Close Encounters Questions

[GoodMusician 56]

So yea.... this may be dumb but I thought I'd ask about it.

We all are familiar with the original release of Close Encounters which then of course contained the score as written by Williams.

Then there is the Special Edition. I'm not too familiar with this but I know that there was music composed at least for SOME of the new shots (such as Roy in the Spaceship). This having been shot and done months after the original film came out and only being done because the original release did so well, it leads me to conclude that williams was brought back onto the project.

Then of course you have the Directors cut which we're all familiar with, restoring the original ideas from the first edit with the new ideas spielberg wanted from the 2nd edit.

Now as far as the score goes, I'm watching the Special Edition at this moment and I just got to the discovery of the barge in the Gobi Desert and I was curious because this track isn't on the soundtrack.

Right now from what I can tell, the track list should be:

01) Main Titles

02) Navy Planes

03) Lost Squadron

04) Roy's First Encounter

05) Encounter at Crescendo Summit

06) Chasing UFO's

-07) Roy and Gillian

-08) The Cotopaxi (Tracked 'Mountain' Alternate?)

-09) Foam Mountain/ Pillow shapes

10) Halloween for Grownups (False Alarms)

11) Barry's Kidnapping Part I (Album Release)

12) Barry's Kidnapping Part II (Album Release)

-13) Barry's Kidnapping Part I (Film Alternate)

-14) Barry's Kidnapping Part II (Film Alternate)

15) The Cover-Up

16) Forming the Mountain

17) TV Reveals

18) Roy and Gillian on the Road

19) The Mountain (Film Version?)

-20) The Mountain (Alternate?)

21) Who are you People?

22) The Escape

23) The Escape (Alternate)

---Film Version Highly Edited in next few tracks---

24) Trucking (Unused)

25) Climbing the Mountain

26) Outstretch Hands

27) Lightshow

28) Brainstorming

29) The Mothership

30) Wild Signals

31) The Returnees

32) The Visitors

-33) The Tall One (insert?)

-34) Roy in Mothership (Insert)

35) Goodbye

36) End Titles

possible source -

The 10 Commandments - 11th Commandment?

Johnny Mathis - "Chances Are"

Cartoon - Duck Rogers in the 24th and 1/2 Century meets Martian

The Greeting

-CE3K Disco

I'm not familiar enough with the score to recognize tracked music but I had heard there was a bootleg floating around that had some unused/alternate/unreleased tracks on it and was curious if anyone had ever worked out the complete cue list to this to figure out what has been written, released, and what hasn't.

[gkgyver 1,646]

I support that curiosity and contribute some of my own.

[Ollie 1,069]

I believe it's a tracked cue from "The Mountain" on the expanded CD. I think the music starts at the 2:54 mark on the cue.

[GoodMusician 56]

I believe it's a tracked cue from "The Mountain" on the expanded CD. I think the music starts at the 2:54 mark on the cue.

You know, you're right that it seems to quote a small bit of that but the section before the solo timpani hits seems to be similar as well...

in the CD track, it's the strings throbbing rather evenly with the brass underneath.

in the Cotopaxi scene, it's the horns that are throbbing, slowly, over a string chord.

Also, after the quoted section, things differ so perhaps the music used here is an ALTERNATE to "The Mountain" and not a new track.

But why would Williams score the scene Spielberg didn't WANT in the film at all over the shot he most desperately wanted lol

[Ollie 1,069]

Perhaps.

You know that's the one thing that's never been discussed, what John Williams wrote for the Special Edition.

It's obvious he wrote a new End Credit cue and one for the inside of the mother ship but no mention has ever been made of the actual music or tracked pieces.

[GoodMusician 56]

what about Barry's Abduction. Special Edition at least uses an alternate intro. Any talk about that ever?

EDIT: I'm checking now and quite a bit utilizes an alternate. Only at two points can you tell they jump from one to another. Once during the clouds in the intro. You can hear an edit right after the strings enter, there is an edit, this jumps to the album version.

This continues on for some time until it fades out as they hear people on the roof.

The music meant to go here isn't used from the album version and it's possible that the alternate had a different version as well which does come back in when she reaches into the chimney. Its hard to tell what of this is alternate music or sfx, but when the shades open revealing the bright light, I THINK that is still alternate music but the humming of the sfx continue until the carpet lifts itself up.

Then the album music comes back in as the grate unscrews itself and pops out. The rest is also the album version but is missing the finale.

[Ollie 1,069]

No.

[GoodMusician 56]

and the short fan fare in The Cover-Up that plays just as the piggly wiggly sign is put on the truck? It sounds tracked but anyone know where from?

Along with the rest of the track which is different from whats on the album...

[Ollie 1,069]

Actually that's two cues, part of it is from "Stars and Trucks" and the second half is from the begining of "Who Are You People?" on the expanded CD.

