Chris ChrusherComix

IMO, the greatest non-Star Wars score. Essentially, more or less tied with my all-time-favorite-since-May-1980 Empire Strikes Back and Revenge of the Sith with me (yes, the complete Sith moved into my top 3). The album and film score to The Fury are both indispensable to any John Williams collection worth a darn. Although I have a sealed LP, two different OST CDs, and the Varese 2-CD set, I will be getting this one as well. And to go with The Fury blu-ray that I already ordered... ugh... my wife will be getting more massages, I guess, haha. Speaking the most ever paid for a single score... why that would be the HOLY GRAIL that I recently aquired.... $80 for the "Yes, Giorgio" OST. Not a bad price... had to give my wife a few extra back massages (which I certainly don't mind, heheh), but I finally filled that missing link in my shelf (that I had a well-done CDR as a placeholder until then). West Germany Decca release. Wicked rare. Yes, although some don't, I consider it part of the collection because it has two original Williams compositions. It was the last "OST pressed CD" hole in my collection, now it is complete. In the early 2000s, I once paid $100 for a lot of CDs that included two rarities, the Varese Accidental Tourist and Warner Witches of Eastwick. I now have the re-issues. Almost every other score, I purchased for either retail, slightly more or slightly less. WHile my re-recordings and concert works collections aren't complete (they're pretty good, but not perfect), my OST collection is as good as it can be. (I even keep older, less-complete/non-remastered ones... never sell/trade older releases unless I have an extra). Who ships it faster? SAE or LaLaLand itself? https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151250897337260&set=a.458899792259.251671.701952259&type=1 HOLY #^%^#%^?! WAHOO!!!! In my best Bart Scott, "CAN'T WAIT!"

WOW! John is open and wanting to compose the new Star Wars films?! What great news! A few things: - Star Wars would be dead to me without Williams. Sure, I'd watch them eventually... but... they'd be dead. Williams' music is the lifeblood of the series. The heart and soul. Without Williams, then what we know to be Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and the prequels would not have existed. Star Wars would have come and gone, forgotten outside of a few small pockets of avid sci-fi cult classic followers (aka virginal nerds in their forties playing dress-up). Without Williams' music, the first two prequels would have been almost completely horrid trash outside of a good lightsaber fight in I and seeing Padme in a tight suit in II, and the relentless latter half of Revenge of the Sith would have been far less impactful and moving. I am one who enjoyed the prequel scores as much as the original Trilogy scores. All six are masterpieces to me. To consider another composer with Williams alive and willing to do them would be blasphemous. I never was a big Harry Potter fan, but I stopped watching the Potter movies after Williams stopped composing for them. I may get around to them some day, but I lost a great deal of interest. Sure, some other composer could come in and do an adequate job - but Star wars would eventually become as meaningless as any other multi-film franchise that has multiple writers, directors, composers and stars. Just another movie series. - Uni?! Is that you? I haven't seen that name in ages! How great to see! - Wait... wha?! Since when did rude-@$$, ignorant-@$$ anti-Williams posters take over this board? They can't be trolls, because they aren't very funny or clever. Or is it just being an ignorant dick attempting to be "postmodern" funny? Hmm. Oh well... my interest has come and gone with that.

I don't like the reports of new actors. I have only read that here (someone said from the BBC). New actors, new composer... it would be alien, and falling further and further from being Star Wars. Sure, I'd give them a shot and watch them the day they came out, but it would lose a great deal of interest for me, the lifelong fan who grew up on them. But wait... If the new trilogy is set 30 years after the original one... why in God's name would they need new actors? It WILL be 30 years after the original trilogy! Luke would be the old "Obi-Wan-like" master that Lucas spoke about to Mark Hamill back in 1976. I've heard Carrie Fisher always wanted to be aboard new ones, unless she changed her mind. According to reports after ROTS, the hardest one to get along would be Ford, but considering his age and new directors, he may be open to it. I hope they throw out all post-ROTJ Expanded Universe and go in a different direction. I find that so tepidly boring... I gave up on that stuff in the 1990s. I'm sure some of it is pretty good, but nothing that I read then was any. As for the music, what.... am I the ONLY person who preferred the '97 'Victory Celebration'? I always hated both versions of the Ewok Celebrations. That's not saying that I don't enjoy owning them, but even as a kid I felt they wussified/baby-fied the finale of the OT in '83. And I was only like 8-9 years old at the time and I thought that! And about the 2-LPs... I agree that the 2-LP of ESB is on my all-time want list. But I'll take a '100%-complete-and-remastered-with-newer-technology-from-better-source-material' scores if they give them. I'd prefer both (but I never get that).

