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EARTHQUAKE - LLL Music Discussion


Jay

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The thread for the box set as a whole will be filled with discussion of ordering, shipping, receiving, delays, excitement, etc etc for a while, so here's a thread to simply discuss the musical content (and liner notes) of EARTHQUAKE without all that clutter. 

 

Discuss away!! 

 

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EARTHQUAKE

 

THE 1974 SOUNDTRACK ALBUM RECORDING 38:46
1 Main Title, EARTHQUAKE 2:52
2 Miles On Wheels 2:29
3 City Theme 2:57
4 Something For Rosa 3:18
5 Love Scene 2:19
6 The City Sleeps 2:34
7 Love Theme 2:27
8 Cory In Jeopardy 2:24
9 Something For Remy 3:49
10 Miles’ Pool Hall 2:12
11 Watching And Waiting / Sam’s Rescue 2:42
12 Finale, End Title 1:50

 

ALBUM / SINGLE TRACKS (With Sound Effects)
13 Main Title, Earthquake 2:57
14 Medley (Watching & Waiting / Miles’ Pool Hall / Sam’s Rescue) 3:47

 

THE FILM SCORE RECORDING 39:57
15 Earthquake — Main Title 2:45
16 A Crack In The Dam 2:09
17 Lunch With Remy 1:56
18 Something For Rosa (Film Version) 3:00
19 Stewart And Denise (Love Scene) 2:28
20 Motordrome / Miles On Wheels 1:28
21 Jody’s Trophies / Sam's Private Thoughts 1:57
22 Aftermath :56
23 Chair Lift / Cory In Jeopardy 2:46
24 Sam’s Rescue 2:32
25 Refugees And Looters 1:59
26 Jody Loses Control 1:28
27 Jammed Door And The Death Of Jody 1:41
28 The Tunnel 2:35
29 Washed Away 1:30
30 EARTHQUAKE – End Titles 2:18

 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC
31 Aftermath (Alternate) :53
32 Refugees And Looters (Alternate) 2:00
33 Earthquake — Main Title (Alternate Mix) 2:45
Total Disc Time: 78:55

 

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Looking forward to reading writer Jon Burlingame's extensive liner notes about the John Williams score to the Mark Robson production of "Earthquake". 

 

I'm really glad this definitive version of the soundtrack has come about for old and new audiences alike as part of the Disaster Movie Music Collection. Mr. Burlingame is well respected in the Hollywood soundtrack community and I'm sure he will have some insight into this new edition that will ensure a great read as we sift through the music.  Highly qualified, he writes for entertainment trade papers and I believe teaches film music at U.S.C. 

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40 minutes ago, Bespin said:

Oh I realize I didn’t read  the booklet of the last dozen of CDs I’ve just purchased.

 

Do we have to do it realy?

 

Of course not. Nobody can force you to do anything!

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EARTHQUAKE was the second JW OST that I bought (the first was THE TOWERING INFERNO), and I remember liking it, from day one. It was different from TTI; not so "grand", not so "epic", but still having strong melodic lines, and good sound (which TTI definitely did not).

Although TTI will always remain a very special score, for me, I'm very much looking forward to listening to the C+C EARTHQUAKE.

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I would be very surprised that my set would show up earlier this year, as I didn't ordered yet!

 

Can you remember me to order it in january please?

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10 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

That's a lot of errors within two lines, Bespin.

Brundlefly,

Essaie de nous pondre ta phrase en deux versions, s'il te plait: :lovethis:

1- En Français Québecois

2- En Français tout court

 

 

Et le bonjour chez toi!

Au plaisir

:lol:

Just kidding!

 

 

 

(Salut Bespin)

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14 hours ago, Bespin said:

I would be very surprised that my set would show up earlier this year, as I didn't ordered yet!

 

Can you remember me to order it in january please?

 

Thanks Reverso!

I would be very surprised if my set arrived on time this year, since I haven’t even ordered it yet!
Can you remind me to order it in January?

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You don't have 34 minutes to set aside to listen and find out?

 

I'm unaware of anyone having cobbled together and posted a list like that anywhere

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On 12/26/2019 at 6:16 PM, Omen II said:

I was lucky enough to receive this from Father Christmas yesterday and played it through for the first time this afternoon.  It is such a thrill to finally have the film score recording, but a few words on the remastered 1974 soundtrack album recording to start with; while I never had any problem with the sound on the Varese Sarabande CD (which was actually the first John Williams score CD I bought back in the day!), the remastered sound on this new CD is phenomenal.  I particularly noticed how much clearer the horns were on Love Theme, for example, but in every track I hear details I had not noticed before.

 

The separation of the album versions of Miles' Pool Hall and Sam's Rescue into individual tracks - as per Williams's original intention - is also great.  These two tracks could rightfully be asterisked with [* includes previously unreleased music], as both include significant amounts of music not heard in the Medley track, simply because it was faded in or faded out to create that Frankenstein's monster of an album track, much as I have always loved it.  When I heard the clean opening of Miles' Pool Hall I thought they had switched reels on me there for a few seconds!

