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I find myself going back and forth over whether to pick up the new Gorky Park.
I've had the damned thing in one form or another for 30 years, for crying out loud. Listened to it at least once or twice every year or two (after a bunch of listens when it first came out). I pretty much know it by heart. How many more times am I gonna listen to it, given my thousands of other choices? And that's even with all the extras, alternates, etc.
I'm all in favor of the re-release, and hope lots of people get it who have missed it before. But for me, it's a tough question these days.
So I'm asking other long-timers - when are we done with a recording we love? Is this something that keeps you up at night, or in the daytime, or not at all?
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To clarify - what I am really asking about is when/if you ever say, "not again" to purchasing a new, improved edition of an old favorite, even though you love it and think you might get a kick out of the new recording - because there's just not that much more juice to squeeze out of this particular orange.
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I might be an atypical case, because I'm not really an avid collector anyway. But I can say that when news appears about expanded editions, or releases with improved sound etc, I tend to tune out. I'm glad they exist, and I'm happy they sell, so it would be foolish and selfish of me to be "against" their existence. But - with very few exceptions - that type of news hardly registers with me nowadays.
Which kind of brings us back to something Sean touched on in his original post. Getting tired of our old favourites. I might be going slightly off on a tangent here, but I seem to be blessed (or cursed) with vivid memories of scores I used to play to death between 30 and 40 years ago (!). One example - just at random - is E.T. It's a great score, and I played it dozens of times in the 1980s. I could almost actually hear it all in my head at will down the years. I don't think I've heard it even once in the past decade (although it's sitting on the shelf right here) because I do think all its cards have been put on the table. Of course, if I do go back to it one day, I imagine I'll be still amazed at how good it is, but I never feel like revisiting it - so news of an expanded expanded edition with improved improved sound would barely register.
Might be interesting to consider if any scores have worn out their welcome too. Great scores, scores we still love and yet never listen to now because we "know" them so well.
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Graham, are you referring to the classic original MCA E.T release (on your shelf) or the expanded edition(s) that came out with the film score proper and minus those concert arrangements of the LP?
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Graham, are you referring to the classic original MCA E.T release (on your shelf) or the expanded edition(s) that came out with the film score proper and minus those concert arrangements of the LP?
Actually Kev, you've put me on the spot there! I only have the MCA album presentation - I didn't bother picking up the actual soundtrack as heard in the film, but I suppose it will be a quite different listening experience. I do have the two versions of Williams' JAWS and CE3K, but I didn't even know until I checked right now that I don't have the "other" E.T! That's how not bothered I am. Which answers another of Sean's questions - No, I don't lose sleep over these things.
Bloody casual listener. What am I doing here anyway?
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Graham, anyone who can talk about multiple releases of E.T. is no bloody casual listener! The rest of the world, if they only knew about us, would just shake their heads in astonishment.
E.T. is a great example for me as well. I haven't listened to either the original or (first) remastered edition of the score in a long, long time. When I want a hit of that masterwork I listen to the Sony/Boston Pops Williams/Spielberg collaboration and I get all I need.
Yet, I still regularly listen to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones scores (yes, all of them, new and old) - which astonishes even me. Well, except for the initial Star Wars, which I played about non stop for a whole year, god help me, from 1977 to 1978. That one I've had about enough of.
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Is the question do we get tired of the old favorites or tired of BUYING the old favorites? I don’t expect I will ever have to buy a classic Star Trek score again. I’ll buy an expanded Rocketeer in a heartbeat but then I only bought that once 23 years ago. I have dreams of someday buying Star Wars again, but there hasn’t been a reason for me to in the last 17 years.
I’m a little amazed and slightly embarrassed at how evergreen some old scores are to me. I can listen to Star Trek the Motion Picture until I’m sick of it. It doesn’t take long for me to come back. OTOH sometimes I put my collection on random play and suddenly I’m listening to Doyle’s Much Ado About Nothing for the next week. Unlike predictions to the contrary a few years ago I am not tired of The Black Hole even a little bit.
