Jerry Goldsmith's THE CHAIRMAN (1969) - 2025 Intrada Kickstarter

[Jay 44,345]

We Interrupt Shipping Updates with a Special Treat

Roger FeigelsonCreator

March 11, 2025

While you're waiting for your CD to arrive or to ship this week, here's a nice little diversion. At the sessions for Abbott and Costello we recorded a tease for what we hope to be our fifth Kickstarter campaign. I am posting it here for you to enjoy. Keep in mind the A&C orchestra did not feature the same orchestration needed for this score, but we did the best we could for fun. I hope you enjoy it.

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/129145902/abbott-and-costello-meet-frankenstein-soundtrack-recording/posts/4334557

 

I am unfamiliar with this score, but that main title cue is great!

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

It's Goldsmith at his best, and all that's been available is the half hour LP program, transferred *from* LP to CD because apparently the album masters are lost, plus a 13 minute mono suite Varese Sarabande put out on the Fox Box, taken from a tape source in the Fox archives which is apparently all that survived from them (this suite only included one additional previously unreleased cue compared with the album, less than a minute long).

 

So yeah of all Goldsmith's feature film scores this is one of them most in need of a new recording, by far. Here's the Main Title in the film:

 

Man I love Goldsmith in Asian mode! (See also: The Sand Pebbles, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Inchon, The Challenge, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Mulan, etc.)

 

Yavar

[Marian Schedenig 10,954]

That's nice, and I'll back it without hesitation, of course. But I do hope they'll get around to Lionheart soon.

[Tom Guernsey 3,472]

3 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

That's nice, and I'll back it without hesitation, of course. But I do hope they'll get around to Lionheart soon.

Ditto. Very exciting. The suite from the Blue Max recording sounds amazing and you can really hear the difference over the original album.  

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

7 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

That's nice, and I'll back it without hesitation, of course. But I do hope they'll get around to Lionheart soon.

You’re mixing up Intrada with Leigh Phillips. It’s the latter who has a new Lionheart recording as a personal holy grail, and floated doing it. Intrada released Leigh’s GE Theater recordings on CD, and will be producing the CD edition for his upcoming Goldsmith TV movie threefer too, but in terms of producing recordings they are separate (just like Tadlow and Prometheus were separate entities).

 

Yavar

[Amer 2,667]

Tadlow also recorded a suite on their THE BLUE MAX 2CD set .

I love the Main Title there.. This kickstarter will be successfuly concluded when it starts.

[Marian Schedenig 10,954]

23 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

You’re mixing up Intrada with Leigh Phillips.

 

That's right. Or rather, I didn't pay enough attention yesterday to notice that it's Intrada on their own and not Leigh Phillips doing this one.

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

Leigh Philips is going to work on it, actually, similarly to how he worked on Black Patch for them. I’m just saying it’s not a Leigh Phillips production in Prague; he’s an Intrada contractor on this rather than the person running it (which he would be for Lionheart; Intrada has never said anything about doing that).

 

Yavar

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

For folks who are unfamiliar with this score, here’s a taste of Goldsmith’s action music:

 

There’s more thrilling action music in the film (though sometimes seemingly truncated) that’s not on album. And of course there’s some music that didn’t make it into the film or on album… that’s what I’m maybe most excited to hear because it’s a total mystery.

 

Yavar

[Stark 801]

Unfortunately never much liked this one. I think there will be more than enough backers without me though!

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

On 14/3/2025 at 6:48 PM, Stark said:

Unfortunately never much liked this one. I think there will be more than enough backers without me though!

I’m curious what you don’t like about it! Do you not like Goldsmith in Asian mode? (Or maybe the stereotypical Hollywood Asian modes in general? I can understand that…)

 

But still that Main Title tease does nothing for you?

 

Yavar

[FBC Director 10,364]

So he doesn't like the score. Big deal

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

3 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

So he doesn't like the score. Big deal

I didn’t attack him; I’m honestly curious what he doesn’t like about it.

 

Yavar

[Amer 2,667]

The Main title which Ive heard a number of times is just incredible and engaging. My main attraction to the score. The new recording would sound incredible. 

 

 

[FBC Director 10,364]

41 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

I didn’t attack him; I’m honestly curious what he doesn’t like about it.

 

Yavar

 

Not everyone else likes what you like idk

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

34 minutes ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

Not everyone likes what you like idk

I have no trouble understanding that, thanks. I can still be curious as to why a person likes something I don’t like, or doesn’t like something I do like. Seems like it would be good content for a discussion forum, no?

 

There are scores (including Goldsmith scores) that are generally beloved but which I don’t love so much, and I’m perfectly happy to explain why, if somebody asks.

