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Posted: |
Dec 30, 2014 - 2:36 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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Until that set came along, four years ago (good lord, time flies!), I was a bit of an obsessive completist about certain composers. Among those composers was Danny Elfman.
And then this set came along. And I just couldn't justify purchasing it. It was too expensive, too huge, and I owned 80% of it already. I could not face my wife and children and deny them money for anything had I indulged in this set.
And the effect of it was, I was freed from my obsession! I no longer needed to own every Elfman. Or every Christopher Young. Or Howard Shore. (Etc.) And in fact, I sold some that I already owned, because I'd only held on to them because they completed some set only I knew about.
Don't get me wrong -- I still love Elfman, and Young, and Shore. But I love them for listening to, and not just owning.
Yes, I'd love the original "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" tracks. But I can live without that in my collection. And I'm grateful (and slightly embarrassed) that it took a behemoth like the Burton/Elfman set to finally make me come to my senses.
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For me, it was the extended version of Shore's Hobbit - Unexpected Journey that moved me away from getting everything.
I got the first two LOTR complete recordings on disc, and then Return on digital only, when I found my attention was flagging by the disc. And still, even though I didn't like the three-movie Hobbit conceptually (and like it even less having seen the first two films), still I got the first extended score. And I have yet to get through, um, the first disc even, two years later. I'm not buying the two following releases, just listening to them a bit on Spotify and Amazon Prime. But not every note, not all at once. It's just too much for me.
But not raining on anyone's parade - for those who want them, these extended releases are a godsend, and I don't begrudge that at all. But what I want is a snappy listen - so to that end, I love the original Pee-wee BA suite - it's perfect!
EDIT: That's Big Adventure. I'm not saying Pee-wee is a bad A.
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Posted: |
Dec 30, 2014 - 3:26 PM
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By: |
John Mullin
(Member)
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I hear you, SchiffyM. Although I was a happy early purchaser of the Elfman box - and although I love it - I think many elements of it were utterly excessive, as was the price. I haven't been able to abandon my Elfman completism yet, but something changed for me after I bought that box... I ripped all the music to Apple Lossless files, I read the book (which was awesome, Jeff!) and the I put them all back in the box they arrived in, and stuck them in my garage. And to paraphrase Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Cask Of Amontillado,'... "For the [four years] no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!"
Mostly, that set changed my mind about physical media. I still want music at (at least) CD quality (meaning 44.1k, 16-bit), but why should I have all these discs around that just take up space?
Since the Elfman box, much of collection has gone from being on shelves to being in CD boxes in my closet, and I frankly only go in there when I've gotten something new that I want to file away, or I've sold some old that's just taking up space.
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I'm grateful for the set because it brought us a complete presentation of The Nightmare Before Christmas!
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Posted: |
Dec 30, 2014 - 9:27 PM
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By: |
Smaug
(Member)
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My Elfman Box story and how I came to my senses then somehow ended up with two of them...
I just didn't have/couldn't justify the $500. It stung to let all the numbered ones all get sold but I figured that would settle it for me...("if I didn't have a numbered one then my disturbed psyche wouldn't want an inferior non-numbered one")
Then I saw a cheap one go on eBay for like $220 and I got the idea that I might be able to get one. So I did, I scored one for $235. When it arrived in pieces (a common complaint with these things) and I turned around and sold it (more honestly than the person who sold it to me declaring its problems). PLUS I never had the extra bonus disc so what was the point of this all!
Then about a year later, with some personal turmoil in my life, I found myself temporarily living alone in NYC and one late drunk night I saw a special auction for a charity for a SIGNED and NUMBERED one on line which I scored for $565. It was for charity after all!
So you'd figure that that would settle the matter, right? Plus for only another $35 I got the bonus disc. Insanity complete, right?
I moved from NYC a while later to reunite with my family, and during that year I was with a colleague of mine who randomly had an Elfman box in his house in the box which I recognized. I asked him about it and he said he wasn't sure where it came from but I could have it if I wanted!!!! Umm, yes thank you!
So my signed and numbered one is in storage, with all the rest of my CDS for the past two years, while the other one is in my office. I work in music so it's not so strange to see this huge weird thing in my business space. I can't brng myself to get rid of either...the whole thing is just nuts.
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Smaug, your story made my head hurt with misplaced rage and petty jealousy (I can't believe you spent that much on something you're just keeping in storage, and that you wanted that bonus disc so badly when it was just highlights from music already on the set you bought), but I did like the part where someone just gave you the whole thing for nothing. That was crazy lucky.
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Posted: |
Dec 31, 2014 - 7:15 AM
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By: |
mstrox
(Member)
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I think the content of the box is great - the discs, the book, the DVD (although the DVD is basically superfluous if you've read the book, since most/all? of the material in the DVD is utilized in the book.
I paid less than full price for mine (not as cheap as some of you, but $150 less than the asking price right around the time of release). Part of the box was broken during shipping (one of the 4 "edges" of the lid was unglued and unattached) and no matter what adhesive I tried it didn't restick (I think it is a little warped, as compared to the flat edge). The box is pointless to me, though, so I didn't contact Warner. Just turned that edge of the box to face the wall.
The music is great, and the ONLY downside for me, besides the price, is that the presentation may have dissuaded other labels from releasing individually the scores (Pee-wee, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, Charlie, Corpse Bride, Alice) in more complete/chronological forms, or even just on their own for $20 as opposed to the $550 box. I am very fortunate to have few enough obligations, that I can spend that amount of money and just recoup over the next year. It's really a bummer that people would have to break the bank for expanded versions of, really, some classic scores (Edward, TNBC especially), or skip them entirely.
Of course, seems like it worked for Schiffy, so maybe we all should learn a valuable lesson that more is not always more 
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While I don't usually have to have every single note of everything, I thoroughly enjoy the extended recordings of Shore's LORD OF THE RINGS & HOBBIT, I think they hold up very well. Of course, that's a lot of music to listen to in one sitting, but so is DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN. You don't have to listen to all of it at once, but it is nice to be able to explore that musical world in detail.
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I couldn't in all good conscience justify spending the money on this set.
I would love to have it, though. Just not at the prices I've seen it.
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