What was your first encounter with Jerry Goldsmith?

[GerateWohl 4,371]

Why am I asking this? Because for me this wasn't love at first sight.

Since the age of 11 I was visiting record stores and scrolling through the soundtrack department.

I was the greatest Star Wars fan on earth and a big science fiction fan, too.

So I recognized the compoer name on records like Alien or Star Trek TMP, which probably was the first movie with a Goldsmith score, that I had ever seen.

Later I saw Logran's Run (on TV) and Gremlins. But his scores more or less did their job.

Different from John Williams, who's scores made me immediately want to listen to them outside the movie.

Tbh, the first time I actually recognized the Goldsmith Star Trek theme was at the title credits of the Star Trek Next Generation TV Show, so little of an impression it made on me, when I watched the movie.

 

I neither watched Alien nor The Omen or Poltergeist. I was too young at the time.

The score that made me want to dig deeper into his work was "Legend".

I bought the record more or less by the cover.

I had iked The Last Unicorn, this was again a fantasy story with unicorns and a red bull, I like Ridley Scott's previous movie "Bladerunner", so I was hooked and really fell in love with the score. Luckily I didn't watch the movie at that time.

 

For a long time Legend was the only Goldsmith score I owned. Finally a broader interest in Goldsmith was woken up by my first discussions with two other movie score conaisseurs, which I met in my 20s. Studs Lonigan, the two Poltergeists, The Omen, Mom and Dad Save the World, Total Recall, Planet of the Apes and a big deal was later L.A. Confidential. And the Alien expansion.

 

Still I would say, that I admire much of his music, but I don't necessarily love it.

Overall I would call his movie music brillantly operational.

 

Or to say it differently:

 

Is he one of my favourite composers? No.

s he one of my favourite movie composer? Yes.
 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,551]

A double bill at the cinema, consisting of PLANET OF THE APES, and ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES.

POTA was also my very first Jerry OST purchase.

I started at the top...

 

Is Jerry one of my favourite composers? No.

Is he second only to JW? Definitely!

[Jay 37,371]

Great question.  I wish I knew for sure what the first Goldsmith tune I actively heard was.

 

For me, it MIGHT have been the Total Recall track on the Great Fantasy Adventure album

 

 

[Thor 7,518]

I can't remember.

 

I know for a fact I saw films like GREMLINS, POLTERGEIST and ALIEN in the 80s, long before I had any kind of film music interest, so I wouldn't really pay attention to the music.

 

I think the first Goldsmith CD I got was CONGO in 1995, even if I had been well aware of him and heard his scores in movies, for years. Well, sorta. I bought it at the local record store for a gift card, then realized I should have gotten THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS instead, went back to the record store and exchanged it for the Elfman. An exchange I don't regret, as it helped cement my love of Elfman.

 

But to the question - it must be sometime there around 1990-1993 or thereabouts, when my film music interest exploded. That's about as specific as I can get.

 

 

[Edmilson 7,467]

Well, my first contact with him was probably as a kid, when I saw stuff like Looney Tunes: Back in Action or The Mummy...

 

But as a film score fan, it went mostly like this: when I was 15/16, I began as a Zimmer/Horner fan, listening to their scores on the internet. Then I decided to explore more of this new wonderful world that was opening, and went looking for blogs and websites that talked about the subject. Back then there was this film music review website in Portuguese (I think the only one of its kind), and it was through them that I got to know who were the "great ones" (not just Williams, but also John Barry, Elmer Bernstein, etc).

 

So I was like "huh, this Goldsmith fella is very well regarded among film music experts. I'll give him a shot!".

 

Then, one of my best memories involving film music was in the final days of 2011 and first days of 2012, when teenage me listened to Star Trek: TMP and Total Recall. I was like "Wow! This guy is FUCKING AWESOME!". I had listened to parts of his Star Trek theme and really liked it, but when I heard the full score, it was a revelation. And Total Recall had what I thought was the best action music I ever heard. 

