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#2.17 ESB (1980) - 5m2 Yoda Appears (Wook link)

ANH: - 1977 set is a remix, but has the correct film takes, is somewhat poor quality by today's standards (incomplete, contains 74 of 90 minutes) - 1993 set is the film mix, lots of wrong takes (incomplete, contains 85 of 90 minutes) - 1997 set is the film mix, fewer wrong takes than the 1993 set but also has more dynamic range compression, and is mostly complete (only missing like 30 seconds of the score) - 2018 set is the film mix with a handful of wrong takes, and the same album program as the 1977 set (incomplete, contains 74 of 90 minutes) there's also additional unreleased music available in the radio drama (e.g. the clean opening to the end credits), as well as the film itself (e.g. the clean opening to 12m1 The Last Battle) If you wanted to make an ultimate best-possible version of the ANH score by combining the various sources (e.g. only using the film mixes, eliminating wrong takes and dynamic range compression wherever possible) you could follow the recommendations I made in my cue by cue project thread. They're too extensive to summarize here due to the prevalence of wrong takes in all 3 film mix albums, but in general you should prefer 2018 > 1993 > 1997: ESB: With a couple minor exceptions (e.g. the end credits, the Darth Vader's Theme suite) all of the albums use the correct film takes. Additionally, most cues play at the wrong speed on every album. - 1980 set is a remix, and is somewhat poor quality by today's standards (incomplete, 74 of 126 minutes) - 1993 set is the film mix, and sometimes has dynamic range compression, but this is inconsistent. (incomplete, 106 of 126 minutes) - 1997 set is a strange combination where half of the cues are remixed and sound bad and the other half are the film mix. It also sometimes has dynamic range compression but this is inconsistent. (incomplete, 124 of 126 minutes) - 2018 set is a complete remix and sounds awful (incomplete, 74 of 126 minutes) I'd recommend making a custom hybrid set using the 1993 set wherever possible and the 1997 set only when necessary. The 2018 and 1980 sets can be ignored entirely. You can also once again use the radio drama and the film for some additional unreleased music (clean endings and openings, as well as an insert only heard in the film). You can find more details in my thread above, although I'm still working on going through ESB. ROTJ: For once, every set is the right mix and has the right takes. - 1983 set is the film mix, sounds pretty good (incomplete, 46 of 163 minutes) - 1993 set is the film mix, sounds pretty good (incomplete, 102 of 163 minutes) - 1997 set is the film mix, sounds abysmal - the high frequencies have mostly been scrubbed away, presumably by DNR, also unlike the other two films most of the cues here are missing clean openings and endings (incomplete, 148 of 163 minutes) - 2018 set is the film mix, sounds a little bit better than the 1983 set (incomplete, 46 of 163 minutes) If you want to make a combined hybrid edit using the highest quality sources possible you should preference 2018 > 1993 > 1997. There's also lots of unreleased music heard in the film as well as in the 1996 radio drama, and in some other late 90s audio dramas such as Crimson Empire and the Dark Forces trilogy. For the PT unless you want to deal with making custom edits from the videogames your best official albums really are just the OSTs. The UE for TPM has lots of extra music but so many loops and unnecessary edits that it's hard to recommend for listening. The 2018 albums for the prequels can pretty much be safely skipped. For AOTC you'll want the Target bonus track as well (On The Conveyor Belt). If you wanted to make an edit from some of the videogames the ones with the most music include SWTOR, TFU I and II, Battlefront II (2005), Galaxies, Bounty Hunter, Galactic Battlegrounds, as well as most of the TPM tie-in games released before 2002.

Actually Watch The World Burn is entirely JNH, based on his suite he called "Passacaglia". And the funny thing about Am I Not Merciful? is that it was written by Hans before Gladiator. It was a demo for another score (it didn't make it), but I guess Hans loved it too much he immediatly demo'ed it for Gladiator.

