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The Swimmer - FSM "scores" again
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Topic: The Swimmer - FSM "scores" again

Lou Goldberg

Standard Userer

FSM just announced they are issuing Marvin Hamlisch's score to The Swimmer on CD. This is great news!The score and CD are short, about 36 minutes, but the score itself is sublime. The main theme is excellent, there's a great cocktail music source cue, and a lot of thrilling music to go along with all the running scenes in the film. I can't recommend this one highly enough. FSM comes through again!
The film too is very odd & interesting and is available now on DVD in case you ever want to see it. It's a fascinating tale about self-deception and how people are never aware of what jerks they can be. But the way it's presented is almost surreal and though the main character is supposed to be an abstract symbol, you can also think of him just as someone who has amnesia, if that helps to get you through its weirdness.
In any case, both the film and its score are top notch and FSM should be praised for making this available again.
posted 03-17-2006 04:47 PM PT (US) 
John C Winfrey

Standard Userer

This is a great score. J.
posted 03-17-2006 05:18 PM PT (US) 
Gae

Standard Userer

I have this wonderful score on an old Lp and recently took the time to transfer it to CD as I love it so much. It's incredible to think that this was the first score of the then 23 year old Marvin Hamlisch as it is a work of such maturity and sublime beauty, not just in the recurring haunting theme "Send for me in Summer" but also in the various pieces of "source" music that Hamlisch wrote. In my opinion Hamlisch's underscore to these scene's such as "Lovely Hair" are more than just source music and have an underlying melancholic air that augments the story line perfectly. The theme itself appears in a myriad of guises and credit too must go to the exquisite orchestrations of Leo Shuken and Jack Hayes. The music is the emotional core of this film and the success of the film, dramatically, is due in no small part to Hamlisch's contribution as well as Lancaster's excellent performance. "The Swimmer" soundtrack would definately be in my Top Ten list of favourite soundtracks.Gae
[Message edited by Gae on 03-17-2006]
posted 03-17-2006 05:34 PM PT (US) 
Lou Goldberg

Standard Userer

Glad to see people are familiar with this and rate it as highly as I do.Hamlisch produced a masterpiece right out of the gate, but also sadly, I don't think he ever topped it either. It's just my opinion, but all his subsequent film scores and musicals don't ever reach this level again. But hey, even if all it made me was a one-hit wonder, I'd still be happy to produce just one masterpiece in my life.
posted 03-17-2006 09:33 PM PT (US) 
PeterK

FishChip

Hey Lou, or Gae, put up your comments on the following page so other non-message-board-people who visit the site will read about it!
http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/swimmerposted 03-17-2006 09:43 PM PT (US) 
joan hue

Standard Userer

Yep, this movie had solid music, and it was an interesting movie and commentary on the banality and emptiness of suburbia.
posted 03-17-2006 10:28 PM PT (US) 
Gae

Standard Userer

quote:
Hey Lou, or Gae, put up your comments on the following page so other non-message-board-people who visit the site will read about it! http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/swimmerOK! Done!

posted 03-18-2006 07:10 AM PT (US) 
Graham Watt

Standard Userer

Gae, good to see you here again after so long. Are you taking a back seat these days like me? Too old to be bothered even to think. Terrible, isn't it?By the way, what does "expanded from the LP" mean? That's on the FSM blurb.
I wasn't too excited when I saw that FSM's new one was THE SWIMMER. I haven't seen the whole movie, but I did catch the last ten minutes or so on the telly years ago, and it looked really interesting. I recall Burt Lancaster crouched down in the rain, suffering angst. Why didn't I get excited when I saw this score was out? Well, Marvin Hamlisch was always a turn-off for me. I never warmed to his persona when I saw him on shows, and I never identified with Broadway, and I never really liked THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, nor his adaptations in THE STING.
BUT - I just clicked onto the clips of THE SWIMMER and they're great! Now that's the sound I love so much. Intimate, haunting. In a way you can hear the song-smith come through (it sounds not unlike something Michel Legrand - who I love - would do), but it's much more than that. Gae and Lou, you've said it all for me. Another one on the "wants" list (as long as my arm already, and that's with small writing).
posted 03-19-2006 02:53 PM PT (US) 
Gae

Standard Userer

Hi Graham, I still hover around from time to time but I just dont have as much spare time to write as much as I used to along with all the other forums I visit. Also, to be honest, I dont buy too many new scores these days, preferring to delve into my Lp and CD archives and re-discover long forgotten classics.
Incidentally, where are these fabled sound clips of "The Swimmer" as I can't find them anywhere. I wouldn't mind comparing them to the versions I've got.Gae
P.S. Found the clips!!
The tracks that I heard do have slightly expanded parts to them i.e the opening theme starts with a low sustaining chord not appearing on the Lp. There are also the extra tracks...Bubbles...Julie, Julie/The Little Flute/The Goodbye.....You Loved it and some of the original tracks are slightly expanded.
The length of the original is 29:48
and have the following Tracks/timings...Side 1
1) Theme From The Swimmer ("Send for Me in Summer")/Big Splash 3:01
2)Easy Four 2:59
3)The Dive/Don't Come Back/Slow Walk/The Horse 3:44
4)Lucinda River/Two People 3:43
5)Hurdles 3:01Side 2
1)Carnival 2:24
2)Lovely Hair 2:34
3)Down the Steps/On the Road 2:03
4)My Kids Love Me/Traveling Home/Closer to Home/Home/Marcia Funebre 4:38
Theme From The Swimmer (Reprise) ("Send for Me in Summer") 1:17
Total Time: 29:48[Message edited by Gae on 03-19-2006]
posted 03-19-2006 05:11 PM PT (US) 
MWRuger

Standard Userer

Here's the text from the release:FSM's premiere CD release of The Swimmer features the complete score (expanded from the LP version, courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment) remixed and remastered from the original 1/2" three-track stereo
masters.I would take this to mean that the music on the original LP was remixed with additional music added. With sound being remastered, it should sound better than it ever has.
This is definetly on my buy list along with Chips!
posted 03-20-2006 09:54 AM PT (US) 
JeffBond

Standard Userer

I don't think anyone's gonna be disappointed with the sound on this album--it's all the music in the film in terrific sound, and lots of stuff not on the album.
posted 03-20-2006 11:00 AM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB
