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As with any herculean task, I suggest you approach things in the order of the twelve labors undertaken by Hercules:
Step 1. The Nemean Lion
Just go in with your bare hands and tackle that first beast of a score. Once it is yours, flay its hide and wear it proudly upon your shoulders for all to see. Take some pride in your conquest. Blast that newly procured film music from your speakers. Doing this will give you some much needed confidence in completing the rest of your missing collection.
Step 2. The Lernaean Hydra
With your fresh injection of confidence, it's best to go full speed ahead and tackle another 9 scores all at once—one for each head of the dreaded hydra (one of which was said to be indestructible, so you know things won't be easy, but that's why you're taking care of it NOW, when you have the willpower and the energy). Each time Hercules lopped off a head, two more would grow in its place, so he called upon a friend to cauterize the headless necks while he continued his task. So if discouragement sets in at any point, call upon your friends to keep you determined until all 9 scores—even that seemingly unobtainable one—are in your possession.
Step 3. The Hind of Ceryneia
All Hercules had to do here was get his hands on a single female deer. But he found himself chasing that deer for over a year, and when he finally caught up with it he discovered it was protected by the goddess Artemis, who proved a force to be reckoned with. In the end, both patience and simple honesty won him his prize and he took the deer alive with Artemis's blessing. Expect this next score to be achieved similarly—with patience and perhaps the assistance of a kindly soul. No matter how long it takes, it will be a lovely addition to your collection.
Step 4. The Erymanthian Boar
I don't recall exactly how Hercules captured the Erymanthian Boar, but along the way he got drunk with a bunch of centaurs and then killed them all, so expect yourself to have to do the same.
Step 5. The Augean Stables
Now things are getting ugly. It ain't all gonna be sunshine and daffodils. If you really want to complete your collection, you're going to have to get down there in the gutter and scrape up every last note written and recorded, no matter how banal or how derivative, so you may as well collect your very least favorite works at this point. Just don't forget to occasionally come up for air and play one of the greats to remind yourself why you're doing all this in the first place.
Step 6. The Stymphalian Birds
To drive away the bothersome birds that had gathered round Lake Stymphalia, Hercules clashed together a pair of bronze castanets, then picked off the birds with a slingshot as they took flight. So now's the time to pick up any castanet-driven scores, probably.
Step 7. The Cretan Bull
This was apparently an easy task for Hercules, so take a break and pick up one of the easy ones at this point. All Hercules had to do was wrestle some bull and drag it back to King Eurystheus, who decided he'd set the bull free again, allowing it to go on terrorizing the people of Greece. So while this may be an easy score for you to get your hands on, I wouldn't lend it out to anyone.
Step 8. The Horses of Diomedes
At this point in your quest, you're probably hungry enough to eat a horse. But not one of these. These are man-eating horses. Which sound absolutely terrifying. So if there are any scores you've been putting off getting due to either irrational or very, very rational phobias, just bite the bullet and get them now. You can't run from the man-eating horses in your life forever.
Step 9. Hippolyta's Belt
As Hippolyta was queen of the Amazons, the notoriously fierce tribe of warrior women, Hercules brought along a whole army of his buddies, prepared for war. Upon his approach, Hippolyta surprisingly agreed to simply hand over her belt (perhaps it was going out of fashion soon anyway). Meddling Hera whispered in the ears of all of the Amazons that Hercules was there to take away their queen and full war broke out. In the end, Hercules had to kill Hippolyta for the belt she was going to give him free of charge anyway. So with this next title, just be sure you communicate your intentions very clearly if you're working any online or in-person trades.
Step 10. Geryon's Cattle
Hercules literally had to go to the end of the world to accomplish this next labor and once there he had to slug it out with a three-headed behemoth descended from the likes of Medusa and the Titans. So expect this next title to be a real son-of-a-***** and brace yourself accordingly. You're probably not even going to have the spirit to play it once you get a hold of it.
Step 11. The Apples of the Hesperides
Technically Hercules only had to accomplish ten labors to begin with, but according to some loophole somewhere the hydra and the stables were disqualified so two more labors were dumped in his lap. So just keep in mind, once you think you've finally done it and collected everything there is to be collected, you'll stumble upon some obscure TV work you never even knew existed. And like last time, you're literally going to have to go to the end of the Earth to get it, maybe have to threaten to break the necks of a few fools for information Liam Neeson-style along the way. For some obscure TV work. So have fun with that.