That's fine, and in a way, that is why I put them that way... close, but probably a 1a, 1b, 1c. With so many highly beloved scores, taking top ten is very difficult.

If Williams is involved in writing new scores: Great interest. If Williams is involved with creating new themes for a young, talanted composer to intropolate and adapt into his own music, I'll have a fairly high amount of interest. If WIlliams is only involved as in the re-use and adaptation of his pre-existing music, I'll have mediocre interest. The "meh" as some of you would say. If the cut WIlliams music out completely (not gonna' happen), I will probably not watch them. Well, I may watch them out of curiosity and give them a chance, but I will probably wind up being as bitter and hateful as some of you guys are/were towards the SW prequel's, their scores, and the "Special Editions". For me, the Star Wars movies have always been music videos to John Williams greatest master work. Without them... they'd be just another sci-fi movie. As in, little-to-no interest for me.

I will count it as my favorites (not what I think others think are better or worse, but rather what I like better), and I am counting them as "complete" scores; or as expanded as we know them in and out of the movie. Album respresentations are incomplete and unworthy of note other than an incomplete listening experience. They are worthy as that, but not worthy of counting towards how good or bad a whole score is. Unless that album IS the entire score... OR we have never HEARD the complete score outside of said album. Also, this has NOTHING to do with the movies! Some of the movies I like better than the scores, some of the scores I like better than the movies, and some... I have never seen the movie but love the score! Some would make it higher if I just count a few tracks off each, others rank high because as a whole they are deeper and make a better whole as an expanded and/or complete score (Revenge of the Sith, Phantom Menace). Top ten is nearly impossible to me. I mean... VERY difficult. There are so many JW scores that I love. But... I'll try. I always count franchises as one score with different chapters. If I count it that way, they go as follows: 1. The Star Wars Scores: a. Empire Strikes Back; b. Revenge of the Sith; c. Star Wars (AKA 'A New Hope'); d. The Phantom Menace; e. Return of the Jedi; f. Attack of the Clones 2. The Fury 3. The Indiana Jones Scores: a. Raiders of the Lost Ark; b. Temple of Doom; c. Last Crusade; d. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 4. The Jurassic Park Scores: a. The Lost Word; b. Jurassic Park 5. Superman Scores: a. [Contributions to] 'Quest for Peace'; b. The Movie 6. Hook 7. Far & Away 8. The Jaws Scores: a. Jaws 2; b. Jaws 9. E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial 10. Jane Eyre Honorable mentions that are, in my opion... SO CLOSE to #11 that I seriously had a hard time not putting them at 10. Like 10.1, 10.2... GRRrrrrrr: 11. Images 12. Family Plot 13. A.I. - Artificial Intelligence 14. The Patriot 15. The Eiger Sanction 16. Empire of the Sun 17. The Witches of Eastwick 18. Schindler's List 19. Cinderella Liberty 20. 1941 21. Amazing Stories: The Mission 22. Black Sunday 23. The Towering Inferno 24. The Cowboys 25. Nixon 26. The Missouri Breaks 27. The Rare Breed 28. Always 29. Dracula 30. Close Encounters of the Third Kind The reason I list the series in groups? It's FAR easier for me to rank them. If you separate the film score series... it divides the list up more than my mind can wrap around... as it pushes some that I love a great deal out of the top-ten, hell... some even to the top TWENTY... that I greatly enjoy, and I HATE to do so! But here it is 1t. Star Wars - Empire Strikes Back 1t. Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith 1t. The Fury 4t. Raiders of the Lost Ark 4t. Star Wars (AKA Star Wars - A New Hope) 4t. Hook 7. Star Wars - The Phantom Menace 8. Jaws 2 9. Lost Word - Jurassic Park 10. Far & Away This pushes several scores that I absolutely LOVE out of my top ten! Which then annoys and angers me, haha! 11. Star Wars - Return of the Jedi 12. Superman - The Quest For Peace (contributions) 13. Jane Eyre 14. E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial 15. Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom 16. Superman The Movie 17. Star Wars - Attack of the Clones 18. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade 19. Images 20. Jurassic Park 21. Family Plot 22. A.I. - Artificial Intelligence 23. The Patriot ...and so on. This would put the first Jurassic Park down into the twenties. The original Jaws down as well...into possibly the thirties. Damn... I may go back and edit this... some of these depend on mood and if I recently listened to it or recently saw the movie. But they're pretty solid other tha a few here and there.

