JERRY GOLDSMITH

As much as I love the 90s (at least quite a bit of it) for fun purposes, I think Goldsmith's best material comes from the 1970s.

Having listened to Planet of the Apes recently, I have to say that a lot of the techniques used in the 1970s in the modernist masterpieces like Tora! Tora! Tora!, Patton (which is a modernist score, even if it does have that beautiful march) or Chinatown come up in that classic.

The Omen is a different beast in that regard.

His best score? Fair nuff! For me it's in his top 25.

I had the misfortune to see the film once, what a load of pants!

Indeed it is Alan, indeed it IS!

I think his output from the late 60's to the mid 80's is astounding but in particular I would pick out ( personally ) his mid-late 70's output.

I think the earliest Goldsmith score I own is Lonely are the Brave (1962). I like that a lot.

Volker

I think this illustrates why I can't get through a full listen of the complete ALIEN . I'll still take this over the original release ( tracks 1-10 of CD 2 are the original album release ), there's so many tracks here that were never released before that I wanted so much.

Complete edition track listing

Disc 1
1."Main Title" (4:12)
2."Hyper Sleep" (2:46)
3."The Landing" (4:31)
4."The Terrain" (2:21)
5."The Craft" (1:00)
6."The Passage" (1:49)
7."The Skeleton" (2:30)
8."A New Face" (2:35)
9."Hanging On" (3:39)
10."The Lab" (1:05)
11."Drop Out" (0:57)
12."Nothing To Say" (1:52)
13."Cat Nip" (1:01)
14."Here Kitty" (2:08)
15."The Shaft" (4:31)
16."It's A Droid" (3:28)
17."Parker's Death" (1:51)
18."The Eggs" (2:24)
19."Sleepy Alien" (1:04)
20."To Sleep" (1:56)
21."The Cupboard" (3:05)
22."Out The Door" (3:13)
23."End Title" (3:09)
24."Main Title" (Rescored Alternate) (4:11)
25."Hyper Sleep" (Rescored Alternate) (2:45)
26."The Terrain" (Rescored Alternate) (0:58)
27."The Skeleton" (Rescored Alternate) (2:31)
28."Hanging On" (Rescored Alternate) (3:08)
29."The Cupboard" (Rescored Alternate) (3:12)
30."Out The Door" (Rescored Alternate) (3:02)

Disc 2
1."Main Title" (3:37)
2."The Face Hugger" (2:36)
3."Breakaway" (3:03)
4."Acid Test" (4:40)
5."The Landing" (4:31)
6."The Droid" (4:44)
7."The Recovery" (2:50)
8."The Alien Planet" (2:30)
9."The Shaft" (4:01)
10."End Title" (3:09)
11."Main Title" (film version) (bonus) (3:44)
12."The Skeleton" (alternate take) (bonus) (2:34)
13."The Passage" (demonstration excerpt) (bonus) (1:54)
14."Hanging On" (demonstration excerpt) (bonus) (1:08)
15."Parker's Death" (demonstration excerpt) (bonus) (1:07)
16."It's A Droid" (unused inserts) (bonus) (1:27)
17."Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" (source) (bonus) (1:49)

STMP: LLL reigns supreme. Still the Anniversary (Columbia) edition is a fine presentation of the score if you want to hear a more condensed run.

Yup, late 60s to mid 80s is an astonishing run from him, maybe Blue Max through to Legend if you look at his chronological filmography. There's some truly great stuff before and after that period but not with quite the frequency.

There's a pronounced change around 1980 when he shifted to a much lusher sound and you got things like Final Conflict, Poltergeist etc which are orchestrationally so much fuller than the sparer sound he had generally been using beforehand. I wonder what prompted that - maybe the emerging success of John Williams.

There wasn't much of the "synth-farts" in the 70's D. The most well known example being 1976's Logan's Run, a score cleverly split in two, a synth score for the futuristic city and purely orchestral for the apocalyptic outside world

Back then books and imagination ruled more than films. Lots of brilliant scores though.

A what Pad?

When it comes to the fun bit, I'd say mid-80s to ca 1995, with notable exceptions for an amazing year in 1998 and some good stuff in 1999 .

THE MUMMY is my alltime favourite Goldsmith score.

It is not only a truly great score, it's a masterpiece. By any standard.

Loony Tunes?