 

Yavar

[FBC Director 10,364]

That's their own business.

[HunterTech 1,569]

I actually know the dude, so he will undoubtedly tell you if you ask him

[FBC Director 10,364]

Good for him i guess

[Jay 44,345]

Yea Drax's posts here make no sense whatsoever.  This is a film music discussion forum.  Talking about what we like or don't like about scores is literally the entire point of this place

 

No harm in asking what someone doesn't like about a score.  If the person doesn't want to respond, they won't.  Pretty strange for a third party to butt in about it

[Andy 6,574]

On 11/3/2025 at 3:36 PM, Yavar Moradi said:

Man I love Goldsmith in Asian mode! (See also: The Sand Pebbles, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Inchon, The Challenge, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Mulan, etc.)

 

I’m actually iffy on it to be honest.  I’ve not heard the chairman, but Goldsmith’s Asian mode always seems antiquated, almost like parody.  Sometimes it works better than others obviously, but it can sound Carl Stalling goofing on Asian styled music.  It’s a bit in the nose I guess. 

 

[Jurassic Shark 15,666]

18 minutes ago, Andy said:

It’s a bit in the nose I guess. 

 

You beat me to it. 

[Andy 6,574]

Whoops

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 11,375]

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

2 hours ago, Andy said:

I’m actually iffy on it to be honest.  I’ve not heard the chairman, but Goldsmith’s Asian mode always seems antiquated, almost like parody.  Sometimes it works better than others obviously, but it can sound Carl Stalling goofing on Asian styled music.  It’s a bit on the nose I guess. 

Yeah, I can understand someone feeling that way… I do think Goldsmith did it better than many of his Hollywood contemporaries in the “old days” (50s/60s/70s) but well, Mulan for example (which used to be one of my favorite Goldsmith scores) IMO hasn’t aged all that well in parts, and doesn’t make my Goldsmith top 50 or get plays super often any more (of course I’ll still buy an official expansion if it ever happens). In the same era other composers worked Asian flavor into their scores much more convincingly (i.e. George Fenton on Anna and the King, 

 

I think Tora! Tora! Tora! probably remains Goldsmith’s most “authentic”-sounding Asian score:

Does it bug you too, though? How do you feel about other “exotic” scores of his, like Congo/The Mummy/The Wind and the Lion/QBVII?

 

Yavar

[Andy 6,574]

I… haven’t heard QBVII 

I have Wind and the Lion on blind buy order with The Reivers. 
 

Congo I haven’t heard in ages.   
 

The Mummy sounds a little hokey Hollywood Egyptian.  I think perhaps it does actually bother me a little there.  I always find my estimation of it doesn’t match its strong reputation. 
 

I would agree that Tora! Tora! Tora! Is a valid attempt at sounding authentically Japanese without sounding like Hollywood Japanese.  .  Not having seen the film, it isn’t one I play a lot. It’s more of a tension score than a play in the car on your commute score. 

[FBC Director 10,364]

Congo and The Mummy have some of the best dynamic range of any JG OSTs.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 11,375]

The 13th Warrior sounds amazing 

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

Yeah but what does the dynamic range of 90s Goldsmith scores have to do with The Chairman?

So to get back to the main topic...there is a good chunk of music that Goldsmith wrote for The Chairman which didn't get used in it. Frankly his score was rather hacked up in the picture. In some cases an entire cue that he wrote was left out, but other times cues would just be horribly compromised. For an example of that, I give you a cue which by my best guess is called "The Bottle" (going by https://academycollection.org/web/arena/search#/entity/academy/71302942/the-chairman---music-sketches):

https://soundcloud.com/user-906859019-113845892/the-bottle

 

This is taken from the Twilight Time Blu-ray's isolated score track. Obviously treated badly in the film mix, with all the FX/foreign dialogue... but it also just fades out completely in the middle section, before weirdly coming back later!

Here's the cue immediately following it, which I'm fairly sure is "The Students" (again, Goldsmith's score is such a mess in the film it's hard to know for sure):

Notice that both cues prominently feature Goldsmith's Main Title theme, something which doesn't appear much on the album in between the Main Title and its reprise in the End Credits...

Yavar

[FBC Director 10,364]

7 hours ago, #SnowyVernalSpringsEternal said:

The 13th Warrior sounds amazing 

 

Fantastic sound quality on that one, alongside Small Soldiers, US Marshals, and Star Trek Insurrection. I love that live recording sound he frequently used, and it often sounded relatively unprocessed – just pure and natural.

