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Posted: |
Dec 4, 2018 - 6:56 PM
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By: |
losher22
(Member)
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My three favorite Jerry Goldsmith scores are Star Trek V, The Edge, and Innerspace, not particularly in that order. And this year, I’ve listened to the expanded Powder several times, so maybe it’s a top four. Anyways, though I own a small number of other Goldsmith scores, sometimes I just can’t get enough of the man’s sheer brilliance in his ability to change moods in a split second, and moreover, just the undeniable emotion and yearning he seems to be able to add with every melody.
So my question is, given the four aforementioned scores, which are the next ones my esteemed colleagues out there recommend I acquire quickly, and/or not pass up? I’m sure I’ve heard lots of other Goldsmith work and not even realized it, but man, experiencing his scores out of film context really just makes them that much more jaw-dropping.
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Get them in chunks, one per decade. Each group you buy, include only one Dante score.
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My three favorite Jerry Goldsmith scores are Star Trek V, The Edge, Innerspace ... Powder ...given the four aforementioned scores, which are the next ones my esteemed colleagues out there recommend I acquire quickly, and/or not pass up?
If you're looking for comparable sounds, sort of fading into his oeuvre, Star Trek V, though composed after, would be a pretty good lead in to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, for themes and orchestration. ST:TMP is a masterpiece, full stop, my second favorite film score of all that I know. Then Total Recall could follow for a similar blend, and style, of dreamy and punchy.
Sections of The Edge are close musical companions to parts of Star Trek: First Contact and Air Force One. They go in different directions, but the three could segue well.
Powder probably coasts well into parts of Star Trek: Insurrection, maybe even Rudy, the rest of which will win your heart on its own.
Innerspace connects with the other Dante scores, as Shaun said. He may be right about spreading them out, too, because there are only . . . (zzub zzhs) NINE of them, and they're treats to savor over time.
1983 - Twilight Zone: The Movie (Joe's segment is "It's a Good Life")... actually, this would be a good buy in general, because it's varied Jerry. He's got four shorts to score, all tonally different, and all with enough development for a feature's worth of each. This is top tier for me.
All the Dante scores are good in a similar, feel great way:
1984 - Gremlins - fantasy comedy horror? Imagine that from Goldsmith.
1985 - Explorers - The music saves it. I really do like the film, but it's held together by one of the most triumphant and dreamy scores Jerry ever did.
1987 - Innerspace
1989 - The 'Burbs
1990 - Gremlins 2: The New Batch - this is straight comedy. Jerry did comparatively few of those, but he did them well.
1993 - Matinee - I'd wait for a complete on this one, too, but even the 30 minute CD has some great stuff on it. It's wistful, looney, sad, romantic...
1998 - Small Soldiers
2003 - Looney Tunes: Back in Action (wait for a complete release on this one)
There's your Dante list. If you go the recommended one at a time in any purchase batch, and you'll always have a good purchase batch.
And I'm going to add Poltergeist to the recommendations. It meshes with the Dantes, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Trek V a bit... it's great, basically.
Others will chime in with the many many favorites and don't misses which may have no match to the above. They're probably all going to be good recommendations, too.
Also, to hear some Jerry that's as far, stylistically, as you can get from your selections above, try The Goldsmith Odyssey, the podcast which is going through his career from the beginning. The stuff from the 50's & ... well, 1960 is quite different, and may not grab you immediately, but you'd get enough of a taste of his variety to be prepared for the many, many different styles and sounds he produced. It's free, and they sample a lot of music. Otherwise, if you jumped from your four to, say, Planet of the Apes, The Mephisto Waltz or Rio Conchos, you might be in for a shock.
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Some suggested connections.
Star Trek V - The Shadow
The Edge - The 13th Warrior - or - The River Wild
Innerspace - Gremlins - or - Explorers
Powder - Sleeping With the Enemy
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The cornerstone of any Goldsmith library is the Twilight Zone TV scores.
From there, I move on to 60s scores such as:
City of Fear
Shock Treatment
Seconds
Freud
Flint/Flint
Planet of the Apes
Sebastian
And 70s scores such as
Chinatown
Logan's Run
The Omen
And a handful of dollar bin scores including:
The Swarm
Coma
Outland
Omen II
Capricorn One
I must own others but I can't remember what they are. I check out circa 1980, and I refuse to own any ponytail scores. I do not trust the artistic choices of any musician who relinquishes style and aesthetics in the face of regrettable trends.
I also have no interest in his war films or westerns.
Having said all this, the best things that Goldsmith ever did were the Twilight Zone TV scores and City of Fear. Those are the two I would keep if I had to downsize. Well, as I think about it, I would also keep the Flint scores, Planet of the Apes, and Chinatown.
Don't listen to this guy for 60's stuff. Apes and the Flint scores are all you really need from that 60's list. Seconds has that great MT, but you'll never ever listen to it again.
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And the absolute worst -Ballad of Cable Hogue-unlistenable.
"Unlistenable" is pretty harsh. It is definitely my least favorite Goldsmith western score *on album*, but in the film it is perfect.
Goldsmith's 60s and 70s work is arguably his best and most creative, but I would recommend working one's way back to it gradually if the 80s and 90s is the starting point. Lots of good recommendations in this thread so far.
Yavar
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Two early epic scores that are among my favorite Goldsmith scores...
In Harm's Way
The Sand Pebbles
Happy listening!
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I think The Boys from Brazil has the finest individual cues in the entire Goldsmith oeuvre, especially "The Killers Arrive (without percussion overlay)" and "The Hospital (revised)".
Unfortunately, you'll have to explore the second-hand market, or wait for a remaster/re-release to get it.
Without The Boys from Brazil, there's a very large hole in your collection. Extremely listenable for anyone who appreciates real flair in a suspense score. The "Frieda Maloney" cue puts all the dread of the individual mass murderer into a short dirge-like cue that completely characterizes Frieda before she even gets onscreen.
Yet--curiously enough--the movie is a kind of tongue-in-cheek satirization of the modern mentalities of a post-Nazi Western Civilization.
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