This arrived in the mail, and it is STUNNING.
The backstory on this is awesome. TBH was the first film score to be recorded digitally on what was state-of-the art 3M recording equipment. Those master recordings eventually became trapped in their media due to the technology becoming antiquated. In preparation for the 30 year anniversary, this one Disney guy sought to release the full score, and to do so in a process that preserved the digital aspect with a full CD release. Unfortunately that proved far more troublesome than anticipated. Long story short is that project is why there was an iTunes version of the original soundtrack LP that became available; they could transfer the files to analog and then re-digitize but that wasn’t what he wanted, he wanted the entire workflow to remain digital. So as a stop-gap they bounced the tracks that replicated the '79 vinyl release on iTunes and kept working the problem for the full score. Eventually he tracked down working equipment and engineers with the experience on how to access and transfer the songs. It was truly a labor of love that literally took years to accomplish, and it shows in both the audio results, and the accompanying booklet.
The CD comes with a thorough multi-page insert that chronicles the development of the film and the score, and then details the unique journey of the score, track-by-track in terms of style and motif, and closes with the journey of restoring the soundtrack.
If you are a fan of TBH, the score, John Barry or just cool musical scores in general, this is an absolute MUST HAVE for your collection. Hearing the full score that hasn’t been available is a pure joy for any fan of the film.
So this is serious necroposting, but I stumbled across this post while I was searching on where/how to get my hands on the expanded soundtrack.
If you’re a fan of John Barry’s amazing score of this film and hadn’t heard, after the 10-track CD/itunes release of the original LP in 2007, they did a full soundtrack release in 2011. While it’s not available on iTunes, you can buy it through the link below. I’ve ordered mine and will update this post for anyone that still has this thread tagged and might be interested in it.
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7229/.f
While I’m known around these parts for my love of Star Wars, TBH is by far one of my most fondly remembered and enjoyed films. It’s not perfect, but it’s still amazing, particularly if you know it’s real history, including the amazing work that it represents from a special effects standpoint.
Anyhow, I’ll update once I get it and let anyone interested in on whether it’s worth the price, but I suspect it will be!
L8