Superman II / III - 3CD Set from La-La Land Records INCLUDES NEW SOURCE MUSIC FROM SUPERMAN THE MOVIE

[Bespin 8,480]

Anyway someone may already pointed out before... that's a nightmare of a setlist for a CD set.

 

That's completely ridiculous to mix all that together.

 

Is it an hommage to old FSM CDs or what?

 

😝

[Omen II 1,235]

I received this in the mail today, which was very quick from the United States.  With no disrespect intended to Ken Thorne or Giorgio Moroder, I headed straight for the John Williams source cues on disc 2.  Lovely stuff!

[MrJosh 892]

So is it just me, or does the Superman: The Movie source music sound better here than on BlueBox? I don't have access to my  Blue Box tracks right now to do a comparison. Maybe it's just in my head, but I feel like it sounds clearer, with the drums on the rockier tracks having some more punch and "life" to them. 

 

Lois' Pad is pretty great. For a split second when the melody came in, I thought I was about to hear a smooth flugelhorn version of 'somewhere in my memory.'

 

 

Also cool to have the first opening bit of 'Lois Car Radio', since on the Blue Box the beginning was cut off. 

 

 

[Faleel 5,346]

1 hour ago, MrJosh said:

Also cool to have the first opening bit of 'Lois Car Radio', since on the Blue Box the beginning was cut off. 

 

 

Interesting, Never noticed!

It also has a clean end now.

[Bespin 8,480]

So, some source tracks are conducted by John Williams on this new set, can someone confirm that please?

[Omen II 1,235]

33 minutes ago, Bespin said:

So, some source tracks are conducted by John Williams on this new set, can someone confirm that please?

 

Tracks 6 to 16 on disc 2 are the source cues from Superman: The Movie.  While the liner notes do not explicitly state that John Williams conducted the pieces, no other conductor is mentioned and they do state: "John Williams recorded several pieces intended to emanate from car radios or stereos.  All the John Williams source music was recorded at Anvil Studios."

[Bespin 8,480]

Are the credits more specific in the blue box regarding these source tracks?

[mstrox 6,651]

If you haven’t asked on FSM, I’d pop in there.  Matessino occasionally pops in with clarification.  Or, if you post in the LLL Questions thread, maybe MV from LLL swill answer

[Bespin 8,480]

I ask here!!!

[Jay 37,352]

Of course Williams conducted all the source music from Superman: The Movie.  Who else would have?

[Bespin 8,480]

Ok thanks.

[Jay 37,352]

He composed it too, you know.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Bespin cares not what Williams composes!  If perform it he did not, the discography it makes not!

[Bespin 8,480]

20 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Bespin cares not what Williams composes!  If perform it he did not, the discography it makes not!

 

Not totally true, as I have a section called “discography as a composer” too on my pages...

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

Yeah! Take that, blondie! 

 

Ps; Bes, it's "section" 

[phbart 609]

Just got back from a 40th anniversary screening of Superman The Movie. Damn, how good the music sounded blasting through the speakers. Moviegoers from 70's should appreciate how lucky they were.

[JohnnyD 1,223]

4 hours ago, phbart said:

Just got back from a 40th anniversary screening of Superman The Movie. Damn, how good the music sounded blasting through the speakers. Moviegoers from 70's should appreciate how lucky they were.

 

Amen! I too saw the 40th anniversary showing. I will never forget seeing it on the big screen. I saw the 30th anniversary screening of Jaws, the 40th anniversary screening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the 35th anniversary screening of E.T., the 20th anniversary 3D release of Jurassic Park (and 25th anniversary screening), and I will be seeing the 25th anniversary screening of Schindler's List. It is an entire experience seeing these on the big screen. I'll never forget it.

[phbart 609]

It's almost like a religious experience. I did caught Jaws, E.T. and RotLA on the big screen too, but it was random screenings, not a specific anniversary celebration, while CE3K was the 40th anniversary and JP was the 25th anniversary (the 20th anniversary didn't reach my planet).

 

Dunno if SL-25th will reach my planet...

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

On 12/4/2018 at 9:11 PM, phbart said:

...Moviegoers from 70's should appreciate how lucky they were.

We do. To hear the music in 6-track magnetic stereo, in 1978, was - and this is not a word I use often - awesome!

[phbart 609]

I can imagine. Watching it in 70mm and in 6-track must have been quite an experience.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

Believe you me, @phbart, it was. When I saw SUPERMAN, for the first time, on its opening weekend, in London, it was the most exhilarating film I'd ever seen. I loved it then, and I love it now.

[Faleel 5,346]

Does the spine on this thing bother anyone else's OCD?

