Steve McQueen Bullitt Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 180-Gram Vinyl Album |

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Cast: Don Gordon | Ed Peck | Felice Orlandi | Georg Stanford Brown | Jacqueline Bisset | Lalo Schifrin | Norman Fell | Robert Duvall | Robert Vaughn | Simon Oakland | Steve McQueen | Vic Tayback
Directors: Peter Yates
Contributor:
Contributor:
Product Types: Music & Spoken Word Products
Formats: Vinyl
Genres: Action | Crime | Cult Cinema | Drama | Mystery | Suspense | Thrillers
Studios: Speakers Corner
Original Release Date: October 17, 1968
Product Release Date: October 10, 2017
Rating: pg
More: Lalo Schifrin | Steve McQueen

Bullitt Original Motion Picture Soundtrack features: Lalo Schifrin (arr, cond); John Audino, Bud Brisbois (tp, fgh); Milt Bernhart, Dick Noel (tb); Bud Shank, Bill Perkins (reeds); Mike Melvoin (p, org); Mike Deasy (g); Ray Brown (b); Carol Kaye (el-b); Stan Levey (dr); Larry Bunker (perc) & strings.

A high-speed car chase between a Dodge Charger and a Ford Mustang, with super-cop Bullitt at the wheel, who forces the hitman off the road and into a petrol station, which explodes and incinerates him. Prior to that, harsh clashes of metal, hubcaps flying all over the place, and the chief character Steve McQueen, who grimly changes gears and hurtles through the streets of San Francisco, wheels screaming and rubber burning. That was how Hollywood staged one of the longest and most dramatic car chases, long before the days of the Anti-Blocking-System and Anti-Slide-Control.

Very up-to-date and just as exciting as the screenplay is the music Lalo Schifrin wrote for the film, which embeds the characters, places and events in a musical context. For example, “Bullitt”: the metrically angular main theme portrays a mysterious, cool character who sums up a situation with keen alertness and then makes his attack with the speed of lightning.

Initially the music travels through easy-going Latin terrain. But gradually the rhythmic texture changes and takes a rougher path, with clicks, knocks and hammering. Legendary flute lines create a compensatory placidness with airy clouds floating above the sharp mix. A really special track is “Shifting Gears”: here you can listen to Schifrin tuning the car, how he manipulates a jammed springy bossa to take on the sound of clean, smooth-running rock.

This LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: December 1968 at Western Recorders, Hollywood, by Lee Herschberg
Production: Jimmy Hilliard