Are you messing with me? Arista fights back
In the early seventies a label called Sound/Stage Recordings released a number of Herrmann bootleg LPs. So what would be a better name to use for a new Herrmann bootleg CD label in the 90s? Soundstage Records have released 4 CDs in recent years without getting booked, and now was the time to do Taxi Driver. But Arista didn’t like that, they said “We’re gonna get those boys.”
Arista have owned the rights to the original recordings since the movie came out in 1976, when they put out an LP (and later CD) consisting of some original tracks, some original tracks with dialogue, and one side of ‘disco’ arrangements by Dave Blume.
Herrmann fans have waited for a proper release ever since and it now looks as it’s going to happen. Arista have annouced a complete stereo CD for release in 1998, produced by Didier C. Deutsch. To bad it would take bootleggers to make this happen.
One concern, though. The original LP/CD has become some sort of a cult album for non-filmmusic fans and I wonder whether Arista will resist the temptation of including dialogue and Blume cues, making less room for the Bernard Herrmann original score.
It should also be noted that credits for the two Taxi Driver Theme recordings from the original album (the original and the Dave Blume version) have gotten mixed in recent CD releases. Tom Scott plays saxophone only on the Dave Blume version and this is the one with a disco ending.