Tom Guernsey

I know. Good bit in Jeff Bond’s book about this and several of Jerry’s other near misses at the Oscars but man he was robbed. Many times.

Makes you miss “old fashioned” action music…

I never actually really warmed to Journey to the Centre of the Earth (the songs don’t help) so that would be fine by me! A JW North by Northwest would be cool though. Mind you, perhaps I shouldn’t have started with some bonafide classics… rather better to imagine a JW score for a film that actually deserved a better/different score!

What about going further back… if we can jump to the parallel universe of scoring assignments we can surely do time travel too?! How about a JW Ten Commandments or Ben-Hur or a better Hitchcock film than Family Plot?!

I have to admit that I find Tiomkin hard going as well. It’s often so busy and relentless, even from an era when scores were pretty busy his stuff is especially relentless. He's certainly not a composer I often think to dig out and listen to. Having said that, I really like his Old Man and the Sea score although the fact that it’s a bit more understated probably helps. Bruce Broughton wrote an equally terrific score for a much later version.

I really need to watch the second and third ones as I recall enjoying the first. All that have pretty decent scores, Patrick Doyle fairly far out of his natural range but doing a bang up job and Giacchino turning in some of his best work of the period for the other two. However I don’t think any of those three scores are as distinctive as either Jerry’s original or Danny Elfman’s for the 2001 version. I need to listen to the 60s/70s sequel scores again as I don’t really recall them at all. The music for the tv series was pretty decent too as i recall. Looking forward to hearing what John Paesano has come up with for this new film but have to admit that the only thing I have really liked by him was his Avengers theme park music obviously based on music from the various movies.

And kinda how I want to remember him. Cool 90s Jerry who could pull off a ponytail!

This concert sounds great. Shame it’s in Japan. Cool poster artwork too. Maybe someone can use it to turn it into alternate artwork for a Jerry compilation… https://t.livepocket.jp/e/kmjac https://www.facebook.com/share/JFm6VmyjooxuLB4n/?mibextid=K35XfP

I agree with your unpopular opinion 😜. But as I’ve said above, there are certain projects where I don’t think he could have been surpassed and his skills are much better put to those. Would i love to have heard a Jerry Star Wars or Superman score? Sure. But would he have written something better? I doubt it. And I say that as a devoted Jerry fan. Those were films where JW was just a perfect fit and used the full breadth of his talents and style.

Interesting. For all his faults on the originality front, I always thought his dramatic instincts were excellent which go hand in hand with his approach to spotting. I guess he was the anti-Jerry Goldsmith in that he took a more maximalist approach in terms of how much music he wrote but I suspect a significant factor influencing that was the types of films he scored and the era he worked (in terms of having hit the big time in the 80s rather than the 60s). In terms of the original topic there’s probably more cases where I wish someone else had taken on a JW score so he could write something for a different movie instead where his particular skills could have been more effectively deployed. As I’ve noted numerous times, there are some JW scores I don’t really think anyone else could have written (the obvious classics mainly) but plenty where someone else could have written an equally good score. Having said that, I would enjoy a trip to the parallel universe were he scored Alien…

I ordered mine when it randomly back into stock after initially seeming to go out of stock and have had a notification that delivery has been delayed until June.

Enjoyable Kamen compilation with some pleasingly decent length suites. Performances are mostly decent, would certainly be good to hear some of them recorded in studio sound with a little more polish from the orchestra. As an aside, the MOSMA fanfare which opens the album includes the string figure from Jerry’s Fireworks verbatim. Not sure if that’s intentional or a rip…

Hadn’t really noticed that but guess his stamp is quite strong so not perhaps surprising. Maybe that’s why Rosewood stands out as it sounds like JW’s usual sound. True although not for many films scores by JW! Although as I’ve said before, there’s a few later Spielberg films I think he’d have done a great job with and/or where JW’s style was less necessary to the type of film. Most of the choral stuff in TGatG is performed by real singers isn’t it?! In any event that’s a popcorn film about lions rather than a rather more serious one about slavery…

Ooh I might have to do the first concert… ideal way to celebrate my birthday a few days earlier!

Ok then… Jerry Goldsmith would have written a better score for Amistad. Unpopular enough?! Haha

Having given the expanded album another listen, Amistad feels a bit emotionally and dramatically flat for me. The African choral stuff is too four square and upbeat, plus far too cheerful given the relatively small scale of the victory achieved. The John Quincy Adams stuff is nice enough but again feels quite superficial in its understated Americana. Only the darker passages have any significant dramatic traction. It’s almost like a non action version of the Patriot which is similarly quite superficial. JW’s feeling for African music is considerably more authentic (at least to my white western ears!) in rosewood resulting in a considerably more accomplished and meaningful score.

Yeah we both enjoyed it but can’t say it’s become a regular listen for either of us!

Apparently it’s international tuba day (but of course it is…). However, as Naxos chose to mark the day by highlighting JW’s tuba concerto, a good opportunity to bump this thread. A fine recording!

Thank you very much! We only watched it because my other half is a big LMM fan although I think this will remain a minor entry in his oeuvre, fun though it is.

Oh I’m not saying it was as a good option! Merely citing precedent… I still haven’t figured out the chronological order for the songs and score on that one.

The prequel Bach movies and the sequel Mozart movies.

It does seem strange given the lack of physical limit. I figured they’d do something like they did with Vivo which had a songs plus some score album and a separate score album. Maybe something will materialise after it’s released with more of his music.

Eh I think there’s a difference between being respectful and not sexist and judgemental.

Does seem an odd thing to say. I do kinda wander whether sometimes people who make tv say more than is necessary. An entirely reasonable explanation would be “we wanted to try for a new look”. You can like or not like it but when a tv show is that old, there’s no shame in reinventing things to some extent without needing an explanation. On the other hand we have a sonic screwdriver tv remote and I made “pew pew” noises with it when we first got it. So maybe he has a point.

However Benny will never have the honour of having written the theme for Murder, She Wrote which is clearly the best tv theme of all time.* I do like the Addison score though. It’s a lot of fun although can’t say I’ve ever seen the film. Bit depressing about how unpleasantly negative some of the Herrmann fans are on Facebook though. I mean. Not necessary. *no arguing