Somewhat shocked, and happy. Lucas as creative consultant, with new filmmakers getting a chance to inject new breath into the franchise? This can only be bad if John Williams does not score them. Otherwise, it can only lead to good things.

NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How utterly sad. One of my favorite scores and I've badly wanted to hear it in its complete glory. I have the first two LP re-release CDs, and I'll of course have to get this as well, but its with a sad heart. This means the only way to hear the complete score is to strain to hear it in the old crappy mono DVD?

The two most local stores to me that have CDs have seriously downsized their CD departments and will not be stocking War Horse OST at all. Wow. As a long-time collector, the physical copy of the album * WITH THE ALBUM ART & TRACK TITLES * is key to me and this trend somewhat disturbs me on some level. Granted, I can still buy it online or drive 45-55 miles to a CD store that probably has it, but gone are the days of just driving to your local Walmart or what not and picking up the new John Williams CD. Amazing how in the few years that Williams took off from scoring anything new, the landscape of music CD sales has changed dramatically with the takeover of mp3 players and iPods and such. It is due largely to the newer generation of “have-it-now/download-everything” kids and the fact that it is easier and people are living in a more mobile/on-the-go/don’t-live-at-a-home age and may have nowhere to actually store their owned items (I could never live like that being a pack rat completest-collector that I am). Nothing wrong with these players to have a digital copy on, I have mp3 players myself, but still, to own the physical album of the music and then rip it to your favorite portable player seems to be a no-brainer to me. Heck, those things break all the time, and recently my older PC's hard-drive blew, losing everything on it, which shows how fleeting a digital copy actually is. But I guess this shows how much most people like their music (not enough to actually own it; just listen to it). On a related note, some albums never get a physical copy even made! For example, the Transformers 3 score has still not been released in a physical CD and only exists in digital download, and that score is more popular mainstream-wise than Warhorse and possibly Tintin as well, so this bodes poorly for the future of owing an actual physical version of scores. Hopefully, they won’t stop them entirely, and online stores will still have them in stock, otherwise I'll be revising my CD shelves to include printed CDR copies from digital downloads (like I used to do with just bootlegs as place markers until the commercial release was in my possession). Not to mention that I'll either have to go to a friend or family member's house for a download or tether a smartphone which I do not own yet. Ugh. I just cleaned-up and re-organized my John Williams (+ film score) CD shelf that needed an extra two shelves to re-organize (with the recent archival releases, my shelf was overflowing and titles were piled on top of each other out of order), and part of the fun is collecting every single one and putting it in its proper place on my shelf (I arrange everything chronologically in order of composition & release; and I even keep all the CDRs containing "unreleased" on the shelf too, unless it was made 100% completely obsolete by a legit release, does it get taken down - and most have now). This may sound like a crotchety old man saying this, but this mentality that you can own a digital copy of something that can be accidentally deleted, erased, or corrupted as easy as it is copied is foolishness, IMO. Taking the most lossless source available (which would be a CD in most cases) to encode for your favorite portable player is one thing, but buying a download seems like buying air to me. Seems like a disconnect with many of the younger kids, and considering I'm still in my 30s, it shows how quickly ideals change.