[Stark 801]

On 15/03/2025 at 10:53 PM, Yavar Moradi said:

I’m curious what you don’t like about it! Do you not like Goldsmith in Asian mode? (Or maybe the stereotypical Hollywood Asian modes in general? I can understand that…)

 

But still that Main Title tease does nothing for you?

 

Yavar

I like stereotypical Asian music usually, but reading that list of Asian Goldsmith scores... I love none of them. One day I'll find the time to figure out why.

On 16/03/2025 at 1:05 PM, Yavar Moradi said:

Yeah, I can understand someone feeling that way… I do think Goldsmith did it better than many of his Hollywood contemporaries in the “old days” (50s/60s/70s) but well, Mulan for example (which used to be one of my favorite Goldsmith scores) IMO hasn’t aged all that well in parts, and doesn’t make my Goldsmith top 50 or get plays super often any more (of course I’ll still buy an official expansion if it ever happens). In the same era other composers worked Asian flavor into their scores much more convincingly (i.e. George Fenton on Anna and the King, 

 

I think Tora! Tora! Tora! probably remains Goldsmith’s most “authentic”-sounding Asian score:

Does it bug you too, though? How do you feel about other “exotic” scores of his, like Congo/The Mummy/The Wind and the Lion/QBVII?

 

Yavar

I do like all of these, although I haven't heard Congo in a while.

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

18 minutes ago, Stark said:

I like stereotypical Asian music usually, but reading that list of Asian Goldsmith scores... I love none of them. One day I'll find the time to figure out why.

Thanks for the reply, and lemme know if you ever do figure it out! Here’s another of my favorite Asian-tinged Goldsmith scores — “The Case of the Blushing Pearls” (Perry Mason):

 

If you have 15 minutes to spare and let me know… Does it do anything for you? I think I like it better than both The Sand Pebbles and Mulan, two layer scores it has clear links to.

 

Yavar

[Jurassic Shark 15,666]

On 16/03/2025 at 8:38 PM, Andy said:

The Mummy sounds a little hokey Hollywood Egyptian.  

 

Actually, it is.

 

On 16/03/2025 at 8:38 PM, Andy said:

Not having seen the film, it isn’t one I play a lot. It’s more of a tension score than a play in the car on your commute score. 

 

It for driving in city centres. 

[FBC Director 10,364]

Lulz at watching everyone scrambling to rewrite posts they made yesterday

[Jurassic Shark 15,666]

On 16/03/2025 at 3:41 PM, Andy said:

I’m actually iffy on it to be honest.  I’ve not heard the chairman, but Goldsmith’s Asian mode always seems antiquated, almost like parody.  Sometimes it works better than others obviously, but it can sound Carl Stalling goofing on Asian styled music.  It’s a bit in the nose I guess. 

 

I'm saving my money for their re-recording of The Couchman. 

[raferjanders 399]

Here's a couple of mockup covers:

 

 

[Tom Guernsey 3,472]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/129145902/new-recording-of-jerry-goldsmiths-score-to-the-chairman
 

INTRADA Announces:

THE CHAIRMAN KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

Composed by JERRY GOLDSMITH

Conducted by WILLIAM T. STROMBERG

Produced by LEIGH PHILLIPS

Performed by ROYAL SCOTTISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA

Intrada returns with its fifth Kickstarter campaign and its 12th album recording project. As with our previous crowdfunded projects, we are engaging the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of William T. Stromberg to create an all-new digital recording. This time around, we’re answering the call from many collectors who have been asking for a revisit of Jerry Goldsmith’s 1969 political thriller score for The Chairman.

 

While a soundtrack album was released at the time of the film on the Tetragrammaton label, the album masters and film recording sessions both vanished over the years. Several CD reissues appeared, but they were vinyl rips taken straight from the Tetragrammaton album, featuring the limited range and distortion inherit in the format. While a short mono selection of cues in superior sound surfaced several years ago and was released on the prestigious Goldsmith at Fox box set released by Varese Sarabande, that was it. As such, collectors have often imagined what a completely new, state-of-the-art recording would sound like, a hint of which was provided when Tadlow recorded a suite for their The Blue Max album.

 

As a stretch goal, if we can raise an additional $10,000, we will record the end title to Rambo II, the original of which only exists in a poor-sounding cassette dub. We'll also record "Alex's Death" from Under Fire, the set piece action cue from the film, left off the original soundtrack and now lost to time as the sessions are missing. But that's not all, we'll also record "The Flag" from Not Without My Daughter. The film version includes a militaristic trumpet solo, a favorite Goldsmith sound of our late founder Douglass Fake that is missing from the original soundtrack. And last but not least, we'll record "Homer Writes" from Lilies of the Field—another track long since lost and not included on the original soundtrack.

