From this review of Gabriel’s “Passion: Music For The Last Temptation Of Christ”:
First of all; legal barrier to what? It still has “The Last Temptation Of Christ” in the title. Were they barred from using the word “soundtrack”?
Secondly, what’s the story behind this legal issue, regardless of what it barring? Anybody know the details?
This is my guess:
Passion was released on Gabriel’s Real World label, under Gabriel’s control - whereas a straight-up soundtrack would probably be released on an affiliate of the studio that released The Last Temptation of Christ, or a label of the studio’s choosing. Gabriel would have little to no control over such a release.
Also, looking back on it, IIRC, Passion (the working title for LTOC according to IMDB) was one of Real World’s first releases and was sort of a big deal at the time - focused more on world music, musicians, and other sources that went into the soundtrack than it did on the film. It was chock full of information.
Movie soundtrack releases can be pretty sketchy and I would imagine Gabriel simply could not get what he wanted from the studio (Universal). More WAGing on my part, though. I’ll go google now.
I believe that the music Gabriel release on the album is not exactly the music that was in the movie. Although he did write the music for the movie, Gabriel continued to develop and refine the music for the album after the movie was released.
Gabriel also release Passion Sources , a separate album http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000025PGU/qid=1122473535/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-7351806-6776816?v=glance&s=music&n=507846