JAKE SPEED

BSX Records presents JAKE SPEED, featuring music composed and performed by Mark Snow for the 1986 action comedy directed by Andrew Lane, written by Lane and Wayne Crawford, starring Crawford as Jake Speed himself, along with Dennis Christopher, Karen Kopins and John Hurt.

Released just before the summer in 1986, JAKE SPEED is a goofy action/adventure film about a old-fashioned adventure hero who doesn’t work for money but instead chooses to help people in trouble just because he wants to help and he wants to have a good time. Made in the wake of two Indiana Jones films, the script is not content to just be about an old school pulp hero going around the world on adventures but instead is interested in examining what can happen when you take a character like this and drop him into the modern world of white slavers, terrorists and nuclear weapons, similar in tone to THE LAST ACTION HERO. Despite the ambitious premise of the script, the film stays within the boundaries of its PG rating and is ultimately a lot of fun, a great movie to enjoy on a Saturday afternoon. Despite the harshness of the real world Jake finds himself in, he never loses his sense of humor or his sense of optimism.

JAKE SPEED is an early feature film score for Mark Snow. The composer himself will tell you that he’s still not sure how he got the call for the project. Prior to JAKE SPEED, he had mostly composed music for television shows such as THE ROOKIES, HART TO HART, T.J. HOOKER and many features for television. Snow had just finished putting together an electronic music studio in his home and JAKE SPEED became the first score he composed and produced in the new workroom. An electronic score, JAKE SPEED was conceived and performed on the Synclavier, an early synthesizer and sampler that allowed Snow to input a variety of sounds and manipulate them in a myriad of different ways. The main instrumental texture in the score comes from pan pipes, augmented with bass guitar and some percussion elements.

Mark Snow has worked on more than a hundred television movies and series, PC games and feature films including THE X-FILES, MILLENNIUM, SMALLVILLE, GHOST WHISPERER, NOWHERE MAN and the recent THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE feature film. The large percentage of his musical output has centered around the subjects of the supernatural, the macabre and outright science fiction or dark fantasy but there have been occasions for him to break out and work on other projects, such as the 2006 romantic drama, PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES, for Alain Resnais, the great French director. Amongst his large body of work, there are a few projects, like JAKE SPEED, that have allowed the composer to take a step back and just have a good time. Mark has been nominated for 14 Primetime Emmy awards since 1984 and won at least 19 ASCAP awards. The composer is also a founding member of the legendary New York Rock'n'Roll ensemble, along with fellow composer Michael Kamen. The band was signed to Atlantic Records and Mark toured and recorded with them for 5 years before turning his focus to writing music for film and television.

JAKE SPEED. He’s rewriting the book on adventure.

BSX Records presents the original motion picture soundtrack to JAKE SPEED, featuring music composed and performed by Mark Snow. JAKE SPEED is a Disc-On-Demand CDR release.

1. Main Title / The Pits / Cliffside Chase (3:10)
2. Friendly Skies (1:31)
3. Big Finish (2:41)
4. Explosive Situation / Cafe Girls (3:15)
5. Singles’ Bar (0:53)
6. Play-A-Lick (2:43)
7. Dangerous Streets (2:24)
8. Lion Around (0:55)
9. Maggie Leaves (1:59)
10. Sid’s Demise (1:39)
11. Tender Time (1:44)
12. H.A.R.V. / Sid’s Resurrection (4:37)
13. Voice Over (1:28)
14. End Title (2:18)