 

To this day these two are not only some of my favorite Jerry scores but also two of my favorite film scores of all time. I think I'm gonna listen to them again any of these days...

[Bespin 8,484]

Jerry Goldsmith's music entered my life gradually. The first score of his that I purchased was...

 

(drum rolls)

 

Honestly, Goldsmith wasn't a composer who had been a part of my life during my teenage and young adult years, unlike John Williams (from the first Star Wars) and Danny Elfman (from the first Batman). This was partly because I hadn't seen many of the movies he scored.

 

It was an acquired taste, discovering Goldsmith. My initial exposure to his work came through recordings of the John Williams/Boston Pops (Out of this World), and those of Erich Kunzel (Star Tracks).

First, it began with an expansion I think... Then, over the last four years, starting in 2020, my physical collection of Goldsmith's CDs grew to include 70 items. Not bad.

 

Maybe it was the expanded edition of "Sleeping with the Enemy"... or was it the "used" OST of "Gremlins 2"?

 

Those are very odd choices for the first two CDs of Jerry Goldsmith, but I believe it was these CDs.

PS: I remember being impressed by some playlists of @Erik Woods dedicated to Goldsmith back in 2013, I think, on his CSR podcast website. So I'll say it's HIS fault!!!

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

That's an easy one for me.  The Secret of NIMH!

 

Alright, technically, I did grow up with the Star Trek films in my childhood, and I liked TMP well enough, but I wasn't able to really appreciate it until much later, into my adulthood.

 

NIMH was a film that I only remember seeing once in my childhood.  I was sick with something, and was watching the film in French for some reason.  (Mrs. Brisby saying "Merci...  boucoup" as Mr. Ages slammed the door in her face was the only thing I remember from that viewing.)

 

Somewhere in my teenage years, I revisited the film, watching it pretty much for the first time.  The prologue was so haunting, and then the Main Title was so majestic!  But the horns at 0:48-0:57 here...  man, I could feel that in my heart!  Such beauty!  And that was only the first bit of the score that would make me feel that way!

 

 

I remember thinking, during that first proper watch of the film, "Hmm, this music [the water mill shots during Allergic Reaction/Dragon Encounter] definitely stands out...  but I doubt I'm gonna get obsessed with it or anything."  I thought the same thing about the music for Kingdom Hearts, and yet here I am, loving both scores.

 

I was actually afraid to look up NIMH's soundtrack for awhile (because of the tremendously powerful effect it has on me), but when I did finally look up the OST on YouTube, I had a few...  encounters I'm less than fond of with the uploader of the OST.  Mostly the younger, immature me complaining about the presentation of the music, which the uploader had no control over.  Blech.

 

Of course, the uploader also claimed that every piece of music heard in the film was on the OST, which I knew for a fact wasn't true.  The "Rough Complete Score" videos I did for NIMH were pretty much me trying to show that guy that he was wrong about the OST containing all of the film's music.

 

Later, I found Alien on Intrada's website, which advertised it as being a complete Jerry Goldsmith score.  Since my only other Goldsmith was NIMH, I really wanted to have something complete from Jerry.  And I watched the film around that time and liked it.  So I jumped on it, and I got myself a second Goldsmith score.

 

I later properly got into TMP, first through downloading the 3-CD LLL (It was out of print by then), then through properly buying the 2-CD reissue when it finally came out.  And later after that, I got the Intrada TFF.  And that's...  pretty much it when it comes to my Goldsmith collection.

 

Hmm...  NIMH's a score that I really only save for special occasions.  Now might be a good time for it.

[Andy 4,141]

 

 

I recall hearing the Star Trek the Motion Picture theme on a local video store commercial!  I of course didn’t know who Goldsmith was, but I did see TMP in the theater. 
 

But I didn’t pick up the soundtrack until years later. 
 

I first realized whol Goldsmith was while listening to Twilight Zone The Movie through Showtime on cable. We don’t subscribe, so no picture , but the audio grabbed my imagination. That’s when I knew who Goldsmith was.  I went out and bought the cassette. Not my pics but I still have it and it looks like this. 
 

