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Given the current neighboring thread about whether your collection is mostly scores for movies you've seen or movies you haven't, I thought it would be fun to see if I could remember the first albums I bought for movies I hadn't seen.
For me, it was 1979: three inexpensive cutout 8-track tapes of Williams' Dracula and 1941 and Goldsmith's MacArthur (I already had several albums from them and knew I wanted more); and an LP of King of Hearts by Delerue which I bought because I couldn't find A Little Romance and wanted a Delerue score. Still never seen all of 1941 or MacArthur, but know the other two well.
What about you?
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Yikes, starting this thread has made me remember several more that I had forgotten about in the late 70's - Elmer Bernstein's re-recordings of The Thief of Baghdad (Rozsa) and Torn Curtain (Herrmann); and also Williams' score for The Fury, which I saw a few weeks after getting the album. I did catch up with the other two some years later, but not for a long time.
I bought more soundtracks even early on for movies I didn't know yet than I realized.
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1987 - Lethal Weapon. I bought the imported Vinyl LP, at Tower Records, in Piccadilly Circus. It was a musical departure for me, and I'd bought it on the strength of Michael Kamen's Highlander score. The track "The Weapon" (which I suspect was the original End Titles track dropped in favour of the Honeymoon Suite song) was the track that stood out, for me. I saw the movie a month later.
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JAWS 2 by John Williams was definitely one of the first soundtracks I ever bought, and perhaps the first for a movie I had not seen at that time.
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Posted: |
Aug 28, 2015 - 4:44 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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I think the vast majority of albums I bought back in olden times were for films I hadn't then seen. Among my first LPs were some of the popular Herrmann and Rózsa compilations. Of the Herrmanns I'd probably seen a few of the Harryhausen films at least, but I still hadn't caught up with PSYCHO for example, and of the Rózsas I don't think I'd seen any except perhaps BEN-HUR. It's easy to forget how things were back then. I'm talking roughly 1973 to 1976, which is really the period when my interest was continually sparked, but to actually see the films (the older ones represented on the compilations), you had to wait for them coming on the telly. And they often never came on at all. And even when they did, I would have had little interest as a 13-year-old sitting through something like THAT HAMILTON WOMAN. I just liked the music, but if the film didn't look much fun I ignored it. Didn't seem to matter.
My first "complete" score LPs (as opposed to compilations) were, in no particular order, THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, PAPILLON, THE WIND AND THE LION, JAWS and THE OMEN. I don't even remember the ones I saw before getting the soundtracks, but again I didn't care. And sometimes it was impossible to see the film anyway, even if its release coincided with the LP release. In the UK so many films were getting X Certificates, even THE OMEN, and as a skinny geek there was no way I could pass for 18. So I was kind of used to "not seeing" the films whose soundtracks I was collecting.
Maybe this is for the other thread, but I still don't actively seek out the films just to see "how the music goes". I used to do that a bit, but so often the music was badly spotted, or dialled down or whatever - and the film so boring - that I much preferred my own little images which I'd made up in my head rather than having it all tied down to specifics.
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back in the 70s, too many italian westerns to think of. but first was probably GBU LP aged about 12.
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The first CD I ever bought was Zimmer's Pacific Heights. I hadn't seen the film.
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In December of 1982 (& already aged 15), I had gotten the MGM LP of POLTERGEIST but I had not yet seen the movie.
I already had gotten the LPs of THE BLACK HOLE and STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (both of which I saw in theaters by December 31, 1979), but I did not get either of these soundtracks until 1981. Prior to '81, I owned no soundtrack albums but I did tape record from telelvision broadcasts my favorite shows which were being re-run on UHF TV channels (such as THE OUTER LIMITS).
I recall getting (around late-'84 or early '85) the Varese Sarabande albums of music from THE TWILIGHT ZONE, a show whose episodes I had not yet seen. I got the Warner Bros. record of OUTLAND in '85, too, but never saw the movie.
By '85, I began to collect 'backwards' so-to-speak by buying soundtracks from before I was born, such as the RCA Victor LP of Kaplan's THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (which I saw on TV in '84) and the MCA re-issue of George Duning's PICNIC (which I did not see until years later).
During the past 30 years, I've been 'blind buying' ever since that time.
I remember getting a used RCA LP of Manuel De Sica's GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS in a used book store in 1987 - which triggered my interest in Italian soundtracks (which truly escalated around 2003 when Digitmovies started issuing CDs of mostly never-seen movies).
Over the most recent half-dozen years, I'm much more interested in announcements of forthcoming titles of vintage Italian soundtracks than other new releases (including vintage American film music).
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but so often the music was badly spotted, or dialled down or whatever - and the film so boring - that I much preferred my own little images which I'd made up in my head rather than having it all tied down to specifics.
It's interesting to read this coming from you, Graham.
I recall you having a little difficulty digesting some concert works by contemporary composers on YouTube clips (such as a piece by Péter Eötvös, for example) unless there exists some 'story' or audio/visual linkage to assist you during the listening experiences.
How does your mind conjure its own imagery when listening to soundtracks but then needs some help with non-musical associations (such as a story) when listening to abstract compositions?
[does this question make any sense to you, Graham, or am I further muddying your thoughts?]
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Posted: |
Aug 30, 2015 - 12:23 PM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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but so often the music was badly spotted, or dialled down or whatever - and the film so boring - that I much preferred my own little images which I'd made up in my head rather than having it all tied down to specifics.
It's interesting to read this coming from you, Graham.
I recall you having a little difficulty digesting some concert works by contemporary composers on YouTube clips (such as a piece by Péter Eötvös, for example) unless there exists some 'story' or audio/visual linkage to assist you during the listening experiences.
How does your mind conjure its own imagery when listening to soundtracks but then needs some help with non-musical associations (such as a story) when listening to abstract compositions?
[does this question make any sense to you, Graham, or am I further muddying your thoughts?]
Yes sir - you are further muddying my thoughts. It's good to be able to change one's opinión of things, and I honestly don't recall commenting on the YouTube concert clips... but I probably did, and I must have meant what I said at the time. I hope I'm not muddying YOUR thoughts!
Actually, come to think of it (ha!), I wouldn't say I need help with non-musical associations when listening to abstract compositions. Not really. Very often the music sparks my interest and holds my attention on an intellectual level alone. I don't mean that I'm some kind of Vulcan, but I do like my music to be at least "interesting" in terms of audacity (for example). That in itself creates emotion - they're not mutually exclusive.
Perhaps you're thinking of an old thread in which I mentioned that I do, in general, need to have at least some kind of CONTEXT to the music. Track titles can be helpful even if you don't know the specific scene they're connected to. They give you a "hook" on which to build your own imagery. Or even a film title. If you know the genre and a little bit about what the music MIGHT be trying to do, it helps makes some kind of sense of the purely abstract.
What I've just written seems full of contradictions, but so am I. I don't think there are any absolutes in my ways of hearing music.
Got very muddy there!
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In retrospect, I kind of wished I had thought more about this. Cause now I want to ask more questions. So I've adjusted the subject line and here are my other questions:
-What are your favorite albums for movies you've never seen and never will? (I personally can't think of an answer to this, since I typically see movies of favorite albums.)
-What makes you buy 'em BESIDES coming from a favorite composer? (Like the Italian Westerns example above, etc.)
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Ooh, L'imprecatur for me too! Still hope to see the film one day. And I've got compilations that include some films never seen, a couple Delerue, Loussier, Sarde, Coulais, Yared, Petit. (Looks like a trend, and I've seen a bunch of French films too. Clearly some work to do.)
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