Goldsmith Recommendations

[Seth 67]

Star Trek: TMP is the only Goldsmith score I have. Where should I go after that? I've seen Patton and Tora! Tora! Tora! and liked them in the film, but are they the same on album? I'm not sure I would like his predominantly electronic music right now, so I think I would prefer recommendations for the more orchestral works at first. Thanks.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Omen or Poltergeist would be two good scores to continue with.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

The Omen or Poltergeist would be two good scores to continue with.

I'd save those until you've fully attenuated your ears to Goldsmith...

Until then...next up...Star Trek V.

[Jarbas 1]

Rudy, The Ghost and the Darkness, Papillon, Rambo 2 are very orchestral works! Poltergeist is an amazing score.

[indy4 155]

The Mummy

[Ollie 1,059]

Air Force One

The Final Conflict

Islands In The Stream

The Wind And The Lion

Alien

The Blue Max

Papillion

[Jacob 0]

First Knight

One of my first scores and still a favorite.

[Trent Hoyt 13]

Star Trek First Contact

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

I second Rudy, an easy score to get into but also good enough to sustain your interest.

[Quintus 5,399]

Supergirl

[Lurker 5]

Total Recall

Neil

[Kendal_Ozzel 36]

I'll second The Wind and the Lion.

Ozzel - who is taking notes because his Goldsmith collection is far too small

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

Great starter scores:

Action: Total Recall

Popcorn action: The Mummy

Action horror: Poltergeist

Creepy horror: Alien

Dark, brooding horror: The Omen, Damien: Omen II

Wonder, bombast and evil: The Final Conflict

Lyrical and feel-good action: Rudy

Airplanes and war action: The Blue Max

Flying: Night Crossing

Fun and adventure: The Great Train Robbery

Off-beat action comedy: Gremlins 2

Light comedy: Fierce Creatures

[John Crichton 4]

I started with Golsmith by getting all his Trek scores, I'd reccomend the same approach to get familiar with his sound. After that, you can't go wrong with Patton. And The Mummy is good late Goldsmith action.

[Romão 2,274]

Masada, The Russia House and Under Fire

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Twilight Zone: The Movie

The Final Conflict

The Shadow

Legend

Lionheart

Basic Instinct

[Goldsmithfan 6]

I'm not sure I would like his predominantly electronic music right now, so I think I would prefer recommendations for the more orchestral works at first.

I reccomend:

Runaway

Alien Nation

The Lonely Guy

S*P*Y*S

and Tron.

Wait a minute...

[Trent Hoyt 13]

These recommendations are sending him all over the place. Lets keep it simple.

I started with Golsmith by getting all his Trek scores, I'd reccomend the same approach to get familiar with his sound.

There you go.

So your list should be:

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Star Trek First Contact

Star Trek Insurrection

Star Trek Nemesis

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Listen to John Crichton. Stick with Star Trek at first.

Go with ST V next.

[ChuckM 1]

Air Force One, Rudy, The Mummy

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

I would suggest mulan, The 13th Warrior (much better than the mummy that is not bad but the complete score suffers from some repetition/tracking?), Alien...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Timeline!

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

So your list should be:

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Star Trek First Contact

Star Trek Insurrection

Star Trek Nemesis

Nemesis is, in my opinion, perhaps the weakest of the Trek scores (and not just the Goldsmith ones). Insurrection is great, but only in its complete form.

I'd think it more wise to branch out a bit, there's much more to Goldsmith than "just" Trek music (even though that's somewhat varied, too).

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Well, branching out after you become familiar with the composer with some of his more accessible scores yes. Diving from the first score of his you listened to something like Total Recall would be quite a shock.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Omen is a perfectly valid point to continue at after TMP.

[Ollie 1,059]

Personally I think my list above makes much more sense.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Oh yeah!

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

Well, branching out after you become familiar with the composer with some of his more accessible scores yes. Diving from the first score of his you listened to something like Total Recall would be quite a shock.

Not if you want action music. Which is my I categorised my list.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Guys, isn't good music good music regardless of how you encounter it? The idea that one needs to somehow ease his way into liking Goldsmith music . . . that seems odd to me.

And frankly, compared to ST:TMP, the rest of his Trek scores are weak stuff. Not bad, but huge steps down from his first Trek music, in my opinion. So following up ST:TMP with the other Trek scores seems like a bad idea to me.

I'm not an expert on the subject of Goldsmith, by any means, but (aside from the luminous Star Trek: The Motion Picture, of course) my favorite scores of his are music that, in my opinion, speaks for itself: Poltergeist, Planet of the Apes, Chinatown, and Mulan (which also has good non-Goldsmith songs). That said, if you've not seen those movies, you might consider doing that first; they're all good, especially Chinatown, which is awesome.

