Share this post

Lukas Kendall of Filmscoremonthly has put a message in our forum. For those of you who do not read our forum, or may overlook the message, we repeat it here:

<quote>

Hi Folks,

I saw this thread about our new ALICE/PETULIA CD and wanted to explain a few things. The CD contains the LP masters (from the 1/4'' stereo master tapes) for each album, which was all that was available for license, and all that was available to us as far as masters.

While we would love to release other, never-before-available Barry scores, it's increasingly hard to get the rights to them -- and there are master-tape problems for many as well. The Barry scores we released in 2005 -- King Kong and Alice/Petulia -- we were able to get due to our relationship with Warner Music Group who control the album rights.

Personally, I love these two scores and find them very well represented by the LPs. (Years ago I had a home-made cassette that had Deadfall on one side and Petulia, and I am thrilled to have brought both to CD form.) I suppose it's a matter of taste, whether you like Barry's adventure scores or his epics or his more personal, offbeat works (like these two), but I happen to adore all of them. I'd be surprised if anyone reading this post -- a John Barry fan who frequents a forum about him -- bought this CD and was let down.

In any case, thanks for your interest and feedback.

Lukas Kendall

</quote>

Share this post

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WINDERLAND/PETULIA (FSM)

by John Barry

[quote]

Two Classic LPs on one CD -- Premiere Release.

This premiere John Barry CD features two Warner Bros. albums from a period of great creativity for the composer: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972) and Petulia (1968).

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a musical telling of Lewis Carroll's famous story, with a star-packed British cast including Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore, Michael Crawford and Ralph Richardson. John Barry collaborated with lyricist Don Black ("Born Free," "Diamonds Are Forever") on the delightful song-score.

Barry characterized the soundtrack as having "almost a Gilbert & Sullivan style, but with a contemporary feeling," but fans will recognize no musical identity except for Barry's own. The score, as wonderfully recorded for the soundtrack LP, includes three ballads, large symphonic pieces, and enjoyable settings of classic Caroll nonsense -- with Barry melodies through and through.

Petulia was Barry's second collaboration with director Richard Lester (following The Knack...and How to Get It), a serious, contemporary drama set in San Francisco starring Julie Christie, George C. Scott and Richard Chamberlain. It is regarded as one of the best films of the era, with a sophisticated flashback structure (and cinematography by Nicolas Roeg) anchored by Barry's melancholy and melodic score.

In addition to the haunting main theme, Petulia features a distinctive figure for saxophones anticipating Diamonds Are Forever, and several pieces of vintage Barry source music -- low-key jazz tunes that rank with the best instrumental music of the era, and echo some of the source cues of the James Bond films.

This holiday present for Barry fans comes with new liner notes by Jon Burlingame, and is remastered from the original 1/4" stereo album tapes.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Music Composed by John Barry, Lyrics by Don Black

1. Overture 4:29
2. Curiouser and Curiouser 2:16
Sung by Fiona Fullerton (Alice)
3. You've Got to Know When to Stop 2:09
Sung by Davy Kaye (Mouse)
4. The Royal Procession 1:44
5. The Last Word Is Mine 2:01
Sung by Michael Crawford (White Rabbit) and Fiona Fullerton
6. Dum and Dee Dance 3:08
Nursery Rhyme
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll
Sung by Fiona Fullerton
7. The Pun Song 3:03
Sung by Sir Robert Helpman (Mad Matter), Peter Sellers (March Hare) and Dudley Moore (Dormouse)
8. I've Never Been This Far Before 2:19
9. Curiouser and Curiouser 2:14
10. I've Never Been This Far Before 2:19
Sung by Fiona Fullerton
11. Medley: 4:15
Off With Their Heads
Sung by Dame Flora Robson (Queen of Hearts)
The Croquet Game
Off With Their Heads
The Moral Song
Sung by Peter Bull (the Duchess)
Off With Their Heads
12. The Me I Never Knew 2:39
13. The Lobster Quadrille 1:46
14. Will You Walk a Little Faster? 1:57
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll
Sung by Michael Hordern (Mock Turtle) and Spike Mulligan (Gryphon)
15. They Told Me 0:54
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll
Sung by Michael Crawford
16. The Me I Never Knew 4:10
Sung by Fiona Fullerton

Total Time: 42:06

Petulia
Music Composed and Conducted by John Barry

17. Main Title -- Petulia 1:57
18. Friends of the Evergreen 2:05
19. Highway 101 2:31
20. A Little Old-Fashioned Nostalgia 2:51
21. Motel 4:50
22. Petulia 3:01
23. Petulia 3:23
24. Comprehendo? 1:59
25. Border Gate at Tijuana 2:38
26. Once Having Been Lovers 3:06
27. Eat Topless 3:29
28. End Title -- Petulia 5:03

