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Must-have Goldsmith soundtracks


Beowulf

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Ok...so my Goldsmith collection is very sparse...I mean I only have 2 of his soundtracks for Pete's sake ---> The Mummy and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

What are some of your suggestions on others that I should buy? Right now, I am earnestly thinking of First Knight, but what else? And also, what are your favorites? Thanks in advance!

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Get all of The Omen scores (The Omen, Damien: Omen II and The Final Conflict). Total Recall is also a great score. He's written so many great scores it's really tough to go wrong.

Neil

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The Essential Goldsmith(again):

The Blue Max

The Swarm

Logan's Run

Star Trek,The Motion Picture

Alien

The Secret of Nihm

Twilight Zone,the Movie.

The Final Conflict

Poltergeist

Gremlins

Explorers

Legend

K.M.Who doesn't consider "The Mummy" top notch Goldsmith.

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If you like First Knight, then you could find both the bombastic The 13th Warrior and particularly The Ghost and the Darkness quite interesting as well (both are my favorite scores of Jerry). Main and Closing Credits in Basic Instinct are great no less (the rest of the score falls a bit below the high level of them though); The Omen is perfection at its best (Oscar winner, coincidentally). Alien is cool but outside of the DVD I don't know of any other chance to hear&get the score (aside from bootlegs of course). Legend is superb as is, overtly, Star Trek The Motion Picture. Also give a listen or two to Russia House. It's not a typical Goldsmith, and it's great all the more.

I'd only suggest undergoing series of listens before obtaining Hollow Man and Congo. I have both of them but I don't like them as much as all those mentioned above. But my Jerry Goldsmith collection is very sparse and I've not heard much from him by far.

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Planet of the Apes (1968) -- before you mention anything else!! Here is Goldsmith at his most original. Who can forget the horn sans mouthpiece which accompanies the appearance of the apes? The primitive echo effects for the barren, 40th-Century world? The crazy percussion section, which included aluminum salad bowls? A most underrated score...

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Planet of the Apes (1968) -- before you mention anything else!! Here is Goldsmith at his most original. Who can forget the horn sans mouthpiece which accompanies the appearance of the apes? The primitive echo effects for the barren, 40th-Century world? The crazy percussion section, which included aluminum salad bowls? A most underrated score...

As KM said about Total Recall I say about Planet of the Apes.

to me its just not listenable.

As far as any of Goldsmith new stuff, just grab anything, everything he does now sounds just the same.

Star Trek Nemisis hits in Nov. or December, but you can get any of his Star Trek scores as a substitute, as Nemisis will be highly unoriginal.

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:cry2: Joe, JOE! A man with Jaws 2 as his avatar says Planet of the Apes is not listenable! A man who loves CE3K! I am troubled by this, I guess I had you pegged somewhat as being into "brutalism" (for want of a better term). Goldsmith beats JW hands down on this kind of score.

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Hey, hey leave the Jaws 2 poster alone, its one of the great poster in the last 30 years and the film has one of the best tag lines, both are better than the film itself, and as my avatar its different than anyone elses.

Sorry I have never cared for the POTA soundtrack. It just doesn't do anything for me.

I would prefer to listen to Twilight Zone the Movie, or Star Trek the Motion Picture, Poltergeist, Omen, Patton, anything else. Did I mention Boys From Brazil.

POTA is too different for me. I JUST DON'T GET IT

really I just don't like it. I have it, because it is POTA after all, and JG. but I don't think its his best.

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Ohh yeah, AI, Harry Potter and AOTC all sound the same :roll:

Hmm, how can you like CE3K and not POTA? Both are atonal! Hmm, perhaps it's the serialism of it :pukeface:

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You think Minority Report, AOTC, TPM, AI and Harry Potter sound the same??????? Even TPM and AOTC, two Star Wars scores don't sound the same..... But if you must, bash away :pukeface:

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Joe, I wasn't bashing Jaws 2, I was referring to the fact that JW's Jaws scores employ a fair bit of the brutal, modern sound.

Fair enough, to each their own, no accounting for taste (and I don't mean it as an insult)!

Hey, how about JG's scores to Twizone the TV show? Better yet, SCTV's use of the "Nervous Man in Four Dollar Room" theme for the "3-D House of Pancakes"? :lol2:

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Thanks for all the suggestions guys...at least now I have a starting point.

BTW....is The Omen that film about that little evil boy that kills people? (like his mom and a housemaid).

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Must-haves:

    Planet of the Apes
  • The Blue Max (though a recording of the suite from last years's London concert would be sufficient - it's definitive)
  • The Great Train Robbery (hopefully soon to be released as a Varese DE)
  • The Omen trilogy (DEs)
  • Alien (DVD has iso score)
  • Star Trek TMP (classic)
  • Night Crossing
  • Under Fire
  • The Secret of NIMH
  • Poltergeist
  • Rambo - First Blood Part II
  • Rambo III (pity that the orchestra is so horribly bad)
  • Lionheart
  • Legend
  • Total Recall
  • Gremlins II
  • First Knight
  • The Mummy
      And of course, there are many more great ones. ST:Ins is underrated (because the official album is poor), and Hollow Man is easily a masterpiece.
      :pukeface: Beggar's Banquet (The Rolling Stones)
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Thanks for all the suggestions guys...at least now I have a starting point.

BTW....is The Omen that film about that little evil boy that kills people? (like his mom and a housemaid).

Sort of, he is Damien the son of Satan.

Its a truely evil flick. another one of those great Dick Donner films.

DAMIEN, I do this for you!

