Moonraker On CED

In my previous post I mentioned the old RCA CED video format a few times. Then the other day, my YouTube feed included a CED stereo demo disc video. Coincidence?

I've seen this video a few times since it was posted but I forgot that "Moonraker" was part of the demo, starting around 3:58. For copyright reasons the entire scene was not posted, but it's the Venice boat chase, which in the film also includes "The Tritsch-Tratsch Polka" by Johann Strauss II. More on this in another entry.

A few other things to note from this video. At 13:14 they show "Star Trek – The Motion Picture" on stereo CED with the wormhole sequence. This movie was only ever released monaurally on CED. The same is true for "The Muppet Movie" which is also featured on this demo disc.

This video also reminded me of how much I like that old stereo logo. I wonder if I could use this on a future CD release.

Moonraker...At Last

On Friday, November 29 La-La Land Records issued the long-awaited expanded soundtrack to the James Bond film "Moonraker." I was the producer on this release and worked with everyone to bring it out. My dad likes when I write notes for these albums, but what I have to say about this score and project may be too personal for an officially licensed product. However I'm happy to share some details here.

Album cover for the new "Moonraker" CD

I first saw "Moonraker" in the summer of 1987. It was the 25th anniversary of the James Bond film series and the television special, "Happy Anniversary 007: 25 Years of James Bond" had aired earlier in the year and turned me into a James Bond fan. We already owned the first three James Bond films on the extinct RCA CED video format, and that was basically all I'd seen of the official series. I taped that television special, hosted by Roger Moore, and watched it almost every day after school. I became determined to name what film each clip was from, so I started renting the tapes and going through the films in no particular order.

I was 10 going on 11 when I watched "Moonraker" that summer, and as I've said over the years, that's the perfect age to see this movie. As an adult I maintain that if you cut out some of the jokiness "Moonraker" is a solid spy film....that still ends up with James Bond going into space with space marines getting into a laser battle. But this is precisely why as a 10 year old, "Moonraker" was the greatest movie I had ever seen. I was floored by this film, right from the amazing aerial pre-title sequence. I loved the movie so much my mom bought the film on VHS for me for my birthday, CED being dead and buried at this point.

Over the years, I've collected "Moonraker" on various home-video formats, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray, and now 4K digital. Shoot, when I first discovered eBay I even bought it on CED. I've also attended various 35mm repertory screenings, the first of these was a midnight show at some theater in Philadelphia. I went to this theater because they were playing "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" at midnight and I saw a flyer on the door advertising "Moonraker" showing in the coming weeks. This was in the early 2000s and for a brief moment, when I saw it was going to be playing, I turned back into that little 10 year old boy. I was so excited to see it, and you know what? It didn't disappoint on the big screen.

My most memorable viewing of "Moonraker" was on February 26, 2011. My friend Athena (that's her below giving it a "9" out of 10) was celebrating her birthday. To mark the occasion she wanted to watch and rank every James Bond film in order with friends over the weekend. I couldn't make it on Friday for the early films, but I showed up on Saturday towards the beginning of "Moonraker." There's video and I show up around 2:20.

            

That's me in the front row on the left giving "Moonraker" a "7" (10 year old me would be so disappointed). See that lady sitting right next to me in the grey shirt also giving it a "7"? We met that day and this is the very first photo of us together. About 2 1/2 years after this photo was taken we were married. That's right, I met my wife Marie while watching "Moonraker."

Now that all the personal stuff is out of the way, it's time to discuss the new 45th Anniversary Expanded Edition from La-La Land Records. A little history first on the status of the soundtrack. The original soundtrack album was released concurrently with the film in 1979 on LP. It featured the main and end title songs performed by Shirley Bassey and about 25 minutes of the score. This same program has been issued twice on CD. In 2000 two cues were re-recorded for a James Bond compilation album, but it turns out these recordings were takedowns from listening to the film, duplicating tracking and not having endings because they weren't in the film. In 2015 there was a Kickstarter to re-record the score, but despite being funded, the project was cancelled due to rights issues. So for 45 years, there was a 30 minute album and two incomplete re-recorded cues.

