Vince DiCola - Rocky IV (2010) [FLAC] {Intrada MAF 7109}
Release Info:
RLSDATE: 2026/07/11 RTLDATE: 2010/05/11
GENRE: Score SiZE: 258 MB
SOURCE: CD RUNTiME: 32:31
RiPPER: EAC 1.8 ENCODER: FLAC 1.5
DRiVE: ASUS SW-16D1X-U ORiGiN: US
RELEASE: Intrada MAF 7109
MATRiX: IFPI L327 DIDX-256801
with log/cue/nfo/m3u/sfv/300 dpi scans.
FilmTracks (dot) com adds . . .
Rocky IV: (Vince DiCola) Though it's considered by critics to be
among the weaker films in the Rocky franchise, the 1985 cold war
entry, Rocky IV, is certainly one its most memorable. The film became
a political tool, Sylvester Stallone writing and directing a story
pitting American boxing legends against a seemingly unstoppable
Russian counterpart, with the pride of both nations on the line. The
Russian, Drago, the menacing Dolph Lundgren in his initial
performance, kills Apollo Creed in a Las Vegas exhibition bout,
prompting Rocky Balboa to challenge him to a fight in Moscow.
Lundgren's physicality was so immense that Carl Weathers (Creed)
threatened to quit the production during the filming of their bout,
and Lundgren reportedly struck Stallone so hard in the chest during
the final fight sequence that Stallone spent more than a week
hospitalized in intensive care. In the plot, Rocky trains in the
Russian countryside with improvised equipment while Drago is shown
utilizing state-of-the-art exercise techniques and, of course,
steroids. The inspiration of Rocky IV comes not just in how Rocky
manages to best Drago in the final scene and wrap himself in the
American flag in front of Russian leadership, but in his path to that
success, including the strain his quest to defeat Drago has on his
wife and son. Audiences ignored skeptical critics and made Rocky IV
the highest grossing entry in the franchise. It is, interestingly, by
far the shortest Rocky film as well, its MTV-inspired shooting of the
fight scenes actually amounting to a shorter narrative. This brevity
caused the soundtrack to require less music. The Rocky movies were
known in part for their extremely popular soundtrack albums that
combined better than average songs with contemporary sports scores by
Bill Conti, whose career shot through the roof with the early music
in this franchise. Due to the composer's involvement with The Karate
Kid: Part II, however, he was unavailable to score Rocky IV. Stallone
turned to Vince DiCola, a regular collaborator of his musician
brother, Frank Stallone, who had contributed significantly to the
Rocky III soundtrack. As a keyboardist and arranger, DiCola had
limited experience in film scoring, mainly with 1983's Staying Alive,
but his sound was what Stallone was looking for in this film.
As expected, Rocky IV continued to utilize a variety of prominent
song placements, headlined this time by James Brown's "Living in
America," which previews the Las Vegas bout. After Survivor's
incredibly popular "Eye of the Tiger" in the previous movie, the
group returned with the decent "Burning Heart." John Cafferty's
"Heart's on Fire" is a particularly inspirational song, to which
DiCola contributed and would adapt into a moment in his score. As a
bit of irony, Peter Cetera's "Glory of Love" was reportedly rejected
from this movie and used instead as a love theme in The Karate Kid:
Part II, partially supplanting a Conti-written idea. The song album
went platinum in the United States, selling over a million units, but
it was the final Rocky album to experience such success. DiCola had
two score tracks featured on that compilation, the pair not
surprisingly the most famous from his work, but the mix on these
recordings was an earlier version of what was actually utilized in
the film. His music in the film is roughly half an hour in total
length, and much of the incidental material failed to make an
emotional impression. His soundscape is largely defined by his
keyboards and percussion, though piano and slight orchestral
accompaniment provide some color in the family and victory passages.
His synthetic element is of particular interest in Rocky IV, DiCola
utilizing electronic effects exclusively for Drago while retaining
the organic elements of the mix for Rocky and his family. If anything,
the split between these two sounds is not as great as they needed to
be, Rocky's most engaging moments in the film scored with contemporary
keyboarding and drum kit coolness. The choral aspect brought to the
franchise by Conti is completely gone from this equation. To his
credit, DiCola was extremely cognizant of Conti's legacy in the music
of the franchise, and while he didn't access the full range of Conti
themes to any great degree in Rocky IV, the two he chose to
interpolate were the themes that really mattered. The primary anthem
of the series, "Gonna Fly Now," is provided in various guises in
DiCola's score, and Rocky's triumphant music from the first score's
"The Final Bell" is reprised in the closing scene here as well. Sadly,
DiCola's performance of the latter accelerates the tempo and provides
terrible synthetic accompaniment for this theme in the insufferable
"Victory" here, though he does allow the score to close out again with
the "Gonna Fly Now" fanfare.
