Jerry Goldsmith: 40 Years of Film Music

Disc 1:
1 to 5. The Blue Max 16:24 6. Television Themes - Medley The Man from U.N.C.L.E./Doctor Kildare/Room 222/The Waltons/Barnaby Jones 9:46 7. In Harm's Way 9:38 8. Motion Pictures - Medley The Sandpebbles/Chinatown/A Patch of Blue/Poltergeist/Papillon/The Wind and the Lion 14:24 9. The Generals MacArthur/Patton 5:26 10. Tora! Tora! Tora! 3:30 11. The Wild Rovers 2:09 12. Pursuit 2:21 13. The Wind and the Lion 9:12
TT: 73:09

Disc 2:
1 to 5. QB VII 13:39 6. The Waltons 3:56 7. Papillon 3:54 8. Police Story 2:03 9. The Omen 11:47 10. Capricorn One 3:16 11. The Swarm 7:41 12. The Boys from Brazil 7:08 13. The (First) Great Train Robbery 4:56 14. Alien 4:51 15. Star Trek: The Motion Picture 9:18
TT: 72:47

Disc 3:
1. Masada 5:39 2. Poltergeist 4:17 3. First Blood/Rambo II 5:57 4. Twilight Zone: The Movie 6:27 5 to 8 Under Fire 15:14 9. Gremlins 7:42 10. Baby-Secret of the Lost Legend 7:23 11. Legend 7:12 12. Lionheart 4:07 13. Rambo III 3:02 14. Total Recall 2:35
TT: 69:52

Disc 4:
1. Star Trek: Voyager 2:00 2. Basic Instinct 2:31 3. The Russia House 5:12 4. Gremlins II 5;33 5. Medicine Man 4:14 6. The Shadow 2:37 7. Forever Young 5:12 8. First Knight 11:10 9. Powder 4:29 10. Airforce One 1:30 10. L.A. Confidential 4:44 12. The Mummy 2:54 13. The Haunting 2:53 14. Star Trek: Nemesis 7:39 15. The Sum of All Fears 5:43
TT: 68:33
The Philharmonia Orchestra/The Nation Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by Jerry Goldsmith
The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus Crouch End Festival Chorus Conducted by Nic Raine/James Fitzpatrick
Silva Screen Records Ltd. 2005

It finally arrived. Four CDs. Sealed in plastic. Brand new. This is a great companion piece to Varese Sarabande Records' "Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox" collection. This will save a movie soundtrack fan from having to buy individual CDs for each movie. In my personal opinion, Jerry Goldsmith was THE movie music composer. Yeah, John Williams was responsible for "The Towering Inferno," "Jaws," "Star Wars," etc., etc. But I believe he peaked out years ago. Probably around the time of "Born on the Fourth of July." John Barry had the market cornered for decades with the James Bond franchise. But Goldsmith had variety. He could move between genres with ease. Western, action, science fiction, you name it he did it. But each movie had a different distinct style. He worked on both good and bad movies. But even with the bad ones like "Damnation Alley," the music stood out and was memorable even after the visual images of the film were forgotten. He did television too. Do you remember "The Waltons?"

I still remember the first time I was exposed to Jerry Goldsmith's work. It was when I was in elementary school. The local independent tv station (Channel 26/KMPH) used to show old movies starting at 1:00 p.m and ending at 3:00 p.m. By the time I came back home from school, I was just able to see the last twenty minutes of a movie. So I had no idea what the movie was about or what was going on. One afternoon in the mid-1970s, I came home, kicked off my shoes, and pulled the "on" plug on our tube tv with the wood cabinet. Yes, back in those days, wood could be found on a tv set. Georgory Peck was sneaking out of a compound in an Asian country. Arthur Hill play a military man with a patch over one eye, obviously the heavy in the picture. He was playing a special tape that was to broadcast a specific frequency. It seemed that an explosive device was planted in Peck's temple. If he failed to make it over the border, the tape would be played, the device would be activiated, and Peck would be killed, keeping him out of the hands of the "enemy." So I sat there in front of that glowing glass screen as Hill ordered the tape to be played and Gregory Peck was running across an empty frontier with the Chinese army hot on his tail, firing off mortars and AK-47 rounds in his direction. Meanwhile, Jerry Goldsmith's music was playing in the background. Talk about edge of your seat excitement. I was at an impressionable age and never forgot that score to this day. I then started to get a tape recorder and hold it up to the tv speakers in order to record those magical tunes.

However, I won't just buy just any movie soundtrack. I'm very selective on that score (so to speak). If the tune is memorable, I'll buy it and play it until my ears bleed. If I think I've gotten enough psychological joy from hearing the same tune over and over again, I'll sell it. I've sold David Shire's "Taking of Palhem One Two Three." My best purchase was for Goldsmith's "Twilight's Last Gleaming." I bought it from a guy on eBay for $10.95 and sold it to someone on Amazon.com for $111.50. So it pays to know what you want to buy. If I recall correctly Jerry Goldsmith died of cancer back in 2005. Joel Goldsmith follows in his late father's footsteps.