JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL SOUNDTRACK

JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL SOUNDTRACK

In 1973, Neil Diamond recorded the soundtrack to the film Jonatahn Livingston Seagull on Columbia Records.

The album grossed more than the film itself.

It was his first album after his successful 1972 release Hot August Night.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach , is a fable in novella form about a seagull learning about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection.

It was first published in 1970 as "Jonathan Livingston Seagull — a story.

By the end of 1972, over a million copies were in print,Reader´s Digest had published a condensed version, and the book reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list where it remained for 38 weeks.

In 1972 and 1973 the book topped the Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States.

Plot

The book tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is bored with the daily squabbles over food. Seized by a passion for flight, he pushes himself, learning everything he can about flying, until finally his unwillingness to conform results in his expulsion from his flock.

An outcast, he continues to learn, becoming increasingly pleased with his abilities as he leads an idyllic life.

One day, Jonathan is met by two gulls who take him to a "higher plane of existence" in that there is no heaven but a better world found through perfection of knowledge, where he meets other gulls who love to fly. He discovers that his sheer tenacity and desire to learn make him "pretty well a one-in-a-million bird." Jonathan befriends the wisest gull in this new place, named Chiang, who takes him beyond his previous learning, teaching him how to move instantaneously to anywhere else in the Universe.

The secret, Chiang says, is to "begin by knowing that you have already arrived." Not satisfied with his new life, Jonathan returns to Earth to find others like him, to bring them his learning and to spread his love for flight.

His mission is successful, gathering around him others who have been outlawed for not conforming. Ultimately, the very first of his students, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, becomes a teacher in his own right and Jonathan leaves to teach other flocks.

Part One

Part One of the book finds young Jonathan Livingston frustrated with the meaningless materialism and conformity and limitation of the seagull life. He is seized with a passion for flight of all kinds, and his soul soars as he experiments with exhilarating challenges of daring and triumphant aerial feats.

Eventually, his lack of conformity to the limited seagull life leads him into conflict with his flock, and they turn their backs on him, casting him out of their society and exiling him.

Not deterred by this, Jonathan continues his efforts to reach higher and higher flight goals, finding he is often successful but eventually he can fly no higher. He is then met by two radiant, loving seagulls who explain to him that he has learned much, and that they are there now to teach him more.

Part Two

Jonathan transcends into a society where all the gulls enjoy flying. He is only capable of this after practising hard alone for a long time (described in the first part).

In this other society, real respect emerges as a contrast of the coercive force that was keeping the former "Breakfast Flock" together. The learning process, linking the highly experienced teacher and the diligent student, is raised into almost sacred levels, suggesting that this may be the true relation between human and God.

Because of this, each has been described as believing that human and God, regardless of the all immense difference, are sharing something of great importance that can bind them together:

"You've got to understand that a seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull."

He realizes that you have to be true to yourself: "You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way."

Part Three

In the third part of the book are the last words of Jonathan's teacher: "Keep working on love."

Through his teachings, Jonathan understands that the spirit cannot be really free without the ability to forgive, and that the way to progress leads—for him, at least—through becoming a teacher, not just through working hard as a student.

Jonathan returns to the Breakfast Flock to share his newly discovered ideals and the recent tremendous experience, ready for the difficult fight against the current rules of that society. The ability to forgive seems to be a mandatory "passing condition."

"Do you want to fly so much that you will forgive the Flock, and learn, and go back to them one day and work to help them know?" Jonathan asks his first student, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, before getting into any further talks. The idea that the stronger can reach more by leaving the weaker friends behind seems totally rejected.

Hence, love, deserved respect, and forgiveness all seem to be equally important to the freedom from the pressure to obey the rules just because they are commonly accepted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Livingston_Seagull

The novella inspired the production of a motion picture of the same title, with a soundtrack by Neil Diamond .

The film was made by Hall Bartlett many years before computer - generated effects were available

In order to make seagulls act on cue and perform aerobatics, Mark Smith of Escondido, California built radio - controlled gliders that looked remarkably like real seagulls from a few feet away.

Bach was so unimpressed with the treatment of the film that he sued the film company for negligence.

Critics blasted the film, calling it "for the birds."