Enter MV Gerhard and Matt Verboys of La-La Land Records, a label that specializes in issuing classic film scores with additional, previously unreleased music. Over the last few years we've been working with MGM and EON Productions on reissues of the classic Bond scores. Last year, after wrapping up "Live and Let Die" and "Octopussy" I submitted a list of suggestions and "Moonraker" was one of the titles. At the time I didn't know what existed as there was an internet rumor the tapes were lost. That didn't faze me as when we started on "Octopussy" nothing could be located and we wound up finding the entire score. In March 2024 "Moonraker," along with "Goldfinger" and "The Man With the Golden Gun," was approved so work could begin.

While waiting for the inventory report I was talking things over with my friend, colleague and mentor Mike Matessino. I mentioned "Moonraker" is happening and I'm not sure what the elements will be like yet, although at this point I heard it could be multi-track. Before I could finish asking Mike if he wanted to mix it, he'd said "Yes." So that was settled, now I just needed to know what we had. When I got the report I immediately called writer and friend Jon Burlingame, who was going to write the notes for the album. I couldn't quite contain my excitement. I had to let him know. Based on the report, it looked like it was all there. A short while later, I had all of the data on my computer ready to dive into the score.

The first thing I heard was the engineer speaking in French as the score was recorded in Paris. This was going to be a challenge. While I took French in high school, it was 30+ years ago and I was a lousy student. After awhile though, I did start to understand the engineer calling out the reel and part numbers. I needed to listen carefully, as currently I didn't have any paperwork to indicate what was on the tapes. I figured out most of the cues and I also discovered that there was a 3-track LCR stereo film mix on the tapes along with the sixteen separate, discrete tracks for each section of the orchestra. Playing only the 3-track made editing to the film easy and I was able to confirm we had the proper film and album takes. I still requested photos of the tape boxes and any other paperwork to aid in this work and MGM was great at delivering this imagery. The most gratifying part of this process was realizing all of the correct takes were on these tapes. I was concerned that maybe these were tapes that had the selected film takes cut out. Luckily that was not the case. So much for the "lost recordings" rumor.

Were there any surprises? Plenty. There are six score cues completely unused in the movie while many of the cues in the film are shortened or changed and we now had the full recordings. Hearing the score as intended was a revelation. Figuring out where the unused cues went was an exciting challenge. My friend, and fellow Bond fan, Harry Frishberg helped make videos restoring the unused music to the movie so Jon could see how the music was intended for his liner notes.

The biggest surprise though was uncovering the Paul Williams version of the title song. Burlingame had written extensively about this in his book "The Music of James Bond" but I never expected to hear it especially from the original multi-track tapes. Remember, at this point I didn't have any documentation to explain what was on the transfers, so I was going in blind. Yet here it was and I immediately called Jon when I made this discovery. I'm happy to report that we got all of the approvals needed to include two versions of this song on the release.

Because the Williams lyrics were abandoned, Hal David was brought in to write the final lyrics. This version was recorded in the US. There were two dates, May 7 and May 14. The May 7 session, the source for the "alternate" main and end title instrumentals, did not have vocals archived on the 2" tapes. Engineer Dan Wallin wrote a note on the box saying as much. Shirley Bassey recorded the main and end titles at the May 14 session although keyboardist Michael Boddicker came back on May 15 to record an overlay heard in the film version of the end titles. As these were recorded in Los Angeles, these all had vocal slates in English. The track layout was a little different as well compared with the Paris recordings and a 3-track mix was not archived on these tapes, which is not unusual for a Wallin recording. I've encountered this before on other projects like The Karate Kid and Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan.

