Ridley Scott’s 1979 science
fiction horror classic Alien, it goes
without saying, is universally regarded in cinema history as one of the most
influential and still terrifying thrillers of all time. With its claustrophobic futuristic set pieces
designed by Syd Mead and Ron Cobb, unforgettable creature design by H.R. Giger,
Academy Award winning visual effects work by creature effects technician Carlo
Rambaldi and a solid cast lead by Sigourney Weaver, Alien bears all the hallmarks of a stellar piece of cinematic
imagination with an unparalleled ability to frighten viewers even today. However, there’s one area which has proven to
be both vital to the film’s overall mood and tone yet will likely remain a
source of contention for as long as the film exists: the film’s original
soundtrack composed by Jerry Goldsmith.
It’s well known among
cinephiles and Alien fans that the
film’s landing from the pre-production stages to the finished film ultimately
released in theaters proved to be a shaky one in the musical department. While Jerry Goldsmith did indeed complete an
original score written specifically for the 1979 Ridley Scott film, not all of
it was used with many rejected cues being rewritten or dropped entirely
alongside the use of preexisting cues either from Goldsmith’s own catalog or
other composers entirely. As with
Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey,
early rough cuts of the film made frequent use of temp cues intended to provide
a benchmark for the film’s composer to draft an original piece for the sequence
and the end result ended up with far more of those temp cues left in place than
is common practice for the industry standard.
Many Alien fans by now know Goldsmith’s original opening cue intended
for the film was entirely different from the one Scott requested be rewritten,
shifting drastically tonally from a romantic science fiction adventure theme to
that of eerie, distant and dissonant industrial rumblings. Further still, during the infamous airduct
sequence with Tom Skerritt and the creature, Scott used a temp cue from
Goldsmith’s own original score for the 1962 film Freud in the finished theatrical film despite Goldsmith penning new
original music for the sequence. Lastly,
Goldsmith penned an entire closing credits cue only to have Scott replace it at
the last minute with the first movement of Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2 (“Romantic”), Op. 30, a move which drove Goldsmith
to fury when he saw the finished film without his music in place. Furthermore, despite the film’s critical and
commercial success, he opined over the years Scott ruined his score for Alien.
Considering the film
soundtrack’s checkered past, there has been much debate over which soundtrack
album released for Alien is the most
definitive one. While there was a 1979
soundtrack album released by 20th Century Fox records of the film’s
score performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lionel
Newman, the album was a nonlinear smattering of tracks largely adhering to
Goldsmith’s originally intended score with many unused cues rather than what
went to theaters. Though several various
soundtrack albums would be released over the years on different compact disc
recordings or re-recordings, there never really was for the longest time an
official soundtrack album that would bring together everything and anything
Goldsmith wrote for Alien available
for purchase on vinyl record…until now.
Thanks once again to the
good folks at Mondotees, Jerry Goldsmith’s original score for Alien has been re-released on a
collectible vinyl edition in two forms: the complete score remastered in a
standard 2LP package housed on green 180gram vinyl and a limited edition 4LP
boxed set house on multicolored 180gram vinyls including a repressing of the
1979 edition of the soundtrack album and a fourth disc containing numerous
alternate cues including the opening cues used in the film itself! Included with the limited vinyl box are
original liner notes and a randomly selected lithograph specific to each box of
original artwork by Tyler Stout. Unlike
the 2LP album which is still readily available, the 4LP box has all but sold
out with a note stating this will be a one-time-only pressing for die-hard
collectors.
Although this remastered
soundtrack album still didn’t include the aforementioned temp cues from Freud or the Howard Hanson cue closing
the film, it does however include the brief snippet from Mozart heard in the
shuttle as Dallas relaxes. As for the
rest, simply put, it’s all here with arguably the most comprehensive soundtrack
album to Alien that will probably
ever be released on vinyl, making this the definitive release of Jerry
Goldsmith’s work on Ridley Scott’s film.
Sounding better than ever with restored sonic depth and clarity, this
new Mondo release easily bests the still existing copies of the 1979 album with
far more music available to the listener than previously. It’s also nice to have all of Goldsmith’s
cues in one place, including the ones he didn’t like.
In recent years, though the
two would ultimately clash once again over the score to Legend with the US release version rescored by Tangerine Dream, Goldsmith
and Scott would soften their daggers often drawn for one another in interviews
with kinder things to say about one another in retrospective interviews. Whether or not the two would ever form a
truce or come to a satisfactory agreement over which music did and didn’t end
up in Alien, what we do know is that
Mondotees have put together a magnificent boxed set culls it all together,
providing Alien fans and Goldsmith
aficionados a complete score in addition to a gaze into what might have been
the musical accompaniment to one of the greatest sci-fi horror monster movies
of all time!
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki