Craig Safan's The Last Starfighter - New Intrada Complete January 2015

[Jay 39,585]

Wow! There's been an article online since June 23rd where these were announced, but no one seems to have noticed anywhere!

Here is the article, an interview with Craig Safan:

http://www.examiner.com/article/celebrating-the-30th-anniversary-of-the-last-starfighter-with-craig-safan


Some choice quotes, about the new CDs:

On The Last Starfighter:

All told, how much music did you record for the film?

CS: I think it was around 70 minutes. You'd have to ask Doug Fake at Intrada Records who is re-mastering the entire score for a Fall release.

On Remo Williams:

The soundtrack to Remo Williams has been issued about three times now. Would you love to see it released again?


CS: It's being released this Fall by Intrada. They've gotten the original 48-track masters and we're going to remix and master the score. Should be fun.

(bolding mine)


Wow!


The Last Starfighter is one of my favorite scores of all time. The 1995 Intrada expanded score release is great, but there is a boot containing more music that I quite enjoy as well. I am SO EXCITED to finally get the complete score in proper, remastered sound quality! This is one of the upcoming film score CDs I am most looking forward to!


I have never heard another score by Safan, but the Remo Williams situation seems odd to me. There was:

1. A 19 track promo CD in 2000 running 1:00:35
2. A 30 track Perseverance CD in 2006 running 1:10:33
3. A 26 track Intrada CD in 2011 running 1:08:51

http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/title/28960/Remo+Williams%3A+The+Adventure+Begins

Fans of that score, what do you think about this impending 4th version?

[Frank Vincent 247]

I'm interested in The Last Starfighter, but I won't buy Remo for the third time. BTW, the 2006 Remo release is from Perceverance Records, not Prometheus.

[Jay 39,585]

I'm SUPER THRILLED for The Last Starfighter! SUCH a great score, and fully deserving of the modern specialty label treatment!

[Marian Schedenig 9,104]

Awesome! This is a good year for scores I only have as downloads so far - namely Last Starfighter, and Return to Oz was also supposed to come out before long, right? Although apparently there are rumours that it's a straight re-release of the album, which is supposedly missing great stuff (I've never heard it in any other form than a download of the album).

[Jay 39,585]

I don't recall there being any rumors about Return to Oz coming, but I could be wrong.

[Ricard 2,270]

[Jay 39,585]

Indubitably!

[Marian Schedenig 9,104]

I don't recall there being any rumors about Return to Oz coming, but I could be wrong.

It's here:

Return to Oz will always hold a special place in my heart - not only is it a brilliant score, it was the first Bay Cities soundtrack release and how I became friends with David. He was one of the greats (and still is) and how producers stopped using him is criminal.

But, never fear, Kritzerland is on the job - and a world premiere Shire is coming. Meanwhile, I have some copies of Return to Oz somewhere if anyone is interested.

The rumours I was referring to was that, according a friend of mine, some info has been making the rounds that indicate it won't be an expansion.

[King Mark 3,729]

Last Star fighter is great but what's the deal about Remo Williams

[Ricard 2,270]

It's also great if you've seen the movie an have some kind of emotional connection with it.

[Jay 39,585]

I loved the 1995 Intrada before I ever saw the film, and love it now as well! Can't wait for this definitive version!

[Ricard 2,270]

I was talking about Remo. It was also Safan's first work after The Last Starfighter and in some way it felt like a continuation. I remember being very excited about that "newcomer" when the films came out.

[Jay 39,585]

Roger has already commented on both titles over in the FSM thread about these new releases.

On The Last Starfighter:

No songs...but we tried. Rights issues.

On Remo Williams:

The previous releases were from Craig's personal 1/4" copies. When we uncovered the multi-track sessions, we couldn't pass the opportunity to revisit from these sources that were not previously available.

[Andy 5,191]

I'll get them both. I've been putting off Remo, and have wanted Starfighter for years now.

[A. A. Ron 1,937]

Last Starfighter for me -- that's one more boot I get to replace!

[Wojo 2,456]

I swear I had gotten The Last Starfighter from Napster back in the day, but I can't find which CD I burned it to. Oh well, this should be a nice treat.

[The Train Station 8,760]

I have the old Southern Cross release of TLSF. Good score. But not sure about buying a new one.

[Jay 39,585]

Charlie Brigden (former JWFan member) interviewed Craig Safan today and he indicated that The Last Starfighter is currently slated for October 14th!

Source: https://www.facebook.com/charlie.brigden.90/posts/1464286207167828?comment_id=1464288350500947&offset=0&total_comments=2

[Jay 39,585]

In a dramatic turn of events, Intrada has decided NOT to re-issue Remo Williams, because the 48 track masters they thought they found ended up being 24 track, and each was just synth!

