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Jerry Goldsmith’s RUDY (1993) – 2022 Varese Sarabande Deluxe Edition


SyncMan

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I have about a 50/50 rate of even bothering to pull the booklet out of the CD tray.  If it’s a score I would consider buying digitally over CD, it’s definitely not a score for which I’d bother reading the notes.

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Well, I'd prefer to buy all expansions digitally anyway.  And in the cases where I have PDF scans of booklets, I'm way more likely to look at them more frequently than the ones I only have physically.

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Physical CD edition up for sale:

 

https://varesesarabande.com/products/jerry-goldsmith-rudy-the-deluxe-edition-cd

 

 

 

For Rudy, Goldsmith reteamed with Hoosiers director David Anspaugh and writer Angelo Pizzo for another crowd-pleasing, critically acclaimed Indiana sports movie that became part of the pantheon. The score is heartfelt, warm and melodic, speaking to the universal grandeur of one man’s underdog quest. Goldsmith’s propulsive melody for the football sequences—an uplifting, balletic, driving approach—is a majestic triumph, and quickly became repurposed for trailers, commercials and actual sporting events.

 

Varèse Sarabande released the Rudy soundtrack in 1993 in a 37-minute program. This Deluxe Edition expands the sequence to 67 minutes, including the film’s a cappella recordings of the classic “Hike, Notre Dame!” and “Notre Dame Victory March.” Liner notes by Tim Greiving feature new interview material with Rudy, Pizzo, Anspaugh and Astin—as well as Get Out composer Michael Abels, who worked at the sessions—and archival comments by Goldsmith and contractor JoAnn Kane.

 

1. Main Title 3:34
2. No Catch 1:05
3. The Speech/Last Game/Be Grateful 1:33
4. The Jacket 1:38
5. To Notre Dame 6:53
6. A Start 2:24
7. More Girls :42
8. Hike Notre Dame! 1:24
9. The Plaque 2:34
10. Empty Stadium/The Key 3:40
11. Training 1:24
12. More Training 1:26
13. Accepted 1:43
14. Tryouts 4:25
15. Notre Dame Victory March 1:36
16. For Father :46
17. Waiting 2:33
18. Back On The Field 2:04
19. Team Play/Ready Champ? 1:46
20. Take Us Out 1:48
21. The Final Game 6:12
22. Tryouts 4:25
23. The Key 3:52
24. To Notre Dame 6:56

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This is one of those scores where the theme appears on pretty much every single track (like John Scott’s King Kong Lives), so extending that to an hour is probably gonna drive ya’ll batty. 

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47 minutes ago, Kasey Kockroach said:

This is one of those scores where the theme appears on pretty much every single track (like John Scott’s King Kong Lives), so extending that to an hour is probably gonna drive ya’ll batty. 

 

That's only if the composer plays the theme the same way every time. At least on the original CD he didn't.

 

I have a geographic blind spot when it comes to Indiana, so it didn't occur to me that Hoosiers and Rudy are set in the same state!

 

I did have a disagreement with a woman once about the piece of music we were listening to. She was certain that it was Hoosiers. I was certain it was Rudy. She was a basketball player and I was a film music nerd, so I hope I was right. (At the time I was far more familiar with Rudy than Hoosiers.)

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3 hours ago, Jay said:

What?  Specialty label releases are hardly ever announced in advance!

 

At least the pre-announcements and guesswork begin early enough that it always feels to me like quite a bit of time before something is actually released. (My perspective may be further skewed by the fact that we Europeans then have to wait for several weeks until stuff physically arrives in our part of the world)

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Despite my comment about the hunchback clue, I half forgot that this is actually the Club release that was teased a little earlier. To me, this one was like: 1) Somebody posts a leak that a Rudy expansion is coming 2) A couple of hours later it is confirmed 3) A day later it is already available. Anyway, I'm not unsure whether to order this soon (along with - finally - Presumed Innocent and Willow) or to wait for Black Friday.

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I just listened to @Yavar Moradi's Goldsmith Odyssey on this score. Very nice. I didn't realize that this was literally one of Jerry's favorite scores. I liked the film a lot (I recall) but I'm sure I wouldn't be giving it much thought 30 years later without this wonderful score.

 

I saw an interview with Jerry in the 90's where he said something like he understood all of the innovation and complexity of modern composers but it was old romantic composers who could make him cry. I thought of that when you were discussing the difference between a Planet of the Apes or The Omen and something like this.

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On 17/9/2022 at 9:41 AM, Jay said:

Right, I meant like the late 90s through late 2000s where there were regularly 24 hour sellouts. 

 

I think Explorers in 2011 was the last one? 


I don’t think so (LLL still had fast sellouts afterwards), but it was certainly the last fast 3000 copy sellout from Intrada (actually it took much less than 24 hours to sell out!) because it made them change their whole limited edition approach to “as long as quantities and interest remain”.

 

Here’s a link to our Rudy Spotlight for anyone else interested to listen!

https://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/11341192-odyssey-soundtrack-spotlight-rudy-1993

 

Yavar

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  • 3 weeks later...

I love everything Jerry did in the 90s but I can't stand this. I think it is the weakest score of his strongest period. Jerry was never good with happy or inspirational melodies as JW is. As many others have documented, Jerry was aware of his reputation and wanted 'human' films - the problem was that he was not great with these films!

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6 minutes ago, thestat said:

I love everything Jerry did in the 90s but I can't stand this.


That’s a pretty contradictory statement! 😂 

 

Though it may not be to your taste, I know quite a few people who’d strongly disagree with you and even name this as their #1 favorite Goldsmith score!

 

Yavar

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@Yavar Moradi I know. And I do not disparage them. Of course we have Mr Baseball and Degrees of Separation, both which I own! I'm from the camp that finds Jerry's optimistic or happy melodies cloying even as I find him the only composer I listen to nowadays. My commutes are about US Marshalls or The Haunting.... because they are on spotify. But when Jerry expresses himself, this is it to me him at the top of his talents, not Rudy or optimistic US-Irish football:

 

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While we’re at it, we should also compare compare Rudy’s “Tryouts” theme to Players, another sports drama with a 6/8 time signature. 
 

I too find the Main theme of Rudy to be just on the edge of the saccharine spectrum.  This is where Hoosiers wins.  But then Tryouts isn’t muddied by synth the way the Hoosiers gameplay music is. 

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9 hours ago, Andy said:

 

I too find the Main theme of Rudy to be just on the edge of the saccharine spectrum.

 

If it's almost too far then it's not too far! Of course the theme for Hoosiers is about an old man and the theme for Rudy is about a young one, so it makes sense.

 

9 hours ago, Andy said:

But then Tryouts isn’t muddied by synth the way the Hoosiers gameplay music is. 

 

Tryouts is glorious. And I love the Hoosiers synths.

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I want to live inside the Hoosiers main title.  Gene Hackman sipping coffee from a paper cup at sunrise, driving past cornfields and country churches, to that heartfelt solo trumpet theme.  That is premium grade A sentimental Americana right there.

 

 

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I am struck by the fact that when I saw this I really had no idea where Indiana is. Now I realize that in some fundamental ways I didn't really know when 1951 was either. (I saw this when I was a teenager. What did I know?)

 

Gene Hackman. Am I being nostalgic or do they really just not make them like that anymore?

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There's nobody working today who is like those titans born before WW2 - Gene Hackman, Sean Connery, Dennis Hopper, Richard Harris, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman...

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