[Corellian2019 386]

Without knowing who Jerry Goldsmith was, my first encounter with his work was probably Mulan or The Mummy (and the Universal logo of course!)

 

Once I knew the name Goldsmith, my next encounter was Total Recall. And I've been a lifelong fan since

[Mephariel 451]

It was probably King Solomon's Mine. And I am going to double down and say the main theme is one of his best (Some people make fun of it as a parody Indy score). 

 

 

[mrbellamy 6,287]

Had to be Dennis the Menace. That one definitely stuck out. 

 

My 90s and 00s were actually quite Goldsmith-less otherwise tbh. I know I watched Innerspace, Mulan, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action but I didn't really recall the music so much, he wasn't someone I explored even in my teens as a burgeoning film score geek. I really learned about Goldsmith almost entirely as a young adult. I didn't even recognize the Gremlins theme when I finally got around to checking out the movie some years ago. I've still never seen Secret of NIMH or Small Soldiers and was never a Star Trek kid.

 

Besides Dennis, the other Goldsmith pieces that bring me nostalgia are his Universal logo and Fanfare for Oscar, which I really miss hearing on nomination morning nowadays. I've actually taken to watching the video of him conducting it on YouTube now before they announce it. I also remember instantly loving the brief Patton reference from John Williams's Oscar tribute to film music at the time. But took me years to finally get around to the film and score. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

He appeared to me in a dream 

[A24 4,345]

 

Or

 

 

[GerateWohl 4,371]

1 hour ago, A24 said:

I grew up with the Waltons. But it was no experience like "Oh, who wrote that great music?"

It was rather later, when I got to know him, then recognizing "Oh, this was written by Goldsmith, too?".

 

 

2 hours ago, Mephariel said:

(Some people make fun of it as a parody Indy score)

Just like Supergirl sounds like a parody Superman score and the Star Trek theme like a parody Star Wars theme.

That is for me sometimes the issue with Goldsmith.

 

That is probably why he seemed to me such a perfect match with Verhoeven. Because he also had that parody vibe in his movies.

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,080]

3 hours ago, Mephariel said:

It was probably King Solomon's Mine. And I am going to double down and say the main theme is one of his best (Some people make fun of it as a parody Indy score). 

 

 

 

A poor director's John Williams. 

[Thor 7,518]

People always make fun of those comparisons, pitting Goldsmith's scores for lesser, similar fare up against Williams:

 

Dennis the Menace vs. Home Alone

King Solomon's Mines vs. Indiana Jones

Supergirl vs. Superman

Baby - Secret of the Lost Legend vs. Jurassic Park

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

Explorers vs. E.T.

etc. etc.

 

Fun for a thought experiment, I suppose, but ultimately silly.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

Star Trek, Star Trek, Star Trek... and, as if by magic, he and his music appeared in my life. I remember being quite confused as to why Star Trek 2 didn't use his theme from TMP. I feel like he's slowly crept in to usurp JW as my favourite film composer, but let's call it a tie so everyone is equally happy/disappointed.

 

I actually assumed the title of the thread meant encounter in person in which case it would be at the Museum of the Moving Image in, I guess 1997, around the time The Edge was released as he gave a talk about it alongside director Lee Tamahori (before he disappointed us all with Die Another Die... or The Another The as it is in Germany - sorry the Simpsons). They showed the opening titles with the Last of the Mohicans temp tracked, then with Jerry's (excellent) main titles music. I do remember Jerry expressing his dislike of temp tracking but otherwise talked generally about how he worked with the director and his composing process etc. Sadly too long ago to remember much of the details.

 

However, I did get to shake his hand and he kindly signed Night Crossing for me. I have no idea why I chose that over TMP or something a bit more famous... but it's obviously a much treasured possession. Mr Southall went to the same event and I think he got Powder signed (as it had large white areas which seemed better suited to autographs from cranky, pony-tailed composers). However, we both agreed that he definitely signed it Jerry Dobson, which became something of a running joke during our time at uni.