Yeah, the way I see it, Syril's whole has just imploded. This man was brought up by the Empire and he's never known anything different. He simply has no frame of reference. And now his lover betrayed him, and he realised he's been used to do something terrible. He's being mocked by pretty much everyone in his life, including family. And his life truly became to unravel, in his view, because he was trying to do the right thing and hunt down this one man. No wonder he completely flips as this is just about the only thing he can do at this point to regain any sense of control in his life. Yeah, he's sort of pathetic and clearly misguided, but you can at least somehow understand. Karol

Andor 2x08 Who Are You? Wow! I was assuming that the Ghorman Front attack that the Imperials want to happen would be the big end of this arc, so to have it all happen in this episode was unexpected... and now I'm really exciting for being able to get an entire episode to deal with its aftermath next before the last time jump. Syril's confrontation with the Ghorman Front leader guy was interesting. I loved when he basically tells Syril he's not even human. I wish we had gotten to see him slowly realized that Syril was a double agent and not a true defector but I guess that had to go in the condensing of the story. Then Syril confronts Dedra and holy cow that was intense. I was genuinely surprised how quickly he went to choking the woman he loves, but I suppose that's another victim of the story being so sped up. He seems to be so incredibly upset with what the Empire is going to do to this planet, understandable since he's spent so much time there. But Dedra is the one who's been doing a lot of face acting telling us that she hates it as well, but does it anyway. When she tells Syril that doing this will allow them to return home as heroes and have the life they wanted, I don't even know if she truly means that or trying to say what she thinks he wants to hear. I suspect we'll learn a lot more about he next episode. I loved the early scene where Andor and Syril just miss each other on the steps in the plaza. I thought that they maybe wouldn't interact at all again, and it'd be one of those cosmic coincidences thing. When they finally had their showdown it was a pretty impressive fight, capped off with the great moment where Andor says "Who are you?". Syril blamed Andor for his career being derailed all those years ago, but at the same time he wouldn't have ended up with Dedra if not for him, so I wonder if he still felt that way? Was he so mad at Andor here because of that old grudge, or because he was trying to assassinate Dedra, or just because he's just looking for something to attack? I guess we'll never know since he gets shot in a the head, and it was nice retribution that the Front leader guy got to do it. I loved how grounded the majority of the massacre was, fitting right in with the general WW2 style story they're telling... until the robots came out! That kicked things up a notch in a fun Star Wars way. It kind of reminded me of the type of escalation that episodes of The Mandalorian sometimes had, except the tone is so much different in this show than that one for this kind of thing. The way they end up smashing one of the robots just so they can explain why they have him in Rogue One was a little forced, but ultimately not a smirch that takes away how great this episode is. I liked the hotel bellhop guy who was a secret rebel. But did anybody else not understand why he blew up the entrance to the hotel? I liked that Wil was sleeping with one of the rebels on the planet. The world- and character- building in this show is really organically done a lot of the times. Anyways, the speech she gives was good for what it was, with a nice call back to the fire metaphor from last season that I think Luthen one used. I am curious how the outside galaxy will react to what's happened here; I suspect we'll get much more Mothman scenes next week compared to the rest of the season so far. Boy, what a great episode!

For ANH and ROTJ, yes. Its reputation is largely undeserved. For ANH it is the only album to have the film mix with the correct takes for certain cues (for example: 3m4-4m1R The Sandman Attacks). And for ROTJ, technically since the album masters are all that survive for half the album it is largely just an OST remaster rather than a full rebuild, the spectrograms are much higher res with less noise reduction than the original album. For ESB the new mix is totally unlistenable and it absolutely deserves to be called a demaster. Yeah I included concert suites in these totals as well as inserts and revisions and the source music. My ROTJ total is actually probably an underestimate because I didn't include the Max Rebo sources, the unknown unreleased source, the English Lapti Nek, the film version Lapti Nek, etc. I did include 2 minutes of space for the uncut Jabba the Hutt suite though since we know the approximate length of that from the other rerecordings EDIT: I just realized I didn't actually answer your question - no I did not include Jedi Rocks, but I did include Victory Celebration

Fixed.

