Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because they should have been up an hour ago, but thanks to Jerry Goldsmith, they weren’t. Yes, last night, I was at a film music concert celebrating the work of Jerry Goldsmith as performed by the Golden State Pops Orchestra at the historic Warner Grand Theater in San Pedro, a wonderful old movie palace the likes of which don’t exist anymore. I’m sure this would have seen the wrecking ball long ago save for its status as a historical landmark. I don’t usually go to these types of concerts, but I’m glad I did. First off, I got to see pal Nick Redman and pal Julie Kirgo and that’s always a treat and always fun and lots o’ laughs. Also saw film music writer Jeff Bond and his ever-lovin’ Brooke, composer Stu Phillips, and the wonderful Richard Sherman and his ever-lovin’ Elizabeth, two of the dearest people I know. As it turned out, they were playing a Sherman Brothers medley as a preview of a concert in September. Otherwise, it was all Jerry all the time.
I first became conscious of Jerry Goldsmith whilst watching The Twilight Zone during its original airings. I always knew when a score on that show was by Bernard Herrmann because he was my favorite film composer and because his sound was so distinctive. But I quickly took note of Goldsmith’s name, because his scores sounded like no others on the show and I really loved them. Then I heard his music on the program Thriller and was happy to see that I could, even back then, pick out a Goldsmith score. I can’t really remember what the first Goldsmith film score I heard was, but it may well have been The List Of Adrian Messenger, at least the first where I said, “Ah, that’s Jerry Goldsmith, the guy I love from TV.” Then again, it may have been Lonely Are The Brave. From that point on, every time I heard a Goldsmith score I fell in love with it. Freud, Lilies Of The Field, his incredible theme from Dr. Kildare, but it was The Prize that elevated him instantly into my composer pantheon (which at that time included Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Andre Previn, and Elmer Bernstein). The Prize was everything I loved in a film score – gorgeous romantic theme that made my brain go fuzzy, great suspense music, and wonderful, propulsive action cues – and none of it sounded like any other composer. And then came A Patch Of Blue. Well, that was it – Mr. Goldsmith became my hero with that score. To this day, it remains the score that I have played more times than any other. I wore out three copies of the LP back then. I listened to it every night for two years. After that, I’d see any film that Goldsmith scored – I’d actually seek them out and whether I liked the film or not, the scores were always astonishing to my teenage ears. The Blue Max, The Sand Pebbles, Planet Of The Apes, and on and on. Each score was unique, and his scores made the films for which they were composed. Going into the 1970s his style adjusted for the new decade, and that continued all the way up until the late 1980s – he just had the uncanny ability to always switch it up and find fresh ideas. He also really understood the nature of what a film score was supposed to be, and happily he worked on films where he had the freedom to compose a score without having other scores thrust at him and being asked to copy them. There was little temp-tracking going on back in the 1960s, which is why you were able to get something as bold and fresh as Planet Of The Apes. Had he attempted to write that same score in the 1990s it would have been tossed out and replaced with some droning nonsense. His output in the 1970s produced some of his best work – Islands In The Stream, Chinatown, The Omen, Alien, Capricorn One, MacArthur, The Wild Rovers, The Other, Papillon, The Wind and the Lion, Coma, Logan’s Run, The Boys From Brazil, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and that was only the tip of the iceberg, really. In the 1980s he was still finding new and inventive approaches to scoring – and did one of his greatest for Poltergeist. Gremlins was another perfect example of a composer being given freedom to do something so wacky and so perfect – couldn’t have happened a decade later. But in the mid-1990s it all changed. Producers and directors were suddenly all about temp-tracks and every score began to sound the same, and I’m afraid, for me at least, Goldsmith was a victim of that. He simply gave them what they wanted and in the process became rich and well-loved. It was all huge orchestral things with 100 piece orchestras and lots of climaxes and heroic themes (not really themes but chords and counter-melodies in search of a theme). And yet, the generation that grew up then loved his entire output of the 1990s and 2000s no matter how similar they all were or how bombastic. So, I had no love for First Knight, even though people have pinned me down and told me how great it is and how I should love it – but I don’t. I don’t love Rudy, I don’t love Hoosiers, I don’t love Air Force One. They’re not bad, but it’s just not the Jerry I fell in love with. It’s a Jerry doing what he had to do – rolling with the times.
