Thank, Yannis
'S Wonderful
Police Story
Original Soundtrack Recording by Jerry Goldsmith | 1973
[Prometheus] 2000
The 3000 unit limited numbered collectors edition release the Prometheus Records of the compete score (in Stereo) composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith (The Man from U.N.C.L.E) for the pilot episode of the classic 1973 TV Series created by former LA Detective Joseph Wambaugh entitled POLICE STORY starring Vic Morrow (Combat), Ed Asner (Mary Taylor Moore Show) and Chuck Connors (The Rifleman).
The CD also features additional arrangements of Goldsmith's music by Richard Shores that would be
used as Library Music for countless episodes of the series.
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~ Runmovies
Buried beneath such landmark works as QB VII, PAPILLON, CHINATOWN and THE WIND AND THE LION, all of which were written around the same time, are a number of Jerry Goldsmith scores that most people will have never heard of, let alone heard. POLICE STORY is one such score; rescued from obscurity by the Prometheus gang, POLICE STORY was TV movie made in 1973, starring Vic Morrow (he of the TWILIGHT ZONE on-set death), Ed Asner, and Harry Guardino, which acted as a pilot episode for a cop series that ran for several seasons during the following decade.
POLICE STORY�s main theme actually sounds more like something Lab Schifrin might have written than anything in Goldsmith�s past. It has a real MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE groove, with funky flutes and toe-tapping trumpets intoning the melody over a wash of wah-wah guitars. The theme re-occurs in several other tracks, notably receiving a full recapitulation during �Hot Car,� and with silky variations in �The Tail,� �The Lawyer� and �The Phone Booth.� A slightly more conventional love theme for piano and strings makes a couple of appearances during �Wrong Number� and �A Love Affair,� marking one the score�s few lighter moments.
The underscore proper, where the theme is not present, tends to be less interesting, owing more to the �ticking and creeping� style of scoring that permeated much of America�s TV music during the 70s and 80s. Moody electric guitar picks, triangle taps, woodwind flutters and an occasional percussion rhythm are the name of the game in the �Stakeout� cues, while the unfortunately rather drawn-out �The Market/Quick Draw� is nothing more than a series of electronic textures overlaid by percussive acoustic effects. It�s dirty, gritty, urban music for the disco generation - quite unlike anything I personally have ever heard from Goldsmith, and which makes it all the more interesting as a result.
Following the conclusion of the score itself, the album goes on to include ten �library cue variations� of POLICE STORY material, arranged and conducted by Richard Shores, which would later go on to be used as score for the series itself. Much of Shores� work is Goldsmith-lite, watered down versions of themes and motifs, usually for a smaller ensemble. Rounding out the album is a 7-minute suite of music from MEDICAL STORY, a follow-up series that attempted to do for doctors what POLICE STORY did for cops. Other than Goldsmith�s original theme, MEDICAL STORY offers a rare opportunity to hear original music composed by Goldsmith�s long-serving orchestrator, the late Arthur Morton, who wrote most of the episodic scores.
POLICE STORY is an obscurity, certainly, and to be completely honest my own collection would not have been worse off had it not been rescued and revived. On the other hand, any archival material relating to Jerry Goldsmith is of great personal and historical interest, charting as it does the musical development of a man who is almost certain to be remembered as one of the greatest film composers in history. by Jonathan Broxton - Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol. 19/No. 76, 2000
~ Scoresounds.tripod.com
They don't make 'em like they used to... by Isaac Engelhorn (10/26/2001)
It's almost disheartening to know that television scoring used to be so great. What has become nothing more than an excuse for those with hardly any talent to clobber us over the heads with synth boredom *used* to be very special indeed. So special that even the top-notch composers of the day were happy to lend their talents to the small screen. Jerry Goldsmith was becoming more popular than just about any other composer in the early seventies when the police drama Police Story was released. Despite the fact that Goldsmith's flame of popularity was stolen by John Williams a few years later with the likes of Jaws and Star Wars, Goldsmith would always retain much of that popularity simply from his immense talent and the wonderful scores that he continued to craft.
Police Story, while certainly not one of Jerry's best scores is still leaps and bounds ahead of 95% of the scoring you'll hear on television nowadays. Most every fan of film music has something that they like on television. It may be something like Stargate SG-1, Babylon 5, or Star Trek, which seem to be the most popular (and oddly enough, are all sci-fi). What makes Police Story so great is the fact that it takes influences from the pop music of the time that it was composed. While this would ordinarily seem like a bad thing, it strangely adds something to the music listening to it all these years later. Perhaps it gives off the feeling of nostalgia, but I'm not entirely certain that that is it.
The score sports an extremely catchy little tune for the main title, and though it is so short (a meager 30 seconds) it still has an incredible knack for getting stuck in your head. The following cues of Goldsmith's opus utilize it well and one of the later tracks (as stated in the liner notes) reveals a use of the Jaws theme two years before John Williams composed his shark thriller!
Tracks 13 to 24 are not directly composed by Goldsmith himself, rather they are compositions and arrangements of Jerry's work done by Richard Shores. The final track, a suite from the Medical Story pilot episode was composed by the late Arthur Morton, who many may recognize as Goldsmith's friend and most prolific orchestrator.
(............)
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Police Story, The Pilot Movie:
01 - Theme From Police Story (0:33)
02 - Hot Car (2:29)
03 - The Tail (2:02)
04 - The Lawyer (0:28)
05 - Stakeout #1 (1:13)
06 - Wrong Number (2:01)
07 - A Love Affair (1:56)
08 - A Lack Of Trust / The Stoolie (0:56)
09 - The Phone Booth (2:10)
10 - Stakeout #2 (0:47)
11 - The Market / Quick Draw (6:06)
12 - The Hospital / End Credits (2:23)
Police Story, Library Cue Variations:
13 - On The Streets (1:57)
14 - Foot Pursuit (2:08)
15 - Legwork Montage (1:23)
16 - Stakeout Duty (0:47)
17 - Watching And Waiting (0:37)
18 - Tailing (2:02)
19 - Build And Act Out (0:29)
20 - Street Action (2:05)
21 - Market Hold Up / Draw! (6:08)
22 - Love Theme (1:57)
23 - Hot Pursuit (2:14)
24 - End Of Shift / End Credits (1:32)
Medical Story: Pilot Movie
25 - Suite (7:11)
