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Jerry Goldsmith's THE DON IS DEAD - New Intrada coming soon


Jay

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Roger says

 

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Coming in August...I think

 

At the plant now, but exact release date hard to determine with the pandemic. But in three weeks or so:

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http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8521

 

 

 

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Wha? Who said that?

 

I’m excited to hear this one (especially because Jeff Bond told me that parts of it sound like Contract on Cherry Street, one of my favorite Goldsmith scores).

 

But there is NO WAY this score is more “essential” than Black Patch or Face of a Fugitive! In fact it’s not even more in demand; I recently did a poll of what Goldsmith premiere people wanted most, over at the FSM board. The Don Is Dead got fifth place (originally sixth, but after I prompted non-participants to weigh in before the final tally, one person voted for it as their only pick and bumped it up):

https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=140075&forumID=1&archive=0&pageID=2&r=377#bottom
 

So over there, folks consider not only Black Patch and Face of a Fugitive more essential, but also Shamus and the rejected score for The Public Eye. And, my number of votes, Pursuit (which was in fifth place before that single vote bumped up The Don Is Dead, ranked-choice-wise).

 

For my tastes, there are at least a half dozen *other* completely unreleased Goldsmith scores that would excite me more than this one...Crawlspace and The Man, in particular.

 

Yavar

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Ah, got it...so “mentioned very often”...by one person. ;) No offense to publicist but I think he’s in the minority finding The Don Is Dead more of an exciting prospect than any other unreleased Goldsmith score.

 

But maybe I’ll hear Intrada’s mastering of this score and be blown away by it. It’s certainly possible.

 

Yavar

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Also, i never said it was great. It's slow-burning thriller score without gangbuster cues like 'A Dusty Death' (from the much better tv score 'Contract on Cherry Street'). It's just the last big 70's picture of JG that never had any kind  of release, not even as a boot. Which is kind of unusual for a Hal Wallis picture. 

 

Though i say Yavar's minority is bigger when it comes to his old western scores nobody cares about...😎 

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30 minutes ago, PuhgreÞiviÞm said:

I've been listening to scores like Ransom and High Velocity lately and sheesh if this is anything like those, I think I'll skip it.


It’s not, but I’m mystified why you don’t like either of those (and they don’t really sound similar to each other either, IMO).

 

I mean, the *album* for Ransom has shitty sound quality and frankly sucks (three repeated cues when there’s more good score in the film that could have been included? One side in mono?) But what don’t you like about the score itself?

 

 

And I realize High Velocity isn’t popular with a lot of people for some reason. I just can’t fathom why that is, unless they hate the cimbalom I love so much...


But how does one not like Jerry’s dark brass action writing?

 

How does someone not like this??


Don't understand it. I’ll be happy if I like The Don Is Dead as much as Ransom (Surely it should have the advantage of a better album and sound quality). I’ll be very surprised (pleasantly) if I like it as much as Contract on Cherry St. or High Velocity.

 

Yavar

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I don’t fall in love with everything of Goldsmith’s and I’m not expecting you to either. If you’d said you disliked the scores I would have been like, “there’s no accounting for taste!” But “boring”? I just don’t see how one can listen to the music examples I posted and call that music boring! Whether they are “casual listening” or not seems like a very different matter from whether they are “boring” or not...in fact the two might be opposed?

 

Don’t know what you mean about “worth a scholarly look”.

 

Yavar

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  • 2 weeks later...

Do I love The Don Is Dead as much as I love High Velocity? No. But this new album in superb sound quality has totally made me a believer in this score, which I didn’t really click with before... anyone who would like to hear some for themselves can check out this special sneak peek podcast I did with Roger and Doug at Intrada:

 

http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/5097955-odyssey-soundtrack-spotlight-the-don-is-dead-1973

 

 

6B69E0A4-B8F3-49AE-BC67-B51917C142EB.jpeg

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 the score proper runs over 42 minutes and the entire album is well over an hour including the extras (which include alternates, source music, and the audition version of the song).

https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=141314&forumID=1&archive=0

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8/22/2020

It’s a pleasure to be releasing a cool soundtrack release to a major studio picture, this one from Universal, composed and conducted by the ever popular fan favorite, Jerry Goldsmith. The Don Is Dead hit theaters in 1973, featuring a terrific cast led by Anthony Quinn. It also offered a story very topical at the time, one about organized-crime families, their allegiances, their conflicts and their bloody gang warfare. Perhaps this was also part of what has led to the movie’s obscurity because 1973 was also the year sandwiching 1972’s legendary epic, The Godfather, with 1974’s equally famous sequel, The Godfather Part II. Any American crime picture coming out between those two epics was destined to be overshadowed. Jerry Goldsmith’s score, however, is now finally available for the first time ever and it’s a terrific one to discover. A virtual feast of his signature seventies trademarks are fully on display here, some of them invented first with this score. Written for full orchestra with an additional synthesizer adding a solitary but prominent color in the music, Goldsmith does what he does best. Engage, move, intrigue and excite. Artwork, contents and sound samples should be available on our site this Monday eve. Orders for the CD begin shipping the following day, Tuesday the 25th.

 

http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8527

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INTRADA Announces:

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THE DON IS DEAD
Music Composed and Conducted by JERRY GOLDSMITH
INTRADA ISC 454

Intrada's latest release features Jerry Goldsmith's score to the 1973 Universal Pictures film The Don is Dead. Following Intrada's earlier release this year of Take Her, She's Mine, Don is also a score never before released. Like other Goldsmith's scores of the period such as A Step Out of Line, the composer chose a lean, gritty, percussive apporach, focusing on the suspense and tension of the proceedings. On top of the orchestra, Goldsmith introduces a lone, pulsating electronic motif to complete the natural acousitics, performed on stage live with the orchestra. The electronics provide a prominent rhythmic figure used during suspense scenes that build slowly and climax in exciting bursts of orchestral violence. Although a mafia film, sandwiched in between releases of The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, Goldsmith offers no sweeping traditional Italian melodies like those films, but rather a more subtle theme for guitar and flute introduced later in the film. The film's love theme, "Our Last Night" is first heard in a vocal arrangement, on which Goldsmith collaborated with his wife, Carol.