On the original CD you can hear part of the fanfare (Stars and Trucks) on the cue "Nocturnal Pursuit".

[GoodMusician 56]

Cool, I figured someone would know. I'm still going through the film. Had to take a break for a phone call but back to it now.

So I finished the film.

Curious... when the tall alien emerges, it's not seen going back in... but the music almost from when "The Visitors" starts, to showing that the tall alien is gone, is all unreleased.

It also sounds like it was just leading into something... and as stated, no shot of him re-entering... so maybe there's more?

anyone know anything about this cue?

[Guest macrea]

The tall alien sequence was added later and was created editorially (spectators, people running away, etc.). It was tracked with a combination of music from the beginning of Barry's abduction and the big religious chord for the arrival of the mother ship. You can tell that if you eliminate that whole section with tracked music then "The Appearance of the Visitors" would play in its original form. The door to the ship opens again and the little aliens all start emerging. At some point it was probably decided that this was not a dramatic enough first appearance of the aliens, and so the spider-like advance scout alien scene was created.

[GoodMusician 56]

interesting... interesting... sometimes the music starts to sound familiar and I can't tell if it's new or not... and they did some nice edits with the tracking here... and as with most spielberg, the tracked parts are almost deceiving and sound like new parts...

I did notice that without it, the scene would play out perfectly fine so I was curious why it was even there lol... that's helps cool...

So now we're down to figuring out the "Barry Abduction" music, the "Roy in the Mothership" the "Roy and Gillian" and that "Foam Mountain" sting...

[Luke Skywalker 1,807]

thre is some unrelased short cues, but i lost them. i think melange had them...

[fommes 154]

There was also somebody here who ripped (?) and distributed a short unreleased cue a whole while ago, but I lost it too unfortunately...

[Miguel Andrade 1,267]

I have that cue on a back up CD-R... It may take me a while to find it, but I'm sure I still have it.

Also, don't forget the "11th Commandment". This is source music that underscored the "10 commandments" as it was played on the television at Dreyfuss family home.

[GoodMusician 56]

ah yes, forgot about that....

the 11th commandment? Having never seen the movie, forgive my ignorance, but I do know the biblical story...

there's an 11th? That sounds more like a comedy title from History of the Earth lol... not 10 Commandments lol...

Oh well... cool, that is another source.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

It's the title of the cue. A joke, no doubt...

[JoeinAR 1,949]

ah yes, forgot about that....

the 11th commandment? Having never seen the movie, forgive my ignorance, but I do know the biblical story...

there's an 11th? That sounds more like a comedy title from History of the Earth lol... not 10 Commandments lol...

Oh well... cool, that is another source.

you didn't know, there are really 11, but they always count 2 as one, in either #1 or #2. Williams once stated in an interview about this, he made it his own inside joke.

[GoodMusician 56]

well, I know that there is some difference between where the lines are drawn on the last few as the protestant 10 commandments and the catholic 10 commandments differ... but we digress...

I'm going to try watching the original, and see how it differs, if at all really,from whats in the Special Edition.

I did notice a MARKED sound change in the inserted "Roy in the Mothership" sequence. the music was much better sounding... as opposed to the rest of the score which was a dead (upper frequency loss) at times.

So I've never seen the original Close Encounters. Some REALLY interesting changes were made...

That seeing the shape in the pillow and the shaving cream... I can't quite tell if they're the same cue used twice but it's definitely unreleased either way.

[Guest macrea]

I seem to recall reading that the "inside" S/E cue was recorded with the Boston Pops. And for the end credits, the instrumental version of "When You Wish Upon a Star" was recorded in 1977 as an alternative to using the actual song from Pinocchio. The latter was used for the Dallas preview and when it didn't seem to work they dropped the whole idea and used tracked music. The instrumental was put back in for the S/E in 1980, but in 1998 they used the '77 version music for the C/E but put the instrumental on the expanded soundtrack.

[GoodMusician 56]

so I got the 30th anniversary edition of the film and it came with all three edits and a cd of the original LP...

can someone tell me where the first half of "Nocturnal Chase" came from... it sounds like part of "Roys First Encounter"...

I know the second half is "The Cover-Up" which then goes back to that part I'm not sure about... anyone able to help me out with that?

EDIT: The first 2 minutes of "Night Seige" also sounds almost completely unfamiliar...

The Conversation is also an alternate take than presented on the SE...

[Ollie 1,069]

It sounds like that cue was re-recorded for the album release, it's the cue you described. The second half is just Williams wrapping up the cue. He bookends it with the pursuit music.

[GoodMusician 56]

It's definitely edited back on. Sort of how on the Episode III Album, "General Grevious" is really the two cues connected, with a reprise of the end of the first at the end to give it a different finale.

As far as the re-recording of "Roys First Encounter", it definitely sounds like it... but I'd be more inclined to say it was an alternate becuase of how different it is...