 

The goal is to raise $73,000, with a stretch goal of $10,000 to include the bonus tracks. If all goes according to plan, we hope to record in Fall 2025

[Edmilson 11,173]

1 minute ago, Tom Guernsey said:

we will record the end title to Rambo II, the original of which only exists in a poor-sounding cassette dub. We'll also record "Alex's Death" from Under Fire, the set piece action cue from the film, left off the original soundtrack and now lost to time as the sessions are missing

[Jay 44,345]

Wow, those stretch goals are brilliant!

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

6 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

As a stretch goal, if we can raise an additional $10,000, we will record the end title to Rambo II, the original of which only exists in a poor-sounding cassette dub. We'll also record "Alex's Death" from Under Fire, the set piece action cue from the film, left off the original soundtrack and now lost to time as the sessions are missing. But that's not all, we'll also record "The Flag" from Not Without My Daughter. The film version includes a militaristic trumpet solo, a favorite Goldsmith sound of our late founder Douglass Fake that is missing from the original soundtrack. And last but not least, we'll record "Homer Writes" from Lilies of the Field—another track long since lost and not included on the original soundtrack.

 

For those who remember the old Intrada forum (RIP), Roger had a great thread there called That Unreleased Cue, about soundtrack albums that were missing one key cue from the score that people really missed... it's still available for viewing online, though a number of posts sadly seem to have been deleted (and just ignore the gobbledegook on top):

https://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8073

 

"Homer Writes" from Lilies of the Field and the film version of "The Flag" from Not Without My Daughter were two of his most-wanted unreleased cues. "Alex's Death" from Under Fire is I think the missing cue from that score that most people want on album. So together with that amazing orchestral end credits from Rambo: First Blood Part II finally being premiered in great sound, this is essentially That Unreleased Cue: The Stretch Goal... which is totally AWESOME!

 

Also, I don't know how many people have noticed, but Intrada has made available a shocking number of long-OOP Intrada Goldsmith albums as optional add-ons here, some of them in extremely limited quantities! Here are the current counts, for those interested:

 

$30 Stagecoach (Mainstream album recording from the original masters, paired with Malcolm Arnold's The Heroes of Telemark) -- 57 of 60 available, as of this post

 

$30 One Little Indian (their slightly remastered reissue edition, ISC 383) -- 57 of 60 available

 

$50 Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (note: this is their original edition, ISC 062, not their remastered reissue) -- only 7 of 8 available

 

$50 In Harm's Way (note: this is the original ISC 100 CD reissue of the original album program, NOT the slight expansion they were able to offer later) -- 7 of 8 available

 

$50 Masada (note: this is their older 2CD premiere of the complete film recording, NOT their most recent but also OOP reissue, which added a remaster of the album recording in addition) -- only 5 of 5 available

 

$75 Explorers (their original expansion that sold out super fast and changed their limited edition policy to "while quantities and interest remain") -- only 4 of 5 available

 

$75 Night Crossing (reissue edition, ISC 280) -- only 6 of 6 available

 

$75 Rent-A-Cop (their expanded/complete edition, ISC 108) -- only 4 of 4 available

 

$75 The Boys from Brazil (their 2CD expansion) -- 30 of 30 available (they must have discovered a whole box of this one in the warehouse... I wouldn't hold off on it though, because it being Warner Bros. probably means a reissue is unlikely and that price for a long OOP 2CD set really is a steal IMO!)

 

$100 Capricorn One (their premiere issue of the film recording, ISC 021) -- only 6 of 7 available

 

$100 Congo (their expanded edition) -- only 2 of 4 available!

 

$100 Deep Rising (their expanded edition) -- only 1 of 3 available!

 

If you're missing any of those single-digit albums in your collection, I wouldn't delay on your pledge...

 

 

 

EDIT: Already almost at $11,000 after little more than an hour live!

 

Yavar

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

1 hour ago, Yavar Moradi said:

$100 Congo (their expanded edition) -- only 2 of 4 available!

$100 Deep Rising (their expanded edition) -- only 1 of 3 available!

 

Deep Rising is now GONE. Congo only has one copy left, and Explorers and Rent-A-Cop are both down to three. (Other quantities lower too, but nothing in imminent danger.)

 

Yavar

[FBC Director 10,364]

They'd never consider a freakin digital download release of TBFB? Some of this stuff was released and went out of print back in the early 21st century.

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

Just now, Lady Dimitrescu said:

They'd never consider a freakin digital download release of TBFB? Some of this stuff was released and went out of print back in the early 21st century.

