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Michael Kamen's DIE HARD - 30th Anniversary 3CD Edition from La-La Land Records


crocodile

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On 11/15/2018 at 11:07 AM, Brundlefly said:

I saved a lot of money lately, so no matter how many Williams or Goldsmith titles will be in the batch, I'll order them all!

 

The only thing that bothers me is Varese's Dracula. No chance to get it for less than around 60$.

 

I paid 37€.

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Just read some pretty neat info about this release in the FSM thread

 

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My only concern is the Attention Police cue which was different on the Varese and LLL 2011/17 releases. The Varese presented the film version whereas the LLL 2011/17 release had an alternate version of that cue. And the difference between the two versions was not some subtle and barely noticeable instrument arrangement in the background but a very obvious one: the addition of a synth overlay on the alternate version. Even if it was not a major problem, this will hopefully be corrected on this new release.

 

"Attention Police" is presented as the full cue on disc 1, track 23 with the synth present through the entire cue. A separate pick-up opening was recorded without the synth and is on disc 2, track 17.

Neil

 

 

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Which track on this set corresponds to ‘TV Station’ from the previous LLL release?

 

19. Yippee Ki-Yay
It was actually written for the scene when McClane talks to Hans on the walky-talky.

 

 

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And great you’re digging that “Message to Holly” cue as well. That has always been one my favorite cues of Michael’s. Without spoiling anything, let me just say you’ll be very surprised about what was recorded for that scene and what ended up being used in the film.

 

Regarding the “Bill Clay” part in “TV station”, I'm working with the Kamen Estate and with the DIE HARD session paperwork at hand I can give you the definitive answer to your question 🙂


It is the same recording as in “Bill Clay”. The orchestra for the “Bill Clay Part 2” cue is actually a wild take called 10MX. Michael originally suggested for it to be used in the “His Bag Is Missing” scene (7M1) and “Bill Clay” conversation between McClane and Gruber (10M2). He then created a Kurzweil overdub to specifically accentuate the latter scene and the cue was mixed for 10M2. It was obviously not used as “His Bag Is Missing” but both slate numbers (7M1 & 10M2) remained in the documentation and that is the reason why it has been following the “TV station” cue (6M5). 

 

This set is absolutely fantastic and I’m sure you (and any other DIE HARD & Kamen fan) will love it!

 

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 I haven't seen the booklet yet and don't want to spoil anything for you, aside from the fact that it would also be unfair towards Eric Lichtenfeld and Jeff Bond who did the liner notes for the release. So let's just wait before I go all in on those details and slate numbers 😉

 

One story I can share though is how we found the missing reel in Michael's LA storage: FOX had provided all of their DIE HARD material for the Estate's digital library and there was one multitrack reel missing, which you can imagine was pretty frustrating. From the documentation and a magnetic sessions tape (that had no Kurzweil overdubs and was therefore unusable), it was evident that the cues in question were the original Main Title, as well as "Bill Clay Part 1" (10M1 - originally slated as 10M0) and "John Is Found Out" (9M1). Ironically both cues were heavily doctored with for the film using the multitracks, so no chance to ever recreate those versions, or so I thought 😉

 

About a year later, we found a bunch of Word documents for the contents of some VERY old boxes in the LA storage. Out of curiosity I skipped through them and one just read "DIE HARD reel, 1M1, 10M0, 9M1". I couldn’t believe what I saw and thought the chances of that reel containing the exact same cues that were missing was too much of a coincidence to be one. So I asked the Estate's LA team to take some pictures and (as you can probably guess) it really was the missing reel!


Now, why the heck it ended up with Michael's personal recordings I can't say but I'm really happy that it turned up after just lying there for 30 years, haha!

So, long story short, we (and I mean all of us DIE HARD fans here) got those cues in good quality plus the respective film mixes because I spontaneously decided to read through some old documentation files that we had found on some hard drive. And I'm not saying this to celebrate myself (lol) but to point out through which crazy circumstances these things turn up sometimes!

 

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True, the "archaeological research" stories behind those releases is just as fascinating as hearing them. I've read the booklet. It's mostly the same stuff that they had for previous releases but with updated information here and there. I always loved those notes as they go quite in depth into both film production and score analysis.

 

There are some really interesting alternates on this set as well. There's tons of new material to discover.

 

Karol

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Roger Feigelson took to the internet to speak about this release in the FSM thread

 

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Sound quality is amazing and well worth the upgrade.