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

I haven't seen it..but it probably will. How is it?

[Faleel 5,346]

2 hours ago, Luke Skywalker said:

I haven't seen it..but it probably will. How is it?

III is on the left, and II on the right, making it look like III comes first.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Um....ugh

Can it be fixed if one puts the cd case facing the other way around? I'll do that I suppose.

[Faleel 5,346]

7 minutes ago, Luke Skywalker said:

Um....ugh

Can it be fixed if one puts the cd case facing the other way around? I'll do that I suppose.

I suppose, but then the front is facing left and the back facing right, and the words read down to up instead of up to down.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Damnnnnn

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

On 1/30/2019 at 12:35 AM, Faleel J.M. said:

I suppose, but then the front is facing left and the back facing right, and the words read down to up instead of up to down.

Damn, in Jurassic park collection and AI complete the spines are equal on both sides, that's why o though it could be fixxed. But it seems recently LLL spine-covers layout is reverted. If they had used the JP layout and since it can be seen on the promo picture of the covers, one cover has both spines saying superman II and the other has both spines for Superman III, it could have been perfect.. but.. as always weird creative decisions are made...

[Dr. Rick 1,157]

Damn thanks for pointing this out guys now my OCD is kicking in LOL...

 

[Croweyes1121 14]

This is probably a stupid question, but has that warbling distortion always been there around 35 seconds in on the track “Daddy’s Rise and Fall”?  It’s there in the blue box version, too...but if it was intentional, it certainly sounds...very strange.

[Jay 37,352]

Back in stock!

 

https://lalalandrecords.com/superman-ii-iii-limited-edition-3-cd-set/

[bruce marshall 1,315]

On 10/2/2018 at 10:34 AM, Jay said:

We watched the first 2 episodes.  It's basically a Black Mirror ripoff, with much less bite and polish (and budget).  The Anna Paquin episode was actually a pretty interesting story, though not executed too gracefully, and then we saw one about a small group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world that were trying to beat this AI that had gone rogue in a warehouse.  It was not good.  I kinda wanted to give the rest of the season a try, but then too many other good shows came out.

You should have stuck with it.

Some very good eps and VERY good music.

Not a BM ripoff.

On 12/6/2018 at 12:53 AM, Naïve Old Fart said:

We do. To hear the music in 6-track magnetic stereo, in 1978, was - and this is not a word I use often - awesome!

You're telling ME????!!!!????!😊

[Brando 1,863]

Very late to the Superman party, but this past Sunday my local flashback movie theater showed Superman, which was amazing in theaters, and tonight I decided to rewatch the sequels again. So I started with 2, and I own the Richard Donner cut on blu ray. Now I’m not familiar with anything regarding the Superman scores, so during the opening titles, it said “Music by John Williams”. I thought Ken Thorne did the score? And does anyone know how the expansion goes with the theatrical release versus the Donner cut?

[HunterTech 990]

Donner and Michael Thau decided on reusing the score to the original movie for the cut when they couldn't get Williams to make a new one due to scheduling conflicts. They only resort to using Thorne's work in the few areas where the previous music didn't have an appropriate piece for a scene.

 

The FSM/LLL releases are going to strictly adhere to the theatrical cut, since there's no real point in releasing what's effectively a heavily cut up version of a widely available soundtrack.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

7 hours ago, HunterTech said:

Donner and Michael Thau decided on reusing the score to the original movie for the cut when they couldn't get Williams to make a new one due to scheduling conflicts.

So it is true that they approached JW to score the RDC?

Do you have a link, for this?

[Amer 2,099]

I remember reading somewhere on Williams passing SUPERMAN RETURNS scoring assignment because of Christopher Reeve's untimely passing as they were both great friends. If that is true then this might be also for the same reason.

[Bespin 8,480]

No, it's because the movie was directed by Bryan Singer.

[Brando 1,863]

10 hours ago, HunterTech said:

Donner and Michael Thau decided on reusing the score to the original movie for the cut when they couldn't get Williams to make a new one due to scheduling conflicts. They only resort to using Thorne's work in the few areas where the previous music didn't have an appropriate piece for a scene.

 

The FSM/LLL releases are going to strictly adhere to the theatrical cut, since there's no real point in releasing what's effectively a heavily cut up version of a widely available soundtrack.

I was kinda afraid this was the case….so I guess the “Music by John Williams” credit isn’t entirely untrue 

[Andy 4,123]

18 hours ago, Brando said:

Very late to the Superman party, but this past Sunday my local flashback movie theater showed Superman, which was amazing in theaters, and tonight I decided to rewatch the sequels again. So I started with 2, and I own the Richard Donner cut on blu ray. Now I’m not familiar with anything regarding the Superman scores

Man, welcome to the party and enjoy the journey.  Even though  Ken Thorne reworks JW, he does some nice stuff, if you can get past a smaller sounding recording.  The latter half of the S3 score is where Thorne really starts to breakaway and do his own thing. It’s not Williams of course, but it’s I think rather underappreciated due to being in Williams’s shadow. 
 

