Something Wild [Soundtrack]

something wild [soundtrack]

On this CD:

Something Wild, film score
Composed by Aaron Copland
Conducted by Aaron Copland

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Composer of such iconic fare as Appalachian Spring and the ballets Rodeo and Billy the Kid, Aaron Copland was one of the undisputed giants of 20th century American music. But overshadowed by those crowd-pleasing exercises in Americana were a handful of film and TV scores and the fervent dedication to modernism that characterized the second half of his long career. This previously unissued film score (the film's distributors originally balked at a soundtrack release due to disappointing box office sales) to director Jack Garfein's meditation on home-scaled violence is a forceful mini-primer on both those neglected facets of Copland's rich career. Rescued from private session recordings preserved by the director and digitally remastered (Copland's own intended notes for the soundtrack are also included), the music here is bracingly jazz-tinged and unrelenting, an insightful, cacophonous portrait of the New York City of the composer's youth gone sprawling and hard-edged. Spiked by passages of pure percussion and powered by an angular rhythmic thrust, it's both a powerful reminder of Copland's true scope as a composer and a welcome tribute to his innate film scoring sensibilities. Its place in his canon shouldn't be underestimated; some of the themes here resurfaced later on his Music For a Great City. --Jerry McCulley

Something Wild,Aaron Copland,Varese Sarabande,Film,Film Music,Pop,Soundtrack,Soundtracks & Film Scores

Something Wild [Soundtrack]

Something Wild: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack

Average customer rating:

fun soundtrack to a memorable 80s cult classic
Lost opportunity to create something much more wild? Yep.
Best driving tape ever!
Good but misses some essential songs
Some of the Best of The '80's Pop

Something Wild: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Mca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

1980s | By Decade | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Something Wild
The Devil Wears Prada
Streets Of Fire: A Rock & Roll Fable (1984 Film)
Costello Music
The Reminder

ASIN: B000002O55
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

Loco De Amor (Crazy For Love) - David Y Celia
Ever Fallen In Love - Fine Young Cannibals
Zero, Zero Seven Charlie - UB40
Not My Slave - Oingo Boingo
You Don't Have To Cry - Jimmy Cliff
With You Or Without You - Steve Jones
Highlife - Sonny Okossun
Man With A Gun - Jerry Harrison
Temptation - New Order
Wild Thing - Sister Carol

Customer Reviews:

fun soundtrack to a memorable 80s cult classic.......2006-03-20

This is a fun, eclectic soundtrack and represents, for me, what was good about the 80s. I also love the film; So for me, the film and the soundtrack go together in my mind, forming a seamless whole. Both bring to live the theme of exploring one's spontaneous, fun loving side, and of not looking too far ahead. The soundtrack sounds like the musicians were themselves having much fun putting it together. And for me, the standout cut is Sister Carol's reggaefied version of the Troggs classic - Wild Thing. I love the Troggs, but the version here may just be the ultimate version of this song.

I should add that I have a couple of connections to the film. One is that I met Jonathan Demme several years ago, when he was screening a documentary, Cousin Bobby, in the NJ town where parts of the documentary were filmed. Nice guy! He graciously chatted with all those there and signed autographs. Someone gave him a copy of this soundtrack to sign. He and I chatted, briefly, about how good this music sounds, and in particular, about David Byrne.

My other connection; my sister is friends with one of the actors from the film, who has a major role in it (he plays "Larry," the accountant who works with the Jeff Daniels character, who shows up, unexpectedly at the high school reunion; if you've seen the film, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Like Jonathan Demme, Jack Gilpin is a really nice guy, with whom I've also gotten to chat, for considerably longer periods of time, about this film (and about other aspects of film and theater).

Anyway, listening to this makes me want to rewatch the film, and then maybe follow it up with some other edgy 80s faire - Heathers, Blue Velvet, the Rivers Edge, Repo Man etc. And it makes me wonder - what ever happened to Sister Carol?

Lost opportunity to create something much more wild? Yep........2005-04-26

Will someone, the director perhaps, ever revisit this soundtrack and properly flesh it out? There are about 50 songs in the movie, not to mention John Cale's and Laurie Anderson's contributions to the score. So much good music! One gem after another, I'm tellin ya! Wouldn't it be FUN if they created a comp with ALL the music on it?

I suppose I'll have to join the Download Generation and cobble it together myself.

It's worth noting that director Demme, on the commentary track for his EARLY feature "Crazy Mama", chuckles as he recalls how cheaply one could obtain song rights then, having obtained some well-known rock tunes for a pittance. 20 years on, there's not a chance in hell you could do a decent "SW" soundtrack for less than an actual fortune.

Best driving tape ever!.......2003-03-20

Had a cassette with this on one side and true stories (talking heads) on the other. Could drive for hours.

P.S. Bought a used one for 7.99 on ebay.

Good but misses some essential songs.......2002-07-04

This cd is good. I enjoy listening to it very much, and the movie is one of my favorites. But, some of the best songs featured in the film aren't on the cd. A minus to Laurie Anderson and John Cale's sensibilities. If they had included at least one of the less pop-styled reggae flavored tunes, the cd would be that much better. If you're not looking for any hardcore reggae tunes or don't mind some of the better reggae/roots reggae/dub not included, then buy this cd -- you can't miss. Otherwise, your best bet is to steer clear.

Some of the Best of The '80's Pop.......2002-02-09

Jonathan Demme got Laurie Anderson and John Cale to put together this superb soundtrack. The Fine Young Cannibals, David Byrne and Oingo Boingo are just three of the fab performances contributing to this varitable feast of great 80's Pop. As if the movie wasn't good enough (by far and away Melanie Griffith's best performance to date) the music is even better. Nobody like Demme knew how to put forth a fine and quirky motion picture and timely music to boot. Boy Howdy!!!! If you can find this gem and you love good pop, BUY IT AND PLAY IT LOUD!