 

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I listened to this set all the way through last night.  The difference in the version is remarkable.  I'm extremely grateful they did this title again.  It is such an iconic action score.  I still prefer Kamen's work on Lethal Weapon to this, but finally hearing it complete and cohesive really elevated it in my opinion.  

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6 hours ago, Demondm810 said:

I listened to this set all the way through last night.  The difference in the version is remarkable.  I'm extremely grateful they did this title again.  It is such an iconic action score.  I still prefer Kamen's work on Lethal Weapon to this, but finally hearing it complete and cohesive really elevated it in my opinion.  

Yes, you go from "huh?" to "again?" to "you've got to be kidding me? third release?" to "hmm maybe there's a good reason for this" to "I actually kind of want it" to "this is awesome!"

 

Karol

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I listened to it this week and enjoyed it very much.  Haven't really dug into the bonus tracks yet (other than Kamen's Christmas rap!!), just the main score program from beginning to end is very solid and sounds great.

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17 hours ago, Jay said:

It's the kind of thing where if the labels had waited until a proper element was found, this would be the first release, and there wouldn't be any complaints about it.

 

I know it's probably not financially preferred for most.  But I've actually enjoyed the releases that they keep tinkering with.  I'm so appreciative of always trying to make it sound better, include more, etc. 

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19 hours ago, crocodile said:

Once people hear it, there will be no complaints to be had at all. Everything is justified the moment you hear the twisted sleigh bells of Main Titles. :)

 

giphy.gif

 

Karol

 

Agreed.  This is worth the triple dipping...that is if you bought the previous two releases.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/29/2018 at 3:55 PM, Jay said:

It's the kind of thing where if the labels had waited until a proper element was found, this would be the first release, and there wouldn't be any complaints about it.

 

Yes, and if men waited a decade or two for their the younger mistresses to be born, there wouldn't be so many divorces... 

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  • 5 months later...

FSM user MINK has been restoring Kamen's original intentions to scenes that got replaced with tracked music in the final cut

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=135774&forumID=1&archive=0

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Oh sure, but it's a bummer the director didn't ask, or maybe did but there just wasn't time or whatever - for Kamen to re-score it for that mood/tone, instead of tracking in music already used

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I had wondered where that particular piece would start in the film.  I think the tracked John Scott and James Horner music works a lot better.

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Woops! I messed up before and posted one of the same videos twice instead of 3 different videos. I edited my post to add in the missing video - it's Shoot the Glass, and it's the best one of the bunch! 

 

I don't remember exactly how the music went in the final cut, but Kamen's original intentions work great. Check it out! 

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2 hours ago, Jay said:

I don't remember exactly how the music went in the final cut, but Kamen's original intentions work great. Check it out! 

 

In the film, it was a mixture of "Tony and John Fight" and "The Battle/Freeing The Hostages" 

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 6/24/2019 at 10:07 AM, Thekthithm said:

Hmm sometimes composers get it really wrong.

Call me crazy, but I think all three worked wonderfully. Granted, the tone of the finale would have been far different, but not in a bad way. I'm sure the adoration for it would be universal had this music been used in lieu of tracked music and temp track love.

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59 minutes ago, Goldsmithfan said:

Call me crazy, but I think all three worked wonderfully. Granted, the tone of the finale would have been far different, but not in a bad way. I'm sure the adoration for it would be universal had this music been used in lieu of tracked music and temp track love.

 

Would it, though? There's obviously a reason the filmmakers junked those tracks, which was based on what they wanted tonally. If they felt that it wasn't working, then by extension we'd feel the same way. Sure it's okay music on its own, but not all scores or their tracks within are created equal.

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Has anyone put together a nice google doc for this complicated score?  I feel all the information is out there, but all spread out

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/26/2019 at 1:48 AM, Thekthithm said:

 

Would it, though? There's obviously a reason the filmmakers junked those tracks, which was based on what they wanted tonally. If they felt that it wasn't working, then by extension we'd feel the same way. Sure it's okay music on its own, but not all scores or their tracks within are created equal.

So there's a guarantee that we'd all have felt exactly as the filmmakers did? That's a new one.

 

For my money, the piece from Man on Fire was always way too saccharine for the scene where it was used. And don't even get me started on the use of music from Aliens.

 

Hey! I don't feel the same way as the filmmakers! What is happening???

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  • 9 months later...

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