This is good news indeed. I'll gladly get 1941 (er, what new Williams release don't I get?), even though the Varese CD and DVD-isolated score are nice, I bet this will have a few surprises. Are we looking for a probably 4th quarter of 2011 deal? Last Christmas was rough on me with all those nice releases at once, haha. I must've missed it... when did Williams nix Sugarland and what reasons were given? (I mean, besides it being not a great score, based on that horrible-sounding bootleg, but it is a big hole in the collections of us JW 'completist' collectors.) That one has been awaited for a LONG time. My collection shelf feels incomplete without it, just filled by the crappy boot as a holder until something legit comes a long.

Actually, we were able to find out that American Girl is out there circulating, just not on any commercial releases. Some unofficial "Joseph Williams Compilation" apparently (and I do not have it and not looking to trade, deal, buy or sell, so I'm just saying that it does exist). On a semi-related note, the single unreleased John Williams track - a song to "The Fury" is also on this mysterious compilation. "I'm Tired" - with lyrics by Joseph Williams and music by John Williams - was briefly heard source music as Kirk Douglas' character was walking down a crowded street at night. (Well, I shouldn't say single unreleased track, as to me it seems as if there was a small amount of slowed-down Carousel music that also went unreleased. Still can't complain, as I love that set even without those unreleased leftovers.) Again, I don't have it, not dealing boots or anything like that, just acknowledging that a friend of mine told me that it does exist.

Oh, ok, thanks! Hmm... I wonder where the heck to find "American Girl" though. It's gotta' be out there somewhere.

Thanks for the input, guys. Yep, the Intrada SpaceCamp liner notes mention them in terms of a pop version of the soundtrack that never got released (thank goodness we got a generous amount of Williams score instead of a bunch of pop songs), but do not say if they were ever released anywhere, which means that they probably weren't. They only acknowledge their existence and the fact that they didn't get on to the soundtrack. I haven't seen the film since shortly after it was made (in middle school, no less) so I remember very little about it, but apparently you can hear them (incomplete, of course) in the movie. She said that the Joseph Williams website acknowledges that someone sold a copy for quite a bit on eBay, but I don't know if it was a rare promotional item vinyl record or CD? Or an illegal boot? That's all I know. I probably should pick up a DVD of it and listen for them. Well, anybody reading, please put any more info if you have it! [On a related note, when I got a replacement CD of the Intrada SpaceCamp CD, I noticed that the volume number was different. It appears that the original one was wrong. Anybody else notice that?]

I have a friend who knows I'm a Williams collector and asked if I had three Joseph Williams songs that he did for SpaceCamp called "American Girl", "Don't Look Back" and "Turn It Up." I hadn't seen the movie since I was maybe 11-12 years old, so they didn't ring a bell and all I knew that they obviously aren't on the soundtrack release, but I read in the liner notes to the Intrada release that the songs existed, but made no mention that they were ever commercially released. She did mention they turned up on eBay and sold for a lot once according to the official Joseph Williams website, but nothing else. She's also wondering about Joseph Williams' song for The Goonies called, "Save The Night". My friend would like them for her son who likes SpaceCamp, and looked all over for them without success and asked me, but I don't know either, so I thought I'd ask here. Anybody have any info? Thanks!

I got shipping confirmation earlier today as well. California-to-Central NY shouldn't be that long. Can't wait. Nothing in the actual score will surprise me because I had a homemade DVD rip that I did years ago, but the sound quality I'm sure will be top-notch. Expanded "Shootout" is one I wanted clean for a long time. Same for the one when he initially rescues *VICKY VALE VICKY VALE VICKY VALE* (Sorry, 'Something Afwful' took old, haha). One of my favorites... can't wait. Of those, Always and Sleepers are the best, IMO. Always only fault is that it's so short that it needed non-Williams songs as filler. It's very good dreamy, peaceful music that could put you to sleep other than a track or two. I was so unwilling to be seen buying Stepmom -- and I remember that I wasn't the only one -- that I had my mom buy it for me and smuggle it to me in a plain-looking bag, haha! I remember years ago when I said those things and got lambasted for saying it! Haha! Williams doesn't have to be genius every note, but at least a few times every score. All kidding aside, on each of those scores, you can take 2-3 tracks that are very good, and then the rest of the music doesn't do anything for me. But the Williams shelf demands their presence no matter how little or how much I listen to them. Too bad they didn't do Batman Returns at the same time (well, except my wallet breathes easier)... I usually like to hit those two one after the other. I'll be more surprised with Returns expanded edition because I never got around to making a homemade DVD edition for myself of that one. I swear someone put something in the water over there or pooped in everyone's Cheerios or something. It's gotten ridiculous. When I first heard about the release, I did a quick Google search to find out more info and -- this always bugs me -- there were people on some forum out there (don't remember which, maybe a DVD or Blu-ray forum) bitching that it was actually getting an expanded treatment! Never understood people who would want access to less, not more. How can you go wrong with album, film, and alternates on one release? If you don't like it, pick up the original on eBay for a couple bucks and let people enjoy a complete release. PS - Still hoping someday we'll get clean album mixes of the original Star Wars Trilogy LP albums along with remastered compete editions.