Yeah I say give Campbell one more Bond. Sometimes old guys can still kick ass. (Seems like a lot of people wish Spielberg had directed Indiana Jones 5 instead of James Mangold?) I get it -- its is undoubtedly the most iconic theme associated with the character. And in theory I'm fine with them reusing the theme (which I think was indeed confirmed, but I don't feel like searching for a source). But for what it's worth, I think that other composers, including Shirley Walker and Williams's own son-in-law Jay Gruska, have brilliantly encapsulated Superman in musical form without having to rely on the 1978 Williams theme: Yavar

On a positive note, the Berlin Phil's Academy system may have prompted some of the established priciples to step aside in favour of some younger talent.

Even better, a rerecording of Newman's The Mark of Zorro!

I hope Legend Of Zorro is in the works.

As far as he knew his job there was to aid the people and the Empire by finding the outside agitators aiding and firing up the Front. Now that his entire world's upended and his sense of justice aka his core identity confused, here's the outside agitator, and it's the same damn guy who he and Dedra have been chasing, his nemesis. So he takes back control and takes it all out on him. And then even that's taken away when his nemesis doesn't even know who he is. I think she's saying what she would want to hear, the big picture dissociating and distancing from the actual horrid events, which she assumes is what he would want to hear. And then when it doesn't work, goes for the promotions insult which she assumes would push buttons... then is lost when it doesn't work either. There's a "fun" theory that they didn't even need the Kalkite but it was something Galen Erso came up with to further delay the Death Star's construction, an incredibly rare and specific material they can spend time and resources on to find alternatives to or gather.

You can start at this B&B where the exterior of Indy's childhood home was filmed! https://www.indianajonesbedandbreakfast.com/ As far as the 40 year old gum is concerned, I have a rather embarrassing story. I bought a pack of unopened Raiders trading cards in 1998 when I was a kid. I was in fourth grade and LOVED Indiana jones, and was already nostalgic for an era of movies I missed out on. I had to go to this old comic shop to find anything Indy-related at the time. I had nooo idea that gum could go bad ... So I opened those cards (which is a collector no no) and thought Id try the gum too! Needless to say, 17 year old gum is not very good. (foam... lots of foam)

He discovered America is what he did. He was a brave Italian explorer. And in this house, Christopher Columbus is a hero. End of story.

This performance is thrilling and spot on! Enjoy!

The only relevant question is about how they priced the concert. • If the price was higher (compared to other comparable concert) because Williams was specifically conducting, then they should definitely issue refund for those who ask for it. Because OF COURSE people in the EU were mostly going to see Williams live. I know I did last time, it was my only chance to see him conduct. • But if the price is sensibly the same, then they are right to refuse issuing refunds. That’s it. Yes it sucks, yes it’s sad, yes you can debate whether they should, etc, etc. But they do have terms and conditions, it’s still a great orchestra playing great music and it’s part of the gamble for wanting to see live a man than over 90 years old. All of this strikes me as bad communication. That’s it. Other than that, I feel for people that will probably never see Williams live, I really do. I thought it’d be the case for me in London but then got the chance to fly to Berlin. But looking at the entire discussion here, it’s striking how the world needs more nuance.