[Gabriel Bezerra 302]

Watching Mulan, then US Marshalls. 

 

And that was it for a bit, when I started to really listen albums, I took a while to remember that I liked those scores, and found out who was the man behind it, and that he was a big deal.

 

And that was it for a bit, only now getting into Star Trek and reading your opinions on the man's work that I'm starting to really listen to his scores.

[A24 4,345]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

 I guess 1997, around the time The Edge was released as he gave a talk about it alongside director Lee Tamahori (before he disappointed us all with Die Another Die... or The Another The as it is in Germany - sorry the Simpsons).

 

Perhaps Tamahori needs to work with writer David Mamet again?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,551]

I have THE EDGE on DVD, but I've not watched it, yet.

I don't mind DAD. It's better than a lot of Bond flicks.

[Edmilson 7,467]

8 hours ago, Corellian2019 said:

Without knowing who Jerry Goldsmith was, my first encounter with his work was probably Mulan or The Mummy (and the Universal logo of course!)

 

 

31 minutes ago, Gabriel Bezerra said:

Watching Mulan, then US Marshalls. 

 

Mulan! How could I forget that! It was one of my favorite Disney VHSs when I was a kid! 

 

And yeah, even as a 6 or 7-year-old the score really caught my attention. The themes, the action and especially the emotional parts were really great even for me as a kid.

[Badzeee 110]

First viewing of ALIEN in Zürich, 1979, age 13. (It was Ab 16 Jahren; I shouldn't have got in but maybe I looked older than I was and anyway back then, no-one cared.) Part of the experience was that weird bubbly drone Goldsmith uses when the creature is lurking, and it scared the shit out of me. I mean, the whole filmic experience did, but afterwards I kept thinking about that weird noise, which was part of the music, and I couldn't equate it with any musical instrument that I knew. I was just beginning to buy soundtrack albums - only John Williams and John Barry at this point - so this guy was something new and initially, I didn't go for it, holding off buying the OST for some arcane teenage reason that I don't recall. Then I recognised his name on Star Trek: The Motion Picture when I first saw that in early 1980 and he began to be one of those composers I "knew." 

 

I was a bit disappointed when I finally bought the ALIEN soundtrack album a few years later, because it sounded so different to what was in the film (and we all know how that story ended). 

[GerateWohl 4,371]

5 hours ago, Thor said:

Fun for a thought experiment, I suppose, but ultimately silly.

Why silly? I think, this is a topic worth discussing. For me your example we always an evidence, that Goldsmith wasn't super fornd of when directors asked him to write something like Williams did for a previous film. 

Goldsmith best efforts were achieved, when he wasn't asked to "do the Williams". 

Alien, The Omen, Poltergeist, Patton, Chinatown, Planet of the Apes, Basic Instict, Total Recall, Legend. For all of these there aren't any comparable Williams scores (at least none that existed beforehand). And these are all great.

 

But in all of your examples not only Goldsmith's scores but also the respective movies are inferior to the Williams scored movies.

So, it is not even in that regard Goldsmith fault.

Why write something super original for a pale copy of a movie (even though Goldsmith did that often enough).

 

[A24 4,345]

3 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I have THE EDGE on DVD, but I've not watched it, yet.

 

 

It's very good but don't expect a 'man vs beast' movie.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

5 hours ago, A24 said:

 

Perhaps Tamahori needs to work with writer David Mamet again?

Maybe?! 

[Thor 7,518]

That's pretty cool that you got to see the man live, Tom. Never managed that myself, as he was in this neck of the wood before I really started travelling alone.

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Total recall. And it made no impression whatsoever.

[Thor 7,518]

9 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Total recall. And it made no impression whatsoever.

 

So minimal recall, then.

[Bayesian 1,363]

I imagine my first exposure to Goldsmith was Gremlins. The main theme was super catchy and stuck with me for years. However, I didn't pay any attention to who wrote it (just like I never cared at the time to learn about who wrote the BTTF music, which also stuck with me instantly). 