Order went through via La-La Land directly. Almost missed Poseidon Adventure from La-Land - which isn't a favorite but part of my John Williams complete collection, luckily SAE got some more in and I got one late - so I wasn't going to miss this one being one of my all-time favorites. Thank you very much Chris I remember that line from 2pt of "the ultimate doom?" ep. Yep, one of the best stories of the whole series. (It almost looked like Shockwave died in that one based on some of that animation.)

La-La Land's site was down for a bit there. BTW, great avatar, shockwave! "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE!" *FIRES*!

2 PM Central. Haha, I hope they have enough for all of us, guys. Can't wait for this and Batman Returns later this year! Wahoo!

Very excited about this score. This and its sequel are my two favorite Elfman scores by far. But exactly when does it go on sale? I've tried to order it today and I see no news of it on the website anywhere. Damn, that's what I thought. Went online early for nothing.

Not blew up, but still got a jolt! How come King Mark was the only one kind enough to send me a heads up on this one! Thanks, KM! HUGE Rocky IV and also HUGE Transformers: The Movie (1986 animated one) fan, and DiCola scored both. I am so happy to finally have both in pristine, complete, CD quality! I got TF:TM's complete score in Rochester, NY at the 1997 BotCon where it was 1st released. Problem was, I literally JUST missed meeting DiCola by a minute or two, as he left right before I got there. Damn! I got the CD a couple of days ago and it is constantly playing while I work now. I blare it on a large surround system at work, and my brother, also a huge Rocky IV fan, gets to hear it too. "Heart's On Fire" and "Training Montage" are two of the best workout tracks of all time, and this soundtrack and score is generally loved as being a nice collection of great workout music. However, this Intrada CD score is JUST the unreleased score. The OST CD had no film versions, and two DiCola tracks were album recordings. Also, "Up the Mountain" is basically the finale to "Heart's On Fire", which was written by DiCola dn performed by John Cafferty, considered part of the score (IMO) and is the highlight song of that movie, played during both an inspirational training session and the end credits. With a skillful edit of the original soundtrack, you can combine the two to make the complete cue from the movie. If you have the original soundtrack (there is a 1st release and a 2006 remastsred release with vastly superior sound and an excellent bonus track - an unreleased Survivor song written for the movie and it should have made it, IMO), this is how to make the complete soundtrack. Directions to make a "complete" score from both CD releases and one edit (which is exactly 79 minutes and change soundtrack). It flows much better than the score alone: ROCKY IV: THE COMPLETE SOUNDTRACK Complete Soundtrack in Chronological Order: 1. Eye of the Tiger (Survivor) from OST CD 2. Gym (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 3. Paulie's Robot (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 4. Anniversary (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 5. Drago's Suite (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 6. Living in America (James Brown) from OST CD 7. Apollo's Death & Funeral (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 8. Stairs (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 9. No Easy Way Out (Robert Tepper) from OST CD 10. Rocky and Son (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 11. Burning Heart (Survivor) from OST CD 12. Training Montage [Film Version] (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 13a. Heart's On Fire (John Cafferty/Vince DiCola) from OST CD [EDIT END INTO...] 13b. Up the Mountain (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 14. Pre-Fight (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 15. Drago's Entrance (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 16. War [Film Version] (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 17. Knockout (Vince DiCola) from Score CD 18. Victory (Vince DiCola) from Score CD Bonus Tracks (Alternates & Source Music; Any order is OK, this was mine): 19. The Sweetest Victory (Touch) from OST CD - Unused 20. Man Against The World (Survivor) Bonus track from OST CD - Unused 21. Theme from ROCKY (Bill Conti, Arranged & Performed by Vince DiCola) from Score CD - Unused 22. Training Montage [Album Version] (Vince DiCola) from OST CD - Unused 23. War / Fanfare from Rocky [Album Version] (Vince DiCola) from OST CD - Unused Kinda' Worthless Bonus Tracks (Can Omit if desired as they are irrelevant to the context of the film): 24. Double or Nothing (Kenny Loggins & Gladys Knight) from OST CD (I believe it was source music on radio) 25. One Way Street (Robert Tepper) from OST CD (I believe this also was source music played on a radio during movie) *NOTE* Sweetest Victory on 2006 remastered OST CD seems to be an alternate mix than the original 1985 OST CD with different instrumentation. I prefer the 1985 mix, myself. All other track seem to just be remastered original versions. Thank you to Intrada! This was awesome! And a great birthday gift!!!!!!