Hi everyone, Maurizio aka TownerFan here. As you may have noticed, a few days ago I changed my screen name into "Farewell and Adieu" and went on to delete several of my posts on the board as a sort of very dour statement to make it clear I was leaving the message board. This was a decision took in haste and with a lot of anger after some unpleasant exchanges I had with a board member who notoriously spearheaded a sort of crusade against me for some time. I finally confronted him outside the board and we settled things among ourselves once and for all, so for me that is case closed. I talked also with both @Jay and @Ricard and convened with both of them that it was a really unfortunate decision to delete a lot of my recent posts from the board. It's one thing to have had enough for whatever reason and quit posting, but another one entirely to actively spend time in doing something that, I realized too late, looked like a punishment to the whole community. I say this because regardless of the quality of my posts (I never thought they were particularly brilliant) a lot of you were sincerely interested in what I wrote and always showed a lot of appreciation, especially for the stuff related to my website The Legacy of John Williams, and always interacted with me in a very nice way. So it's unfortunate that because of a few bad apples I had trouble with, everyone had to pay a price. In recent times, I've become easily irritable about some of the behaviour on the board and lamented a lot how this place wasn't fun like it used to be and how some people ruined it for everyone. That's why I want to offer my apology to all of you for doing such a silly thing like deleting so much of my posts of the last few years. I honestly believe that John Williams' music should bring likeminded people together and push them to share the love for the artform, not pitting them against each other. I am already starting to sound too much like an evangelist, so I will stop here. Let me just say that I will continue to celebrate John Williams and his music through my website and hopefully also by sharing my thoughts with this community once I will have a better balance in my online interactions. It's fine if anyone disagree with me and maybe to some of them I really started to came across self-aggrandizing in my writing, sometimes confrontational or an annoying know-it-all when it comes to information and knowledge about JW. I've began to learn that, especially online, I have to let go of any feeling of anger or disappointment whenever someone is critical of me or say something I think it's unfair, silly, or just plain wrong. "Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering," you know the gist. Of course that doesn't mean that anyone can start throwing rotten vegetables or have fun in trolling me. Mutual respect, both in real life and online, is conditio sine qua non in my book. Sorry if this reads too long, but I wanted to be as transparent as I possibly can. I hope the mods can restore my screen name as "Maurizio" as soon as possible. I don't want to hide anymore behind an avatar. Maurizio

No, ive toured enough JWfans through the Red Light District in my day.

When did that stop DG from releasing anything?

The saturday concert will be filmed and streamed in the digital concert hall. I doubt that DG will release it because it's too similar to the Tokyo release.

Yeah, Hans seemed to like that "walking bassline dirge" device for mounting emotional scenes. He makes it grungy and angry in The Dark Knight's "Watch The World Burn." The usage in Angels and Demons, I think, is probably more due to temp track bleed-through since TDK was a massive hit just the year before. I was trying to think of some of his work pre-Gladiator that might have been the first usage of that idea. But there might not be any clear examples.

Because I bought it in Japan.

The further into this season we've progressed, the more I've felt the pacing is off. They seem to spoon feed the audience non-important details and that drags on while rushing through or skipping over other parts that would be more interesting. The story doesn't hit you hard like it does when you play the game. Other than the episode 2 ending, it's mostly filled with love interactions between the two, guitars, and city politics. Then they sprinkle in the infected action scenes, which are intense and I do like. I feel like this season has missed out on a lot the human conflict so far. I know there will be shifts in the story at points going forward, but we are almost all the way through season two and it hasn't been very impactful storytelling with the way they restructured some things. If I hadn't played and loved the games so much, I probably would have lost interest in this show by now.

You didn't chip a tooth on that rock-hard, stale gum stick? Ahhh, I can still taste it now...and that powdery coating (that ruined the top card)...

This would be a reason good enough for such a choice, imo. No, sorry fella, this is really gatekeeping mentality and exactly what banished film music and its composers (and a more diverse repertoire in general) from concert halls for decades. I concur with your stance that fans should still show up even if Maestro Williams won't be there, but let's not mock ourselves with the notion that top symphony orchestras make it always and only about the piece and that they're not influenced by the star power of the performers. That would be very hypocritical to admit. As for barriers in audiences, yes, they're still there for the most part and likely several regular patrons of these symphonies despise or poo-poos film music and think it's a waste of time for their orchestras or just a way of bending the knee to popular music that brings in easy money. The cultural divide may be narrower than decades ago, but it's still there.

