Thor Joachim Haga
Forumsvar Lagt Inn
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Innlegg
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I don’t know if it qualifies as “needless details” about my collection, necessarily, but an ADMISSION, at least, is that my physical film collection never grew to much. Which is kinda embarassing as not only a film music lover, but a professional film journalist as well.
While I lived at home in the early 90s, I only had taped VHSes, films I had taped off of TV. Maybe a couple of original ones, like JURASSIC PARK. When I moved on my own, I acquired a few more, so I maybe had about 40-50 original VHSes at most. Then DVDs came in the early 2000s, and I sold all of the old tapes. Continued to acquire a few more DVDs over the years, but it never really took off. One, because of money (had to prioritize those CDs, dammit!), and two, because I never really had room for them. I still don’t have room for an extensive film collection in my tiny one room apartment, which is why my film collection currently counts some 75-100 titles, out of which maybe 5-6 Blu-rays, the rest DVD. So puny!
Anyone else with the same experience?
On to THE LOST MAN (1969) now, and am I crazy or does the main title remind you of John Williams’ “Yub Nub”/”Celebrate the Love” ewok music from RETURN OF THE JEDI a little bit?
Just to be clear, I have no problem with speculation in general. It’s a useful tool in many things. And vivid imagination of which speculation is part, is a great thing (as a kid, I had an imagination run wild, as evidenced from the things I wrote or drew in school and on my sparetime).
But I see this speculation game as something different entirely. Kind of a pointless channeling of one’s inner desires and wishes into something that 99% of the time won’t be what you desired. This whole thing also relates to a sense of impatience (i.e. not just wait until the official announcement is out, and then react on that). Impatience, of course, across many types of situations, is another one of those fan behaviour things that I’ve always found peculiar – and interestingly also did a “meta” thread on 24 years ago (sadly, it gets a “404” error message when I click on it).
Yeah, me too. It’s particularly prevalent on JWFAN, but I’ve seen it elsewhere too.
I mean, there are plenty of “fun” scores out there, but it’s become a bit of an annoying shorthand when there is nothing else meaningful to say about a score. At the very least mix up the adjectives a little! Like, WHY is it fun?
I think, what puzzles Thor, and me as well, that often these speculators seem to spend three times more comments on the speculations than on the actual music when it’s published then.
Yes, that’s definitely a big part of it.
But I’ve also never really understood the act itself. I mean, yes, if you’re a kid and ponder what you’re going to get for Christmas, as Nick says, that’s one thing. But for grown-ups? I don’t know, there’s something weird with the “giddiness” by which people latch on the guessing game and clues. It’s not like there’s anything you can do about it, anyway. It’s not like a crime novel where the speculation hopefully leads to the discovery of the murderer. Whatever is getting released, is getting released anyway.
It’s always been one of those odd fan behaviour things that I’ve never understood, and probably never will.
He, he….the above was a thread from 20 years ago, but oh so relevant still.
All these years later, I still don’t understand why soundtrack fans get so much pleasure out of speculating what an upcoming release is going to be. Whatever comes, comes, has always been my attitude. But there is clearly some fascination there that I am unable to get.
Can any of you explain?
I think “produced” is a more hands-on approach, while “executive produced” is overseeing things from afar. That’s how I’ve always believed it, anyway.
Some good examples! Would be neat to know WHY you think they work so well, in words. That was also a goal of that 2003 post.
I think one of the reasons for why I always postponed checking out his stuff, until after he had died, was that I had this vague notion that most of his film scores from the 60s and 70s were these gruelling contemporary jazz things with growling/blaring brass and dissonance aplenty. But then when I started listening to the albums, they were mostly smooth listening. Some even with a Mancini-esque flair (WALK DON’T RUN and THE DEADLY AFFAIR, for example). Far more lyrical and accessible than I had thought. So the lesson is — never trust your preconceptions!
IN COLD BLOOD is probably the most “difficult”?
Yup, that’s a classic. Whenever I do lectures on film music for young ‘uns, and talk about montage sequences, I often use the spoof montage from TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE to lighten things up, which obviously nods to that one from ROCKY IV, as as well as others from the period. I might then follow with the aforementioned SCARFACE montage as a “proper” one.
A little something to take us into the weekend. I teased the EMMANUELLE series earlier, with Francis Lai’s entry. But no less groovy & dreamy is Michel Magne’s score for EMMANUELLE 4 (1984), which was reissued on Music Box Records recently. It’s not on Spotify, sadly, but someone has a playlist of the old OST on YouTube:
Paloma Peñarrubia did a wonderful score for LA VIDA CHIPÉN in 2022, that mixes synths, hammond organs, jazz and classic baroque. Was definitely a highlight that year, and well worth highlighting. I should seek out some of her other work.
(I should add that, 13 years after I made the above post on FSM, I did a podcast special on montages in film music. It’s in Norwegian, but you can click ‘playlist’ and see some of my favourites there.)
Sometimes, sometimes not, I guess.
Gary Glitter is a relative parenthesis in the scheme of things, thank God. Yes, he was a big part of the glam rock scene in the 70s, but that was never for me in the first place. No big loss there. So his sole survival in my life is that track on the Christmas album I listen to every season, which – as you say – has nothing to do with teenage girls.
I suppose the bigger the name, or the closer to your own circle of precious affections, the greater the challenge. I might be annoyed that Dennis McCarthy scored a Trump propaganda film, but outside STAR TREK: GENERATIONS and possibly some episodes of MACGYVER, he plays no major part in my life. So no big loss there either. When I listen to GENERATIONS, I exercise that distanciation mechanism I mentioned, and enjoy it for what it is. As much as I can, anyway. The autonomy of the text, as the old Frankfurt School purported.
It’s definitely possible to construct a broad range here, from straight-up criminals judged in a court of law to people with just some problematic personality issues, statements or actions. Too broad a range, perhaps, but everything comes into play when meeting a work of art, and in our case a composition.
As Dr. Jacoby succinctly put it earlier, “if you have records by only nice people, you will have a boring record collection.”
There’s nothing I want to boycott or cancel in the history of mankind (it all says something about the time and place that should not be censored), but I’ve found that there are SOME instances where I get more uncomfortable than usual. Like listening to a Gary Glitter song, or seeing that scene in JURASSIC PARK with Cameron Thor as Dodgson in the beginning of the film. And, as I said, everything I felt about Dennis McCarthy changed when he did that Trump film. In cases like these, it becomes an exercise in distanciation, in order to maintain one’s love of a person or work.
