In what way?

[Bespin 8,475]

13 minutes ago, Thor said:

Analyzed the bootleg? In what way?

 

With this:

[Disco Stu 15,495]

This is a pretty good movie as well as a good score!

 

Also, it's maybe the only Williams score I can think of to notably use lap steel guitar.  A good example is in the cue starting here at timestamp 22:09:

 

Boy oh boy is this one ever begging for the specialty label treatment.

[Bespin 8,475]

The movie opened in 1974 on march 31st, John Williams had just lost wife few days before.

 

[Jay 37,281]

11 hours ago, Bespin said:

Bumping again an old thread, I love doing that!

 

In 2000, a bootlegg of Sugarland Express came out.

 

Someone analyzed it already?

 

There's not much to analyze.  It contains the complete score, and sounds atrocious; many generations removed from the original recording.  For being such a landmark score (the first Williams/Spielberg collaboration) it really deserves to be unearthed from the Universal archives and transfered before the tapes turn to dust and released in a nice package by a specialty label, but its never gonna happen while Williams is alive.

[Bespin 8,475]

Two versions of it seems to exist.

 

Like I pointed out earlier, maybe something went wrong when it was the time to produce the album. JW has just lost is wife in march, he surely planed to make a re-recording, but he didn't have time/will/money to do it. Maybe he had schedule problems because of others engagements, maybe he simply never get agreed with Universal... Maybe he just want to go forward.

 

Because I don't really think the problem is the music. It's a very simple score, but it's not bad.  It suits the movie very well. After all, Williams re-recorded for the "Spielberg/Williams collaboration" album.

 

Now, 42 years after... the score is here... but not the planned re-recording... and all of this represent a soooo bad period of JW' life.

 

That's my two cents.

1. Theme from "Sugarland Express" (01:16)
2. Main Title (01:24)
3. Main Title (alt) (01:24)
4. Lou Jean & Clovis (02:05)
5. Freedom (00:42)
6. Taking a Hostage (01:41)
7. Texas Police (00:57)
8. The Roadblock (01:19)
9. On the Trail (01:58)
10. Drummin' Along (01:46)
11. Traveling Music (02:02)
12. Bathroom Break (01:33)
13. Out of Gas (01:05)
14. Peacful Moments (00:47)
15. Cartoon Music (00:27)
16. Making a Deal (01:25)
17. Rearranging Furniture / Approaching the House (01:43)
18. The Convoy (00:58)
19. Last Words (01:55)
20. Aftermath (03:25)
21. End Title (01:42)
22. Source Music 1 (01:20)
23. Source Music 2 (02:01)
24. Source Music 3 (00:50)
25. Source Music 4 (02:28)
26. Source Music 5 (00:59)
27. Source Music 6 (02:19)
28. Source Music 7 (00:50)
29. Source Music 8 (02:32)
30. Meet the Composer: Introduction (02:29)
31. Meet the Composer: How he scores a film (04:54)
32. Meet the Composer: Background (03:37)
33. Meet the Composer: Jaws (04:30)
34. Meet the Composer: Star Wars (03:43)
35. Meet the Composer: Conducting the Boston Pops (02:13)
36. Meet the Composer: Concert Works (01:58)
37. Meet the Composer: Advice to new composers (04:59)

___

 

1.      Prelude (03:36)
2.      Main Theme (03:27)
3.      End Credits (01:41)
4.      Passing The Road Barrier (02:13)
5.      Negotiations (01:58)
6.      The Caravan (01:14)
7.      Opening Titles (01:25)
8.      Plans (01:18)
9.      The Quarrel (02:03)
10.      Car Congestion (00:48)
11.      The Journey Begins (00:41)
12.      The Parade (01:11)
13.      Country Roads I (01:04)
14.      Country Roads II (00:58)
15.      Collecting Tickets (00:47)
16.      Deal (01:24)
17.      Snipers (01:43)
18.      The Handy-Can (02:25)
19.      Lou and Tanner (01:03)
20.      Easy Lounge I (02:17)
21.      Easy Lounge II (00:48)
22.      Gifts (02:33)
23.      Emergency Mission (01:48)
24.      Theme (Roadrunner) (02:01)

 

[Jay 37,281]

I doubt any ost lp was ever considered. Lots of films in the 70s didn't get ost lps.

[Thor 7,462]

I'm still in doubt (or in denial, perhaps) regarding Roger Feigelson's second-hand information about Williams' reluctance to condone a release, even if the master tapes existed. But if it were so, I could certainly understand it. Beyond the main theme, it's not one of the composer's shining hours. But it's a very important historical release.

