Lalo Schifrin Soundtracks 7 Items

A high-speed car chase between a Dodge Charger and a Ford Mustang, with super-cop Bullitt at the wheel, who forces the hitman off the road and into a petrol station, which explodes and incinerates him. Prior to that, harsh clashes of metal, hubcaps flying all over the place, and the chief character Steve McQueen, who grimly changes gears and hurtles through the streets of San Francisco, wheels screaming and rubber burning. That was how Hollywood staged one of the longest and most dramatic car chases, long before the days of the Anti-Blocking-System and Anti-Slide-Control.
Very up-to-date and just as exciting as the screenplay is the music Lalo Schifrin wrote for the film, which embeds the characters, places and events in a musical context. For example, "Bullitt": the metrically angular main theme portrays a mysterious, cool character who sums up a situation with keen alertness and then makes his attack with the speed of lightning.
Initially the music travels through easy-going Latin terrain. But gradually the rhythmic texture changes and takes a rougher path, with clicks, knocks and hammering. Legendary flute lines create a compensatory placidness with airy clouds floating above the sharp mix. A really special track is "Shifting Gears": here you can listen to Schifrin tuning the car, how he manipulates a jammed springy bossa to take on the sound of clean, smooth-running rock.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

2 tracks from the Dirty Harry Soundtrack first time available on a 45

torn spine

Wewantsounds is delighted to release for the first time on vinyl the Lalo Schifrin"s soundtrack for Frank Perry"s thriller "Man On A Swing" from 1974. Featuring Schifrin"s superb mix of Jazz, Bossa, Groove and atmospheric soundscape, the soundtrack, recorded in LA with the Wrecking Crew"s Emil Richards, Bud Shank and Howard Roberts among others, finds the composer at his most inspired. Delving in the Paramount tapes, the label has re-sequenced the soundtrack from scratch and found several unissued cues as bonus tracks. Among which the mindblowing rhythm track for the title "Radio Source", featuring a super Funk breakbeat. The Soundtrack has been remastered for vinyl by Colorsound studio and features liner notes by Jeremy Allen with artwork by Eric Adrian Lee. By the time Lalo Schifrin composed the soundtrack for Frank Perry"s psychological thriller in 1974, starring Cliff Robertson and Joel Gray (who"d just won an Oscar for his role in Bob Fosse"s Cabaret) he was Hollywood royalty having worked on such iconic films as Bullitt and Dirty Harry. Perry on his side, had caused a stir with The Swimmer in 1968 starring Burt Lancaster (although he would dismiss the film after being fired from the production) and followed up with a string of great cult movies including "Last Summer" (1969), Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) starring Carrie Snodgress - whom Neil Young famously fell in love with upon seeing the film and "Play It as It lays" in 1972, adapted from Joan Didion"s eponymous novel. Breaking from the social dramas from of his previous films, Perry decided to shoot a thriller based on journalist William Arthur Clark"s book "The Girl on The Volkswagen Floor." The film follows a police officer investigating a murder with the help of a strange ambiguous clairvoyant played by Gray. For the score Perry went to Lalo Schifrin who"d just come out of a bad experience on The Exorcist working with William Friedkin who"d rejected his music in favour of Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield! The score was recorded in LA with the Wrecking Crew and, although the full line up is not known, it included Emil Richards, Howard Roberts, Bud Shank and of course Schifrin on piano. "Man on a Swing" is pure undiluted Schifrin from the early 70s. The score plays like a long suite alternating Bossa Nova ("Juke Box Source"), Lounge Jazz ("Trip to La") and groove ("fm Groove") with superb "suspense" soundscapes like "Rosehaven Hotel". The label has gone back to the Paramount 3-track tape transfers and come up with an updated tracklist (a CD version briefly appeared in the 2010s) - re-sequenced and augmented with a handful of bonus tracks and alternate takes. A highlight is certainly "Radio Source Rhythm" which, losing the guitar and organ, reveal a jaw dropping funk breakbeat that is in the league of Dirty Harry and Enter the Dragon. This and the whole soundtrack, will ravish all the funk diggers and Lalo Schifrin fans around the world.