Total Time: 37:33
Total Disc Time: 79:48

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND - A star-studded cast highlights this musical adaptation of the classic fantasy tales of Lewis Carroll. One day young Alice (Fiona Fullerton) takes a nasty spill down the rabbit-hole and finds herself in the bizarre kingdom of Wonderland, where she encounters a number of strange and enchanted characters, including the playful White Rabbit (Michael Crawford), the manic March Hare (Peter Sellers), the mysterious Caterpillar (Ralph Richardson), the Dormouse (Dudley Moore), the imperious Queen of Hearts (Flora Robson), and the quizzical Mad Hatter (Robert Helpmann). The cast also includes Spike Milligan, Peter Bull, Roy Kinnear, and Michael Jayston as Lewis Carroll. "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" won two prizes at the 1973 British Academy of Film and Theatre Awards - for Georfrey Unsworth's photography and Anthony Mendelson's costume design. 1972 PETULIA - Petulia is Richard Lester's ode to the Swinging Sixties: a time of psychedelic instability when neither those who were square, nor those who were hip, really had it right. George C. Scott is Archie Bollen, a divorced San Francisco doctor in the midst of "discovering himself." Julie Christie is Petulia Danner, a peculiar young beauty recently married into an established family. Archie's sterile apartment and detached, bemused manner exemplify his inability to emote. Petulia's forward nature and desperate tenderness betray her fear of her sullen, abusive, pretty-boy husband (Richard Chamberlain). The physician and the newlywed embark on a schizophrenic love affair amid Pepsi references, automated motels, roller derbies, and a cameo by Big Brother and the Holding Company - but they never achieve the daring to truly change their lives. 1968.

Share this post

For UK viewers and anybody else who can receive Channel 4:

FILM: King Kong
Channel: Channel 4
Date: Tuesday 20th December 2005
Time: 13:05 to 15:30
Duration: 2 hours and 25 minutes.
Derided at the time, largely because it was produced by the then king of schlock Dino De Laurentiis, John Guillermin's remake of the 1933 classic actually has a lot going for it. The Oscar winning special effects sit happily with the tongue-in-cheek campiness that the three leads play along with and there's a superb John Barry score that is among the best of his long career.

Director: John Guillermin
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, Jessica Lange, John Randolph, Rene Auberjonois, Julius Harris
(Widescreen, Subtitles, 1976, 15, 3 Star)

Share this post

New SACD of John Barry's score to Frances.

"The wistful, melancholic score for Frances was composed and conducted by five-time Oscar recipient John Barry. Director Graeme Clifford, who believed that his composer of choice was the only person suited for the job, wrote in his original introduction for the 1982 LP release, “I have admired John Barry’s music for many years and had always promised myself that when I made my first picture I would contact John first. And that is what I did. I needed music that was at once romantic and yet underscored the severe emotional stress that pervaded Frances Farmer’s life. Even without the images on the screen, and many months after completing the picture, John’s music still moves me deeply”.

Of particular note to the listener is how Barry’s score reinforces the screenplay, albeit with great subtlety. Never intrusive, but striking nonetheless, are the elegant use of long, sustained chords (a Barry trademark) in the orchestration and an occasional harmonica solo, which the composer informed this writer in 1982, “comments on Frances Farmer’s yearning for things past”. The ascending two-note motif depicting Frances’s inner turmoil, “her cry for help” (Barry, again) intoned by the brass, is of interest too. Barry argued that overuse of the score would call attention to itself.

This is one of Barry’s most noble and haunting works, one which occupies a special place in a notable canon that includes some of the finest scores in the history of the cinema.

The film also boasts an impressive cast; Jessica Lange as the troubled Frances; Kim Stanley as Frances’s mother, Lillian Farmer and playwright-actor Sam Shepherd in the fictionalised role of one Harry York. Lange was nominated for Best Actress by the Motion Picture Academy at the 1982 Academy Awards but she lost to Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice."

This album has been re-mastered for Super Audio CD (SACD). This Hybrid SACD may be played on all CD players.

Track listing:

1. Main Title (4:03)
2. Meeting Harry (2:33)
3. Upset (0:57)
4. Late To Work (1:14)
5. Uproar (1:52)
6. Frances And Doc (1:05)
7. Walk (1:35)
8. Okay, Dad; Mother, Shut up!! (2:51)
9. Sonata In A Major, K.331 (1:46) (W. A Mozart)
10. Bug House (2:29)
11. Free At Last (1:34)
12. Home Again; Things Are Going To Be Slow From Now On (7:13)
13. Epilogue (A Portrait of Frances) (6:43)

THE COMPETITION HAS NOW ENDED
Here are the answers and winners of the FRANCES competition.

1) Graeme Clifford
2) Ruby Cairo
3) Frances Elena Farmer

Most people got this all correct so we had a drawing to pick the five lucky winners. They are:

• Andy Dickenson, Manchester, England
• Machiel Jansen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Jean-Christophe Manuceau, Montgeron, France
• Gordon Reeves, Pennsylvania, USA
• Alistair Kerr, West Lothian, Scotland

We have informed Hot Records and hopefully you'll all be hearing from them shortly. Commiserations to those who did not win, but hey, it's not too expensive to purchase!!