 

Goldsmith is a tricky one for me. I know he was super talented and I very much respect that. But overall, his music leaves me weirdly indifferent, or even antagonized at times. It's like I can appreciate at arm's length his proficiency but with relatively few exceptions, his melodies and thematic development don't click with me and his scores don't linger in my mind. In some cases, like Air Force One, his music just gets really grating on the ear. And I've tried to like him, believe me, ever since joining this forum, where lots of folks are deeply fond of his oeuvre.

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,080]

16 minutes ago, Bayesian said:

In some cases, like Air Force One, his music just gets really grating on the ear.

 

That's why the OST is enough.

[Mr. Hooper 1,794]

'Poltergeist II'.

 

As kids, a friend and I would hum Reverend Kane's theme. And I loved the satanic choral parts.

 

I finally got the Intrada CD when eBay became a thing, but the first Goldsmith score I ever owned was 'Total Recall'.

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

My first memory of Goldsmith's music is taping the end credits of Gremlins 2 off the TV with a cassette recorder. Must have been around 1991 (when I was 12), I had an original VHS copy of the film that I watched constantly. That was before I became aware of the name Goldsmith, or even consciously realised that the music in films was written specifically for the films. (I also taped the Ghostbusters end credits (for the song), and I remember being deeply impressed by Rosenman's dramatic music after the charge of the Rohirrim in Bakshi's LOTR, before Gandalf shows up, and - again, not having realised that films had original music - thinking it must be Mozart or something).

 

Then 1994 came and I discovered John Williams and did an instant 180° turn in what music I listened to. I quickly started collecting Williams and some other film music and lots of classical music (as far as my then budget allowed - classical music was easier, because I could pick up Naxos albums (not really good at that time, but I didn't notice that yet) and lots of classic DG recordings for what today is less than €6 at Vienna's then many classical music shops.

 

I didn't really know Goldsmith yet though and didn't care much for what I knew. I remember disliking his take on Courage's Trek fanfare and much preferring Eidelman's rhythmically different version. I did like the First Contact theme when I discovered it in 1997 (around the same time I got The Lost World and was convinced it was the best score ever), but the rest still didn't click much. I also wasn't a fan of synths at that time, least of all in an orchestral setting.

 

Then I watched The Great Train Robbery (probably in 1998) and instantly became a Goldsmith fan. By 2001 I was flying to London on my own to see him conduct the LSO and get together with FSM/MM.com people I'd never met before (hi Jim! ). Goldsmith also helped a lot to broaden my musical horizon, because a lot of his more avant-garde stuff took some getting used to when I first encountered it. Poltergeist took a few listens before I started to like it (it's one of my favourites now). I'm still convinced that POTA contributed to me getting sick for a few days right after I bought it - and Alien and The Wrath of Khan and a fourth score I can't remember now. TWOK helped me get better quickly, and by the time I was healthy again I liked Alien, too. POTA took more time.

 

12 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I feel like he's slowly crept in to usurp JW as my favourite film composer, but let's call it a tie so everyone is equally happy/disappointed.

 

Goldsmith crept up and probably past Williams for me throughout the 2000s, but I've also long "officially" classified them as a tie because it doesn't really make sense to even try and pick one over the other. Though with Williams's prolific output over the past 10 years or so, I think he's probably got the edge again for now.

[Tallguy 3,401]

Music? The Waltons. And I watched Logan's Run on broadcast TV but couldn't have told you about the music if you held a sandman's pistol to my head.

 

But then... Well, yeah. Star Trek: The Motion Picture. After that I started recognizing that there were other scores from "the Star Trek guy". Night Crossing. The Secret of NIMH. Poltergeist. First Blood.