Once I had all of the music sequenced and edited it was time for Mike to mix it. This was a rewarding process. Mike would upload the latest mixes every night and in the morning I'd wake up and there'd be a few more cues waiting on my computer for me to evaluate. I'd been listening to the 3-track mixes and while they differed from the 1979 original soundtrack album mixes (which it turns out none of us were crazy about) they couldn't prepare me for what Mike accomplished with access to the full multi-track. This was "Moonraker" supercharged! As I listened I took notes and we'd discuss what we thought was best and the mix came together. There were a few times where tears started forming during this process. That's when I knew we were on the right path.

By the beginning of June, the mixes were finalized and I was able to go back and rebuild the original 1979 soundtrack album. The album takes were the same as the film with the exception of the ending to "Bond Lured To Pyramid." The album used take 3 exclusively with a slow fade out at the end while the version on disc 1 uses a combination of takes 3 and 4 to match the choices made for the film. Other subtle differences between the film and album were addressed in mixing. I also prepared all of the album combos to match the timing of the original album release. With that in place it was onto mastering.

I love when albums are getting mastered. This is the part where it all comes together. Until an album is mastered, the final assembly only exists on a spreadsheet and in my head. Doug Schwartz was the mastering engineer on this and all of the other previous La-La Land James Bond expansions. Doug is incredibly patient with every nitpick change I want to make and he also has great ears and taste which always brings out the best in the music. Again, there were moments of intense emotions listening to this music.

And while all of this is going on, Jon is busy writing his notes and Dan Goldwasser is busy designing the booklet. We also worked with Jim Titus on the images. I had very specific ideas for the packaging and it turned out better than I imagined. As of this writing I haven't seen the final printed version, but I must have reviewed about 20 different versions and proofs.

Beyond all of this, there's also a lot of administrative work between the label and the various rights holders. I won't detail it here, but I'm thankful for everyone at EON Productions, MGM and Universal Music Enterprises who made this release happen.

Something else to note, while all of this is occurring, I was also working with Chris Malone on "The Man With The Golden Gun," sometimes evaluating his new mixes at the same time as Mike's new "Moonraker" mixes. I was also in the middle of "The Godfather Part II," "Spider-Man 2," "Jurassic Park III," "Last Action Hero," and some other titles that haven't been announced yet.

And there it is. After wanting this score expanded and remastered for years, it was all done in about seven months. I'm thrilled with the final release. We include the original 30 minute LP program, but also over 55 minutes of additional score, source cues and alternates. According to my music player roon, I've listened to it over 30 times but that doesn't count all of the times I had to listen while editing, mixing and mastering and I'm still not tired of it. I hope everyone enjoys it as much.

I'm sure once people listen to this and the newly-released "The Man With The Golden Gun" album there will be some questions. I'll post a follow-up entry about both once people have listened to them.

Neil Bulk Will Return

The Swarm Album Cover

When working on The Swarm for La-La Land Records I envisioned the cover looking like the original vinyl. Here's what that looked like, courtesy of an eBay auction.

The black background and red text looks great and I figured with a red border and "Expanded Archival Edition" we'd have a winner. Dan Goldwasser, the art director for the album, added his own touch. Below is our original cover for the album.

For reasons not clear to me, this cover was rejected and we had to stick with the theatrical one-sheet instead. I mentioned that poster was not only the cover of the previous album but also the bootleg and we should differentiate our release from those, to no avail. If you look at the rest of the booklet you can see the entire design was based around this cover.

I still have to remind myself this wasn't use because it's what I use in my digital music library. For those interested, I use Roon to play my music and I love it.

About a year after The Swarm came out I was working on The Time Tunnel, another Irwin Allen project. This time my cover suggestion of a black cover, mostly red text and a simple graphic was used.

The La-La Land Records/Tomorrow Never Dies (25th Anniversary Expanded Edition) FAQ

On November 29, 2022, La-La Land Records issued a 2-CD set of David Arnold's score to "Tomorrow Never Dies." The release was a great success but there have been a few questions repeatedly asked about it. I hope this page answers those questions. If you find it valuable, please help get the word out. Before getting to that, I want to thank everyone for supporting this album, listening to it and taking the time to ask about it.

