• Music

Rare (ish) Thomas Newman

When you’re crazy into a band or an artist, you seek stuff out. The harder it is to find, the more you search, and it becomes a sort of quest, especially when the existence of said material is rumored to exist somewhere. And when you finally get it, the acquiring becomes all the more sweet. The joy, for instance, of tracking down Thomas Newman’s Men Don’t Leave soundtrack was well-documented here. And since I offered to post more rare Newman this week, let’s get to it.

The Man With One Red Shoe

Starting at the beginning, this piece of music (as discussed here) was the first time I noticed Newman’s work. I was a movie theater drudge in Santa Fe. The year was 1985. My coworkers and I would crank the monitors during the end credits up in the booth/office when The Man With One Red Shoe wrapped each showing. This was why. It’s a rolling, laid-back piece of instrumental music, easy-going and saxy. Ask most people if they remember the film and you’ll get a blank stare. Ask me, however, and you’ll have to listen to me wax enthusiastic for half an hour.

Those Secrets

I never saw this film, but of the legally-issued Thomas Newman scores, it’s one of the harder ones to find. An eBay search today shows a range from $10 to $85 bucks for the CD. The tone of this piece is closer to Men Don’t Leave in style, and hints at his more string-laden compostions to come. But that percussive element that I love so much is still very much evident. It’s a worthwhile acquisition for fans.

The Lost Boys

Alternately bombastic and moody, this is one of those atypical Newman scores that finds him dabbling in sounds we’re not used to hearing from him. It’s the only “horror” film he ever scored, so I guess we can chalk that up as a reason, but here he’s using electric guitar, large scale organ and rapid-fire percussion to build to that Santa Cruz Carnival of Horror that we all remember so well. The original soundtrack contained very little of the actual score and was geared, instead, to people who wanted to get their hands on Tim Cappello’s sax-drenched cover of The Call’s “I Still Believe.” Uh, no thank you.

Cookie

Man, remember Emily Lloyd? She was the flavor of the year when this came out, thanks to Wish You Were Here, that button-cute comedy from 1987. Here, she gets Italian on us and slinks about in a Nora Ephron-penned mob comedy that failed to make an impression when it came out. The score is funky and jazzy and seasoned with a wheezy accordion sound, entirely befitting the smoky atmosphere of a neighborhood Trattoria, but there’s some of the trademark Newman sparkle as well, as evidenced by this short cut.

There’s more, but I’m out of time today. actually, it’s not that I’m out of time. I just can’t take the heavy oppressive marine-layer gloom that’s covering Redondo Beach today. I’m going to retreat somewhere warm and bright and get some work done. I’ll drop some more cool bits into the schedule for next week, so stay tuned.

14 Comments

  1. johnroumas
    Posted July 9, 2008 at 5:32 pm | [link]

    I am a Thomas newman fan. I would love to be able to buy “How To Make An American Quilt”, the promo of “Premonition”, “The Rapture”, and “Deception” on CD.
    Please contact me if you have any info on these, Thanks. John.

  2. Myna
    Posted April 24, 2009 at 9:28 pm | [link]

    The Man With One Red Shoe… I’m glad to know that there’s someone else out there that’s as much of a fan of that tune as I am; I’ve loved it for decades! I too had the version that you have which is 1:24’s long.
    Do you know where we can get the full version that plays in the movie during the end credits? The one we have is missing so much of the heart of the piece…

    Please let me know…
    Myna

  3. Posted April 25, 2009 at 5:38 am | [link]

    Not on any pure digital source that I’ve been able to discern. If you can live with the minor helicopter noise at the beginning, it’d be worth ripping the audio from the DVD. If I ever get around to it, I’ll drop you a line.

  4. Joan
    Posted October 13, 2009 at 6:12 am | [link]

    Like Myna, I would love to get the full version that plays during the credits of The Man With One Red Shoe. I’ve looked everywhere I can think of on line, and the 1:24 segment you supplied here is great…. I’m just greedy for the entire thing.

    Thank-you,
    Joan

  5. John Hays
    Posted June 7, 2010 at 3:11 pm | [link]

    I’d also love to have the Man with One Red Shoe music!

  6. Posted June 11, 2010 at 7:14 am | [link]

    Hey, John. Give me a few days and I’ll see what I can do. If you don’t hear back, be sure to contact me directly.

  7. John M
    Posted September 10, 2010 at 10:05 pm | [link]

    I have been looking for the soundtrack to The Man with One Red Shoe for decades. That music is just so haunting, so lovely, it does things to me I can’t explain.

  8. Dallas
    Posted October 29, 2010 at 6:55 am | [link]

    I’ve been searching for the MAN with One Red Shoe score for a looooong time. This segment you provided is the closest I ever came. Now if I could JUST find that uptempo portion, too. The track is so unique and infectious, I always listened to the credits because of how awesome the track is. John M said it right, its haunting, sultry, and fits perfectly in the mood of sexy spies.

  9. Doreen
    Posted November 26, 2010 at 10:43 am | [link]

    Wow. I thought I would never find a place in which I could listen to that great score (from “Man with 1 Red Shoe”)! It’s fantastic to see that others feel the same: I had the same experience listening to the credits (and even yelled at my little brother’s noisy friend for disrupting it).

  10. Gretchen
    Posted December 16, 2010 at 2:07 pm | [link]

    Yes! I grew up with The Man with One Red Shoe (and Splash; my mother really had a thing for young Tom Hanks). I’ve been a huge fan of Thomas Newman since I was a kid. I remember rewinding the VHS over and over again just to hear the credits and the part with the cocaine-filled car in the beginning. Wow. If you have that score at all, I am begging you for it. I’ve searched forever and found mention of bootlegs, but there has been no sign of any of the tracks being up for download.

  11. PIQASSO
    Posted March 31, 2011 at 8:12 am | [link]

    Well,I ve a huge collection of rare and great Osts ….and I think that I may have some of newman’s great compositions
    including the full soundtrack of ‘Man with One Red Shoe’ …I ve to find it out.. if I get it I will let u know..

  12. duranie
    Posted May 31, 2011 at 5:40 pm | [link]

    I love the man with one red shoe soundtrack. I love the ending credits but even throughout the movie they have that awesome synth pop. One of my faves is when the spies are at his apartment searching the place.
    I’ve searched everywhere for the sdtrack but no luck

  13. Teddy
    Posted February 2, 2012 at 5:49 pm | [link]

    Hahahahahaha! YAY! I am not the only Thomas Newman freak out there! And yes, the music from The Man With One Red Shoe was DIVINE. Cheers.

  14. Justine
    Posted June 4, 2012 at 6:57 pm | [link]

    I also love the music from The man with one red shoe…. If anyone finds it for sale post it!

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