Your Film Music Origin Story
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When I was very young, my dad had the LP of The Alamo. It was frequently played and my brother (seven years older than me) told me that all the red on the front cover was blood, he being a big fan of freaking me out. Of course, I believed him without question, even though now you can see it’s nothing of the kind!
I loved the music though, and a year or two later, dad bought You Only Live Twice and the gatefold OHMSS, which were all played until every track had cracks and pops galore.
That hooked me into wanting to hear more, and as soon as I was able I’d buy almost any film score LP that I could find and afford. I sold most of my LPs when our first child came along, milk powder apparently being of more use than great music, but I kept a few – all three of the above and Morricone’s I Film Della Violenza, which remain in my possession and always will, despite not having anything on which to play them.
I actually had a small business in Filmmagasinet in the late 90s offering 3 soundtracks for sale in each issue. Totally dead-in-the-water of course, I stopped after a few issues. There was a female contact person in the mag who was very positive towards this, so kudos to her. I had one page in each issue, for free. Offered albums like BACK TO TITANIC, PRINCE OF EGYPT, BASEKETBALL and ENEMY OF THE STATE.
I sold most of my LPs when our first child came along, milk powder apparently being of more use than great music, but I kept a few – all three of the above and Morricone’s I Film Della Violenza, which remain in my possession and always will, despite not having anything on which to play them.
Double ouch! First, losing your LP collection, and then your turntable. Don’t get kids, is the lesson here!
I keep them in the loft, and occasionally check to make sure they aren’t being affected by temperature fluctuations.
The LPs, obviously.
Things like instrumental film music was definitely considered ‘anorak’ and super un-cool.
I think this also applied to instrumental music in general, too. Many people (still) need the singing apparenty. No idea, is it less abstract, can they better connect because of the voice maybe? Or because they can sing along? Surely there studies about that.
One of my earliest LPs was this one and I still have it:
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/9483271-Various-James-Bond-Greatest-Hits
I don’t think it was right in 1982 already – I was 9 then – but around mid 80s for sure. Funny thing is I was already aware that a lot of these compilation didn’t have the originals and I was please this had.I keep them in the loft, and occasionally check to make sure they aren’t being affected by temperature fluctuations.
The LPs, obviously.
He, he. Cue “Thwarted Wedding” from John Williams’ JANE EYRE.
That’s correct. I wish I remembered the year. I know it was the late 90s. Alas, my Yahoo Mail doesn’t go back further than 2014, although I’ve used it since the mid 90s (I think the older e-mails have all been deleted from cyberspace). Do you still have the magazine with your letter?
Yes, I do. It was issue 6/1997.
Wasn’t it some guy called Arne Svingen who had that “soundtrack column” (if you could even call it that) in the magazine? I think he later became an author. I do, however, remember kinda hating him a bit for his dismissive and ignorant remarks the few times he DID actually review a score album.
It was Svingen, yes. One of the things that prompted my letter was his “review” of THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK in the previous issue, which he gave 1 out of 6 stars. Here it is in its (very short) entirety:
“John Williams writes a lot of film music in Hollywood. That’s because he writes music with the same superficial emotions that many directors employ in their movies. Simple, pompous dramatic formulas and clichéd teary-eyed music. One thing’s for certain: You don’t watch The Lost World to listen to the music.”
Um, well, mister, some of us actually did. In my letter I claimed that it was him that was being superficial, and I mentioned all the variation you could find in Williams’ work, if you cared to look. He had a rebuttal to my letter in the same issue, where he again claimed that no, Williams is “wallowing in the most well-trodden and pompous film music clichés”, and that he “absolutely focuses mostly on big Hollywood action movies”. So I wrote a second letter, listing all the movies Williams had scored in the 90s up to that point, to try to make him understand that “big Hollywood action movies” was actually a pretty small percentage of what Williams had done so far in the decade. There was no rebuttal to that one.
He, he. Well, fuck Svingen (sorry, Eirik!). THE LOST WORLD is brilliant. Would be great if you could take a picture of that letter, just for nostalgia’s sake. But if not, that’s okay. In 1997, I studied English at the University of Oslo. I wasn’t very social, so I relied on my old friends, but sought out people – like yourself – who were into the the same thing I was.
Would be great if you could take a picture of that letter, just for nostalgia’s sake.
All right, here they are. My first letter and Svingen’s rebuttal in the first picture, my second letter in the second picture. They’ll make sense only to a select few here, of course. 🙂
By the way, I see now that my e-mail address is actually not in there. So I misremembered about that, obviously. But I’m pretty sure you guys first contacted me by e-mail… Guess you must have found it elsewhere.
Ha, ha…..thank you, Nils. And for the memories. Glad you got the final word. I’m impressed by your calm; if I had discussed that IRL, I would have gone ballistic.
LOL, I guess Svingen had ran out of arguments.
Knut Holt, legendary film reviewer in Fædrelandsvennen, once stated that few others had ruined film as much as John Williams. Harsh 😅🙈
Harsh indeed. It’s like Jon Selaas’ 1-star review of JURASSIC PARK. It’s come to bite them in the ass.
Wasn’t it some guy called Arne Svingen who had that “soundtrack column” (if you could even call it that) in the magazine? I think he later became an author. I do, however, remember kinda hating him a bit for his dismissive and ignorant remarks the few times he DID actually review a score album. I especially remember a review of ANYWHERE BUT HERE, where he wrote mostly about the songs, and then briefly mentioned Elfman’s score suite – kinda ad hoc – as “nissen på lasset” (a Norwegian expression that somewhat translates to “a thorn in someone’s side”). Even though Elfman actually co-wrote some of the songs as well.
(ooops, I just googled him and realized he wrote the children’s book DE TØFFESTE GUTTA [THE TOUGH GUYS], which was turned into a film with a score by our very own Eirik Myhr, who in turn is a big Elfman fan….so great comeuppance!).
Hahaha, this is hilarious!
Just to clarify, I never worked directly with Svingen on the movie, I only met him once or twice at the premiere and festival viewings. Seemed like a really nice guy. I, however, might not have been as nice if I knew about his erratic views of John Williams…
The classic misunderstanding that film music should not «interfere» or even «push» emotions, like you are not using every OTHER aspect of filmmaking to do exactly that already… Sigh.
I can only say, I hope my score for DE TØFFESTE GUTTA (which starts out as a comedy but later hits you in the face with some really gut-wrenching scenes) actually made him cry. By the time of the film’s release (2013) he surely must have learned that using music – like every other artistic output – to convey emotions, is actually not a bad thing.
Reading how he dismissed Williams back in that 90s magazine is actually quite shocking. The claim that Williams has been at it for too long and simply doesn’t have much to say musically anymore… Well, personally I think Williams’ most interesting period is the 2000’s, which had yet to occur when this happened… So Svingen was obviously very, very wrong back then.
I am also impressed by your calm, factual responses, Nils. And even though you had the last word, what an arrogant way for the magazine editor to step in and «declare the discussion of John Williams to be over», after TWO letters! Like they seriously didn’t find a discussion of the world’s greatest film composer to be even RELEVANT in a fucking film magazine! Horrendous. Absolutely horrendous.
I hope the stories didn’t sour your relationship with Svingen or the film itself, Eirik (it still remains one of your best scores). And I’m sure he’s a nice guy. He was just so totally off in that column – both in attitude and knowledge – that there’s no way to sugarcoat it. I do wonder what he thinks about it today, if he’s changed or still feels the same way.
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