DiCola's adaptations of Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" theme are thankfully
much more nuanced and impressive in Rocky IV than some listeners might
expect. On the score-only album that came long after the original
song-laden product, the "Theme From Rocky" arrangement is actually a
demo recording not used in the picture, likely for the better. But
DiCola often appends the melody to his own family theme in this work,
and it's highly effective in that position. A very nicely intimate
piano rendition occupies the latter half of "Anniversary," the idea
again softly extending out of the family material at 1:28 into "Rocky
and Son." It's provided after the family theme once more in an
unresolved phrase at the conclusion of "Training Montage." More
brazenly, it punctuates the final 45 seconds of "Up the Mountain" to
match first film's equivalent scene in Philadelphia, and the
underlying rhythm informs the short, fully orchestral "Knockout"
crescendo that represents the score's only truly orchestral track.
(Unfortunately, the performances here are embarrassingly novice and
lack the gravity of Conti's ensembles.) DiCola's new family theme is
anonymously generic but pretty, with a slight hint of jazz inflection
at times in later performances. It opens "Anniversary" on piano and
strings, is reprised in much the same fashion in "Stairs," takes a
new direction with more keyboarded emphasis in "Rocky and Son," and
emerges again on piano late in "Training Montage" as Rocky's wife,
Adrian, joins him in Russia. The villainous Drago receives arguably
the most interesting music that DiCola provided to the picture, and
the composer himself considers this material to be his favorite from
the project. The Drago theme consists of a thumping rhythm over
industrial percussion and breathy, air canister-like noises, with an
octave-hopping bass motif that makes it very highly (and almost
distractingly) reminiscent of his Unicron music for The Transformers:
The Movie the following year. The simplistic melody on synth strings
above all this action is somewhat non-descript. Summarized in "Drago
Suite," this material extends to the first minute of "Apollo's Death
and Funeral" in mostly its melody over a pounding rhythm. It develops
further out of a distinctly unnerving alarm effect at the outset of
"Drago's Entrance." Despite the breathing effects incorporated into
this theme, the tone of its performances sound appropriately inhuman,
an intentional choice given perceptions of Drago's unbeatable physical
capabilities.
Not many other themes weave consistently through DiCola's short score
for Rocky IV, the most prominent of them being the composer's "War"
theme playing strategically over the fight between Rocky and Drago. It
is previewed in one phrase that closes "Apollo's Death and Funeral"
with subtlety on the synth, signaling the inevitability of the future
bout for retribution. This idea helps turn the tide in "War," though
DiCola's work here is not quite as famous a recording as "Training
Montage." It remains somewhat grating with militaristic snare and
wailing guitars; the cue needed to be more symphonic as a propulsive
force directly against Drago's synthetics. If anything, this cue is
the biggest missed opportunity of the score despite DiCola and
Stallone holding it back until Rocky starts to show some capability to
defeat Drago. The melody of the DiCola-written "Heart's on Fire" song
is also the basis for the "Up the Mountain" rock inspiration for
Rocky's ascent. Singular moments in DiCola's score worth mentioning
include a piano, synth, and string theme of lament for Creed in
"Apollo's Death and Funeral" and an uninteresting, ambient heartbeat
effect with atmospheric swooshes in "Pre-Fight." The early duo of
"Gym" and "Paulie's Robot" are forgettable, Stallone eventually
coming to personally loathe the latter cue's character and its techno
music. The closing references to Conti's style, at about 90 seconds in
length, are too brief to really work. The most hype for DiCola comes
with the pop rhythms and distinct theme of "Training Montage," a cue
so immensely popular and memorable that it has been heard in sports
stadiums for decades since. The synthetic accompaniment for Drago
overlaps synthetic inspiration for Rocky here, but most listeners will
remember the likeable drum kit and keyboarding that foreshadows early
Autobot material in The Transformers: The Movie. Overall, "Training
Montage" and "Drago Suite" remain highlights from the short score for
Rocky IV, the new family theme and other cues not memorable enough to
endure. While the Scotti Bros. song album had been released widely on
LP and CD since the film's debut, DiCola's score didn't experience its
own release until 2010, when Intrada Records provided a 32-minute
product with only the score and none of the songs. Listeners may not
prefer the final, film-oriented mixes of "War" and "Training Montage"
on this product, but the whole is an interesting study and supplies a
sufficient narrative. There are just enough references to previously
existing material for this score to fit into the franchise, but Conti
returned for the following two sequels to bring the music home.
Ripper's Notes:
Sorry for that epic lenght review, but as you can imagine, finding a
review of a long out of print movie score soundtrack was not terribly
easy.
Regardless, what would amount to side one is really pretty boring, out
of context of the movie, but the B side, once Rocky arrives in Russia,
still gets the blood pumping and fists flying, even without the
homoerotic vision of two sweaty, glistening men working out (just
seeing if anyone is still reading at this point).
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