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Posted: |
Jan 11, 2014 - 10:17 PM
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By: |
Zoragoth
(Member)
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Basil: Right. I bought a CD of Goldsmith's "Link" and never cared for it and didn't even bother to put it in my iTunes. That's why few of us put him in that category the other day when someone asked if any composer batted 100% for us. Maybe 80%! (I don't think it was put in batting averages, but if it were, I guess I'd say that Goldsmith bats 800!) (Actually it was "who bats 100% for you -- but should have been bats 1000.) I'm one of those few who really enjoyed LINK. Clever music that serves well the underrated film. But with Maestro Goldsmith, it should go without saying that we gotta cut the guy a little slack on what we perceive as his misses because he was a workaholic who scored as many films as Christopher Lee appeared in! Or, it seemed that way. And there were many Jerry should just have skipped, where it seemed like he had run out of gas and was just going through the motions (my recollection of U.S. MARSHALS). I haven't yet unsealed my copy of SEBASTIAN so don't yet know where that fits into the grand scheme. But considering his prolific nature, it's unfair to compare Goldsmith to other stellar talents like say, Holdridge or Broughton, who sadly don't get to score so many films every year. After all, the more you swing, the more you might miss! Fortunately for us, Jerry's homers are for this fan unparalleled in film music history.
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Basil: Right. I bought a CD of Goldsmith's "Link" and never cared for it and didn't even bother to put it in my iTunes. That's why few of us put him in that category the other day when someone asked if any composer batted 100% for us. Maybe 80%! (I don't think it was put in batting averages, but if it were, I guess I'd say that Goldsmith bats 800!) (Actually it was "who bats 100% for you -- but should have been bats 1000.) Ron, Everyone has their own tastes. I have also never liked SEBASTIAN, just the wrong type of score for me, but LINK is an average Goldsmith score that I enjoy from time to time.
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Posted: |
Jan 12, 2014 - 7:17 AM
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By: |
miguel
(Member)
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Right now I'm listening to the Rozsa Polydor recordings from the 70s and once again I find them great, beautiful, marvellous, "exquisite", fucking good and whatever. Fortunately they are not available, so there's no way I would have to feel guilty in case Mr Hardcastle happened to purchase them following MY opinion, never my advice. Opinions may be more or less grounded, but they are just that, opinions, and as subjective as most things in life.
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Posted: |
Jan 12, 2014 - 9:36 AM
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By: |
RoryR
(Member)
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For me it comes down to the film the score supports. If I like the movie, I usually like the score too. About ten years ago, SEBASTIAN turned up on cable TV. I'd heard of the film only when I first saw an LP of BANDOLERO! from Project 3 Records in a record store (remember them?) in the mid-seventies. SEBASTIAN is mentioned in the liner notes of that gatefold LP jacket, and that was all I knew of it until it popped up on cable nearly thirty years later. Well, I finally see the movie, and I liked it. It wasn't great and it was certainly dated, but I like Dirk Bogarde and I love Susannah York, and I also thought that Goldsmith's score did his usual fine job of setting just the right tone, especially during the main title sequence. It's not an elaborate score, it's kind of thin, and I believe Goldsmith is supposed to have said that he didn't enjoy the experience working with the film's producers. I think of it as "Jerry Goldsmith Lite" and to call it exquisite is hyperbole, but I listened to the CD three or four times when I first got it and very much enjoyed most of it. Don't know when I'll play it again, but I will, and I hope the film gets a DVD or Blu-ray release some day. The film and its score deserve to be remembered, exquisite or not. Now, you take the film RUNAWAY. I don't like the movie, and as much of a Goldsmith fan as I am, you'd have to pay me to even think of getting that score on CD. Just not interested.
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Posted: |
Jan 12, 2014 - 10:28 AM
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By: |
CinemaScope
(Member)
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But I get what Ron meant in his original post; for instance people tend to get more excited with the notion of an obscure score getting released and end up overpraising it as a result, there might be exceptions, but it's best to put opinions in the right context on this board. And that should also include criticism. Except that it hasn't been overpraised, it's superb, it hasn't been discussed enough. Someone saying, oo I don't like this music, is just someone saying, oo I don't like this music. It's meaningless. This will make a good companion piece to the Flint albums should Intrada decide to release them this year. For groovy fab sixties stuff you can't beat Morricone's, Metti Un Sera A Cena, my favourite non-western Morricone score. I can just see the post coming up...I loved The Good The Bad & The Ugly so I bought this, it's horrible, it's terrible, not at all what I was expecting
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Posted: |
Jan 12, 2014 - 3:03 PM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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I am not the type of person who likes a composer's sound and then wants him to regurgitate the same thing in various ways ad nauseam. I love my favorite composers (Bernstein, Morricone, Desplat, etc.) because of how much they would surprise me with a variety of scores (stretch their musical muscles so to speak) to the point I would exclaim "Wow, that doesn't even sound like him!" At the time of SEBASTIAN Goldsmith kept shifting gears with a number of very different types of westerns (STAGECOACH, BANDOLERO, 100 RIFLES, BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE), war films (IN HARM'S WAY, THE BLUE MAX, SAND PEBBLES, PATTON), science fiction movies (SATAN BUG, PLANET OF THE APES, SECONDS, ILLUSTRATED MAN) and spy films. So after scoring THE PRIZE, MAN FROM UNCLE, MORITURI or OUR MAN FLINT how would Jerry distinguish this opus from the other espionage ones? That was easy, it took place in Mod London and was a bit tongue-in-cheek. Now you may hate all the Mod British style scores that came out at that time and that is fine, but suggesting that Jerry's is one of the worst is a lot of tosh! On the contrary it is one of the better scores in that style, without a doubt.
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Posted: |
Jan 12, 2014 - 3:59 PM
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By: |
Disco Stu
(Member)
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people tend to get more excited with the notion of an obscure score getting released and end up overpraising it as a result Nope. I'm constantly amazed -- and I guess I shouldn't be -- how often people here decide to ascribe differences of opinion to extra-musical motivations. It seems so many of us assume we have the one true response to a piece of music, and any other response can be attributed to a sentimental attachment to a project, or loyalty to a composer, or excitement for something obscure (and on and on). I love listening to "Sebastian," period. I don't care how obscure it is, I don't have any compulsion to praise Goldsmith (whose scores I love, except the ones I hate), I've never seen the movie. The music just makes me happy. And that's all there is to it. What amazes and even more irritates me is that "the true believer" can only like music that has been determined to be "high quality", "inovative", or both. I couldn't care if the music is run of the mill kitsch that has been done to death. My measure for a great tune is: I like to listen to it. D.S.
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