I do get nervous that most of my favorite scores are all from when I was a kid. So I dial up something more recent like Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End or Thor (the score, not the FSM member) and I feel better.
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I've come to this point as a collector with more than 10,000 CDs/digital albums (insane but true). I make a deal with myself - I'll buy a record if I think I will listen to it at least 10 times.
So for me buying a new edition of an old favorite means I think I'm going to listen to this old favorite at least 10 more times. And these days I think about what I'm NOT listening to because I'm spending time with music I already know by heart.
Yes, there's pleasure with the old favorite, but what about the sense of discovery of something new that I'm missing by returning again and again to what I already know as well as I know myself. (By discovery I don't necessarily mean new film scores, just any kind of music that I don't already know well.)
So for me, it's getting to be a question of losing the opportunity for further exposure to music by sticking in the tried-and-true.
Which is why I've come to love Spotify - I'm listening to dozens of things I never gave time to in the past, because I don't have to buy a bunch of albums, just pay 10 a month to listen to everything they've got.
And the more I do this, the less time for the old friends - which is fine, cause they're always there for me when I want them.
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Posted: |
Sep 6, 2014 - 8:36 AM
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By: |
ToneRow
(Member)
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I've come to this point as a collector with more than 10,000 CDs/digital albums (insane but true). I make a deal with myself - I'll buy a record if I think I will listen to it at least 10 times.
So for me buying a new edition of an old favorite means I think I'm going to listen to this old favorite at least 10 more times. And these days I think about what I'm NOT listening to because I'm spending time with music I already know by heart.
Hi, Sean Nethery.
You own more than me, album-wise, but I wonder if you've ever gotten into Italian soundtracks?
If you have more than 10,000, I guess a few labels such as Digitmovies or GDM or Beat have entered your collection?
If not, then this is another area in which you may be "not listening" to.
I had done a post not too unrelated to a portion of your topic: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=88642&forumID=1&archive=0
Had your favorites at age 12 (if any) altered by the time you were age 24?
And if you are over age 36, how does your snapshot of favorites @ 36 differ from age 24 (& age 12), etc.?
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Hi, ToneRow - I almost feel guilty how little I have in the way of Italian soundtracks, except for Morricone (I have a nice representative sampling of his works in most genres and time periods - but don't listen to much).
I've been exploring a bit more here and there (another category where Spotify is some help, and yes, I do have titles from most of the labels you name, but not a bunch). But my focus over the decades has mostly been on music I first hear in the movie/tv show and then on keeping up with composers I already know and love. And I just have seen very few Italian movies, and most (like Bava's giallos, for example), just aren't my dish of tea, so haven't gone very far in that direction.
As to changes in favorites over the decades, it's not so much that they've been replaced for me but added to. But some I listen to a lot to this day, and many I don't need to hear much at all.
My favorite example of this is in Classical music - if I had to name two favorite composers, they'd be Leonard Bernstein and Bela Bartok. I got to know Bernstein's music starting in my teens, Bartok a few years later. Now, in my early 50s, I very rarely listen to Bernstein's music besides what I might hear on the radio or wherever, but I still listen to Bartok. But I'm not going to say that Bartok is higher than Bernstein on my list - just that I know the limited number of Bernstein's classical works pretty much note for note, and simply don't need to hear them that much. Bartok, I can enjoy listening to every time, even the works I know well.
And to circle back, that's really the same issue with Horner's Gorky Park. I love a lot of Horner's work, think he's very fine, but most I don't need to keep listening to. Now, Goldsmith, I can listen to his stuff - in fact, I find I have to - regularly (I keep listening to Link, for crying out loud! You'd think I'd have enough of the sinister circus music). So maybe I overstated at first - because if Gorky Park was really a favorite, maybe I wouldn't have started this free association rant. Maybe I just would have bought the darn thing already!
