I got the LP for WARNING SHOT back in the late 1960s around 1968 from a second hand store in my home town, at first as I was a young collector I was under the impression that it was the original score, alas it was not but that did not stop me playing the album to death and also flipping it over to hear Si Zentner’s renditions of VON RYANS EXPRESS, A PATCH OF BLUE, THE MAN FROM UNCLE and THE PRIZE, which all had the basics of Goldsmiths themes but were given a fresh and vigorous make over by Zentner and played up by his group of session musicians, remember some of these were not available or if they were had not really made it to the record stores in the UK at that time, so we had to make do with covers but saying that these covers were pretty damn good. Its great to have Goldsmith’s original score from the movie on compact disc and also included on this disc are the Zentner tracks as well. So straight away we have a great package of musicality that I know will delight many a collector. The album opens with sixteen cues from the Goldsmith score that has a total running time of close on 32 minutes.
The opening track Main Title/Foggy Night begins with a slow build up of percussive elements and a bass guitar punctuating proceedings, which is underlined by the brass section somewhat cautiously this segues quite abruptly into a quite brash and hard hitting fanfare of sorts which comes from the brass section before the composer brings into play a quite easy going and hip sounding track which could easily be mistaken for his music for the FLINT movies, drums and cool sounding woods accompanied by guitar and ever smooth sounding organ build into a theme that is taken on by the brass which create an almost big band sound, this feature is fairly brief and the composition goes down tempo into a more subdued sounding version of the central theme, which brings the opening track to its conclusion. Track number two, CORNERING THE SUSPECT/THESHOT, is a rather more dramatic and action orientated cue, again percussion, piano and rasping brass taking a major part within the composition, woods also are added to the mix as is lone electric guitar which acts as a punctuation to the proceedings. Midway through the cue it scales down a little and finishes up being more of a subdued and low key piece as opposed to its harsher more upbeat beginnings.
Track number four is one of my favourite cues from the score, BACK TO THE SEASCAPE certainly has that FLINT factor within its make up, and Goldsmith employs Organ, guitar, muted trumpet slow and sensuous sounding woods and various percussive elements to create a pleasant but at the same time edgy sounding composition. Track five MISS ALICE, is a wonderfully delicate sounding cue, solo piano accompanied by harp and joined by solo flute a sprinkling of strings and also a guitar go to make up the ingredients for a haunting and highly emotive sounding piece which for me personally evoked memories of the composer excellent work on A PATCH OF BLUE. This pulsating compact disc gives us the chance to experience Goldsmiths great score plus it also affords us an opportunity to hear different takes on the great composers themes as performed by Zentner and his orchestra, this is an excellent package and a wonderfully vibrant and entertaining collection of music which is incredibly energetic. Highly recommended.
MOVIE MUSIC INTERNATIONAL. (MMI) . 