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You think Minority Report, AOTC, TPM, AI and Harry Potter sound the same???????  Even TPM and AOTC, two Star Wars scores don't sound the same.....  But if you must, bash away  :baaa:

Fine, bash away at Goldsmith, too, then. I'm hardly one of his biggest fans, but one thing I can say is that The 13th Warrior, The Haunting, Hollow Man, Along Came a Spider, The Last Castle, and The Sum of All Fears hardly "sound the same" (in the manner you guys are using the phrase), either. Stylistically, his action writing has become more predictable and homogeneous of late, but, then, so has Williams's. Actually, I think Goldsmith has been doing a better job of maintaining a stronger sense of filmic identity in his scores that Williams has recently (if you remember my post from a few weeks ago). Additionally, he, unlike Williams, seems to realize that busy-ness orchestrational complexity (particularly in action cues) doesn't necessarily contribute appreciably to a scene.

P.S. Note that I excluded The Mummy from the list above. I think it's ridiculous that Goldsmith fans hail The 13th Warrior when it's largely interchangeable with his earlier 1999 score. However prolific Goldsmith has been, it doesn't excuse using a previous score as a direct template.

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here are 2 MUST, MUST, MUST have's:

1-The Omen: The Final Conflict (Deluxe Editon)

2-Poltergeist

These are 2 of his BEST scores. There are many other others, but it doesn't much better than this (IMO :) )

Jamesyboy - who needs to get more Goldsmith stuff from Stefancos!! ROTFLMAO

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My Top 20 essential Goldmith's are (in no particular order):

1- Legend

2- The Final Conflict

3- The Mummy

4- Rudy

5- Basic Instinct

6- Medicine Man (really only for one track; The Trees)

7- Lionheart

8- Supergirl

9- Best Shot (Hoosiers)

10- The First Great Train Robbery

11- Air Force One (prefer Randy Newman's cynical rejected score though)

12- The Blue Max

13- Capricorn One

14- Gremlins

15- Masada

16- Poltergeist

17- First Knight

18- Hour Of The Gun

19- Patton

20- The Secret Of Nimh

I know I'll get lynched for this, but to be honest I didn't ever care much for Star Trek or Alien (I actually prefer the Voyager theme). Planet Of The Apes is undeniably a crowning achievement in Film music, but I find it very hard to listen to. I bought a copy years ago, and returned it dissapointed. Maybe I should give it another chance? :?

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here are 2 MUST, MUST, MUST have's:

1-The Omen: The Final Conflict (Deluxe Editon)

2-Poltergeist

These are 2 of his BEST scores.:

Actually to me these ARE his 2 best scores. ROTFLMAO

K.M.

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Additionally, he, unlike Williams, seems to realize that busy-ness orchestrational complexity (particularly in action cues) doesn't necessarily contribute appreciably to a scene.

Doesn't hurt it, Goldsmiths too simple recently. ROTFLMAO

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Well it sounds as if I've commited a travesty! I was in the local CD store recentlly going to get a Goldsmith Album and well I chose Sum of all fears. I walked right by all three of the OMEN DE scores Should I be kicking myself and never to be alowed to have children as it would pass on the stupid gene!? :)

Brian99_1 - celebrating getting the Monsters inc DVD with a relisten of the score. ROTFLMAO

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I only have "The Omen" and "Basic Instinct." I would like to get "Poltergeist" and "Mulan," as those are fantastic scores. I listen to "The Omen" almost weekly.... ROTFLMAO

I like parts of "Planet of the Apes," especially the music when the apes come out of the cornfield, and the music when Charlton Heston is captured ("Get your hands off me, you damn dirty ape!")

As far as "Total Recall," it sounds like a tryout for music he would later use to better effect in "Basic Instinct." Take a listen to "Roxy Loses" and you'll see where I get this theory.

"Aliens" and the "Star Wars" trilogy aside, I generally have a problem accepting sequel scores. They generally sound like more of the same, adding something they think is new but is really just the same thing done with different instrumentation. So I can only express a mild likeing for the "Omen" sequels and "Poltergeist 2."

Jeff -- a bigger fan of Goldsmith than Horner

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Hmm....Poltergeist 2 isn't anything like it's prequel (though probably not in the best way - at least I haven't listened to it in years). Damien is of course reminiscent of Omen, but it takes the themes into a totally different direction. And Final Conflict (IMHO one of the finest scores ever) is nothing at all like the first two scores from the series. ROTFLMAO

Marian - who thinks that Brian will kick himself when he finally gets the Omen scores. :biglaugh:

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I recommend ST: Insurrection. I like that one.

My all time favorite Goldsmith score, however, is The Shadow. It is nearly impossible to find because it is no longer in print, but it is one of the best. You can find it on Ebay, I bet.

~Conor

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If you are going to go for St: Insurrection then well I would go for the expanded one that's out there! I haven't listened to the Comercial album once since getting it.

Brian99_1 - always gets the commercial albums before he goes to get expanded bootlegs (Still kicking myself for not getting the Omen triglogy DEs too!)

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Yes, the official Insurrection has mostly repetitive action music, makes it sound like it's a totally monotonous and uninventive score. But it's much more varied on the boot, which also makes the action track extremely enjoyable.

Marian - who thinks this might actually be better than First Contact. :sleepy:

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Theres a little-known Goldsmith score that I think is fantastic - it was for the 70s film THE CASSANDRA CROSSING and has a more european flavour than the other Goldsmith stuff I've heard - it's incredibly pacy and rhythmic in places, it's brilliant! Just my 2penny's worth!

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:cry2: Joe, JOE! A man with Jaws 2 as his avatar says Planet of the Apes is not listenable!.

I agree with Joe on this one too...and the frantic parts of Alien aren't too enjoyable a listen either.

K.M.

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