	Title	Liner Notes
1	Prologue	And here begins our story – the sky, the sea, the flock.
2	Be	Introduction of Jonathan – his flight and fall.
3	Flight Of The Gull	Jonathan is carried to the heights of ambition, and to near catastrophe.
4	Dear Father	Battered, and near death, Jonathan asks for reasons.
5	Skybird	Returning home to show what he has learned, his acrobatics only serve to anger the flock elders. He is put on trial, and forever…outcast.
6	Lonely Looking Sky	Alone and adrift.
7	The Odyssey [Be – Lonely Looking Sky – Dear Father]	And so begins a journey, an odyssey, a test of the spirit.
8	Anthem	"Transcend, purify, glorious."
9	Be	Jonathan returns to teach the flock.
10	Skybird	The lesson
11	Dear Father	Rebuked again by the elders, Jonathan attempts to rally the flock.
12	Be	Recapitulation and farewell to Fletcher

Personnel

Produced by Tom Catalano
Engineered by Armin Steiner
Executive Art Director: Ron Coro
Art Direction and Design: David Larkham, Michael Ross
Album Design and Photography: Ed Caraeff
Inside Cover Portrait Photo by Tom Burke

Orchestra

Arranged and Conducted by Lee Holdridge

Musicians:

Paulo Alencar, Phil Azelton, Israel Baker, Marilyn H. Baker, Paul Beaver, Myer Bello, Arnold Belnick, Richard Bennett, Dixie Blackstone,Hal Blaine, Harry Bluestone, Samuel Boghossian, Hoyt Bohannon, Owen Wilson Brady,Larry E. Carlton, Donald Christlieb, Gene Cipriano, Gary L. Coleman, Chase Craig, William Criss, Rollice Dale, Isabelle Dashkoff, Vincent N. DeRosa, Assa Drori, Robert Dubow, David A. Duke, Jesse Ehrlich, John Ellis, Gene P. Estes, Victor S. Feldman, Henry Ferber, Ronald P. Folsom, Norman Forrest, James Getzoff, Caesar Giovannini, Philip Goldberg, Harris Goldman, Elmory L. Gordy, Jr., Ralph E. Grierson, Allan Harshman, William Henderson, Thomas R. Hensley, Arthur Hoberman, Claire Hodgkins, Luella Howard, Selene Hurford, Harry Hyams, Jules Jacob, John T. Johnson, Yukiko Kanei, George Kast, Pearl Kaufman, Richard S. Kaufman, Raymond J. Kelley, Jerome A. Kessler, Louis Kievman, Lou Klass, Robert Konrad, Jacob Krachmalnick, Raphael Kramer, Bernard Kundell, William Kurasch, Carl LaMagna, Michael Lang, Diana Lee, Gayle Levant, Marvin Limonick, Abe Luboff, Arthur Maebe, Leonard Malarsky, Jack Marsh, Lew McCreary, Ida Sue McCune, Peter A. Mercurio, Joseph Mondragon, Milton E. Nadel, Wilbert Nuttycombe, Michael S. Omartian, Joe Osborn, Robert Ostrowsky, William B. Peterson, Hugo Raimondi, Sven Reher, Joseph Reilich, David B. Roberts, Nathan Ross, Johnny Rotella, Sheldon Sanov, Ralph Schaeffer, Gordon Schoneberg, David Schwartz, Sidney Sharp, Stan Sheldone, Thomas N. Shepard, Ray Siegel, Henry Sigismonti, Louis Singer, Arthur C. Smith, Clark E. Spangler, Julian Spear, Sally Stevens, Robert K. Stone, Anthony Terran, Joseph DiTullio, John DeVoogdt, Jackie Ward, Andra Willis, Tibor Zelig

Bob Mitchell's Singing Boys

Bob Mitchell (Director), Mark Albert, Kirk F. Alley, Timothy John Butala, Christopher J. Cartwright, Michael DeWayne Clark, Dale A. Cohen, John Robert Coniglio, Sean Patrick English, Clement Shuji Hanami, Jeffrey M. Kennedy, Matthew James Leum, Michael Richard Leum, Bruce Douglas MacLeod, Martin Shunji Nomura, Brian Tatsuo Okamoto, Bradford S. Ralston, Jaime Rodriguez, Timothy J. Schmidt, Erik Stanton Simmons, Tracy L. Thielen, Eric M. Williams, Sherman A. Williams III, Paul Watson Wims, Jr., Ronald Trimby Young