Album Description

1995 reissue. 30 additional minutes have been interwoven which were deleted from the original 1981 release, totaling 74 minutes of pure listening pleasure. Re-mastered including a special 24 page booklet containing an interview with John Williams, as well as liner notes, rare photos and sketchesnot included with the original release. Standard jewel case housed in a slipcase.

Amazon.com

In the '80s and '90s, John Williams has come to occupy roughly the same towering place in filmdom occupied by Henry Mancini for much of the '60s and '70s. Williams (who played piano on some early Mancini scores) carved out that distinction with exciting, full-blooded scores like George Lucas's Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones cycle, Steven Spielberg's blockbuster tributes to the cheesy film serials of his youth. The first in that series, Raiders wears its retro-symphonic sensibilities like a badge of honor and indeed, DGG's expanded deluxe release plays like a more economic Mahler opus. A true film music classic, even if its sensibilities are 40 years misplaced. --Jerry McCulley

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Discs and Tracks

Disc 1
  1 - The Raiders March
  2 - Main Title: South America
  3 - In The Idol's Temple
  4 - Flight From Peru
  5 - Journey To Nepal
  6 - The Medallion
  7 - To Cairo
  8 - The Basket Game
  9 - The Map Room: Dawn
  10 - Reunion And The Dig Begins
  11 - The Well Of The Souls
  12 - Airplane Fight
  13 - Desert Chase
  14 - Marion's Theme
  15 - The German Sub/To The Nazi Hideout
  16 - Ark Trek
  17 - The Miracle Of The Ark
  18 - The Warehouse
  19 - End Credits

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A Rousing and Memorable Soundtrack!        Rating:

John Williams' score for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK may be the second most memorable score of all time, second only to Williams' score for the original STAR WARS film. The music is engaging and moving, and browses its way through many different styles and genres. You can see the scenes playing in your head as you listen. Great CD. Highly recommended.

Awsome        Rating:

This is truly one of John Williams greatest works.
The only thing is that Marion's Theme. It is a nice track but it doesn't really fit her in my opinion. I loved the Desert Chase and Miracle of the Ark.
A must have soundtrack!

TRACKS:        Rating:

Tracks:
1. Raiders Of The Lost Art / Kool Moe Dee & Treacherous Three -- Kool Moe Dee & The Treacherous Three
2. Sun Don't Shine In The Hood / The Furious Five -- Furious 5
3. Do It Again -- Whodini
4. Somebody Else / Da Original -- The Originals
5. Keep On Rockin / Fearless Four -- The Fearless Four
6. G-Party / Kurtis Blow -- Kurtis Blow
7. Mic Slayer / The Furious Five -- Furious 5
8. Real / Busy Bee -- Busy Bee
9. Keep It Real -- Kool Moe Dee
10. The Cooley -- Afrika Bambaataa

Williams has done it again        Rating:

In 1936, archaeologist Indiana Jones began a search for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. Death lurked everywhere - in the form of Egyptian Cobras (Asps) that guarded the Ark, Nazi agents & thugs that wanted the Ark for Hitler, and traitorous guides in the jungles of Peru. Indiana Jones, however, was too smart and too fast for these adversaries, and the Ark was safely returned to the United States. This adventurous archaeologist could not have done it without the help of composer John Williams, whose music captured Indy's feats, escapes, and misadventures with a terrific score.

Conspicuous by their presence here are several tracks that were not featured on the 1981 LP release. Most notable are 'In The Idol's Temple', which used trumpets to portray Indy's narrow escape from the Peruvian temple with a giant boulder close behind, as well as 'Airplane Fight', in which Indy takes on a giant Nazi thug while trying to hijack the plane intended to transport the Ark in. One of the finest tracks, however, remains the 'Desert Chase', which chronicles Indy's pursuit of the Ark on horseback after the plane is blown up, as he takes control of the truck carrying the Ark & takes out the convoy's vehicles one at a time. Highly recommended for fans of Williams', Spielberg's, or Lucas's work.

The Map Room: Dawn - William's FINEST moment!!!        Rating:

The sequence in which Indy uses the medallion to find the ark is one of the most hair-raising, chill inducing, powerful, moving, fantastically awesome pieces of classical music in AND OUT of the cinema!!

The rest of the soundtrack is, of course, fantastic as well. But no single piece of music (save perhaps for the Stokowski orchestration of Debussy's SUNKEN CATHEDRAL) gets me as much as this one track from the Raiders soundtrack - it's worth any price! Sadly, you cannot hear the climatic moment in this Amazon clip - but trust me, it'll knock you down! The ark theme - three simple notes repeated - yet SO fantastic . . . Williams is pure genius!!

I think Williams has become so much the voice of both Spielberg and Lucas at the movies that, once he retires or dies, these two directors may as well throw in the towell as well!

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