 

THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS remains the most recent feature film in Williams' career not to have any kind of soundtrack release.

[Jay 37,281]

2 minutes ago, Thor said:

THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS remains the most recent feature film in Williams' career not to have any kind of soundtrack release.

 

Indeed.  That's been the case since the specialty labels got to Heartbeeps, Family Plot, and Midway.

[Bespin 8,475]

The movie was restored and they released it on BD in 2014. It's not a forgotten movie, it's not unavailable... everyone can watch it today and hear the soundtrack of JW...

 

No, it's not a question about the quality of the music, it's something else.

[Jay 37,281]

As I said it wasn't common practice for every film to get an OST release in the 70s, especially ones with short and more subdued scores.

 

The John Williams name certainly wasn't enough to guarantee it back then; While Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno were big hits, this was still a pre-Jaws John Williams.  And even post-Jaws, the very same studio that released Jaws (Universal) had Williams score two films the very next year - Family Plot and Midway - and Universal gave neither an OST LP, despite Jaws winning the Grammy for best album!  It wasn't until ROTJ forward that every film JW scored got an OST released at the time of the film's release.

 

Now, why none of the specialty labels has released the score, like they did with so many other JW scores that never had an OST, could be caused by several reasons

 

1. The tapes have gone missing

2. The tapes exist, but have degraded so much they are unlistenable

3. No label has a particular interest in trying to release it

4. There is some weird rights issue that prevents its release

5. John Williams asked the labels not to release it.

 

Take your pic what the true and correct answer is, but Roger Fiegelson, head of Intrada Records (who works with Universal more than any other label), did make a post once in the past indicating that Williams wasn't interested in releasing it.

[Bespin 8,475]

The tapes are not missing, they surely used it for remastering the movie for it's BD release in 2014.

[Jay 37,281]

To remaster a movie, you don't need to go back to the original recording sessions of the score, just the finished film's audio elements.

 

They would have just remastered the film's audio and not needed score recording sessions to do that. 

[Bespin 8,475]

I don't care about the original session tapes if they don't exist anymore, they have at least the musical track for the movie.

 

Did you watch the 2014 restored movie? Pretty good job.

 

The music is available, it sounds wonderfully in the movie, that's not the reason to explain the absence of a release by speciality labels.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The reason is apparently that Williams doesn't want it released.

2 hours ago, Bespin said:

I don't care about the original session tapes if they don't exist anymore, they have at least the musical track for the movie.

 

I doubt the music track is isolated.

[Jay 37,281]

Right. Being from 1974, the film (which remember is mono) likely had two audio tracks: dialogue, and then music/sound effects. So to make foreign dubs, they only had to change the dialogue track.

 

Anyways, labels don't like pressing isolated scores to CD. The proper thing to do is go back to the recording session tapes.

[Bespin 8,475]

BTW this is not a comedy.

[Thor 7,462]

Indeed. It is most certainly not a comedy (although it has a couple of comedic elements), but as Jay said, they probably cleaned up a combined audio/music track, not an isolated music track for the BD release.

[TownerFan 4,983]

22 hours ago, Bespin said:

Like I pointed out earlier, maybe something went wrong when it was the time to produce the album. JW has just lost is wife in march, he surely planed to make a re-recording, but he didn't have time/will/money to do it. Maybe he had schedule problems because of others engagements, maybe he simply never get agreed with Universal... Maybe he just want to go forward.

 

Because I don't really think the problem is the music. It's a very simple score, but it's not bad.  It suits the movie very well. After all, Williams re-recorded for the "Spielberg/Williams collaboration" album.

 

Now, 42 years after... the score is here... but not the planned re-recording... and all of this represent a soooo bad period of JW' life.

 

That's my two cents.

 

It's just speculation based on unchecked facts, sorry. We don't know anything about the reasons that led this score not being released. I'm sure one day we'll see it properly released in some form, though.

[Bespin 8,475]

Of course it's speculation!

 

But Barbara died in 1974, the 3rd of march and the movie was released the 31st. It explain the context.

 

What is the first score Williams wrote after his wife died?

Was Earthquake and Tower Inferno already wrote and recorded in march?

[Jay 37,281]

Huh; I never realized before that Earthquake and The Towering Inferno opened only a month apart from each other

 

I would guess neither was written before March 1974, the films opening in November 1974 and December 1974 respectively.

 

They were probably written in the same order the films came out, so I guess Earthquake is the first score he wrote after she passed.

[blondheim 1,157]

Does anyone know the dates Williams was in the studio for Conrack and Sugarland Express?

[Jay 37,281]

I just know Sugarland was recorded in the summer of '73, when the film was still supposed to come out in the fall of '73