DUNE
This sci-fi movie starring rock star Sting was Toto's first shot on making soundtracks. The movie, a $40 million dollar project by De Laurentis, was written by David "Twin peaks" Lynch and was based on the famous books by Frank Herbert.Steve Lukather: We wrote the whole score; the orchestral stuff. It was kind of an experiment for us, because we'd just fired our singer, and we didn't know what we wanted to do. [Director] David Lynch came to us and wanted us to do this movie, and we thought it would be great; a Star wars kind of movie, but they pulled the plug on the money, and he didn't get to finish it the way he wanted, so now it's known as a cult film.
It was a learning experience for us. At the time, we were offered Dune or Footloose; we chose Dune, and the Footloose soundtrack sold something like 10 million copies!
(Chuckles) It was terrible. We were at the premiere, and as the movie went on, we kept sliding lower and lower into our seats (laughs). I remember Marty Paich, David's dad, was sitting behind us, and he leaned over to his son and said, "Dave, I told you this was a turkey!" It's not Lynch's best work, but I'm still a huge fan of his; 'The elephant man' was tremendous.
(Vintage Guitar, November 2000)
Steve Lukather (in a 1992 interview) on Dune: "We got offered Footloose, and turned it down, which is kind of a bad joke, because we'd probably have made a fortune. Instead we ended up doing Dune with a full orchestra. A lot of people feel that was a mistake. I don't think it was detrimental, but it didn't do anything to further our career. It really was musical masturbating. It was really David's puppy. Coming from a classical background he wanted to do something like that and we all went along with it. I just look at it as something we did, neither good nor bad."
Toto wrote, performed and produced 16 of the 17 tracks on the album, the only non-Toto track being "Prophecy theme" by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno. Backed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and joined by Marty 'the Maestro' Paich, Toto recorded the score in Vienna. David Paich later commented on that "... next time I do a soundtrack, I want the word 'London' written in my contract".
The Toto members decided to to rename the movie "Dune" to "Doom", since the project didn't go that well.
"It was a real major challenge and everything like that," Paich said. "We wanted to actually score a movie, and not just write song for it and have them placed wherever they wanted. "We looked at all the scenes, and there was a good hour and a half of music. And everybody put their heads together and we came up with the stuff we wanted. Some of it ended up getting rchestrated, and we're playing a lot of the stuff, cut on 24-track with the orchestra over-dubbed to it."
"I was happy with it from an educational standpoint,'' Paich reflected. "Movies end up being kind of more than they're worth as far as the hassle standpoint. And when you finally hear the outcome of the movie, the music's not really mixed the way I wanted. I don't think the movie ended up being as good as it could have been, but you learn."
Dutch fans will recognize "Dune, desert theme" as being the theme for a
famous TV-show some years ago: "Jongbloed & Joosten".
Dune (Polydor 1984 - 823 770-2)
1. Prologue [1:47]
2. Main title [1:15]
3. Robot fight [1:18]
4. Leto's theme [1:43]
5. The box [2:37]
6. The floating fat man (the baron) [1:24]
7. Trip to arrakis [2:35]
8. Prophecy theme* [4:19]
9. Dune (desert theme) [5:30]
10. Paul meets Chani [3:04]
11. Prelude (take my hand) [0:59]
12. Paul takes the water of life [2:48]
13. Big battle [3:06]
14. Paul kills Feyd [1:51]
15. Final dream [1:25]
16. Take my hand [2;35]
Written, composed and performed by Toto. "Prophecy theme" by Brian Eno,
Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno. All selections produced by Toto except * by
Brian Eno.
The soundtrack for Dune has been re-released. This re-release
only contains the original score composed by Toto for the film without
dialogue or the Brian Eno piece either.
It is the original score in the manner that it was intended to be heard in
film with a total running time of about 72 minutes.
David Paich wrote some special liner-notes for this album:
"My first encounter with David Lynch was in 1983. I flew to Mexico City to bring him a "demo" tape TOTO had made in hopes of doing it in the new movie "Dune." That same demo can be heard on this album, second to last cut.
When I went through customs, it was as if we had a "get out of jail card free." We were quickly whisked past everyone in customs. That evening, my presence was requested at a "well known" restaurant in Mexico City which I believed Raffaella De Laurentiis, the producer had requisitioned for the duration of the movie.
As David Lynch rose and shook my hand the first thing he asked was "would you mind recording in Moscow?" "Sounds interesting" I replied. "Is there a phone around here?" I immediately placed a call to my father Marty to get his thinking on this question. "We can bring in Andre Previn to conduct for us. I know he speaks Russian." I nodded my head to David Lynch. "No problem."
"No problem" was an understatement regarding the task I had ahead of me. I later played the demo for Raffaella and David. They nodded positively. Later that evening at a party, David Lynch put a set of headphones on me with Shostakoviich's eleventh playing. He said in a raised voice "do you like that kinda music?" I replied "I love it." He then said "do you know what I want musically?" I answered with a definite "Yes!"
Over the next six months I, with my associates in TOTO composed the music you will hear on this CD. David Lynch's only orders to me were "low and slow." Only once did he raise his voice, (when he heard a harp playing that had leaked through onto the string tracks. He hated harps.)
This album is dedicated to my father Marty Paich who orchestrated and conducted along with Allyn Ferguson the music of the movie, and to Jeff Porcaro who created the original percussion concept. Special dedication to Frank Herbert who wrote DUNE. It was a truly unique experience.
I highly recommend against anyone attempting this pseudo-self indulgent quasi-Promethean endeavor on their first movie score.
David Paich
PS: Billy Idol swears this is his favorite TOTO album.
"Dune: The Original Score" - Music composed by Toto
(1.) Prologue/Main Title
(2.) Guild Report*
(3.) House Atreides*
(4.) Paul Atreides*
(5.) Robot Fight
(6.) Leto's Theme
(7.) The Box
(8.) The Floating Fat Man
(9.) Departure*
(10.) The Trip to Arakis
(11.) Sandworm Attack #1
(12.) The Betrayal/Shields Down*
(13.) First Attack
(14.) The Duke's Death*
(15.) Sandworm Chase*
(16.) The Fremen*
(17.) Secrets of Freman*
(18.) Paul Meets Chani
(19.) Destiny*
(20.) Riding The Sand Worm*
(21.) Reunion With Gurney *
(22.) Take My Hand
(23.) The Water of Life
(24.) "The Sleeper Has Awakened!"*
(25.) The Big Battle
(26.) Paul kills Feyd
(27.) The Final Dream
(28.) End Title-Desert Theme from "Dune"
Bonus Tracks
(29.) "Dune" Main Theme-Demo Version*
(30.) "Take My Hand"-Demo version of Love Theme from "Dune"*
*Never Before released tracks
Album produced by David Paich and Ford A. Thaxton
Edited and Mastered by James Nelson at DIGITIAL OUTLAND
Art direciton: Mark Banning
This CD is dedicated to the Memories of Frank Herbert,Jeff Porcaro,and
Marty Paich.
(Thanks to MaryO and Ralf Gush).
Related Pages
David PaichDune