 

The film score recording is fantastic to have.  I have wanted to hear this music in good quality ever since I first watched the film years ago and realised that the music in the film was a different recording than what was on the soundtrack CD.  I expected that if ever the music saw the light of day, it would at best be like one of those archival recordings Cloud 9 Records used to release with more pops and crackles than Edison singing Mary Had A Little Lamb, but not a bit of it - the sound on this is remarkably good.  Although I was familiar with most of the unreleased music, there is so much of it that can finally be heard properly outside the film.  Much of the cue Washed Away is pretty much inaudible in the film due to the sound effects, but now it can be heard in all its glory.  There are also cues that are partially or even mostly dialled out in the film but can now be heard in full (I'm looking at you, Something For Rosa).

 

I also love having the two versions of Aftermath, for a long time one of my most wanted unreleased Williams confections.  The fascinating unused cue does not sound quite sad enough somehow, almost as if the music is reflecting the awesomeness of the natural forces at work rather than the devastation wrought by the quake.  This is a great release and finally presents the music the way it deserves and in a way much more representative of the score as heard in the film.  I think it's beautiful!

 

 

Mono or stereo?

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7 hours ago, King Mark said:

yeah I know . I'm asking what cues on this c.d. was never re-recorded and we had never heard before in any form before

 

I have not watched the film recently in tandem with the wonderful new CD, but I believe these are the film score recording tracks not represented at all on the album recording previously available:

 

[16] A Crack in the Dam - This consists of three or four cues from early in the film when assistant dam caretaker Max inspects the Mulholland Dam, when he convinces the Chief Inspector that the cracks should not be there and when Dr. Stockle receives a laughably brief telephone call informing him that Dr. Adams has been buried alive.

[20] Motordrome [0:00 to 0:46] - This is the cue where Miles shows off his new stunt ramp to Rosa.  Miles On Wheels was of course rerecorded and extended significantly for the album.

[21] Jody's Trophies / Sam's Private Thoughts - The music which accompanies Jody changing into his National Guard uniform, followed by a brief cue underscoring a conversation between Stewart and Sam at the Royce Building.

[22] Aftermath - The magnificent cue commenting on the devastated city immediately after the Big One.

[23] Chair Lift - This cue accompanies the improvised rescue by Sam and Stewart at the Royce Building using an office chair and a fire hose.

[25] Refugees and Looters - This fine cue starts with the National Guard motorcade driving through the ruined city.

[26] Jody Loses Control - The music which underscores Jody shooting dead his roommates in cold blood because they had been teasing him earlier in the film.

[27] Jammed Door [0:00 to 0:16] - Max notices that a door at the dam has shifted slightly and realises that the Mulholland Dam is about to break.  Note that The Death of Jody was rerecorded as the last part of the Watching and Waiting / Sam's Rescue album track.

[28] The Tunnel - Superb cue scoring Stewart Graff's crawl (assisted by Lew Slade) through the collapsed rubble of the Wilson Plaza to rescue the people trapped in the underground car park.

[29] Washed Away - The music from the climax of the movie as the storm drain is flooded before everyone is able to escape from the underground car park.

[31] Aftermath (Alternate)

[32] Refugees and Looters (Alternate)

 

I would also be inclined to include [17] Lunch with Remy, as although it is the same theme as the album track Something for Remy, the scoring and tempo are markedly different.  It would be a bit like not wanting to have the music for Darth Vader's Death because you already had The Imperial March.

 

4 hours ago, publicist said:

 

Mono or stereo?

 

According to Mike Matessino's liner notes, the original film score recording was

 

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derived from 1/2" 3-track split-mono analog master tapes from the Universal vaults, transferred in high resolution and carefully mixed to present an agreeable stereo soundscape.

 

The fact that I had to double check should indicate how good the sound is on this release.

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ok, that's quite a bit of previously unreleased music .I guess several album cues are extended because the album and film score have about the same total time

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55 minutes ago, King Mark said:

I guess several album cues are extended because the album and film score have about the same total time

 

That is certainly true, but it is worth noting that the soundtrack album rerecording also included some selections that cannot be heard as part of the now released film score recording:

 

[3] City Theme is Williams's lovely album-only arrangement of his theme for the city of Los Angeles.

[7] Love Theme is another album-only track which is essentially a poppier arrangement of the Love Scene music heard in track [5].

[10] Miles' Pool Hall is a rerecording of a source music cue heard in the bar where Miles chats with Lew, Rosa, Sal and others.  The film version of this source cue remains unreleased, as do a number of other source music cues heard in the movie.