 

A good question for me: What was the SECOND Goldsmith score that I actually went out and bought? Because I somehow didn't get the NIMH LP until the late 80's. (I mean, it wasn't Tron, you know. ) I had the end titles to Twilight Zone: The Movie on cassette, taped off the television. Same with First Blood. (And The Thing and 1941 but that's neither here nor there.) I remember playing the Gremlins LP but I don't think it was mine. I borrowed Alien from a friend when I finally saw it in 1986. (It took me a long time to get into that score.)

 

I hate to say this but I think the second Goldsmith album I actually bought was Innerspace! Followed soon after by The Secret of NIMH. My Jerry collection was rather sparse back then. (Of course I suppose my everybody else collection wasn't super extensive then either.)

[Datameister 2,044]

I wish I could remember. I guess his Trek theme's use in TNG would have been an early one; I didn't see TMP until a little later. I did see Planet of the Apes as a kid but the music didn't make much of an impression on me at the time. (Don't worry, I love it as an adult!) Soarin' Over California definitely caught my attention, as did his Universal logo. And I did have a compilation album that included Alien and Gremlin.

 

I probably didn't realize how much standing JG had with fans until I joined this community in the mid or late aughts. From there, my appreciation slowly grew, although there's still a large portion of his work I haven't heard.

 

Oh, and for the record, I do not view the TMP theme as a Star Wars knockoff in any way. It conjures very different emotions/images for me, and I can't point to any objective commonalities beyond "loud orchestral main theme in one or more major keys, featuring trumpets or violins on a triplet-heavy melody." That's hardly unique to SW.

[GerateWohl 4,371]

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

Music? The Waltons. And I watched Logan's Run on broadcast TV but couldn't have told you about the music if you held a sandman's pistol to my head.

 

But then... Well, yeah. Star Trek: The Motion Picture. After that I started recognizing that there were other scores from "the Star Trek guy". Night Crossing. The Secret of NIMH. Poltergeist. First Blood.

 

A good question for me: What was the SECOND Goldsmith score that I actually went out and bought? Because I somehow didn't get the NIMH LP until the late 80's. (I mean, it wasn't Tron, you know. ) I had the end titles to Twilight Zone: The Movie on cassette, taped off the television. Same with First Blood. (And The Thing and 1941 but that's neither here nor there.) I remember playing the Gremlins LP but I don't think it was mine. I borrowed Alien from a friend when I finally saw it in 1986. (It took me a long time to get into that score.)

 

I hate to say this but I think the second Goldsmith album I actually bought was Innerspace! Followed soon after by The Secret of NIMH. My Jerry collection was rather sparse back then. (Of course I suppose my everybody else collection wasn't super extensive then either.)

That reminds me, I never owned any Goldsmith LP apart from Legend.

Later from a friend I made CD copies of Poltergeist, Total Recall and Mom and Dad Save the World.

But my first original CD was this one.

 

 

And that was the real game changer for me. Studs Lonigan became one of my favourite scores immediately. 

[Thor 7,518]

He, he. Good ol' Tsunami.

[Tallguy 3,401]

As much as I consider myself a Goldsmith fan there are moments when I think "Goldsmith did westerns?"

 

Excuse me while I go play Hour of the Gun again.

[Thor 7,518]

Controversially, BAD GIRLS is my favourite Goldsmith western score. No kidding.

[Jurassic Shark 12,080]

10 minutes ago, Thor said:

BAD GIRLS are my favourite

 

Fixed. 

[LSH 969]

On 13/3/2024 at 6:33 PM, Thor said:

 

So minimal recall, then.

Christ, Thor made a funny.

 

 

First serious encounter with Goldsmith will most definitely have been The Mummy, though subconsciously he had been in my field of view for a couple of years prior (Mulan being the other obvious example).

 

As a 90s child I explored that era’s output first. The likes of The Edge, Total Recall, The Russia House, The 13th Warrior, etc were all discovered fairly easily.

 

Then the real depths of enlightenment began.

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

3 hours ago, Thor said:

Controversially, BAD GIRLS is my favourite Goldsmith western score. No kidding.