Average customer rating:

"it's been coming for over 40 years ~ Copland's Great Score"
Something Worth It!

Something Wild
Aaron Copland
Manufacturer: Varese Sarabande
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000095J44
Release Date: 2003-05-13

Tracks:

New York Profile
Park At Night
Subway Jam
Mary Ann Resigned
Incarceration And Nightmares
Escape Through The City
Love Music
Walk Downtown
Episode On The Bridge
Mother Alone
Reunion

Amazon.com

Composer of such iconic fare as Appalachian Spring and the ballets Rodeo and Billy the Kid, Aaron Copland was one of the undisputed giants of 20th century American music. But overshadowed by those crowd-pleasing exercises in Americana were a handful of film and TV scores and the fervent dedication to modernism that characterized the second half of his long career. This previously unissued film score (the film's distributors originally balked at a soundtrack release due to disappointing box office sales) to director Jack Garfein's meditation on home-scaled violence is a forceful mini-primer on both those neglected facets of Copland's rich career. Rescued from private session recordings preserved by the director and digitally remastered (Copland's own intended notes for the soundtrack are also included), the music here is bracingly jazz-tinged and unrelenting, an insightful, cacophonous portrait of the New York City of the composer's youth gone sprawling and hard-edged. Spiked by passages of pure percussion and powered by an angular rhythmic thrust, it's both a powerful reminder of Copland's true scope as a composer and a welcome tribute to his innate film scoring sensibilities. Its place in his canon shouldn't be underestimated; some of the themes here resurfaced later on his Music For a Great City. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews:

"it's been coming for over 40 years ~ Copland's Great Score".......2003-09-29

Varese Records has done it again with "Something Wild", by Aaron Copland as we listen to this marvelous score as it was meant to be heard. The cues are in the composer's sequence, and to all "film-score-buffs" ~ this is the only way to sit back and soak Copland's masterful classic. Strange as it may seem this was Copland's finest film scores and also his last.

Mr. Copland would be so proud to know his score finally made it on compact disc ~ it is a work of art. Every track is a winner with "NEW YORK PROFILE", "SUBWAY JAM", "LOVE MUSIC", "WALK DOWNTOWN" and "EPISODE ON THE BRIDGE" all uncompromising brilliant with jazzy blends that keep the ingredients true to Copland's style and reputation.

As a "film-score-buff" and Copland fan, I am so impressed with this release from Varese Sarabande Records ~ this is a must, must have for your music collection. Hats off to Robert Townson (executive producer), Erick Labson (mastered by) and of course the legendary icon composer and producer ~ Aaron Copland...gotta love it!

Total Time:35:08 on 11 Tracks ~ Varese Records 64692 ~ (5/13/2003)

Something Worth It!.......2003-05-14

At long last, here is the first-time original soundtrack release of Copland's masterful score to "Something Wild" (1961; not to be confused with the later Melanie Griffith film), which languished in obscurity for more than forty years after United Artists deemed it commercially unviable. Copland did his best to change their minds, but took the defeat philosophically, arranging portions of the music into one of his concert works, "Music for a Great City."

Hearing the music in its original guise is a revelation. From an artistic standpoint, the score is head-and-shoulders above ANYTHING being written today (in this listener's humble opinion, of course). Those expecting Copland in a pastoral vein, take note! This is not a folksy rehash of "Appalachian Spring." The language is tough, urban, occasionally strident and sometimes jazzy - in all, a brilliant juxtaposition of violence and lyricism. Admirers of Bernstein's music to "On the Waterfront," or some of Leonard Rosenman's scores of the era, will have an idea what to expect. But Copland's work is even more uncompromising, less Hollywood -- a work of art. That U.A. nixed a soundtrack release of the first score in twelve years by arguably America's greatest composer -- when his last score ("The Heiress") even won the Academy Award -- is criminal. And it's a minor miracle that the situation has come to be rectified.

The story of the album's resurrection is a good one, and it's all laid out in the generous liner notes. Basically, the film's director, Jack Garfein, had a limited number of LPs pressed from the original recording sessions. When a commercial release failed to materialize, he gave a number of them to Copland and kept the rest for himself. The master tapes subsequently disappeared. In the 1970s, Garfein sold his LP collection, and apparently one of the "Something Wild" soundtracks along with it. A CD-R surfaced at the University of Texas, twenty years later, and Mark Leneker, who was doing research into Copland's film and TV work, in preparation for the composer's centenary -- and who basically set this project in motion -- was able to trace Garfein, then in his 70s and living in Paris. To make a long story short, Garfein's wife discovered a sealed copy of the LP in their attic. It was flown to California and digitally transferred, and it is this beautiful mint copy which has been released by Varese Sarabande.

The transfer has been marvelously accomplished. Under normal listening conditions (I haven't used headphones), it's inconceivable that it was remastered from an LP. The packaging is beautiful, a model of its kind. So sure was he of the album's imminent commercial release, Copland provided his own sleeve notes, which have been included, as has been a blurb from the director, Leneker's history, and a track-by-track description of the action. What's more, the tracks are presented in the composer's authorized sequence, as they would have appeared on the original soundtrack album. (For film score lovers who like their music in the order in which it appears in the film, Varese has kindly included an alternative sequence in the booklet.) I'm sure Copland, in particular, would have been very pleased.

As am I. I can't emphasize how very impressed I am with this release. The revival of ANY "lost" Copland is a major, major event. Buy this, and reward everyone connected with its resurrection. Furthermore, reward yourself. Recommended with all enthusiasm.

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