feedthecats
09-22-2018, 05:41 PM
This is my rip of the isolated score on the Twilight Time blu ray. It's in mono, and needed lots of volume dips correcting. The score was composed in the same year as THE HOT ROCK and THE GETAWAY, and never released on LP or CD.
** WARNING: PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD **
THE FILM SCORE:
01. MAIN TITLE (The Washington Post March by John Philip Sousa)
The three young cop protagonists are seen in a training montage at the Police Academy. Stacy Keach plays the idealistic Roy, who will get the lion's share of screen time; his buddies are Gus (Scott Wilson) and a pre-CHIPs Erik Estrada as Sergio. It would have been interesting to hear an original Quincy Jones composition for this, but instead the filmmakers used the Sousa march.
02. PATROL CAR #1
Virtually every time we see a police patrol car cruising down LA streets, Jones uses a percussive, funky riff to underscore it. All of these cues last just a few seconds - they are dialled out quickly when the characters start to speak. Possibly they were intended to be longer and shortened editorially - we'll probably never know since the Blu Ray gives us only the short film versions.
03. ROY'S HOME (Instrumental of "It's Too Late" by Carole King and Toni Stern)
Roy (Stacy Keach) returns home and talks to his wife Dorothy (Jane Alexander). Their marriage is fairly happy at this point, although that will soon change as the pressures of police work increasingly impact on Roy. Strangely, we don't get to hear any Quincy Jones music here - it's scored with a warm instrumental version of the popular Carole King song "It's Too Late" (presumably arranged by Jones himself).
04. HOLLYWOOD VICE MONTAGE
A number of groovy/funky source cues (quickly crossfading in and out) accompany Roy and his experienced older partner Kilvinski (George C. Scott) as they patrol the seedier streets of Hollywood.
05. PATROL CAR #2
06. ROY'S MARRIAGE
After an argument, Roy and Dorothy discuss their marital problems in their garden. Jones delivers a somber, unsettling cue, and although it's not immediately recognisable, "Roy's Theme" is first heard here in a very slow, hesitant arrangement.
07. PATROL CAR #3
08. ROY SHOT
Roy tries to protect an innocent bystander from a nearby robbery in progress, but it turns out he's actually the getaway driver and he shoots Roy in the stomach. Jones magnifies the shocking image of Roy being blasted backwards by using a brutal chord on low end piano, and then he scores Roy's numb descent into unconsciousness with a disorientating blend of orchestra and electronics.
09. BANK SHOOTOUT
Jones' first full-blown action material is unleashed as Kilvinsky stalks a pair of bank robbers in a parking lot. Wah-wah guitar, cowbell percussion, brass exclamations and a driving bass riff combine to make a conventional shootout appear more exciting than it really is.
10. KILVINSKI RETIRES (BAR SOURCE)
After Kilvinski announces his retirement, he joins Roy in a raunchy bar where an "exotic dancer" struts her stuff on stage. This faintly sleazy source cue features flute jamming along with loud percussion and electric and bass guitar.
11. PATROL CAR #4
12. KILVINSKI'S LAST SUNRISE
In one of the film's most atmospheric shots, an unhappy Kilvinski stands on his apartment's balcony and watches the Los Angeles skyline as the rising sun bathes it in a sickly yellow light. Jones colours this short portentous cue with queasy electronics, hinting that something is very wrong with the retired cop. Kilvinski goes inside and - after making a seemingly innocuous phone call to Roy - he shoots himself.
13. ROY'S BOOZE
Grieving in the aftermath of Kilvinski's suicide, Roy hits the bottle, secretly drinking on duty whenever he can. Jones' restrained, minimalistic approach - single piano hits, rising and falling over an ominous bass drone - adds a menacing edge to the sequence, effectively suggesting how dangerous Roy's behaviour is.
14. ROY'S THEME
Responding to a burglary call, Roy meets Lorrie (Rosalind Cash) and immediately feels a connection with the sympathetic woman. For the first time, Jones presents Roy's theme in a more recognisable arrangement, a tentative but hopeful melody that adds some warmth to the scene - and signals a glimmer of hope for the troubled cop.
15. ROY AND LORRIE (features instrumental of "Make It With You" by David Gates)
After a disastrous day on the job, a drunken Roy turns up on Lorrie's doorstep. As Lorrie watches Roy fall asleep on her couch, Jones reintroduces Roy's theme in a more expansive arrangement, playing it over the subsequent montage of the two people spending time together and gradually falling in love. The cue segues to an instrumental of David Gates' "Make It With You" before returning to Jones' own theme.
16. CAR CHASE
The wah-wah guitar and bass riff action material resurfaces again as Jones adds some energy to a car chase involving all three cop protagonists. Roy chases a suspect on foot and dives for cover as he comes under fire. Fearing that he's going to get shot in the stomach again, Roy covers his belly with his helmet. The music is abruptly dialled out here and it's likely that Jones intended his cue to continue under the scene, but the isolated score unfortunately gives us only the final film version.
17. FOOT CHASE
As Roy gets to his feet and continues chasing the suspect down a tunnel, the action music is dialled back in abruptly. When the scene transitions to Gus (Scott Wilson) pursuing another suspect, the energetic cue gives way to atmospheric suspense music as Gus searches for the man and eventually arrests him peacefully.
18. ONE MORE DEAD COP / END TITLES
As the story nears its end, all three cops - Roy, Gus and Sergio - are wiser and more content in their personal and professional lives. So it's the perfect time for tragedy to strike. At a routine callout for a domestic disturbance, Roy walks up some stairs to talk to a woman's husband - who suddenly appears and shoots Roy. In the stomach. Again. Jones repeats the shock chord from Roy's previous shooting, and then - as Roy slowly dies in his fellow cops' arms - Jones uses Roy's Theme to movingly underline the tragedy. The film ends on an extreme closeup of Roy's face, then fades to black as the end credits play out, accompanied by a new arrangement of Roy's Theme - now a sad elegy for a life pointlessly extinguished just as happiness was within reach.
THE ALBUM:
Because of the fragmentary nature of the score, I thought I'd create an imaginary album assembly, the sort of thing that might actually have appeared on LP back in 1972. I dropped the Sousa march, put Roy's Theme at the beginning (so that it bookends the last track) and took the opportunity to combine all those short "Patrol Car" cues into one track. I blended "Car Chase" and "Foot Chase" into one track to eliminate the awkward fades and the tape wobble at the 1:00 mark in "Car Chase." Finally I split "One More Dead Cop" and "End Title" into separate tracks, because it feels more natural that way. It's a short album at 27 minutes, but many LPs in the 60s and 70s were of similar length.
01. Roy's Theme (1:00)
02. Patrol Car Montage (1:29)
03. Roy's Home (2:25)
04. Hollywood Vice Montage (3:46)
05. Roy's Marriage (1:33)
06. Roy Shot (0:34)
07. Bank Shootout (1:52)
08. Kilvinski Retires (1:26)
09. Kilvinski's Last Sunrise (1:26)
10. Roy's Booze (1:27)
11. Roy and Lorrie (4:06)
12. The Big Chase (2:50)
13. One More Dead Cop (1:58)
14. End Titles (1:01)
PM for link if interested.