UNOFFICIAL (But Very Good) COMPOSER SITE:
Jerry Goldsmith The Hollywood
western gasped its last breaths in the late 1960s with
revisionist classics with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and
The Wild Bunch. In 1971 Blake Edwards wrote and directed a Hollywood
"anti-western" if there ever was one: Wild Rovers, in
which William Holden and Ryan O'Neal play a pair of down-and-out
cowhands who rob a bank and make a run for Mexico.
Although Edwards had a longstanding relationship with Henry Mancini
(Peter
Gunn, The Pink Panther), he turned to Jerry Goldsmith for Wild
Rovers, having
been impressed with Goldsmith's ability to score character in
Patton (1970,
FSMCD Vol. 2, No. 2). Edwards sought an Aaron Coplandesque effort
which would
treat authentic cowboy songs in the symphonic idiom, and Goldsmith
responded with a theme-and-variations approach which even utilizes
the same folk song elements ("Goodbye Old Paint") as
Copland's ballet, Billy the Kid.The result is a melodic and pleasing
score that ranks as one of Goldsmith's finest in the Americana
idiom. The cues range from authentically "folksy" to
fully symphonic and "Coplandesque"; like Patton, the
score is brief and focused on its almost monothematic personality,
but not without modernistic action cues -- such as "Cattle
vs. Sheep," for the death of Karl Malden's rancher.
Previous LP and CD releases of Wild Rovers have been a London
re-recording,
with two songs performed by Ellen Smith (actually Ellen Goldsmith,
the composer's daughter). This definitive CD features the the
complete, Los Angeles-recorded underscore (never before released),
including the unused title song
performed by Sheb Wooley; followed by the complete London album
recording (including the "Friendly Advice" track from
the 1986 MCA LP, resequenced as Goldsmith intended); and then
two bonus tracks of source music vocals from the film -- all in
stereo..
1.
Main Title
2. Friendly Advice
3. A Sleepless Night/Checking Up
4. Snow Country
5.
Wild Horses
6.
Bronco Bustin' (revision)
7. Bronco Bustin' (original version)
8.
Cattle vs. Sheep
9. Quiet Thoughts
10. The Cemetery/Red Snow
11. The Knife
12. Old Times
13. Final Destination
14. End Title
15.
Main Title (Sung by Sheb Wooley)
Total Time:
39:46
Album Recording
16. a) Early Morning b) The Wild Rover (Sung by Ellen Smith,
Lyric by Ernie Sheldon)
17. Friendly Advice
18. Wild Horses
19. Snow Country
20. Old Times
21. The Knife
22. Bronco Bustin'
23. Sleepless Night
24. Saturday Night
25.
a) Final Destination b) Texas Rangers (Sung by Ellen Smith, Traditional
Arranged by Jerry Goldsmith)
26. End Title: Wild Rovers
Bonus Tracks
27. Little Purple Poppy
(Sung by Betty Wand)
28. Ballad of the Wild Rovers
(Sung by William Holden)
Total Disc Time: 79:13
sound
samples in RealAudio™ format
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