Step 12. Cerberus
This is where you literally find yourself standing at the Gates of Hell, breathing raggedly, with sweat and blood smeared upon your brow, confronting "a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described," after decades of struggle and grief and wiping cow manure out of trenches just to get your mitts on a lousy score for a film you don't even like in the first place, but you've come so far and without any weapons or friends or cents (or sense!) left to your name all you know is that that multi-headed dog thing standing in your way is going to submit—alive and unharmed (because geez, you're not a monster, and it's just somebody's dog barking at whoever came to the door). Then and only then will your collection be complete.
I wish you well in your quest. Let us all know how it goes!
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Posted: |
Apr 12, 2017 - 2:34 AM
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By: |
Thomas
(Member)
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Ha, ha....impressive, Tango.
Henry, I completed this task a few years ago (getting all Williams compositions that are available in some form or fashion), and the only thing I can say is: It takes a lot of time. Took me 15 years or so. The natural and most obvious way is to go for the widely available/cheapest stuff first and then work your way towards the more obscure/expensive.
For the true Williams completist, it's basically a lifetime of hunting, though, because there remains so much completely unreleased -- especially if you count the hundreds of obscure TV episodes.
Do you class yourself being a Williams completist if you don't own any of the expanded titles though? I don't have many myself so just curious.
I actually have quite a lot of Williams titles, which I think are a good representation of his work. Some of the bigger hits, and some of the generally smaller scores. As already posted, if you can get out of the completist mentality you should be able to build a decent collection as many of his scores are available relatively cheap if you aren't fussed about getting expanded titles.
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Posted: |
Apr 12, 2017 - 5:39 AM
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By: |
Scotty Boy
(Member)
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Herculean task, indeed! I'm on a similar quest for John Williams' releases. I've been at it for years and still have a LONG way to go. If you have unlimited funds, it's actually not that hard to locate most of his stuff. But if, like most people, you have to budget your money with other non-essentials, like paying bills and eating, you just have to be patient and vigilant in looking for the occasional deal on the harder to find titles. As someone else pointed out, a lot of his out-of-print stuff will eventually be re-released, so unless you are trying to get literally every version of every release, patience will often reward you with an even better version.
Here's a link to a pretty complete discography of Mr. Williams' releases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams_discography.
Good hunting...
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Posted: |
Apr 12, 2017 - 6:21 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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Not to derail the thread, but I have never understood the completist mentality, least of all for film music, given all of the factors.
I can only speak for myself, as there are different types of completists. Williams is my favourite composer, almost part of my musical DNA, so I want to have something from everything he's done to see the evolution, to hear the various approaches to things, to have both the 'bad' and the 'good'. But I realize it's probably difficult for someone who does not have this proclivity, to understand the nuts and bolts of this.
I have the same relationship to Danny Elfman, Elliot Goldenthal, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Jean Michel Jarre, Rammstein and The Alan Parsons Project.
(I also need to SEE everything by my top-most favourite directors or actors).
For everyone else, I'm perfectly comfortable with cherry-picking the "best".
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Posted: |
Apr 12, 2017 - 7:21 AM
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By: |
Scotty Boy
(Member)
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Not to derail the thread, but I have never understood the completist mentality, least of all for film music, given all of the factors.
If you are an admirer of an artist's work -- any artist -- wouldn't you want to surround yourself with the art that pleases you, that makes you feel good? If you are a fan of, say, the Beatles and you enjoy most everything you've ever heard from them, wouldn't you want to seek out more stuff from them? If you like the films of Steven Spielberg, and you feel in sync with his vision and style of storytelling, wouldn't you want to check out other movies he makes? Perhaps not all of them are equal in your mind, but doesn't it stand to reason that you would find some kinship with even his lesser films?
Not everyone is a "collector," although I suspect most people on this forum would consider themselves "soundtrack collectors." Most collectors I have known usually focus on at least one aspect of their collection. Disney collectors, for instance, may focus on collecting all of the movies, or all of the pins they can find, or all of the figurines, whatever, while they also buy other Disney collectibles. As a collector of soundtracks myself, with a collection numbering in the hundreds, I am a particular fan of John Williams, so I have set a goal of trying to get as much of his music as I can. I may never actually complete my collection, but the quest is fun and fulfilling. That "completest mentality" you refer to is part of my personality, I guess. If I ever actually completed my John Williams collection, I suspect I would need to find something else to collect and try to complete. I think the process is as much a part of the "completest mentality" as the collection itself.
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