Thank you for answering that for me. I have always wondered where that went, and that was my best guess. The title "Eye to Eye" always threw me off.

Wow. I was low on money and decided to wait until I got paid later this month and activated a new debit card. I figured 3,000 copies would last until my birthday later in May. Looks like I waited too long. This makes the first John Williams film score released on CD that I have missed since I got my 1st CD player in 1992. I have every single other one. And I will never pay more than $20-25 per pressed CD anymore. I used to pay $35 each for pressed bootlegs back before I got onto the internet in 2000 and found out they were boots. Scalpers ruin everything. In my life I have collected cards, comics, action figures/toys, collectibles, and John Williams CDs. When I first started collecting each, it was fun, and almost like a treasure hunt for that rare piece and collecting them all. Then, scalpers ruined each by hoarding and selling. Like others said though, eBay isn't evil, it's hoarder/scalper sellers and/or deadbeat bidders that are. I used eBay to fill a few small holes in my collection for $1-10 back in the early 2000s. Amazon seems a bit better that eBay for buying nowadays. I didn't used to think so. Well, I'll have to play the waiting game and try to get one cheap. I will not pay $50 on eBay like I see it there now. It's not like the FSM one wasn't collecting dust on my Williams CD shelf.

I was happily surprised when I received news of this release and ordered it quickly. I was also happy to receive it today! The sound quality is - as usual for FSM - excellent. There are parts that I had not noticed before due to the varying quality of material that I have heard through the years. Also, having it so pristine makes it almost as good as having a whole new score. The liner notes and the alternate cues also answered my questions as to why it seemed as if there was a confusing amount of music near the end of the film that sometimes did and sometimes didn't add up with the film. Now I know - two different endings were composed! Sweet! It all makes sense now! I had been starving for a new Williams release (what was the last one? None But The Brave? Been awhile, IMO), so this is an excellent one to get! IMO, this has been a somewhat underrated Williams score, probably because the lack of a legitimate release until now. I often work while listening to scores and I hadn't had much new of late. This now gives me something new to listen to. I'd like to thank all of the people at FSM - including our own Neil, who must be having a great time working behind the scenes on this stuff - for doing this! It filled a huge hole in my Williams collection (those other versions can now take an archival storage spot in the back). Now, as KM is always harping about, we need Family Plot! I agree. Perhaps because it isn't as melodic as other scores, but it certainly is a very good, intense, dramatic score.

One of my favorite John Williams scores. A masterpiece. Two tracks on that album are two of the best in Williams whole career library, IMO. I rank it with The Fury as the best two examples on why Williams should have kept scoring the horror/thriller/suspense type movies. The movie... um... it is a giant head case. I grant it originality and unpredictability, but it also tends to make one lose a piece of your sanity when one watches it. Everybody I show it to says the same thing: "That was messed up." Hard to believe that was Superman's mom. OH... and it DID have two releases. The official CD and the ultra-rare awards promo vinyl LP that the bootleg was made from. Does anybody have that LP? It has to be one of the rarest of all.

WOW! I never thought that this one would come out! I think I caught the very end of it one day on TV and remember the theme being good and wondering why it never saw an LP or CD. Ordered!