Hey, I bought the new TND CD and I think I noticed a bit of music missing. When Bond is first seen with the woman in bed learning "a new tongue" there's soft music playing and it's not on this album. Did anyone else notice?

The scene you're describing is tracked with the 2nd movement from Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor." This was not recorded for the film and was an existing recording, licenced (<---- British spelling) by the filmmakers. If you'd like to hear this music apart from the film, there are many recordings available.

As an aside, while working on this album I saw the latest "Batman" movie and heard this piece during a scene between Bruce Wayne and Alfred.

Did anyone else notice music missing from the beginning when Stamper shoots the survivors and Carver's men go aboard the sunken ship and retrieve the missiles? Why isn't this on the new album?

The music used for the events described above is on the album. It's found in the cue "Underwater Discovery," (disc 1, track 20) which the filmmakers tracked earlier in the movie for this scene.

I was talking to this guy who knows a fella who says he heard you're working on the next James Bond album. Here's what I'd like it to be and what I'd like on it. First, I want.....

Let me cut you off right there. As of this writing (January 2, 2023) I am not involved with nor do I know of any upcoming James Bond albums. I also have my own wants and desires and having now worked on three of these scores and having worked continuously on specialty soundtrack releases for nearly 15 years, I have a good grip on what the public wants and how to deliver it.

For all of the latest official news on all of the latest releases I suggest following and/or signing up for emails from the various specialty labels like La-La Land Records, Quartet Records, Intrada Records and Varese Sarabande.

Thanks and have a Happy New Year!

Three First Victims in Basic Instinct

Last year I had the pleasure of working with Quartet Records and scoring mixer Bruce Botnick on an expanded re-issue of Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar®-nominated score to Basic Instinct. This was the third release of the score on CD, but we were able to locate material that had never been released before and fix some sonic anomalies in the original recording. We're all very proud of the album, and I wanted to write about one cue in particular.

The expanded Basic Instinct album from Quartet Records.

The film segues from the main titles into a cue titled, "The First Victim". Basic Instinct pushed the boundaries of the American film rating system and two versions of this scene were created. One featured more sex and violence than the other. The more "adult" version was shown overseas while American audiences got a toned down cut. Goldsmith scored this scene twice, once for each version. The unrated version opens our album, combined with the "Main Title", as it is heard in the film. The R-rated version appears as a bonus track. Interestingly, during the murder, the R-rated cut uses the music intended for the unrated cut. The album presents the cue as recorded, not as it was edited in the film.

Don't pick your nose! Johnny Boz (Bill Cable) becomes "the first victim" in a close-up from the unrated cut.

However there is a third version of "The First Victim" on our album that may not be as obvious. The "End Titles" featured a combination of the "Main Title" with "The First Victim". While the "Main Title" is the same performance that opens the film (albeit, one slightly shortened with edits not duplicated on our album) the replay of "The First Victim" in the film is an entirely different take. To summarize, the unrated cut uses take 61 of "The First Victim" and the R-rated version uses a combination of takes 63 and 61, while all versions of the movie end with take 59.

Sometimes when making these albums one cannot help but have multiple alternates play in a row. In the case of Basic Instinct, there was an elegant way to get the three versions of "The First Victim" used in the film on the album without becoming monotonous.

The Quartet Records release of Basic Instinct is available here.

Sequencing The Blue Max

Earlier this year, La-La Land Records released a 2-CD set of Jerry Goldsmith's score to The Blue Max. This was the 6th release of this score, with two previous vinyl issues and three previous CD issues. I co-produced this newest release with Nick Redman and while we came up with our own unique playlist for disc 1 (one that is closest to the final movie) we wanted this to be the last word on this terrific score. With Mike Matessino handling the restoration and mixing and Daniel Hersch the final mastering, sonically we knew this would be the best Blue Max yet. But in terms of content, how do you please listeners that have been listening to this music for nearly 50 years? The solution was to figure out what all of the previous albums had on them and make sure it was represented in some capacity. Today, I'm going to share with you how to use the La-La Land album to sequence any of the 5 earlier incarnations of this score.