Well, they were 24-track and, as it turns out, just synth tracks...so that isn't particularly usable or making it worthwhile to revisit REMO at this time.

http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=70471#p70471

[crocodile 8,539]

That is indeed surprising.

Karol

[Ricard 2,270]

Crap.

Looking forward to The Last Starfighter anyway.

[Jay 39,585]

Cannot WAIT for The Last Starfighter! Oct 14 cannot come soon enough!

[Datameister 2,282]

I'll definitely be purchasing it. Great stuff!

[Kühni 484]

.

[Uni 306]

i can live without Remo. The Last Starfighter, however, is a score that I would pick up in any release, any time. One of the finest gems of the 80s. (I love the bit in the interview about how the title theme popped into his head while he was driving, and he sketched it out at a stoplight.)

[The Train Station 8,760]

Doesn't Intrada usually do that obnoxious guessing game before every release?

[Jay 39,585]

The composer leaked it early in an interview. Read the main post.

[The Train Station 8,760]

He violated Intrada protocol!

[Kühni 484]

.

[Jay 39,585]

I made no commentary on whether or not it was a good thing, I just stated the facts.

[crocodile 8,539]

It happens all the time - with Cliff Eidelman, Don Davis and others. Nothing out of ordinary.

Karol

[Kühni 484]

.

[Uni 306]

Um . . . no. Actually, he just stated the facts. It's a fact that he didn't know whether Safan was supposed to announce it or not. It offers no opinion on the merits of the act.

[A. A. Ron 1,937]

I made no commentary on whether or not it was a good thing, I just stated the facts.

Pfffft. Your first sentence on Intrada's board, "I dunno if Mr. Safan was supposed to announce or not (...)", implies both that you are/were a part of the process/situation/communication and that you're questioning that Safan actually came out with the information with Intrada's blessing...

It doesn't imply that, you just read it that way. All Jason's wording did was point out something of interest -- that the announcement didn't come through the usual channels.

[Jay 39,585]

Looks like Last Starfighter isn't dropping until the 28th now, and even that's only if studio approvals happen on time!

Roger says:

I suppose that the next round of releases will be on October 14th, with The Last Starfighter being the headliner?

Most likely three releases on the 14th, but Last Starfighter is scheduled for 10/28...assuming we get the approvals on time!

http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=70560#p70560

[Incanus 5,816]

I guess I'll have to get The Last Star Fighter then. I have to admit that I have no knowledge of the score in question but the high continuous praise for it seems too much for me to ignore.

[Jay 39,585]

Listen to the track I posted in post #3!

[Omen II 1,255]

I guess I'll have to get The Last Star Fighter then. I have to admit that I have no knowledge of the score in question but the high continuous praise for it seems too much for me to ignore.

If you like the horns in the last movement of your national composer's fifth symphony, you'll like The Last Starfighter.

[Uni 306]

I guess I'll have to get The Last Star Fighter then. I have to admit that I have no knowledge of the score in question but the high continuous praise for it seems too much for me to ignore.

If you're any kind of film score collector, then at some point along the way you've picked up a score you've never heard for a movie you haven't seen—either because you're going completist for a certain composer, or because it's part of a series you like but haven't finished seeing, or whatever. You know that some of those turn out to be rotten, or at the very best too mediocre to care much about. On the other hand, you've probably had at least one iteration of that delightful experience that happens when you stumble across a truly great score without having any preconceived ideas it would be so good.

If you've never seen the movie or heard the score before, I can assure you The Last Starfighter will be one of those experiences. It'll probably make you want to see the movie once you've heard it—and, if you really respond well to the score, you may even find the movie something of a letdown, which, while being a lot of fun, has become pretty dated, especially in the area of CGI effects. The music definitely elevates the material.

[Jay 39,585]

Yea, I have no problem calling the Last Starfighter one of my absolute favorite scores of the 1980s, and yet I've never heard a single note of any other scores Craig Safan has done, and saw the movie one time (probably 5 years after I was into the score) and wasn't wowwed by it.

[Wojo 2,456]

That's astounding but also unfortunate that one of your favorite scores of all time never encouraged you to seek out other works by the man. Imagine how many people listened to only Star Wars and loved it, but never sought out any other Williams. Or whose only Goldsmith was The Motion Picture.

Yes, nerd pop culture is inundated with Williams and Goldsmith so much that this avoidance would be impossible, while I can safely say the only other Safan I know of off the top of my head is a few episodes of Amazing Stories.

I can say from experience that I listened to Conan the Barbarian for twelve years before I ever watched the movie, but I still sought out other Poledouris music.

[Jay 39,585]

Oh that's true - I've heard Safan's scores on Intrada's Amazing Stories sets.

And actually, I've heard some or all of his rejected Wolfen score too

Never heard Remo Williams, though.

