Manipulation of fragments of the main theme for
The
Towering Inferno, and especially the opening, rising four-note
figure, is well integrated into dissonant sequences that extend the
drama into not only the tragic realm but one of terror as well. By the
late suspense portions, the initial rising four notes of the theme are
omnipresent in overlapping layers of discomfort. In earlier scenes of
character development, Williams introduces three subthemes of a more
romantic nature, extending his talents in providing casual pop rhythms
to place the film in its contemporary time frame. What's most
interesting about these contemporary cues is that they haven't aged as
badly as one might expect for their early 1970's pop style, allowing the
score to hold a more timeless personality. The Maureen McGovern song,
"We May Never Love Like This Again," was the highlight of the music for
the film in 1974, gaining songwriters Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn an
Academy Award win and catapulting the album's success much in the same
way "The Morning After" did for
The Poseidon Adventure. Williams
once again incorporates the song into his own material, translating it
into one of the three love themes for the film, turning somber as one of
the characters in the duo meets an unfortunate fate. Another one, which,
like the previous theme, is sadly doomed both characters succumb, is
equally strong, evoking some powerfully emotional moments in the
harrowing passages from "Alone at Last" to "Immolation." A lengthy
performance of this idea in "An Architect's Dream" is extremely
attractive, and Williams collectors will even hear a distinct
foreshadowing of the theme for
Presumed Innocent in the
melodramatic tones of that cue, especially at the 1:05 mark). A theme
for the architect and his wife occupies "Something For Susan" and "More
For Susan" and also returns in "An Architect's Dream." Foreshadowing of
Williams' later classics is all over
The Towering Inferno, a
mournful horn solo at 1:55 into "Finale," for instance, a glimpse of
what fans would hear for the "Force" theme in
Star Wars. For the
majority of such collectors, the action and suspense material, along
with the bold thematic statements, will provide about twenty to thirty
minutes of outstanding material spread between five tracks, including
the lengthy "Planting the Charges," absent of any of the pop tones of
the era, though even those maintain their palatability.
Always presenting highly on the list of top ten most
requested scores during the 1990's,
The Towering Inferno was
never properly released on CD until April of 2001. The LP record that
existed for
The Towering Inferno still stood on many film music
collectors' shelves, twenty-seven years after its initial release. The
reason for the lengthy delay in the transferring of this score to CD
undoubtedly rested in the duality of the studio ownership of everything
related to the film. The Film Score Monthly label made this project a
top priority, one that logically also resulted from their superior
presentation of
The Poseidon Adventure as one of their earliest
entries in the "Silver Age Classics" series that would eventually last
longer than a decade. The release of
The Towering Inferno was a
shot in the arm of that series in 2001, selling out quickly and once
again proving the label's top status for collectors. Album producers
Lukas Kendall and Nick Redman managed to acquire nearly the entire score
for presentation on this album, and although a few incidental cues were
lost due to damage, their CD contained twice the amount of music heard
on the original LP. The product offered a section of bonus tracks is
offered at the end, including the original LP's re-recording of the song
to co-exist with the film version. With "The Morning After" from
The
Poseidon Adventure ironically playing as background source music in
a conversational scene in
The Towering Inferno, Williams'
instrumental re-recording from that moment is provided, too. Finally, a
few of the more damaged cues were appended for completists. The first
twenty-two tracks were meticulously arranged in their film sequence, and
the album reached a notable 75 minutes in length when tallied with the
bonus material. The sound quality of the product was as to be expected
for the early 1970's (slightly tinny and muted, especially in the pop
sections), but Silver Age fans aren't typically bothered by the results
of older recording technologies. The packaging of the album is nothing
short of spectacular, explaining the complexities of the film's
production and providing a cue by cue analysis, intriguing concept art,
and a fascinating, if not spooky, picture of the entire major cast
enthusiastically walking arm in arm down the studio lot. Not
unexpectedly, the limited 2001 FSM product disappeared before long and
eventually sold for collector's prices in the several hundreds of
dollars.
Availability on album for
The Towering Inferno
remained poor for well over a decade. Warner Brothers and Rhino released
the remastered version of the original 36-minute LP album digitally in
2014. Only in 2019 did the score finally receive additional treatment on
CD, and it came in the form of a magnificent set from La-La Land Records
entitled the "Disaster Movie Soundtrack Collection" that contained a
2-CD expansion of this score alongside equivalent treatment of Williams'
The Poseidon Adventure and
Earthquake. The work done by
the label on
The Towering Inferno is remarkable, obtaining a
variety of stereo and monaural sources for the recording and piecing
together the best possible presentation of the work. This requires some
shifts from stereo to mono sound in places, but the differing
soundscapes are not significantly jarring. The damaged cues from the
2001 FSM product are reinstated in newly reconstructed form for a full
sequencing of the film version of the score on one CD. The other CD
contains a variety of alternate takes of major cues, a broader survey of
the pop-inspired source music, including the McGovern song, and the
original LP album. It's worth noting that the LP album had a
significantly different mix to push all the elements to the forefront,
and the 2019 product retains that personality. The source cues aren't
particularly interesting, though the alternate takes are of interest.
The La-La Land set may be worth its price for
The Towering
Inferno on its own, a definitive offering of 5,000 copies that is an
absolute must for enthusiasts of Silver-Age Williams tenacity at its
most ambitious; of Williams pre-
Jaws output,
The Towering
Inferno is a top achievement. Fans of the film may notice that many
of the maestro's cues are abbreviated or simply absent in the middle
portions of the film itself, leading to some arguments that Williams'
work for the concept is better appreciated on album than in context. But
many of his best passages, including the exciting opening cue, are
highlighted in the film's mix. The melody of Joel Hirschhorn and Al
Kasha's frightfully short Oscar-winning song remains one of the better
of the era even if its rendering is aged by its 1970's tone; more modern
covers of this song would be welcome. Williams, for his part, included
The Towering Inferno as part of his early concert suites but
eventually dropped it as more romantic orchestral majesty dominated
later efforts. Still, it remains a classic score for a timeless film,
and the 2019 album is an outstanding presentation worth saving from any
fire.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
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