So it’s Sunday afternoon and I’m sat in the office working on the Manchester International Festival. On the back of doing the Friday night’s Industrial Resolution gig I last night went out for a meal (The Market Restaurant. Over-rated if you ask me!) and a few scoops for a friends birthday then popped into the excellent Best Foot Forward where Moonboots & Balearic Mike were playing some excellent as-always music. As a result I’m a little tired to say the least…When I say I’m working I must confess that I am actually sat with my feet up after just watching ‘The Warriors’. It’s been a good few years since I saw the film and reminded me of how good this film and accompanying soundtrack really is.Now I must admit I’d long forgotten about the soundtrack (Tucked away somewhere) until I recently saw it on the shelves at Astonishing Sounds (Burnley) and again when Beppe Loda joined Cosmic Disco in Manchester where he played Barry De Vorzon’s ‘Theme From Warriors’ during his 2hr live set. Now, I’m generally a big fan of soundtrack musical scores and composer Barry De Vorzon hits the spot for this classic gang movie released on Spectrum Music back in1979.Synths were just being introduced at the time and Barry decided to go with Rock ‘n’ Roll feel for the film, adding synths as an overlay for a little bit of eeriness and a different texture. Written within an immensely short time period director Walter Hill wanted Barry de Corzon to reinforce the movement of the film, which help keep the film at a fast and frenetic pace. The film features three original tracks from Barry with the soundtrack including additional tracks that the movies now iconic female radio DJ (The mouth and of course those lips! of Lynn Thigpen) plays whilst giving running commentary of The Warriors progress as they fight their way back home (Coney Island) through various gang’s territories.Upon release the film was received rapturously by the test audiences but badly by the press. When the magazine (Featuring longer articles) reviews started to appear the feedback was much more positive until word of mouth got to the point where things snowballed into rumours that if you went to see the film you would be risking your life as riots were starting at the movie theatres! Because of the subject matter The Warriors did attract gang members to the movie. After a number of incidents the studios panicked and ultimetley pulled the plug on the film. Not gratuitously violent, ‘The Warriors’ was light years ahead of its time and for these reasons it’s easy to see why the film has become such a cult classic.Producer Lawrence Gordon came up with the idea for the film whilst scouring through the discount section of a bookstore. He came across a book with no cover, which just had one line giving the concept of the novel. This novel was ‘The Warriors’ by Sol Yurick and is a sociological story about downtrodden gangs forced into delinquency because of their depraved status. Lawrence proceeded to contact the publisher and gained subsidiary rights to the novel where he optioned his own book using his own funds. Lawrence then showed Walter Hill (Director/Screenwriter) the book and asked if he would ever be interested in the project upon which Walter felt it would give itself up to a cool chase atmosphere and ‘The Warriors’ film was born.The Warriors is a low budget film, almost all shot undercover of night, utilising a comic book sensibility, featuring an almost all black & hispanic cast creating an alternative reality. The film was shot in real locations such as The Bronx, Queens & Coney Island. Using almost unknown actors at the time (Michael Beck as Swan [Warriors head honcho] and David Patrick Kelly as Luther [Rogues leader]) there is a raw energy to the performances of the main characters. With fantastic costumes designed by Bobbie Mannix she was given a list of all the individual gang names and created ideas for each tribe’s look & style with embroidered patches and logos, which in turn were all hand stitched by English designer Rose Clemence.My favourite scene from the film has to be ‘The Conclave’ scene, shot in Riverside Park where Cryus (Roger Hill) announces the notion that all cities gangs would join together to become one and run the streets only to be shot by Luthur who blames The Warriors and a riot with the police ensues. The gangs of New York then unite to bring The Warriors to justice and so the drive of the film begins. With the large number of people (Approx. 1000) required to change into costumes coupled with the short amount of nightfall to complete the conclave scene it was THE big money sequence for the film. Unusually placed at the start of the feature (Due to the notion of the story) here the film’s style is cemented by stating the problem whilst falsely stating the premise. Ironically this then changes by the end of this sequence. Shot over 4 nights the faux messianic speech (Caaan yoooou diiiig it?) has often been imitated and will forever resonate in movie folklore.My favourite gang has to be the ‘Baseball Furies’. Visually they looked furious with psychedelic painted faces (Very Kiss!) and baseball uniforms of course including bats as their weapon of choice. The action sequences throughout the film are very stylised and cartoonish in nature other than in the fight between the Warriors & Baseball Furies. With long lensed shots, fast edits with low angles and great lighting The Warriors Vs The Baseball Furies ruck results in a fast, frenetic and violent scene.Originally Walter (Director) & Barry (Composer) didn’t want any music in the ‘Furies’ scene to keep it as realistic as possible, however Larry Gordon (Producer) felt it was too realistic and music was taken from another part of the film and later added to remind viewers that it was just a movie. The Baseball Furies scene also produces the best line from the film when Warriors character Ajax says “I’ll Shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a Popsicle!” Great stuff… The Warriors is also credited as the first ever musical score written
with a Rock ‘n’ Roll synthesiser approach. The soundtrack is basically Rock ‘n’ Roll without lyrics until the end title ‘In The City’, co-written with Joe Walsh from the Eagles which was later recorded and used on the Long Run & Hell Freezes over albums. (No doubt Barry still lives off this one!) Different from the rest of the score but definitley Rock ‘n’ Roll.The Warrior’s composer Barry De Vorzon was lead singer in a 60’s New York based outfit called The Tamerlanes who had a hit in 1963 with ‘I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight?’ Barry de Vorzon has continued to make his presence felt as a producer and composer. His scores have been heard in such films as Xanadu, Rolling Thunder, Bless the Beasts and Children, Private Benjamin, and The Ninth Configuration. One tune, “Cotton’s Theme,” originally heard in Bless the Beasts and Children, was renamed “Nadia’s Theme” and scored by Perry Botkin Jr. as the theme song of popular television daytime serial The Young and the Restless. Folk-pop singer Melanie covered his songs “Stop! I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore” and “We Don’t Know Where We’re Going” on her 1971 album Garden in the City. De Vorzon’s tune “It’s Christmas Time in San Francisco” has become a yuletide classic.As an A&R man for the Valiant record label, de Vorzon made his greatest move when he signed the Association to the label and produced their debut single, a pop version of Bob Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings.” De Vorzon was a recipient of the Doris Day Music Award from Ark Trust, Inc. Now then, back to work.‘Escape From New York’ next I think!Keep posted to Cosmic Disco for an exclusive ‘Soundtrack & Library’ based mix digging out funky tracks deep from the vaults of KPM, Chappell, Bruton, MFP, Trunk and Music de Wolfe coming very soon…