Emanuel Pahud, Albrecht Mayer and Stefan Dohr were some of the most notoriously absent. I think principals chairs are always offered the chance to bail out from any performance they want (and sometimes they may also have performances as guest soloists already scheduled elsewhere--these are super busy musicians). Still, as somebody complained stressing the concept, it was the equivalent of a "Berliner Pops" gig. And if you pay good money to listen to the Berlin Phil, you probably want to see all the principals playing in their chairs. I never understood the reasons why this happened. The malicious said this was the orchestra basically giving the middle finger to JW (a bit like how the Vienna Phil made JW life hard in 2020 by stubbornly not following his downbeat), but who knows. Perhaps just a scheduling conflict was likely the reason.

Thank you so much, Zack. And thanks to everyone who shared nice words and thoughts. I'll try to restore some of the posts I deleted, just be patient and bear with me.

Yep, and before that, Pittsburgh Dec 12, 2023, which was the last one I attended. Keeping my fingers crosses he'll make a surprise appearance at Tanglewood August 2025.

So I can be closer to E.T. You know how a normal person gets up and goes downstairs and eats breakfast, and kisses somebody goodbye, and goes to a job and...you know?

Likely this: An Evening with John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma: One Night Only at Carnegie Hall (February 22, 2024)

Well, there were a couple of stormtroopers guarding that door from the outside, so I think it was just a proper multi-kill decision. By the way, Tony Gilroy said in an interview that there was a whole separate episode written as to how Cassian acquired the KX robot, which involved a "side mission" on a freighter. It was supposed to be an Alien-like horror episode, where the robot went crazy on the ship trying to kill everybody, but due to budget constraints they weren't able to shoot that episode. That's why they consolidated the encounter into the massacre episode. (Source)

Whatever political subtext they decide to put into the new X-Men movie won't be half as boring as these 5 comments. Perhaps you've lost your mojo.

I'll be sure to do that, and, great news, I was just able to get a whole mess of tickets for cheap for the fam.

Awesome summary. Those 97 RCA releases while flawed, are special for me. As a child born at the start of "the dark times" of Star Wars Fandom (fall 1983), I didn't truly discover SW until around '93 or so when the trilogy VHS box set was re-released (the one BEFORE the THX release). I was immediately hooked and then all these new novels and character/vehicle guides started coming out shortly after in mid 90s. By the time the SE was released in theaters, I was ALL IN. The RCA Victor releases of ANH and ESB were the first movie scores I ever owned. I was only 13, so I couldn't afford the whole trilogy (smart move not getting ROTJ) and had to buy ANH on cassette. I knew the music backwards and forwards from countless VHS viewings, but my world was rocked when I read MM liner notes. I never knew such a thing existed. I finally was able to put names to familiar melodies. I learned what a lietmotif was, what a theme was, and how a film score was even produced. Remember this was pre internet (for me at least), and I had no musical background or knowledge. All that to say, those releases are why almost 30 years later I am here on this forum.

And here it is:

@Farewell and Adieu comes back to us now... at the turn of the tide.

Nice to hear that Maurizio, your posts have always been an interesting part of this community. It would be sad to lose you as a contributing member.

Fortunately I noticed this shortly after you started deleting them and I went back and screenshotted every post of yours you hadn't yet deleted from last week through to mid June 2022 (all before this date should be on the wayback machine) If you'd like the restore the posts as they were I'd be happy to send you the screenshots I took. Cheers, and welcome back to the forum!!

I've never been a jerk here more than twice a week. Where is the fun, if we not exultate sometimes? We are not machines! Well except...

Is it multichannel?