[12] Finale, End Title was written for, but not ultimately included in the film as explained in the liner notes.  The film underwent some late cuts just prior to release, including a poignant conversation between Lew and Denise at the end of the picture.  I speculate that Williams's original version might have scored that deleted scene.  Instead a tracked portion of the Love Scene music is heard in the film just before the end title music starts.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So after cracking the box open, lighting a cigar and picking a quiet moment to dig into The Disaster Box, this was the first CD I listened to.

 

I haven’t seen the film, don’t know the score and am only familiar with “The City Theme” which I discovered as a re-recording a couple of years ago.

 

So I am basically going in blind.

 

I didn’t know what to expect, but certainly not this! Oh man, what a score!

 

Since it’s a score for a disaster movie, I guess I expected a lot of ‘action music’, maybe something like Black Sunday, but no.

 

The score is jazzy and melodic and I love it!

 

The sound quality is absolutely stunning. It sounds clear and pristine, no hiss and ready to go. The biggest give away that this score was recorded in the 70s is the sound production and arrangements - not the sound. Those funky guitars and post ‘60s jazz/pop rhythms just can’t be denied.

 

All in all, a very good impression from a first listen and I look forward to revisiting Earthquake to have my expectations “shook” again and again.

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  • 1 year later...

Listening to "Something for Rosa" album version right now. God what a dream to have lived in LA. I was watching an old Mickey Rooney movie the other day set on Catalina Island. What a great life it must have been to be part of Hollywood in those days. Just a forlorn dream for me stuck in Scotland. I defo want to go to Catalina for a holiday one day. 

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1 hour ago, Datameister said:

....love to visit Scotland right now. The grass is always [ GREENER] I suppose!

That's IRELAND- The Emerald Isle.

😉

7 hours ago, stravinsky said:

God what a dream to have lived in LA. 

Smog so bad they have to issue alerts....endless freeways always filled.up with traffic....

Strip malls where street shops once were...

Tract housing where farms and forests once were....an isolated, unaccountable police force who wear ' police abuse' as a badge of honor...😗

 

" Welcome to Los Angeles, City of Tomorrow"

 

 

 

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I wanted to like this movie for many years because it had an attraction at Universal Studios and it also has Charlton Heston, but aside from the disaster sequence, the focus of the attraction, it is in fact a disaster. 

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Cineastes who pine for the 70s - " the last Golden Age"- conveniently forget the wretched disaster flicks, in addition the endless ripoffs of EXORCIST, JAWS and FRENCH CONNECTION.

One reason STAR WARS was embraced was because it was something NEW and exciting!😍

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11 hours ago, stravinsky said:

Listening to "Something for Rosa" album version right now. God what a dream to have lived in LA. I was watching an old Mickey Rooney movie the other day set on Catalina Island. What a great life it must have been to be part of Hollywood in those days. Just a forlorn dream for me stuck in Scotland. I defo want to go to Catalina for a holiday one day. 

 

I was there in 2012. Kinda disappointing, but then I had completely misunderstood the "vibe" -- it was mostly for romantic couples, not single guys like myself. But I guess what makes it extra irritating is that I had to decline a party at Christopher Young's house to go there -- I had pre-booked the stay, and I couldn't afford to cancel it.

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19 hours ago, Datameister said:

And I, living near LA, would absolutely love to visit Scotland right now. The grass is always greener, I suppose!

Ha, ha, ha! You're joking, aren't you? No-one comes to Scotland for the weather. When, however, the weather is good, Scotland is a very nice place to be. In the Summer, it's beautiful; in the Winter, it's spectacular.

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Ach Scotland is over rated. Its usually pishin doon wae rain and in the summer if your in the country then the problem is midges. 

Thankyou also Bruce Marshall. I visited LA in 1999 (in time for the premiere of Phantom Menace) and I loved every minute of my trip there. I even visited the FSM office to renew my Magazine subscription. 22 years ago wow. 

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I've only been to two places in Scotland - first was to Edinburgh in 2014, then a few years later to Aberdeen (and from there, a bus trip into the highlands to celebrate a friend's wedding). Loved both of the trips. Scotland is awesome; I hope I can return to explore more of the stunning scenery. And whisky.

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17 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

As a resident of Alba, and after reading the above post, I can honestly say, without the merest shadow of a doubt...

  Hide contents

SCREW YOU!

 

So, why do you, a Scot, support the Monarchy.

Sean Connery would punch you out if he were still alive!

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19 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

So, why do you, a Scot, support the Monarchy.

Sean Connery would punch you out if he were still alive!

First of all, I'm not a Scot. Although I live in Scotland (and where I am is the only place in the world where I want to live), I was born in England.

Second, I support certain aspects of the monarchy, but I hold no truck with the likes of Ginge and Whinge.

Third, Sean Connery can go **** himself. I've never liked him, as neither an actor, nor a person.

Fourth, if there were further independence votes, I'd vote Yes, every time.

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