Press Release from BSX:
BSX Records presents the original motion picture soundtrack to SHOGUN ASSASSIN, featuring music composed by W. Michael Lewis and Mark Lindsay for the 1980 film assembled with elements from the the Japanese film series LONE WOLF AND CUB, directed by Kenji Misumi and starring Tomisaburô Wakayama as Ogami Ittō. The LONE WOLF AND CUB series, which consisted of six Japanese martial arts films based on a long-running manga series, revolved around the Shōgun’s executioner Ogami Ittō, who, after being disgraced by false accusations from an opposing clan, is forced to take the path of assassin. Along with his three-year-old son, Daigorō, they seek revenge on the clan and become known as Lone Wolf and Cub.
The series was highly successful, prompting a 79-episode Japanese television series and in 1980, elements from the first two films, SWORD OF VENGEANCE and BABY CART AT THE RIVER STYX, were extracted and newly dubbed into the American film, SHOGUN ASSASSIN, co-produced and directed by Robert Houston for New World Pictures. The re-edited Japanese film was given a new score, composed by W. Michael Lewis and Mark Lindsay.
The score was recorded at Lindsay’s Wonderland Avenue studio in the Los Angeles Hills, where they jointly created the score. At that time, coming out of the ‘70s, there was a lot of progressive rock and New Wave music was just starting so Lewis and Lindsay used those ideas as the basic sounds for their SHOGUN ASSASSIN score.
Both W. Michael Lewis and Mark Lindsay began their careers with 1960s rock bands – Lindsay was the vocalist for Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Lewis was a keyboard player with Quicksilver Messenger Service from 1975-1979, among other bands previously. Lewis had moved into film scoring in 1978, beginning with the 1977-82 speculative TV series IN SEARCH OF… and he scored nearly a dozen films and series during the 1980s. After SHOGUN ASSASSIN, Lewis went on to score, with composer Lauren Rinder, the holiday slasher film NEW YEARS’ EVIL in 1980; he rejoined Mark Lindsay on the 1981 documentary THE KILLING OF AMERICA, then went on to compose a mix of orchestral and electronic music to Cannon Films’ ENTER THE NINJA, co-composed with Rinder and REVENGE OF THE NINJA with Rinder and Robert J. Walsh; music from those films was re-used in the third film, NINJA III: THE DOMINATION.
BSX Records presents the original motion picture soundtrack to SHOGUN ASSASSIN on compact disc for the first time, featuring music composed by W. Michael Lewis and Mark Lindsay. The music has been newly mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland. The liner notes are written by noted author Randall D. Larson, with the participation of composer W. Michael Lewis.