I'd say an even better bet would be to find a copy of the CD Jerry Goldsmith: Frontiers, which has music from various of his sci-fi scores like Logan's Run and The Illustrated Man. It'll give you a good sampling of his work.

Say this reminds me: I need to develop a Goldsmith obsession! I've been threatening to do that for years.

[Morn 8]

Patton, Capricorne one.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Say this reminds me: I need to develop a Goldsmith obsession! I've been threatening to do that for years.

After you've completed the Goldsmith fanboy journey, you'll enter the ascended esoteric realm of James Horner.

[Hitch 57]

Planet of the Apes (1968).

I see someone's using my copyrighted image again. Alma dear, dial M for me please.

[Delorean90 42]

Ack! That whole time I thought it was Hitch talking! Hitchcock avatars need to have a password protect so there's no confusion.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I have not a shadow of a doubt that to catch this notorious avatar thief, Hitch will hang him over his family plot with rope from a rear window to sabotage his vertigo.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Say this reminds me: I need to develop a Goldsmith obsession! I've been threatening to do that for years.

After you've completed the Goldsmith fanboy journey, you'll enter the ascended esoteric realm of James Horner.

Not a chance. I got over Horner about a decade ago. (I still love Wrath of Khan and Krull, though.)

[Ollie 1,059]

Most wise people gave up on Horner 10-15 years ago.

[Hlao-roo 389]

Guys, isn't good music good music regardless of how you encounter it? The idea that one needs to somehow ease his way into liking Goldsmith music . . . that seems odd to me.

Sometimes a period in which you acclimate yourself to the composer's vocabulary and syntax is necessary. If you start off with scores that tend to be more readily accessible, it may be easier to appreciate the more challenging music. Also, some scores are arguably more representative of a composer's canon than other works. In the case of Williams, after Harry Potter, for instance, it might be wiser to refer someone to Hook or to Star Wars than to, say, Images.

[Hitch 57]

Most wise people gave up on Horner 10-15 years ago.

Apart from myself and Drax that is...we will continue to support James Horner till our dying days.

[Delorean90 42]

Dang, he's taking your image and bashing Horner. You gonna take that lying down, Hitch?

As far as actual recommendations, although I do need to better familiarize myself with Goldsmith, I can definitely recommend Patton (the release of the original recordings from FSM is hard to get a hold of for a reasonable price now, I understand), Alien, The Wind and the Lion, and Rudy. All are fairly accessible--even Alien makes sense in its more out-there moments, and certainly has enough "normal" music to be worth it--"Main Title," "Hyper Sleep," "The Landing", "Out the Door," and "End Credits" would be the standouts in that vein, I would say. But the more avant garde or exotic cues are still quite interesting, to me.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

Dang, he's taking your image and bashing Horner. You gonna take that lying down, Hitch?

No Horner-bashing implied. He still does good stuff -- witness Apocalypto, and even The Spiderwick Chronicles. I just haven't felt the need to buy any of his CDs in quite some time. Titanic was probably the last one.

As for the alleged image-stealing, isn't this where you can find the person I supposedly stole the image from:

http://www.links2love.com/date_doctor_dating_help.htm

Heh.

[Carnifex 5]

By the way I bought the Krull DVD (inexpensive). It almost destroyed my Krull listening athmosphere. I thought the film would be very good judging by the music. Do not watch it, heed my words.

[John Crichton 4]

If you've got Star Treks II and III and Willow, you've got pretty much everything you need from Horner.

John- still not much of a Krull fan

[Ollie 1,059]

That's because you haven't had the 2 disc set pounded into your brain yet.

[John Crichton 4]

I've had it for a while (the 2 disc boot) but only listened to it once and was really underwhelemed. I'll give another chance one of these days.

[Ollie 1,059]

There was a boot for Krull?

[John Crichton 4]

Oh, was it an official release? Sheesh, at this point I just automatically assume those things are boots.

[Hitch 57]

According to myth, the Krull 2 cd set (Super Tracks STCE 01/02) is indeed a bootleg. But don't let that put you off from listening to or buying one of the greatest fantasy film scores of all time. Long live James Horner and all those who sail on jim...him.

[tpigeon 3]

I was thinking about purchasing "Timeline," but I don't know too much about Goldsmith's score. Can anyone share any details about the score?

Ted

[JoeinAR 1,949]

download the theme to the Waltons, next to the themes for Lost In Space, that is the best TV theme ever, so much going on. Do not listen to his awful recreations for orchestra, they are an abomination, but the original theme and end titles are terrific.

[Morlock 11]

I was thinking about purchasing "Timeline," but I don't know too much about Goldsmith's score. Can anyone share any details about the score?

Ted

Some people love it. I don't quite understand those people. I find it to be just another Goldsmith historical-action score, and the least of all the ones I've heard.