Friday, July 07, 2006

Finally... a new frikken' post!


All hail Jerry Goldsmith!

It's hard to believe it, but Jerry's been dead for three years now. My question is... where the hell is the next great composer and why the hell is it taking him so long to rear his(or her... not to be a misogynist, after all!) head dammit!

For the last part of his career Jerry seemed to be stuck in the musical ghetto of a never-ending stream of crappy movies not worthy of someone as monumentally talented as Jerry but even then he turned out some incredible work.

It actually became sort of a joke amongst Jerry-philes: "What piece of garbage is Jerry gonna score next that I don't want to watch but am eagerly waiting to buy the score for?"

The 13th Warrior? Creighton crap... but an amazing action score. The M(d)ummy? Garbage of the worst order... but probably one of the best scores of the 90's. Going back even further you can point the wagging finger of shame at The Haunting, Along Came a Spider, City Hall, Sleeping With the Enemy... the list seems to go on; forgettable (at best) movies that all had one thing going for them-- a score that they didn't deserve.

Of course for each of his "why Jerry, why?" movies we thankfully have some of the greats to remember him by. You may be reading this rant thinking, "Good God, what the hell obscure fool is this moron going on about?" but you know the movies (and maybe even the tunes): Patton. Star Trek--The Motion Picture. Alien. The Omen. LA Confidential. The Ghost and the Darkness. Gremlins. Planet of the Apes. The list goes on. Even television is full of his work: The Waltons, Barnaby Jones, Room 222 (alright, I'm guessing I'm the only one who remembers THAT one!).

Meanwhile, John (I may as well have died after Shindler's List) Williams continues to defile his own greatness with pathetic pieces of pandering poop like the Star Wars prequels (don't even start with me on those, Joe!) and Munich. James Horner's automatic regurgitron never seems to break down, providing a whole host of films with a kind of Bravehearty/Legends of the Fally/Titanicy pablum that makes me yearn for the glory days of Wrath of Khan.

But I digress.

On the brighter side, there are some newer talents that may, just may some day become great composers on a par with Jerry and younger, much, MUCH younger Williams's and Horners. Guys such as Christopher Young ( the otherwise godawful TV remake of On the Beach), Richard Harvey (TNT's Animal Farm) and Klaus Badelt (the theme for The Time Machine is probably the only good thing about that flick!) but they seem to be having a tough time competing against the "heavy hitters" that Hollywood just loves to throw money and work at.

In the meantime I guess we still have the James Newton Howard Shore's to deal with (don't get me wrong... I loved Howard Shore's work on The Lord of the Rings [particularly for The Two Towers] but he's hardly proven any great consistency as yet).

Maybe someday soon we'll get our next great composer. Maybe he'll even be somebody that's currently working who just hasn't 'clicked' yet. But until then, I sure do miss Jerry.

(image courtesy of fantascienza.com)

30 comments:

Lori said...

Yay! You did it! A new post! Woo hoo!

I so miss Jer. Not that there aren't any decent film score composers out there, but he was one of the greats. I'm so glad we got to see that concert he conducted at the Bowl. That was great...and little did we know it'd be the only time we'd ever see something like that.

JOHN DVI-VARDHANA said...

Danny Elfman? Hans Zimmer? any other '80's musicians scoring yet?
Elfman w/ Oingo Boingo, and Zimmer with The Buggles.

Morricone's still at it, but the last time I saw your CD collection there was nary of the Wop's work...

Elliot Goldsmith?

John Williams wouldn't be so bad if he didn't whore himself out to Lucas and Spielberg... I got to admit his "Home Alone" score wasn't bad...

What about John Barry? Where's he been.

TheOneTrueGuy said...

Elliot Goldsmith?

If you mean Elliot Goldenthal, well yeah... Interview With the Vampire was actually a pretty good score. The only problem is that everything he's done sounds just like it.

And yes, Danny Elfman has actually become a very good composer. When he's pried himself away from Tim "The Hack-man" Burton he's really done some nice, un-Simpsons-like work. Case in point-- A Simple Plan. That score was more Thomas Newman (in his pre-Shawshank days) than PeeWee.

Hans Zimmer? Are you kidding?

And Morricone is certainly one of the last greats still working but I honestly can't say that I'm very aware of anything more recent than The Thing (which was outstanding, by the way).

And, lastly, John Barry. I don't know man. Where the hell HAS he gone? Dances With Wolves is the most recent thing I can think of that was his that made any impression on me. In fact, without IMDB'ing him I can't even think of ANYTHING he did after that. There must be something, but I just don't know what it was.

kegn_15 said...