[Corellian2019 419]

Stand and Deliver is pretty good, too; and the movie is wonderful

[Uni 306]

Funny—I never knew he did Stand and Deliver. You're not kidding that it's a great movie. In fact, I was recently thinking of watching it again. Now I'll have to, and I'll be paying particularly close attention to the score.

I've never been all that impressed with Remo Williams—either the movie (which was supposed to be the first in a grand, new, James Bond-type serial series, but fell on it face instead) or the score, which sounds enough like Last Starfighter to make it unmistakably Safan, and yet has none of the spirit of that score. It has some good material for the character of Chiun, but the rest is over-synthesized mediocrity.

But who knows? Maybe someday they'll resurrect the franchise. See if they can track down Fred Ward for another go. They can call it Finding Remo.

[Jay 39,585]

They already are resurrecting Remo Williams:

Shane Black bringing Remo Williams back to the screen with The Destroyer

[Jay 39,585]

This won't come out Oct 28 as hoped. Roger says:

Still waiting on art approvals.

http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=70851#p70851

[crocodile 8,539]

Bad for my ears, not so bad for my empty wallet this month.

Karol

[Uni 306]

Dammit! We've seen the art from the film, fercryinoutloud. We want the music, not more still shots. Hurry it up, already!

[Jay 39,585]

Our very own Charlie Brigden has interviewed Mr. Safan about the new release and a variety of other topics, read the full interview here!

http://www.filmsonwax.co.uk/interview-craig-safan/

Here's the part about the new Intrada CD:

CB: So going onto The Last Starfighter, does it feel like thirty years?

CS: Only because talk to me about it so much [laughs]. It gets played a lot by different orchestras, and if they’re around I go to listen and people come up to me and just start quoting from the movie [laughs]. It does sort of feel like it, but it doesn’t, it’s very immediate. But actually I got the original scores back in my hand to do this suite, so that was interesting, to look at what I had written back then. But I remember when the 25th anniversary was because there were a lot of screenings here in LA.

CB: It’s so beloved, and the appeal of that score for me is the mix of big marches and heroism and the beautiful Americana that gives it a kind of Star Wars quality to it, especially with the musical iconography of the heroes.

CS: When I got that job there was really no other way to go other than to do the Star Wars approach, you really couldn’t do it any other way and hope to not get fired so you’re pretty much stuck to that. But I tried to find my own way and my own kind of melody, and basically even though there’s a lot of different melodies, there’s really only one and that is played in so many styles, whether it’s the love theme or the heart theme or the adventure theme or the heroic theme, it’s the same melody, so that’s sort of different. I think I used as my model more Sibelius whereas John Williams’ was clearly Holst, and Star Wars is totally temp-tracked with The Planets. Anyway you look at it, it’s that big giant late romantic European orchestra [laughs]. I mean it was fun, it sure is fun to have a big orchestra like that.

CB: Do you remember how you came up with that melody?

CS: I was in the car, I was driving and it just came into my head. I’d been thinking about it and I sketched it down while I was at a stop light, it just sort of stuck with me. That was fun, that was a fun project.

CB: You mentioned earlier about the electronics in the score, it’s something I always notice that whenever I listen to another orchestra’s recording of the titles, it always sounds like there’s something missing because they don’t put the twinkling synths in.

CS: Yeah, they never do it right. The problem is that even today, it’s very difficult for orchestras to conceive of having a synthesiser player, which is sort of ridiculous because we did that live. I mean, Richard Gibbs played the synth on that and he was in the room with the orchestra. And he was synced up and there was a lot of tricks to sync it all together because it was all on sequencers to get that sparkling effect but it was not a big deal. The thing is, orchestras will occasionally hire one keyboard player but they’ll have no idea how to mix it in with the orchestra in a live setting. It’s a problem.

When you hear the brand new Starfighter that’s being released around October 28th** it’s going to have everything in it, every little piece of music from the original masters. And I went up and remastered it with the Intrada guys, and it was amazing how much synth you hear in it, there’s a lot, I’d forgotten how much there really was. Usually you think of the big main title where there isn’t much synth, but a lot of the dramatic music and the battle music has these huge synths pads underneath, but it was not remixed, it was all live.

CB: Do you take a big part in the production of your albums?

CS: If I’m asked. But many albums no, I had nothing to do with it. But a lot of times at Perseverance where I’m friends with Robin [Estehammer] they’ll invite me and I’ll come to the mixing sessions, and occasionally at Intrada, because I’ve been working with Doug Fake for so many years, I’ll fly to Oakland and spend the day in the studio. But other companies, no. They just kind of pop out [laughs], for better or for worse.

I love reading that "it’s going to have everything in it, every little piece of music from the original masters. "!!!

Can't wait for this!

[BloodBoal 7,541]

Our very own Charlie Brigden

He's not our own anymore... He hasn't posted here since May 2012 and hasn't logged in since May 2013!