 

Might be mine, too. I'm pretty sure I don't give his classic westerns the attention they deserve (though I do like them just fine). But Bad Girls is underrated.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

Bad Girls wouldn't make it on my top 5 Goldsmith westerns list, but it might make the top 10. I agree it's really underrated. Lots of people seem to judge it on the syrupy 90s opening track rather than all the badass gritty action in it ("Ambush"!!!) which stands up proudly with all the western action music he was writing in the 60s and 70s IMO.

 

Yavar

[JTN 2,036]

I think it was either Total Recall or First Blood 1 or 2. I became aware of Goldsmith as a composer later than of Williams, but I’m sure I enjoyed his music when I heard it in films like Star Trek or Basic Instinct, etc. The man was such a prolific composer that you just couldn’t not hear one of his scores when you watched films on a regular basis. But I really started to appreciate his work in the 2000s and and maybe even later, when my JW phase started to fade, and I realized there was another titan of film music like him. 
 

 

 

On 13/3/2024 at 10:53 AM, Thor said:

People always make fun of those comparisons, pitting Goldsmith's scores for lesser, similar fare up against Williams:

 

Dennis the Menace vs. Home Alone

King Solomon's Mines vs. Indiana Jones

Supergirl vs. Superman

Baby - Secret of the Lost Legend vs. Jurassic Park

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

Explorers vs. E.T.

etc. etc.

 

Fun for a thought experiment, I suppose, but ultimately silly.

Sometimes I wonder what scores JG would’ve written to films like Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jurassic Park or Schindler’s List. He definitely would’ve done some magical stuff, although completely different from what JW did, but something equally great for sure.

[Edmilson 7,467]

On 15/03/2024 at 1:22 AM, JTN said:

Sometimes I wonder what scores JG would’ve written to films like Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jurassic Park or Schindler’s List. He definitely would’ve done some magical stuff, although completely different from what JW did, but something equally great for sure.

I'd love a JG score for a Jurassic or Indiana Jones movie. If only he had lived until these franchises were ressurrected...

[crocodile 8,017]

My first conscious experience with Goldsmith's music was going to see The Mummy with friends back in 1999. I wasn't necessarily a fan right off the bat, but I definitely noticed the music in the film and it stuck in my head. Before that, I was obviously familiar with his Enterprise theme from TNG shows. My first Goldsmith album was Star Trek: Insurrection which I bought somewhere in 2001.

 

Karol

[pete 907]

I remember just seeing his name a lot on movie credits at movies and on TV growing up in the 80s - I was born in 1972. I remember noticing the name when I saw Rambo First Blood part 2 in a theater and for many movies on TV: Capricorn One and I think Alien was another one, and there were quite a few more. Maybe Twilight Zone and Gremlins I think as well. Strangely, I don't remember paying extra attention to the music - just that I kept thinking, oh there's that name again. Like all fans my age, Williams brought film music to my attention, so I think that had me noticing composer credits, but all this was in my early teens when I didn't think to buy a soundrack. But I realize I was drawn to instrumental music in a form back then - the long guitar solos of Mark Knofler on the dire straits double live album, and his Going Home piece from Local Hero on the CD, come to mind. 

 

I saw Total Recall (1990) and Medicine Man (1992) in theaters, and it was between those that I bought my first soundtrack - Varese's Star Wars Trilogy and Superman. And back then in Australia, you could rent CDs, and I borrowed Kamen's Robon Hood and fell in love with that. And then I kept seeing Goldsmith's name on CDs so I got more of an idea of his output. 

 

I knew he had written the music for Medicine Man before seeing the movie - I saw it with my mother who was a Sean Connery, and I went into the theater with the intention of paying attention to the music. The Trees piece had me mesmerized, and I bought the CD either that same day or the next one. And that set me on the path! Although I remember thinking most of Star Trek The Motion Picture was weird. Now I know it's just utterly brilliant! 