What this movie really needs is Remy Zero:

I agree with what you said and that's exactly what I've been feeling about the show for the last couple weeks but wasn't able to fully word it. I'm having a harder time keeping my attention with the show now. Both Ramsey & Merced are great, but I just don't really buy their relationship the way I did Joel & Ellie's. When at the beginning they were just friends I connected with them both a lot more. I'm also not really invested with the human characters that pop up in 1 or 2 episodes. It's just there, without saying a whole lot or something. I am glad Jesse showed up again. I like both him and the actor playing him.

The difference with Bond is that even through all the different composers, they have kept that core theme. Just different variations and additions. Christ, even Nedry knew better than to mess with the Bond theme...

I also had the feeling it was like a Chibnall episode but I think in this case I was just missing a lot of cultural context, and it sounded like for people more familiar with that mythology it landed so I'm happy to just say it wasn't for me the acting was quite good across the board as well

Cassian: On the one hand some of this season is breaking the hyper-tense "We'll kill our friends to keep our secrets" from season one, but it's also moving closer to Star Wars where the Empire is desperately searching for The Rebel Base but Biggs can find them and join them in a week. And Han Solo (known mercenary and smuggler) can just wander away when Hoth when he feels like it. So when Cassian says to Kleya that he's out because he's tired it makes me think of four years ago when they were going to kill him to tie up loose ends. In episode 9 how many times does he say "I'm making my own choices" or something like it? So of course the episode ends with Bix making the choice for him. On the one hand I feel like Cassian's story (so far) is no where near as momentous or moving as all of the other characters. But I still feel him at the center of it all. I still enjoy spending time with him. We're still seeing what kind of world he lives in. I would have liked to have seen more development like his confrontation with Luthen about Ghorman. It was pretty fantastic seeing him finally meet Mon Mothma. How scary were those KX droids? I've played the Jedi: Fallen Order games so I saw that coming. But if you had just watched Rogue One (like a normal person) then that had to be kind of a shock. The whole massacre was such a masterpiece on every level. It's amazing to watch in it's own right. It's amazing to watch all of the dominoes from the last seven episodes dropping into place. It's amazing watching Our Characters as they are swept up in it. Of course the fellow who saves Andor's life from the KX droid is the fellow who shot Cinta. That's the kind of thing this show does. You have an opinion about a character, good or bad? Here, let us change that for you. Oh. And the leader of the "green" troops? The Empire's sacrifice? That guy was so good. (The guy giving the orders was pretty intense too. But that guy was about as close to mustache twirling evil as we've gotten.) I did have to reiterate to my kids that 9/11 and Pearl Harbor were not inside jobs plotted by our Imperial Overlords. And we did land on the moon. You have to be careful with these things.