To do that, I'll list the five earlier albums. The first release is the original album release from Mainstream Records. Prior to the La-La Land release, this sequencing of the score was never on CD.

The second release was from Citadel Records. This release changed most of the original cue titles and the first pressing even swapped two titles on the packaging, so it was the most confusing to figure out. Like the Mainstream, it has never been on CD.

The first CD came from Varese Sarabande in the mid 80s.

The second CD came from Sony in the 90s and had almost the entire score.

The third CD was from Intrada and was released only a few years ago and quickly sold out. It also presented nearly the entire score, but went back to some of the album edits from the Mainstream Records release.

Here's how to listen to any of the earlier releases.

Mainstream Records:  This is the easiest one to re-sequence. Put in disc two and listen to the first 15 tracks. That's the Mainstream Records release! And don't be fooled by the listing at SoundtrackCollector.com. The three source cues were at the end of side 2, not interspersed with the main score. I'll also point out that there were two versions of this album, a stereo release and a mono release, but the musical content was the same.

The cover of the later pressing of the Citadel Records release.

Citadel Records:

1. Main Title - Disc 1 Track 1
2. First Flight - Disc 2 Track 25
3. The New Hero - Disc 1 Track 6
4. Desolation - Disc 1 Track 7
5. Passacaglia - Disc 2 Track 23
6. Mocking Waltz - Disc 1 Track 11
7. Love Theme - Disc 1 Track 12
8. Prelude to Part Two - Disc 1 Track 15
9. Taste of Blood - Disc 1 Track 16
10. Lonely Hero - Disc 1 Track 17
11. Retreat (Part One) - Disc 1 Track 18
12. Retreat (Part Two) - Disc 1 Track 19
13. The End of Bruno - Disc 1 Track 23
14. End Title - Disc 2 Track 12

The cover of the first pressing of the Citadel Records release.

Note that the first release of the Citadel had "The New Hero" before "First Flight". This was a typographical error, the musical content was right. The title swap was fixed on later pressings.

Varese Sarabande:

1. Main Title - Disc 1 Track 1
2. The New Arrival - Disc 1 Track 2
3. First Blood - Disc 2 Track 25
4. The First Victory - Disc 1 Track 6
5. The Victim - Disc 1 Track 7
6. A Toast to Bruno - Disc 1 Track 3
7. The Attack (parts 1 & 2) - Disc 2 Track 26
8. A Lonely Hero - Disc 1 Track 8
9. A Small Favor - Disc 1 Track 11
10. The Lovers - Disc 1 Track 12
11. Finale to Part I - Disc 1 Track 14
12. Prelude to part II - Disc 1 Track 15
13. The Bridge - Disc 1 Track 16
14. Stachel's Confession - Disc 1 Track 17
15. Retreat Parts I & II - Disc 2 Track 27
16. Stachel in Berlin - Disc 2 Track 11
17. Kaeti Has a Plan - Disc 1 Track 23
18. Stachel's Last Flight - Disc 1 Track 24
19. End Title - Disc 2 Track 12

Sony:

