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Mine came earlier .Listening now.
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I heard a whiff of Alien, too.
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For me this score is an important predecessor of Poltergeist, capturing both a nostalgic innocence of childhood as well as some powerful outright horror. Of course Goldsmith demonstrated skill at this kind of thing all the way back in 1961 (at least) on several of his Thriller scores, but The Other is a very powerful example of it. Yavar
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First off, are club titles now not limited editions? I don't see a limited number anywhere on the Varese page. Did I somehow miss it? A little history for the folks who enjoy history. I facilitated the Fox deal with Varese because Nick would not work with anyone but me who was there at that time. One of the first things I asked about was The Other. When he finally got around to it, it was coupled with The Mephisto Waltz. I was very disappointed in The Other, but apparently whatever source they used did the best that one could do twenty-five-years ago. I was also disappointed it was a suite in one track, but I never encroached on the Fox releases - they were Nick's babies, not mine. I'm not sure how Varese got away with it, but as you know they own all the Fox titles we did in perpetuity. I kept hoping that they'd get around to The Other again, although I knew that would not happen when Nick was alive. But here we are, years later and we finally have the release I hoped for - the complete score, with superb work done by Chris Malone with what I know were problematic sources. I got it digitally because I could not wait, and also because I'm kind of bored with CDs that end up costing almost thirty bucks that are traveling from ten miles to my location. The digital sounds great from Amazon and I'd imagine also from Apple Music. I read The Other when it came out and I thought it was a great book - clever, evocative, horrifying, and with surprising at every turn. I didn't see how anyone could ever turn it into a movie because the reason its central device works perfectly is because its a literary device. I got alerted that there was a sneak preview of the film and I got invited to go. If memory serves, the preview was at the Bruin Theater in Westwood several weeks before it would open at the National. I knew virtually nothing about the movie version - not the cast, not the director - nothing. The second the main titles began I knew it was a Jerry Goldsmith score. Score one for the movie. Then when Uta Hagen's name came up I was thrilled, as I'd loved the recording on Columbia of the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and her performance on it, which was stunning. Score another for the film. Screenplay by the book's author Tom Tryon. Score another. Finally, directed by Robert Mulligan, a favorite director of mine whose career was about to derail after some pretty great films. Perfect score so far. The other cast was, I thought, well chosen, especially the twin boys. And I thought they'd done a reasonable job of dealing with that literary device and making it work for a visual medium - not perfectly and certainly not nearly as potent as the book. Ms. Hagen was wonderful, as I knew she would be - a shame she didn't do other film work. I thought some sequences worked perfectly - the imagining game of flying, which worked so wonderfully specifically because of Goldsmith's cue. The period, the photography, were all spot on. But there was something off and I knew it wouldn't be a big hit. It just didn't quite work and, for me, one of the reasons was because Mr. Mulligan was afraid to make the horror really visceral - it was too restrained and tasteful for its own good. . But Goldsmith's score was of that period where could simply do no wrong. And The Other was an automatic favorite and, for me, one of his best. Oh, how I longed for the soundtrack album that never arrived. I saw the film several more times after it opened. I always enjoyed it, just as I always wished Mulligan hadn't been so afraid to be more like what Mr. Friedkin would shortly do with The Exorcist, another book I'd read back then and wondered how they'd ever bring that to the screen. I cannot recommend this release highly enough. It's Goldsmith at the top of his game doing the kind of score that no one did better. Kudos to Matessino, Malone, and everyone involved. If you are a Goldsmith don't even contemplate not getting this because you have the other release.
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Thanks for the interesting background information, Bruce! Quite enlightening. I haven't seen the movie, all I know about THE OTHER is the suite Varèse Sarabande put out with THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, and I always loved that suite, it played very well. But it was obvious the sources were problematic, and to order this release was practically mandatory for me. Very much looking forward to it. What were the sources used for this release?
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I know it's only £15 but I paid for the Download and now it's on Spotify anyway. Drat! No drat at all; the download gives you the option of FLAC/ALAC, Spotify has only lossy MP3 quality. (I know some here don't care, and indeed it makes no difference if you listen via Bluetooth headsets or for this particular release, but still.) Plus it's yours.
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First off, are club titles now not limited editions? I don't see a limited number anywhere on the Varese page. Did I somehow miss it? It say limited to 2000 on the disc cover.
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Yes, writ LARGE on the back cover of the CD. That's beautiful. But don't you suppose it should be writ LARGE on the page that contains the blurb and all the information?
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Yes, writ LARGE on the back cover of the CD. I don't see an image of the reverse side on the VS site.
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To get a sense of how under-represented this music has been for us before, I made this little chart for us to have on hand as we recorded our Spotlight for The Goldsmith Odyssey. Both the Mephisto and Fox Box suites were pretty early-centric. So was the music as used in the film, but you can see where Bruce is coming from in encouraging this release over anything you already have.
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Yes, writ LARGE on the back cover of the CD. I don't see an image of the reverse side on the VS site. That don't change it none.
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I am just grateful for the release of this score which has easily made it into my favourite Goldsmiths.
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Some decent tidbits bits in the notes , Kev.
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