"pathetic pieces of pandering poop" --

say that 10 times fast :)

hey, Zimmer did Gladiator and you own that soundtrack. I know because I got that song on my mix cd given to me by Lori

Bernard Hermann is my favorite. Elfman does recycle his music when it's a Burton flick. Really annoyed me during The Corpse Bride. That movie goes down to my " I want my money back " list .
Right under "Van Helsing".

Randy Newman..hate. Doesn't the Academy realize that he's been writing the same tunes for the last 10 years. Same piano tunes , just different lyrics. And they're all about 'having a best friend".

TheOneTrueGuy said...

Patheticpiecesofpanderingpooppatheticpiecesofpanderingpooppatheticpiecesofpanderingpooppatheticpiecesofpanderingpooppatheticpiecesofpanderingpooppatheticpiecesofpanderingpooppatheticpiecesofpanderingpooppatheticpiecesofpanderingpooppatheticpiecesofpanderingpooppatheticpiecesofpanderingpoop!

There!

And, by the way... yes, Gladiator was a pretty decent soundtrack from ol' Hans. That's pretty much it though. Also, Michael Kamen had some pretty good scores too (X-Men 1, Die Hard, and, of course, The Iron Giant) but he also got bonus points for working with Pink Floyd and Metallica that made up for some of his lamer scores.

TheOneTrueGuy said...

I don't know how my ppoppX10 got truncated but I don't feel like doing it again.

Lori said...

I think the problem is that there are lots of decent composers working...but hardly any of them seem to come up with any scores that really stand the test of time. They all just kinda fade with your memories of the movie. I mean, when you think of great themes, you're still and probably always gonna think of stuff written by Goldsmith or ole Johnny W. No one's really been able to take their places.

TheOneTrueGuy said...

Amen!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

(hey can i borrow your copy of "hey soul classics"?
no my brother, you got to buy your own....)

what cracks me up is that they keep recycling original compositions from other movies and using them for another movie! anyone else notice this "trend"?....i mean it happens all the time, but please! i crave something new and exciting to come about.

2 guys that comes close for me, is David Holmes(Ocean's 12, Out of Sight), and Michael Giachino(The Incredibles, Lost, Alias). while these are not what you call your typical composers, they both have a style that is their own and is easily distinguishable.

yes, danny elfman and hans zimmer use similiar chord structures, it's their "signature". but holmes and giachino are able to achive their own style without too of their own structures. i mean i can hear it, it's subtle, but you don't get tired or bored :)

more on the jazzy, trip-hop side of the coin, but really great pieces. for me this is very refreshing, as much as i love the big film score composers :)

--little d

Lori said...

Oh, yeah...speaking of those even newer composers, the ones on the trip-hoppy side, there's also BT. I'm not a huge fan of his, but he did write some nice stuff for 'Monster.'

Anonymous said...

dave and i have one of BT's cd's, i forget the name of it, but it's great. i forgot about monsters...need to go check out that soundtrack :)

JOHN DVI-VARDHANA said...

Now Jerry and Syd Barrett can finally make an album together...

I'd buy that for a dollar!

Lori said...

Yeah! The Madcap's Omen...now THAT'D be trippy.

Anonymous said...

i forgot one other person, john powell, mr. & mrs. smith...love both albums for that. the orginal score is great :D

TheOneTrueGuy said...

And since Gene Roddenberry now shares the same zip code with Jerry and Syd maybe we can even get a new Star Trek franchise that blends all of their talents.

Note to Keegs-- "Steppin' out to Eden... Yeah brother!"

JOHN DVI-VARDHANA said...

All hail....NUUUMMMMBER 17! Suckas!

kegn_15 said...

"Steppin' out to Eden... Yeah brother!"

Gonna eat the fruit and throw away the rind!

Spock: Rock legend

kegn_15 said...

POST!

and I don't mean the cereal company

Lori said...

I think this makes 20! Woo hoo!

Get a new post up, hub! ;)

Anonymous said...

new post! new post! new post! new post!
;)

TheOneTrueGuy said...

New post hell! I haven't posted a word here in weeks and I've got 21 responses!

Can I get 25?

Anonymous said...

post 22

Anonymous said...

post 23

Anonymous said...

post 24

Anonymous said...

post 25!!!!!!

ok guy....time for a new post :D

JOHN DVI-VARDHANA said...

26! Suckas!

JOHN DVI-VARDHANA said...

Smack that TONK and POST!

kegn_15 said...

jeez, I go away for a weekend , and now I see 28 posts?!

It's a Madhouse! MADHOUSE!!


29!!

Anonymous said...

30 posts!!! HOOOO-AAAA!!!!!!