This Intrada presentation of the complete score was mixed, edited and mastered from the ½” three-channel scoring session masters, stored in pristine condition within the Universal vaults.

Based on a novel by Marvin H. Albert, The Don Is Dead, the complex story had three young mob players—hot-headed Frank Regalbuto (Robert Forster) and brothers Tony (Frederic Forrest) and Vince (Al Lettieri) Fargo—becoming involved in a power struggle when Frank’s father, head of a mafia crime syndicate, dies and Frank is passed over for leadership in favor of elder statesman Don Angelo DiMorra (Anthony Quinn). Scheming capo Luigi Orlando (Charles Cioffi) and his greedy wife, Marie (Jo Anne Meredith), urge Frank’s girlfriend Ruby (Angel Tompkins), a would-be singer, to approach DiMorra for career help—and Ruby understands that seducing the lonely Don is the fast track to getting him in her corner. When a mysterious source leads the jealous Frank to an apartment Ruby shares with DiMorra, Frank goes berserk and beats Ruby brutally enough to put her in the hospital, pitting himself and his partners against the powerful Don DiMorra while Orlando and his wife wait to pick the spoils of the gang war.

Check out the The Goldsmith Odyssey Soundtrack Spotlight for a behind the scenes look at the album's production: http://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/ ... -dead-1973

INTRADA ISC 454
Barcode: 720258545404
Retail Price: $21.99
Starts Shipping NOW
Note: Due to local restrictions related to the pandemic, shipping time may be slower than usual
For track listing and sound samples, please visit http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.12192/.f

 

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media.nl?id=32813&c=ACCT67745&h=be26e16c

media.nl?id=32814&c=ACCT67745&h=b44a2524

 

Jerry Goldsmith
Label: Intrada Special Collection Volume ISC 454
Film Date: 1973
Album Date: 2020
Time: 53:52
Tracks: 25
Price: $21.99

 

First-ever release of Jerry Goldsmith score from '70s Mafia crime thriller! Richard Fleischer directs superb cast led by Anthony Quinn with solid support from Frederic Forrest, Robert Forster, Al Lettieri, Ina Balin, Abe Vigoda. Universal releases in late 1973. American crime-family thriller has either good fortune to be one of the first major Mafia tales following mega-success of The Godfather one year earlier… or misfortune of being sandwiched between that legendary 1972 Francis Ford Coppola epic and his equally legendary 1974 sequel, The Godfather Part II. Some obscurity resulted. No matter. The Don Is Dead holds it own albeit on a smaller scale. Greedy mob consigliere from one family sets into motion events that bring all-out warfare between two other families. Transfer of power between crime families, loyalty and honor, brotherhood, love - all play out on violent canvas. 

 

Enter Jerry Goldsmith. His score is brought to life by a full symphony, augmented by one solitary synth that provides prominent rhythm and color to key suspense sequences. Cues develop with synth device, strings, piano as mobsters work within garages, warehouses, other places. As graphic violence inevitably results, Goldsmith brings in entire orchestra with bursts of aggressive action music. One such grim highlight: The beating of girlfriend (Angel Tompkins) by Forster affords Goldsmith opportunity to unleash dissonant strings, wild brass punctuation (especially with striking wah-wah effects) and other Goldsmith signatures. Similar chaotic orchestral fury also plays during vivid Quinn heart-ache scene, where entire orchestra cries out in pain. 

 

Other action bits come with intense strings, percussion of “The Confession” and climactic chase “A Great Memory”, where classic Goldsmith rhythmic ostinato leads the pursuit. In contrast are numerous sequences of suspense as well os gorgeous love theme, heard both in vocal rendition, “Our Last Night”, written by Goldsmith with wife Carole and in transparent orchestral treatment. 

 

CD also features beautiful arrangement of love theme, recorded for but not used in final film, as well alternate version of lengthy title sequence. Mixed, edited and mastered from pristine condition 1/2” three-channel stereo session masters. Informative booklet notes by Jeff Bond, dramatic graphic design by Kay Marshall. Recorded in April and June of 1973. Jerry Goldsmith conducts. Intrada Special Collection CD available while quantities and interest remain!

 

TRACK LIST

01. Emblem – Main Title (Revised) (5:18)
02. The Test (1:27)
03. The Meeting (1:25)
04. The Confession (1:40)
05. No Trouble #1 (0:56)
06. Our Last Night (Love Scene) (3:57)
07. The Beating (3:56)
08. The Hit (1:15)
09. A Little Help (0:57)
10. Back Fire (1:45)
11. Florida Retreat (1:57)
12. Angie’s Home (0:40)
13. No Trouble #2 (1:30)
14. The War (4:27)
15. Anything She Wants (0:31)
16. The Set-Up (2:01)
17. The Bomb (2:14)
18. Final Meeting (2:51)
19. A Great Memory (1:14)
20. End Title (1:29)
21. Our Last Night (Love Theme – Instrumental) (2:31)
Total Time: 44:56

 

The Extras
22. Emblem – Main Title (Original) (5:19)
23. Our Last Night (Audition) (3:02)
24. Car Radio Source (0:16)
25. A Great Memory – Stinger (0:06)
Total Extras Time: 8:56

 

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