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Posted: |
Sep 8, 2014 - 2:15 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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I find myself going back and forth over whether to pick up the new Gorky Park.
I've had the damned thing in one form or another for 30 years, for crying out loud. Listened to it at least once or twice every year or two (after a bunch of listens when it first came out). I pretty much know it by heart. How many more times am I gonna listen to it, given my thousands of other choices? And that's even with all the extras, alternates, etc.
I'm all in favor of the re-release, and hope lots of people get it who have missed it before. But for me, it's a tough question these days.
So I'm asking other long-timers - when are we done with a recording we love? Is this something that keeps you up at night, or in the daytime, or not at all?
For me, it's very easy.
If I'm pleased with the original recording/release and feel it's a good representation/concept album idea of the score, and with good production values, I will never re-buy it no matter what.
The exception would be if the original album had, like, two cues, the rest being pop music and the score was far more fullbodied than to be represented by those two cues. Or if the original has some sound quality issues while the new is in spectacular sound. Or maybe, in some rare cases, the new issue has a tempting, thick CD booklet of some kind.
I have bought new editions of my favourite scores throughout the years, but when the original has been sufficient, I've always ended up not listening to it, selling it or trading it away. I've learnt my lessons.
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Posted: |
Sep 8, 2014 - 3:16 AM
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By: |
afn
(Member)
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I might be an atypical case, because I'm not really an avid collector anyway. But I can say that when news appears about expanded editions, or releases with improved sound etc, I tend to tune out. I'm glad they exist, and I'm happy they sell, so it would be foolish and selfish of me to be "against" their existence. But - with very few exceptions - that type of news hardly registers with me nowadays.
Which kind of brings us back to something Sean touched on in his original post. Getting tired of our old favourites. I might be going slightly off on a tangent here, but I seem to be blessed (or cursed) with vivid memories of scores I used to play to death between 30 and 40 years ago (!). One example - just at random - is E.T. It's a great score, and I played it dozens of times in the 1980s. I could almost actually hear it all in my head at will down the years. I don't think I've heard it even once in the past decade (although it's sitting on the shelf right here) because I do think all its cards have been put on the table. Of course, if I do go back to it one day, I imagine I'll be still amazed at how good it is, but I never feel like revisiting it - so news of an expanded expanded edition with improved improved sound would barely register.
Might be interesting to consider if any scores have worn out their welcome too. Great scores, scores we still love and yet never listen to now because we "know" them so well.
Wow... my words exactly. This text could have been written by myself 100%. It's comforting in some way that I am not the only one.
It's kind of sad, but as they say: "You can't go home again."
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There is, however, a more tangential topic that is interesting (to me), i.e. when have we over-exposed us to our favourite soundtracks, and is that even possible? What listening tactics do we choose when we've listened to our favourite album to death?
But yeah -- that's a somewhat different topic altogether.
I meant this as well, Thor - because for me, buying a new edition means I'm NOT yet tired of my old favorite. It's not so much about whether the expansion is what you want, but how much more you need from the music itself. (I'm talking about mostly-complete or mostly-representative score albums, not those two-track wonders.)
How many times can you go back to that same well, and when if ever are you sated? That's my primary question for folks.
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Posted: |
Sep 8, 2014 - 12:22 PM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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When I love a score, I tend to be guilty of overplaying it for a certain amount of time. I do become "sated." Then I move on to other scores. If I leave a favorite for a year or so, I will revisit it again. This revisiting brings fresh ears to my listening, especially when it comes to orchestration details that I may not have previously noticed.
I don’t buy new issues of a CD that I own if my original has all the cues I want. I’d rather spend my bucks on new releases. Also, as Sean mentioned, I need to keep expanding my listening experiences and not dig myself into a shallow listening rut. However, I have loved certain scores all my life and will continue to listen to them at various times. Such scores are kind of like close relatives, moms, dads, siblings and grandparents. They are always held closest in our lives, but when we are adults, we do have to expand our circle to include new, interesting friends, not just immediate families.
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