Continuing our series, see the blog menu for previous entries:
We’ve hit the Ls, which means we’ve hit the foreign soundtracks where we file them alphabetically under L even though “La,” “Le” and “Les” should be treated as articles like “A” or “An.” Sorry to be boorish Americans!
Here we have several Morricone scores...and I’m pathetically underqualified to discuss them. I’ve barely seen any of the films. I just know these are some of my favorite Morricone themes!
We have L’Alibi from GDM with the transcendent “Belinda May,” $20.
We have the expanded L’Assoluto Naturale from Quartet, $25.
We have the 23-track expanded Dagored version of La Califfa, which is a digipak and heads up in that the tray is coming unglued in our one used copy ($12), but it’s otherwise undamaged.
We have two copies of La Gabbia from GDM, $18 each.
We have one copy of the expaned L’Assoluto Naturale from Quartet, $25.
We have one copy of the old Legend CD of La Tenda Rossa (The Red Tent).
Leaving Morricone for some of our other Italian faves, we have a corking good 2CD set of Stelvio Cipriani crime scores, La Polizia Trilogy, $35. I first heard one of these tracks in Tarantino’s Death Proof and was like, I have to have that!
Moving on, let’s see—we have one copy of the old Labyrinth CD, by Trevor Jones with the David Bowie songs, $8. I never had this as a kid but one time I made a silly home movie “action film” with a friend from work, and he used the goblin fight music, so I heard that track only this year and was like, “Oh right, I know this!”
We have one copy of the expanded Intrada Land Before Time by James Horner, $20. To be fair, it’s still in print at Intrada for slightly more than that. We also have the original MCA CD, two copies—one is unadored for $3, and another one, for $1, has handwritten track times added by the previous owner to the back of the booklet.
We have one copy—this one sealed—of the expanded The Last Castle by Goldsmith from Intrada. It’s out of print, $40.
We have one copy of the early David Arnold score to Last of the Dogmen, $15. I haven’t heard it in years but I remember people being impressed with it. The film is kind of a Dances With Wolves knock-off.
We have one copy of the Goldsmith two-fer that the short-lived Chapter III Records did, featuring the album version of The Last Run (love that one!) and Wild Rovers, $8.
We have for only $5 each a copy of the expanded Rykodisc Last Tango in Paris, and the Varèse Sarabande edition. Gato Barbieri was orchestrated by the marvelous Oliver Nelson.
We have a copy of the Laurence Rosenthal 2CD set promo, $25, and the follow-up Music for Television 2CD promo, $12. I remember when these came out, it was the first time had I heard The Miracle Worker and I was blown away. A lot of the scores have subsequently been issued in complete form with better sound but I’ll always be fond of these releases.
We have one copy of the Leave Her to Heaven/Take Care of My Little Girl CD from Kritzerland, $18. Their version of Leave Her to Heaven is longer than what we released on FSM (with All About Eve), and I’m grateful for that.
We have one copy of the Silva Screen Legend by Jerry Goldsmith, only $5.
We have one copy of the expanded BSX Lifeforce by Henry Mancini, one of my favorites of his work, $18. It’s been superseded by the Intrada version, but this one was a relevation when I first heard it.
The Lion in Winter by John Barry is a must for any collection. We have one copy of the old Varèse Sarabande CD, $5, and a copy of the re-recording that Silva Screen did (adding some Mary, Queen of Scots tracks).
We have one copy of the Liquidator CD that we did at FSM, Lalo Schifrin’s spy spoof. Some classic Lalo spy music on here, plus a Shirley Bassey song. Apparently hard to find now, one copy for $35.
We have one copy of the FSM Logan’s Run by Goldsmith. We all worked so hard on this and I think we really did it justice. Out of print and $25.
Lolita by Morricone (from the 1990s) is absolutely lovely. We have one copy of the original Milan CD for $8.
Burt Bacharach’s Lost Horizon was kind of an infamous flop, but I’ll admit I like the songs, cheesy as they may be. We have the Razor & Tie edition, $18.
I have no idea what Lucia by Morricone is, but apparently the Rai Trade CD is hard to find. We have one copy for $45.
Magnum Force by Lalo Schifrin is my kind of 1970s action score! We have the Aleph CD, $8.
We have two copies of the Intrada edition of Mary, Queen of Scots by John Barry, out of print and $25.
We have one copy of the 4CD mega-edition of Masada by Goldsmith and Morton Stevens. Intrada’s website lists this as out of stock with no word as to when it may be back in stock. So if you want our copy, it’s $55.
The Matrix: These have been expanded and reissued and it’s a little confusing. But right now we have one copy of the best version of each of the three Don Davis scores: the original as a 2CD set from Varèse Sarabande for $65, Reloaded as a 2CD set from La-La Land for $35, and Revolutions 2CD set from La-La Land for $35. The latter two are sold out again and going to escalate in price (again), so if you want these, don’t wait!
We have three copies of the Maurice Jarre Concert Works CD we did at FSM, for only $5. This kind of flopped but I’m glad we did it. My favorite piece on it is “The Night Watch.”
We have a pristine copy of the MGM Soundtrack Treasury box set that we did at FSM, $195. 20 scores on 12 discs, feel free to read the free online notes.
We have a bunch of the promotional CDs that composer Michael J. Lewis released himself in the 1990s, including this 2CD compilation of his scores, $25.
The Misfits is one of my favorite Alex North scores, to Marilyn Monroe’s last film. We have one copy of the Rykodisc, $5, and one of the Varèse Sarabande, $10. They have the same content.
Mondo Morricone for $45 is a 3CD set of groovy Morricone tracks—I love these! They are digipaks and unfortunately the trays for discs 2 and 3 are becoming unglued. But if that’s not a big deal for you, think of the music—SO GOOD!
Also Morricone: we have three copies of the Morricone-Belmondo 2CD set that DRG released. Each is $25. Copy one, two and three. It has one of my all-time favorite Morricone melodies, the love theme from Le Casse:
We have one copy of the digipak release Elmer Bernstein did on his own label of his music to the Eames’ films, including the marvelous Toccata for Toy Trains. $5.
I quite liked the 2CD compilation that Michel Legrand recorded of his works with the Moscow Virtuosi, particularly his rendition of the groovy car race music from Le Mans. It’s $12.
Finally, today, we have the corking good recording that Stromberg and Morgan did of Herrmann’s Mysterious Island, on Tribute Film Classics. Only $8.
Whew! Lots of M titles. Back tomorrow. Thanks!