And so, the concert was a mixed bag because it included a LOT of the newer stuff and not nearly enough of his classic material. In a row, we got First Knight, Air Force One, Rudy, and Hoosiers – audience favorites all, but not for me. Then the encore was Gremlins and it was just like someone opened all the windows and let the fresh air in a stuffy room. Suddenly there was the Jerry I loved – brilliant, unexpected, and incredibly melodic but in the Jerry way that no one else could touch. The orchestra did fine, and the conductor, whom I met, seems like a very nice chap. The Sherman Brothers medley was not especially well arranged or orchestrated, I thought, but it was fun to hear the tunes nonetheless. I’m sure I’ll go back for the full Sherman Brothers concert in September.
Prior to that, I’d spent a nice day doing things. I got about eight hours of sleep, then I answered e-mails and had some telephonic calls, after which I did some errands and whatnot. Then we had a rehearsal with the thirteen-year-old. We ran the entire show, and she put the patter in. As we went along, I began smoothing out the patter, adding a joke or two, making some cuts, and focusing the point of what was being said. It works very well now. It’s not an easy thing to stand up there and be yourself for an hour and five minutes, and singing one song after another, but this girl is fearless and takes direction wonderfully and finds lots of stuff on her own. We did some detail work on a few of the songs, and we’ll continue to do that as we ramp up the schedule to two rehearsals a week for the next few weeks. Amazingly, she already knows all the songs by heart. After rehearsal, we went to the California Pizza Kitchen for some food and I told her that I really wasn’t sure what this adventure was going to be like when we started, but that one of the things I was hoping would happen is that she would begin to make the transition from being a precocious and wildly talented kid, to a more real, less precocious young teen – some of that occasionally takes her out of her comfort zone, but she’s been great about trying everything and she’s really grown and I told her how proud of her I was. And I am. The flow of the act is quite good and her work on the ballads (really foreign territory for her) just gets better and better as we work on them. I think doing the Gardenia shows every month has been really good for her, too.
After that, I took the long drive to San Pedro, and then did the long drive home. There was a shocking amount of traffic downtown, but instead of taking the Hollywood Freeway, I took the I5 and once I made that transition, it was easy sailing all the way home and I probably saved myself thirty minutes by staying away from Hollywood. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get my beauty sleep.
Today, I shall hopefully sleep in, then be lazy. I do have to start writing liner notes, which means I really have to commit to which title is next – I’m waffling right now between two. I may go ahead and write both sets. Then I’ll lunch, and then it will be time for our annual Tony Awards Bash. I’ve been a little surprised at some of the attitudes from certain dear readers in the last couple of years, awards bash-wise. The attitude seems to be, “I don’t care who wins or loses, so I’m not attending the haineshisway.com awards bash.” That seems more than a little silly to me – our bashes are not about who wins or loses whatever awards we’re watching – it’s about posting and having a partay and having fun – it’s camaraderie, and it used to be the best time. So, I would ask those sporting the attitude to come on by anyway and have a good time. That’s what we’re supposed to be about.
Tomorrow, I have a lot to do – writing, maybe having a dinner meeting, and lots of errands and whatnot. I also have to print out the rest of the music, Xerox other charts, make CDRs and get our singers over here to pick up their stuff. We’re now fully cast and have our guest star – Zachary Ford, Juliana Hansen, Damon Kirsche, Marsha Kramer, and Lauren Rubin, along with Melody Hollis, and our guest star Gregory Harrison. It really should be a fun show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be lazy, write, sup, and attend the Tony Awards Bash here at haineshisway.com. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, with the themes of Jerry Goldsmith running through my head and hopefully lulling me to blissful dreams.