Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Birdman Of Alcatraz was one of my favorite films to watch on late night television when I was a kid, for some reason I idolized the Robert Stroud character and bought a pair of parakeets thinking it would be cool to eventually have a room full of them, they never did mate or lay eggs. One of the 'keets fell over dead, I remember its buddy was depondent, depressed, sad and even sat on my finger once when it was usually wild and viciously unfriendly towards human fingers. Eventually I decided to turn the bird loose on a warm summer day, give it its freedom. I watched it outside for a few days as it flocked with some sparrows and flew so high in the sky it was barely visible.

I have the numbered 500 LP of the Elmer Bernstein score with Japanese print on the back cover, not sure what the story on it is, I guess its considered a bootleg, the audio quality is really good mono and for quite awhile its been a favorite EB score. To me the score has a strange mauldlin sound with hints of optimism throughout, I can hear the fluttering of bird wings in the music.

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"I used to worry about losing my mind. Now that I've lost it I don't worry about it anymore." -Wavy Gravy

O-HI-O

I finally found my copy of BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ. Great score! This is the type of Bernstein score I like. I never cared for his jazz scores. Will there ever be complete releases (or as complete as they could be) of John Wayne/Bernstein scores??

There have been a few here and there. "Comancheros" on FSM, "Big Jake" on Prometheus, and Tadlow's sparkly "True Grit" rerecording leap to mind. Good thing all these different labels are plugging away at this stuff or we probably wouldn't have any at all, huh?

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Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

Varese did release Bernstein's re-recordings with the Utah Symphony Orchestra of John Wayne Volume 1 - The Comancheros / True Grit and John Wayne Volume Two - The Shootist, Big Jake, Cahill, United States Marshall. Both are great LPs and CDs, just wish he would have recorded more of the music or complete score could be found. Intrada will find the missing ones, I have faith.