Like so many of us, my first John Williams score on CD was also the first score I ever owned on CD. That score, of course, was from the original Star Wars trilogy... sort of. It was 1997. I was in Grade 10 and already a huge lover of film and TV scores. For years, I’d been recording the main and end titles from shows and VHS tapes onto cassettes, listening to them endlessly on my Walkman. I’d wear out those tapes with favorites like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Wars, Back to the Future, and many more. Back then, I didn’t know the names of the composers. Looking back, I must have been some kind of idiot — it never even occurred to me that this music was available to buy. I genuinely thought I was the only person in the world who cared about this stuff. Besides, how would you even get the music without all the sound effects from the movies? :FACEPALM: Poor Atlantic Canadian kid — I had a lot to learn. Wait… Did They Use What I Think They Did? If you’ve already peeked at the image below, the cat’s out of the bag: I was a huge LucasArts fan. I loved flying X-Wings and TIE Fighters and solving the secrets of Monkey Island. So again it’s 1997 and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter had just come out. I installed it the day it launched. As soon as that first X-Wing hit the screen and I started playing, something hit me: Hey... that’s the actual Star Wars music — like from the real movies!? Yes, It was slightly out of order, sure, but it was the real deal. More importantly, it didn’t have movie sound effects layered over it. Just pure music! That was mind-blowing. I didn’t understand how that was even possible. My teenage brain couldn’t get over How did they untangle the music from the effects!? Out of curiosity, I threw the multiplayer disc into the family CD player — and boom! The stereo kicked in, and suddenly I was hearing Star Wars music coming from the speakers. No dialogue. No sound effects. Just pure score, albeit with odd edits and a very strange stereo mix. From that day on, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter didn’t live with my PC games anymore. It joined my film score tapes. And I slowly started to piece it together: Of course this stuff was recorded separately. Of course it existed somewhere. That CD was played for months on the family stereo. I listened so much, I knew the edits of the 27+ minute battle suite better than I knew the actual film cue edits. Eventually, my parents took pity on me — or maybe they just needed me to stop. Either way, a trip to Sam the Record Man was in order. The First Real CD – “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” That’s where I got my first real CD album: The Lost World: Jurassic Park. At the time, it was the only John Williams score available at the store that wasn’t a “song track” or a compilation of stuff I already had on “tape”. I knew John Williams’ name by then, he was the Star Wars guy — so I picked it up, brought it home, and set up that little diorama quasi-digipack beside my X-Wing disc and my cassette tapes. I hit play, expecting that soaring, brassy Star Wars sound. But instead... What on earth was this? Dark, menacing percussion? Complex rhythms? Where were the fanfares!? It took a few days, but I fell in love. Hooked. Obsessed. This CD too was played to the point where my parents were once again ready to have me committed to an asylum but it was too late. So much so that when my high school English teacher assigned a project where we had to pick a music track that described a scene from a novel, I proudly brought in Track 7 — “Rescuing Sarah.” This was something different from the rest of the class and their Boys II Men or Mariah Carey. The room went quiet. My girlfriend at the time didn’t know what to say and even the teacher was baffled. Her rather confused, Ok thanks Jeremy that was interesting, ok who’s next? Didn’t phase me. I was now a film score JW fan for life. The Collection Grew… One Record Club Scam at a Time Shortly after that, my parents joined the biggest scam/trap in the music industry… The Columbia House Record Club, like so many other North American households in the '90s. I suspect this was another act of self-preservation on their part. As part of the deal, they let me pick some of the free CDs in the first batch. After 4-6 weeks for delivery my collection grew! Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, By Request, and all three Star Wars Special Editions joined my fledgling collection. They may have been locked into buying overpriced CDs for years, but honestly? I’m kind of glad they fell for it. That record club helped launch my collection — and my obsession. As the advent of the internet started to open my eyes not too long after a little site called Star Wars Episode One: The Music came around I suddenly realized I wasn’t the only one who like this stuff. I wasn't “lyrically challenged” as my friends and family called me in high school. These were called film scores and there were many fans before me and hopefully there will be many after us all. So here’s to the Maestro and his impact on all of us, though most of us will never get to thank him in person and he may never know the impact he’s had on us, Hundreds of CD's later I’m grateful that we’ve gotten to reap the rewards of his gifts and have this community all these years later.

This album has a dodgy master - I pointed it out to Qobuz ages ago but never had a response. It seems to be the same on all streaming (and download) services. I don’t know if the physical release is similarly affected. This isn’t the issue - this album still sounds crap on high-resolution lossless streaming services.

Stefan is clearly in love with me.

Well, they started out with Sugarland Express, certainly not a typical project for either of them. Then came Jaws, with the famous anecdote of Spielberg initially not taking Williams seriously when he played him the main motif. Who knows how Spielberg might have developed with a different collaborator (even Goldsmith)? And I think it's safe to assume that Star Wars might have had much less impact without the Williams score. The video gamers and developers of my generation at least were immensely influenced by that whole butterfly effect tree that began with Sugarland Express. And yes, it's widely accepted that Star Wars probably saved LEGO, so without that, it would just be another thing people remember fondly from the 90s and before. Or to put it differently: Without Williams, Michelin would probably be the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world.