Tales From The Score Keeper: Thieves & Smugglers & Ghosts

The September smorgasbord of soundtracks just keeps spinning – and there’s a little something for everyone this time around.

If thieves are your thing, you can’t do much better than the Prince of Thieves, as in Robin Hood – as in Intrada’s four-disc remastered release of the late Michael Kamen’s complete score (and then some) from 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. Now, this has been released before – as a single CD alongside the movie’s original release, and as a 2-CD collection by Intrada just a couple of years ago. But with help from Kamen’s estate, missing material that had to be omitted from the 2018 release now comprises a third CD – that’s three discs of the score as composed for the film, and, on a fourth disc, the score suite from the 1991 CD release in remastered form.

Before you ask: no, the Bryan Adams songs – you know the one – is not to be found on the 4-CD set, nor is the much more obscure (but much desired by ELO fans) Jeff Lynne song “Wild Times”. The entire 4-CD set is simply Kamen’s score – but what a score it is.

From BSX Records comes a trio of releases, including one that has been very near the top of the Score Keeper’s soundtrack holy grail list for several years. Just in time for Halloween, two spooky scores by Howard (Flash Gordon) Blake arrive in remastered form on a single CD, The Canterville Ghost and Amityville 3-D. The latter of these was previously available on a now-out-of-print limited edition CD along with Blake’s Flash Gordon score (you know, the bits of music that weren’t done by Queen), but it finally gets, shall we say, a more “official” release this time around.

BSX is also releasing Conrad Pope’s score from the movie Lloyd, a comedy for kids filmed in the ’90s but not released theatrically until 2001. (It’s almost as if the movie and its score were competing to see whose release could be delayed longer. With a 19-year gap between movie premiere and the soundtrack, I think the soundtrack wins.)

The third BSX release is one that yours truly has been wanting on CD for ages, but gave up on ever actually seeing or hearing. It’s Don Davis’ score from the 2004 BBC docudrama Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets, the first volume in what will hopefully be a series of releases of Davis’ soundtrack work. The two-night BBC miniseries was a project Davis took on almost immediately after The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, and a little bit of the Matrix trilogy’s style can be heard rubbing off on the epic music for the fictional (but educational) documentary about a crewed space mission spanning the entire solar system, from Venus to Mars. I’m particularly fond of this oddball piece of television and its fantastic score, so if you’re looking for an endorsement, just know that I ordered this one immediately.

In fact, thanks to BSX’s policy of making a digital download (with a PDF digital liner notes booklet) available immediately upon purchase, I’m listening to it right now before the CD even goes in the mail. Each of the three BSX titles have very limited print runs: only 500 copies each. (I have it on good authority that Space Odyssey’s down to 499 already.)

Varese Sarabande has another of its expanded deluxe releases on tap, and this one is both movie music and rock ‘n’ roll. The new single-disc release of music from The Buddy Holly Story offers previously unavailable film versions and alternate versions of songs featured in the film, with songs performed by Gary Busey (in character as Buddy Holly), Jerry Zaremba as Eddie Cochran, and Gailard Sartain as the Big Bopper (hellooooooo, baby!)

Finally, exciting news of an upcoming digital-only release on the horizon, one that will make Star Wars fans feel like they’ve just pulled off the galaxy’s biggest heist with their favorite smuggler. Composer John Powell posted a trailer on Instagram announcing the imminent release of over two hours of the complete, unedited (!) score from Solo: A Star Wars Story, featuring the complete end credits suite and a wealth of other material not available on the previous single-disc-length release. Find me a Wookiee sidekick and count me in.

See? Something for everyone.