Why I love soundtracks

Guardian UK ^ | 12.12.09 | Jon Savage

[Perdogg]

Soundtrack albums are the hidden pleasures of pop. Composed and performed to accompany moving images, they're emotional enhancers. This dramatic quality, coupled with the depth of sound-field in full cinema reproduction, ensures that many soundtracks stand apart from their parent films as a listening experience.

[Perdogg]

I have about 55 individual soundtrack cuts, 51 from James Bond movies.

[Marie2]

Some of my favorite soundtracks:

Cold Mountain
Jesus Christ Superstar
Phantom of the Opera

I guess the latter two may not be soundtracks, since they are both operas.

[wastedyears]

[GeronL]

oh come on... your fav is “Y...M...CA!”

lol. just kidding!!

[FrdmLvr]

My favorite soundtrack: Braveheart

[Signalman]

Patton. Jerry Goldsmith.

[dfwgator]

My favorites are the two Yann Tiersen soundtracks, Amelie and Goodbye, Lenin.

[Perdogg]

Individual tracks I have come from Out of Africa, Ipcress File, Somewhere in Time (Main Title), Escape from NY and Phantom Menace; From Russia with love, Thunderball, Goldfinger; You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret service;Diamonds are forever; The man with the golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For your eyes only;Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, Die Another Die, and Casino Royale.

[Perdogg]

and Quantum of Solace.

[buccaneer81]

Best soundtracks:

For Your Eyes Only

Moonraker

Star Trek II

Star Trek III

To Live and Die in LA

Apollo 13

And Justice For All

2001 A Space Odyssey

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Blues Brothers

[Perdogg]

That was in “Can’t Stop the Music” with Valerie Perrine.

[RandallFlagg]

Transformers (The first one)
Battlestar Galactica (The new one), all seasons
The Final Conflict (Omen III)

[UB355]

Thomas Newman Road to Perdition one of my favorites

[moehoward]

The soundtrack from Apocalypse Now, is the actual sound track. Interesting to listen to a movie.

[GeronL]

wait a sec... you do have that one? heh.

[Poe White Trash]

Almost anything by Jerry Goldsmith is worth listening to.

Alfred Schnittke apparently made a lot of soundtracks for Soviet movies. What I've heard is pretty good.

[Alkhin]

All time favorite: soundtrack from "Master & Commander - The Far Side of the World" in particular the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughn Williams.

Have recently fallen in love with the soundtrack to "Little Women" (the recent one with Winona Ryder as Jo)

[Darkwolf377]

Thank God someone mentioned Goldsmith, The Master.

I have several thousand soundtracks, or should I specify film scores--I probably have fewer than 300 soundtracks as most think of them (songs in movies).

My favorites? Depends on which day you're asking. But Goldsmith scores will always be among my favorites. He wasn't as lush as Williams (or as sappy), and his modernistic tendencies are just more appealing to me. The action cues in Papillon, Planet of the Apes, The Chairman are mind-crunchingly good.

Among my faves, though...

Star Trek-The Motion Picture (Goldsmith)

The Empire Strikes Back (Williams)

Conan the Barbarian (Poledouris)

Jungle Book/Golden Voyage of Sinbad/Ben Hur (Rozsa)

Ghost & Mrs. Muir (Herrmann)

Ghost & the Darkness, First Knight, Total Recall, Capricorn One, Under Fire (Goldsmith)

Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Guns for San Sebastian (Morricone)

Quest for Fire (Sarde)

The Agony and the Ecstacy (North)

Many, many more but my fingers are tired.

When you start a FR film score list, add me!

[Darkwolf377]

You owe it to yourself to look for more Vaughan Williams, gorgeous, gorgeous stuff, very spiritual (from an agnostic).

Thomas Newman is one of my favorites, and Little Women is one of his best. He's very versatile--his score for Salton Sea is amazing, and completely different from LW. You might try American Beauty or The Good German.

[buccaneer81]

Battlestar Galactica (The new one), all seasons

"Passacaglia" is incredibly beautiful.

[buccaneer81]

Almost anything by Jerry Goldsmith is worth listening to.

Same with James Horner.

[buccaneer81]

Poledouris also scored "Red Dawn."

James Horner is also one of the best.

[Perdogg]

No. I do not.

[McGarrett]

Some of my favorites;

The Last of the Mohicans
Quigley Down Under
The Man From Snowy River
Ben Hur

Three by Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits fame)
Cal
Last Exit to Brooklyn
Local Hero

Pretty much anything by John Williams and Ennio Moriconi

[Third Person]

Just saw King Solomon’s Mines (don’t ask why) and saw that Goldsmith did the score...the pay must have been good!

[dfwgator]

One of the things that made “Animal House” such a great movie was Elmer Bernstein’s score.

[Darkwolf377]

When Horner isn't stealing from himself and others, he's very enjoyable. I wouldn't mind except he is only average so often, but I know he's capable of such beautiful stuff as Bobby Jones (beautiful, soulful orchestral music for a golf film) and The New World, so his lazy stuff bugs the heck out of me. Plus he's notoriously jerky to performers.

I've got almost all of Poledouris's scores. You must hear Farewell to the King if you like Red Dawn and his others, great adventure stuff. He died too soon.

And Rachel Portman is great, though some of her stuff sounds the same.