1. The Blue Max (Main Title) - Disc 1 Track 1
2. The New Arrival - Disc 1 Track 2
3. A Toast to Bruno - Disc 1 Track 3
4. First Blood - Disc 2 Track 25
5. First Victory - Disc 1 Track 5
6. The Captive - Disc 1 Track 6
7. The Victim - Disc 1 Track 7
8. The Cobra - Disc 1 Track 8
9. The Attack - Disc 2 Track 26
10. A Small Favor - Disc 1 Track 11
11. Love Theme - Disc 1 Track 12
12. The Rivals - Disc 1 Track 13
13. Finale to Part 1 - Disc 1 Track 14
14. Prelude to Part 2 - Disc 1 Track 15
15. Love Theme - Disc 1 Track 10
16. The Bridge - Disc 1 Track 16
17. Love Theme - Disc 1 Track 17
18. Retreat - Disc 2 Track 27
19. Stachel to Berlin - Disc 2 Track 11
20. Nothing Needed - Disc 1 Track 22
21. Kaeti Has a Plan - Disc 1 Track 23
22. Stachel's Last Flight - Disc 1 Track 24
23. End Title - Disc 2 Track 12
24. Pour Le Mérite March - Disc 2 Track 14
25. Presentiar March - Disc 2 Track 18
26. Student Song Medley - Disc 2 Track 16
27. Artist's Life - Disc 2 Track 21
28. Gloria March - Disc 2 Track 22
29. Deutschland Über Alles - Disc 2 Track 15
30. Watch on the Rhine - Disc 2 Track 13

Intrada:

1. Main Title - Disc 1 Track 1
2. The New Arrival - Disc 1 Track 2
3. A Toast to Bruno - Disc 1 Track 3
4. The Balloon - Disc 2 Track 24
5. First Blood / First Victory - Disc 2 Track 4
6. The Captive / The Victim - Disc 2 Track 6
7. The Cobra - Disc 1 Track 8
8. The Attack - Disc 2 Track 26
9. Love Theme from "The Blue Max" - Disc 2 Track 2
10. A Small Favor - Disc 1 Track 11
11. A Lonely Hero - Disc 1 Track 12
12. The Rivals - Disc 1 Track 13
13. Finale to Part 1 - Disc 1 Track 14
14. Prelude to Part 2 - Disc 1 Track 15
15. The Bridge - Disc 1 Track 16
16. Stachel's Confession - Disc 1 Track 17
17. Retreat - Disc 2 Track 27
18. Stachel to Berlin / Food Riot - Disc 2 Track 11
19. Nothing Needed - Disc 1 Track 22
20. Kaeti Has a Plan - Disc 1 Track 23
21. Stachel's Last Flight - Disc 1 Track 24
22. End Title - Disc 2 Track 12
23. Finale to Part 2 / Exit Music - Disc 2 Track 28
24. Pour Le Merite March - Disc 2 Track 14
25. Student Song Medley - Disc 2 Track 16
26. Presentiar March - Disc 2 Track 18
27. Artist's Life - Disc 2 Track 21
28. Gloria March - Disc 2 Track 22
29. Watch on the Rhine - Disc 2 Track 13
30. Deutschland Uber Alles - Disc 2 Track 15

There was another release of this score, this time married to the picture. The Blu-ray from Twilight Time features the score isolated on a separate audio track. And the alternate cues are interspersed on a commentary track featuring Nick Redman, Julie Kirgo, and Jon Burlingame.

Special thanks to John Takis and Jeff Bond.

I'm Ignoring You

Please don't take this personally, but I'm ignoring you. Not in real life. Feel free to call or send me a message. However, there is a very good chance I'm ignoring you on Facebook. Don't worry, I didn't go out of my way to intentionally hide you or block you. The past week, I've been ignoring my entire newsfeed. Instead of scrolling down, I'll usually see the top entry before moving over to "Close Friends" or checking out some of the groups I enjoy. But the feed has been ignored and there are many updates I haven't seen.

Over the past few weeks Facebook has been more aggravating than entertaining. Between the deaths of famous actors filling up my feed and ice bucket clutter, I wasn't enjoying my time on Facebook. Constantly reading the same thing from different people was gratuitous and annoying. Previously, Facebook was fun. Suddenly I was getting pissed off at a website. The best thing for me to do was step away.

Of course I'm a tremendous hypocrite and kept posting to my page, but I've come to value Facebook as a kind of online diary. So I've been updating it occasionally with things I'm doing or articles that are of interest to me and maybe my friends. But if something important happened to you, I'm sorry if I didn't see it. And if a famous person died, don't worry, I have other sources for news.