Out of Africa
cover art for Out of Africa OST cover art for Out of Africa Re-recording

Original Soundtrack

LP: MCA Records MCA 6158
CD: MCA Records MCAD 6158
CD (Ultimate Masterdisc): MCA Records MCAD-11311

  1. Main Title (I had a Farm in Africa)
  2. I'm Better at Hello (Karen's Theme)
  3. Have You Got a Story for Me?
  4. Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A (K.622)
  5. Safari
  6. Karen's Journey / Siyawe (African traditional)
  7. Flying over Africa
  8. I Had a Compass from Denys (Karen's Theme II)
  9. Alone on the Farm
  10. Let the Rest of the World Go By
  11. If I Know a Song of Africa (Karen's Theme III)
  12. End Title (You are Karen)

Re-recording

CD: Varese Serabande VSD-5816

  1. I Had A Farm (Main title)
  2. Alone On The Farm
  3. Karen And Denys
  4. Have You Got A Story For Me
  5. I'm Better At Hello
  6. Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K622
  7. Karen's Journey Starts
  8. Karen's Journey Ends
  9. Karen's Return From Border
  10. Karen Builds A School
  11. Harvest
  12. Safari
  13. Flight Over Africa
  14. Beach At Night
  15. You'll Keep Me Then
  16. If I Knew A Song Of Africa
  17. You Are Karen M'Sabu
  18. Out of Africa (End Credits)

The Movie

I finally saw this. I was in the right mood and frame of mind and I enjoyed it. I don't think it was what everyone made of it (critics couldn't praise it highly enough), but it's interesting and well done. It's the autobiography of author Karen Blixen, who married a Dutch baron for a title and went to live with him at what would be a milk farm in Africa.

And so began a litany of what "what was supposed to be...and became instead"s which make up the movie.

The Music

The movie was a huge hit, Barry won his 3rd Oscar for best original score, beating out Georges Delerue's Agnes of God, The Color Purple (various artists), Bruce Broughton's Silverado and Maurice Jarre's Witness. The music, most notably "Flying Over Africa" is so famous there's little I can say here. Not bad, considering Barry only wrote about 30 minutes of music for the film.

Release Notes

This one irritates me because the title is over-done. The original LP came out with the movie and, of course, was huge, having won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and the BMI Film Music Award for that year. The CD came out later and had the same music as the LP. Okay, fine.

Then they came out with an "Ultimate Masterdisc" edition, which had no new music but was supposedly higher quality. Okay--fine.

But then Silva, a label that I normally like and respect, decided their American release of The Classic John Barry should be named Out of Africa: The Classic John Barry. And then Joel McNeely re-recorded the score with additional music and put it out as Out of Africa for Varese. So now there are at least four CDs floating around, three of which are unique.

Yeah--I like the Out of Africa score. But enough is enough.

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