The Human Stain, Mona Lisa Smile, The Joy Luck Club (Portman)

The Lion in Winter, King Kong (1976), Playing By Heart (Barry)

[Intolerant in NJ]

... many soundtracks stand apart from their parent films as a listening experience..."Joe Versus the Volcano" - shabby film in spite of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, gorgeous music by Georges Delerue....

[VOA]

bump

[buccaneer81]

When Horner isn't stealing from himself and others,

LOL! I'll give you that. A lot of his work sounds like Star Trek II, especially Aliens.

[Alkhin]

OH I am with you on Vaughan Williams - love The Lark Ascending (??) and try to hunt down what I can off of iTunes. For some reason I liken him to Tolkien for his era...don't know why, except that his music is very spiritual and lush and romantic. I have weird associations with music.

Just recently discovered the Newman score and I know I am in love with the music when I can't get it out of my head - same thing happened with me and Phantom of the Opera - even went so far as to see POTO in London back in October! Will look for Salton Sea and the other two movies. Thanks! :D

Of course, there's always the Mooseburger tribute to John Williams "Kiss a wookie, kick a droid, fly the Falcon through an asteroid!"

[buccaneer81]

Plus he's notoriously jerky to performers.

It's that gay perfectionist thing.

[GeronL]

okay okay. I was just playing.

[buccaneer81]

as lush as Williams (or as sappy),

"Johnny" Williams got his start scoring "Lost In Space" (1965-1968) and some of that work as excellent.

[Josa]

The Natural

Dances With Wolves

Castaway

The Right Stuff

[buccaneer81]

True.

[patriot08]

Great old time rock in that movie

[Darkwolf377]

Salton Sea might be too weird for you at first--check out American Beauty first. It's a good mix of his orchestral stuff and his weirder side. If you can find it, his scores for The War and Fried Green Tomatoes (score CD, harder to find than the songs one) are beautiful orchestral stuff. I have some bootlegs of his Phenomenon score and others, and he's just so skillful, a rarity in the newer composers, who can't seem to write themes.

The Lark Ascending is beautiful. You really should see if you can get some of his stuff on CD through your local library. Beautiful stuff, and it stays with you--I'm in my 40's and have been listening to Lark and the Tallis Fantasia since my teens and am still in love with them. Toward the Unknown Region, Job: A Masque for Dancing, Dives and Lazarus, and his music for Christmas...tons of excellent music. You're in for a lot of great listening, he rarely disappoints.

Thomas Newman's cousin is Randy Newman--check out his The Natural--and his brother is David Newman--check out his score to Serenity.

[isom35]

Escape from LA and Face/Off, and Star Trek II and III. Workouts go great with soundtracks.

[McGarrett]

I also like Poledouris; Quigley Down Under is so different...it sounds like it’s being played by a band in the park. I’ve looked for the Robocop soundtrack in the stores for years; I guess I’ll have to order it off the internet.

[loungitude]

Danny Elfman.
That guy is good.

[katlynne11]

“As Good As It Gets”

[Darkwolf377]

Salton Sea might be too weird for you at first--check out American Beauty first. It's a good mix of his orchestral stuff and his weirder side. If you can find it, his scores for The War and Fried Green Tomatoes (score CD, harder to find than the songs one) are beautiful orchestral stuff. I have some bootlegs of his Phenomenon score and others, and he's just so skillful, a rarity in the newer composers, who can't seem to write themes.

The Lark Ascending is beautiful. You really should see if you can get some of his stuff on CD through your local library. Beautiful stuff, and it stays with you--I'm in my 40's and have been listening to Lark and the Tallis Fantasia since my teens and am still in love with them. Toward the Unknown Region, Job: A Masque for Dancing, Dives and Lazarus, and his music for Christmas...tons of excellent music. You're in for a lot of great listening, he rarely disappoints.

Thomas Newman's cousin is Randy Newman--check out his The Natural--and his brother is David Newman--check out his score to Serenity.

[dfwgator]

Danny Elfman. That guy is good.

He saved "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" the Oompa Loompa songs were worth the price of admission. Plus he's a conservative, just listen to the lyrics of Oingo Boingo's "Capitalism". He sounds just like a Freeper.

[Darkwolf377]

Horner also claimed to have never heard of Jerry Goldsmith before he started film scoring in the late 70’s, which is pretty funny since he once dated Goldsmith’s daughter.

[Darkwolf377]

He’d been scoring long before Lost in Space—check out the Mystery Science Theater movie DADDY-O—it sounds like an Elmer Bernstein ripoff.

[Darkwolf377]

You should be able to find Robocop on Amazon--make sure you get the newer version, which is expanded with more music. Stay away from Robocop 3, it's incredibly lame.

Poledouris's Quigley is indeed terrific, but it's got a bigger orchestral sound than you might recall. His Big Wednesday is like a symphony for surfers. He was a big yachtsman, and his score to Wind is just now being re-released with another score, so look for it if you like his nature scores.

His other incredibly score is for Lonesome Dove, one of the best western scores ever.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Elmer Bernstein’s score.

Speaking of Elmer Bernstein, I loved The Ten Commandments. The Lord of the Rings (by Howard Shore) wasn't bad either.

[carolinablonde]

I love to listen to movie soundtracks.

The best place to hear them is Permanent Waves on Live365.com