 

I know, but it's not up to them. The movie studios don't really license out the digital rights for these things, usually. And The Boys from Brazil in particular is owned by Warner Bros. so even a CD reissue of it is very unlikely at this point. That's why it's such a big deal that they apparently discovered an unopened box of their 2CD edition!

 

Yavar

[FBC Director 10,364]

I meant WB.

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

55 minutes ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

I meant WB.

 

I guess it's possible they might do it as a digital download someday, but currently they haven't shown any interest in doing so. As Jay has pointed out (and re-shared several times), WB currently doesn't seem interested in making older catalog titles available even as digital downloads. Plus, I don't think the original soundtrack album for The Boys from Brazil is owned by WB Pictures, which adds an additional complication. They would only have a more straightforward way to put out digital albums for titles that they own completely, like Superman IV (since there was no original album to make a record label involved).

 

Some Lukas Kendall posts about WB that might interest you if you haven't read them already:

https://www.lukaskendall.com/post/warner-bros-and-cutting-edge

https://www.lukaskendall.com/post/warner-bros-music-sell-off

https://www.lukaskendall.com/post/the-dumbest-thing-i-hated-producing-cds-warner-bros-art-licenses

 

From that last one,

Quote

In recent years, Warner Bros. has pivoted away from doing soundtrack album licenses at all, for a bunch of reasons that have to do with corporate ownership and directives, which I’m not really qualified to analyze—and even if I was, I’d probably keep my mouth shut.

 

Warner Bros. is a magnificent studio with a ton of film and TV music that they could monetize—and at the moment they don’t want to invest the resources into the legal clearances and research to do it.

 

But these things are cyclical, and hopefully the studio will “open up” again.

 

I really can’t predict the future, but I do want to reiterate how fortunate I was to release as much great WB music as we did at FSM, and how much I enjoyed working with the folks who made it all happen on the studio side.

 

Even the ones who soaked me on art costs!

(but in those more recent links I shared with you, he seems less optimistic about things "being cyclical" and WB going back to how they were before, in terms of soundtrack licensing).

 

So again, for anyone who wants a copy of Intrada's complete 2CD edition of The Boys from Brazil, I think adding it on to your $20 Kickstarter pledge for an additional $75 right now is probably your best bet.... somebody already grabbed one of the 30 copies, I see.

 

Additional UPDATE:

1 hour ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Deep Rising is now GONE. Congo only has one copy left, and Explorers and Rent-A-Cop are both down to three. (Other quantities lower too, but nothing in imminent danger.)

 

That last of four expanded Congo copies has now gone POOF too. Congrats to whoever nabbed it!

 

Campaign is rapidly approaching $14,000 thanks to 174 backers and counting....

 

Yavar

[Marian Schedenig 10,954]

Already backed, of course. $20 for the CD plus $18 for shipping. Plus import tax, probably. Plus extra tax (tariffs), possibly (a board game Kickstarter I'm backing that's about to enter the shipping stage is suddenly looking at a 125% price increase for every copy of the game with a US destination).

 

4 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Also, I don't know how many people have noticed, but Intrada has made available a shocking number of long-OOP Intrada Goldsmith albums as optional add-ons here, some of them in extremely limited quantities!

 

I wasn't even aware they're all OOP. I already have all of them. 

[Jay 44,345]

Still rocking a Christmas themed avatar in April, eh?

[Marian Schedenig 10,954]

9 minutes ago, Jay said:

Still rocking a Christmas themed avatar in April, eh?

 

I've been known to leave some clocks on standard time during the DST months because sooner or later they'll be right again anyway, but alright.

[Yavar Moradi 4,007]

15 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Already backed, of course. $20 for the CD plus $18 for shipping. Plus import tax, probably. Plus extra tax (tariffs)

 

Of course, folks like you who are overseas could just go $20 for the hi res digital download (which also includes a full liner notes PDF, if I recall correctly). No shipping/taxes/tariffs/fees to worry about, that way, and it's actually even higher quality sound than standard CD...

 

17 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I wasn't even aware they're all OOP. I already have all of them. 

 

I knew you would! I was just giving a heads up to people who didn't have them already.  

 

Yavar

[Marian Schedenig 10,954]

Just now, Yavar Moradi said:

Of course, folks like you who are overseas could just go $20 for the hi res digital download (which also includes a full liner notes PDF, if I recall correctly). No shipping/taxes/tariffs/fees to worry about, that way, and it's actually even higher quality sound than standard CD...

 

Yes, but then it'd feel like a hole on my shelf. I still have half a mind to pick up the General Electric Theater CD even though I already have the digital Kickstarter files.