 

And then while living in the UK between 1997 and 1999, my parents visited, and Jerry Goldsmith gave a talk about The Edge with the director (maybe). And my mum went along as well, and she enjoyed Jerry's anecdotes about the Hollywood stars he mentioned. Hearing him speak, I really felt I was in the presence of a genius. It just occured to me that in the future when my mother is no longer with us, I'll probably associate some of Jerry's music with my memories of her. Damn, I hope that's far into the future!

 

Thanks GerateWohl for the topic and the resulting trip down memory lane!

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

I'm pretty sure my earliest Jerry Goldsmith-related memory is Dennis McCarthy's arrangement of his Star Trek: The Motion Picture theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation. I remember getting excited by that music every time I would watch an episode of the series with my grandfather, around age six or seven, even though I later learned it was a pale echo of the original work.

 

That said, my Persian father was really into old westerns and had a bunch he recorded off AMC or TCM or whatever in the 1980s onto VHS... and one of these was Black Patch (1957)! I ended up watching most of those old westerns as a kid so it's entirely possible that my first time hearing Jerry Goldsmith music was Jerry's very first original score for a feature film. I just don't have a conscious memory of it.

 

The very first CD I ever owned was Star Trek: First Contact... a birthday present from my great uncle who kinda introduced me to the concept of film music being available on album, by playing Last of the Mohicans in his car.

 

Yavar

[mstrox 6,651]

Gremlins, Gremlins 2, and Twilight Zone: The Movie were home video perennials at my house when I was too young to watch any of them, so I’m certain that was my first exposure to Goldsmith.

 

It’s about the extent of my journey though.  I blind-bought tons of Goldsmith scores in my carefree teenage years and maybe only really liked two or three of them, so now I don’t bother.

[ThePenitentMan1 744]

I'm noticing that JW, especially with his most famous works, is generally more immediately accessible, while Jerry's more of an acquired taste.  His music is genius, but it's not always a genius you can really appreciate on a surface level.  You have to listen to it a lot to really "get" it.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

12 hours ago, pete said:

I remember just seeing his name a lot on movie credits at movies and on TV growing up in the 80s - I was born in 1972. I remember noticing the name when I saw Rambo First Blood part 2 in a theater and for many movies on TV: Capricorn One and I think Alien was another one, and there were quite a few more. Maybe Twilight Zone and Gremlins I think as well. Strangely, I don't remember paying extra attention to the music - just that I kept thinking, oh there's that name again. Like all fans my age, Williams brought film music to my attention, so I think that had me noticing composer credits, but all this was in my early teens when I didn't think to buy a soundrack. But I realize I was drawn to instrumental music in a form back then - the long guitar solos of Mark Knofler on the dire straits double live album, and his Going Home piece from Local Hero on the CD, come to mind. 

 

I saw Total Recall (1990) and Medicine Man (1992) in theaters, and it was between those that I bought my first soundtrack - Varese's Star Wars Trilogy and Superman. And back then in Australia, you could rent CDs, and I borrowed Kamen's Robon Hood and fell in love with that. And then I kept seeing Goldsmith's name on CDs so I got more of an idea of his output. 

 

I knew he had written the music for Medicine Man before seeing the movie - I saw it with my mother who was a Sean Connery, and I went into the theater with the intention of paying attention to the music. The Trees piece had me mesmerized, and I bought the CD either that same day or the next one. And that set me on the path! Although I remember thinking most of Star Trek The Motion Picture was weird. Now I know it's just utterly brilliant! 

 

And then while living in the UK between 1997 and 1999, my parents visited, and Jerry Goldsmith gave a talk about The Edge with the director (maybe). And my mum went along as well, and she enjoyed Jerry's anecdotes about the Hollywood stars he mentioned. Hearing him speak, I really felt I was in the presence of a genius. It just occured to me that in the future when my mother is no longer with us, I'll probably associate some of Jerry's music with my memories of her. Damn, I hope that's far into the future!

 

Thanks GerateWohl for the topic and the resulting trip down memory lane!

Great recollections... sounds like we were at the same event when he talked about The Edge! And yes, the director (Lee Tamahori) was indeed there. Great to have gone with your mum too!