Have you gotten to the score for IV yet?  Because that’s a whole different ballgame. 
 

Enjoy!

[Amer 2,099]

12 hours ago, Amer said:

I remember reading somewhere on Williams passing SUPERMAN RETURNS scoring assignment because of Christopher Reeve's untimely passing as they were both great friends. If that is true then this might be also for the same reason.

Ok. I checked with Jim Bowers who runs The Caped Wonder Superman website and his Facebook forums. He confirmed that Williams was ‘never’ asked to do the Donner’s Director Cut of Superman II.

[HunterTech 990]

Yeah, I was fairly certain immediately after I made my post that someone had debunked it for me based on particular bits of information provided, but I couldn't find when I was told. Given how the new visual effects turned out, I don't think they would've had the money for it anyway (plus the whole thing regarding JW being too sad about Reeves passing to want to do more with the franchise).

It's definitely one of the big indicators that the Donner cut needed either more refining or a rethink, since some of the music edits in it are terrible. Not helping is the strict reliance to the original recording, since someone suggested once that they could've used the Debney re-recording to at least make it feel a bit different if they wanted as little as possible from Lester's work.

[Brando 1,863]

17 hours ago, Andy said:

Man, welcome to the party and enjoy the journey.  Even though  Ken Thorne reworks JW, he does some nice stuff, if you can get past a smaller sounding recording.  The latter half of the S3 score is where Thorne really starts to breakaway and do his own thing. It’s not Williams of course, but it’s I think rather underappreciated due to being in Williams’s shadow. 
 

Have you gotten to the score for IV yet?  Because that’s a whole different ballgame. 
 

Enjoy!

I’ve listened to a few pieces from Quest for Peace. I’ve only seen the movie all the way thru twice but last time, which was a few months ago, I noticed there’s quite a few reprises of the main theme. I noticed the opening titles starts with a strange beat too, like an off start almost.

[Andy 4,123]

Quest for Peace's Main Title is based on an alternate early Main Title for Superman the Movie.  I'm probably telling you things you already know, but IV has new themes written by Williams, adapted by Courage.  A new love theme for Lacey the new love interest, a childlike theme for a boy named Jeremy in the film that presage's Childhood from Hook, and the bad guy Nuclear Man Theme.  DEFINITELY check it out and probably ignore the film.

There is a LOT of material that was not used in the film, so highly recommended.

[Brando 1,863]

5 hours ago, Andy said:

Quest for Peace's Main Title is based on an alternate early Main Title for Superman the Movie.  I'm probably telling you things you already know, but IV has new themes written by Williams, adapted by Courage.  A new love theme for Lacey the new love interest, a childlike theme for a boy named Jeremy in the film that presage's Childhood from Hook, and the bad guy Nuclear Man Theme.  DEFINITELY check it out and probably ignore the film.

There is a LOT of material that was not used in the film, so highly recommended.

Ironically, I love how the Jaws franchise and the Superman franchise and the Batman franchise are all very similar in the first movie and the sequels

 

On a side note, is there a document anywhere which states which cues from Superman are reused in the Richard Donner cut of Superman 2?

[HunterTech 990]

Just assume it's all of them, cause even the movies following II tend to be very reliant on using a bunch of material from I in the oddest of places. It's gonna matter more if it works decently enough as a standalone thing (for which the RDC simply does not).

[Andy 4,123]

Right. The Donner Cut music would be hard to listen to outside the film. At least the Ken Thorne  material has a new motif for Zod, and expands upon the “Clark Loses His Nerve” motif in some creative ways.   II/III are a reworking or recycling for which your mileage may vary, but I can’t imagine anyone wanting to recreate the microedits of the Donner Cut. 

[Brando 1,863]

3 hours ago, Andy said:

but I can’t imagine anyone wanting to recreate the microedits of the Donner Cut. 

Just for fun maybe!

[Amer 2,099]

I think somebody did that list before. I’m sure I have it in my archives somewhere. I’ll try digging this out…

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

Please do, @Amer. I'd love to hear it.

Is there an iso on the Blu?

[GerateWohl 4,357]

I had the OST of Superman II on LP and as far as I remember, there was not one note on it that hadn't been originally already written by John Williams for Superman The Motion Picture. But it contained tracks, that weren't on the Superman OST.