It is incredible how much more enjoable the score is to me without this stupid narration. Now I listen to the score constanly at home. I love it.

I will probably never know why Williams allowed this to happen (the narrations) but I give my British friends two thumbs up for releasing the score only.

I also would like to mention the person who helped me get the score. You know who you are. Thanks.

Anyone out there with both scores, what do you think of the issue?

Scott

Anyway, it's not yet available in Austria, but at the store where I asked they promised to call me when they get it. And it'll be the Decca version, fortunately.

Scott

Dan (UK)

Don't misunderstand me, I would have preferred just the music (which is why I've ordered Decca's CD), but the narration isn't terribly bothersome, though there are a few glaring intrusions: "Lord, Why Do You Want the Wee Children?" "I Think of Theresa," and especially "Back to America"). However, I don't believe the Sony CD is as bad as people are making it out to be.

Further, Sony is making big bugs with Williams and his non-score, Boston Pops releases. They practically begged him to use their labels and Williams has repeatenly voiced his satisfaction with the company.

I have been to four concerts of Williams and met him three times. He doesn't seem to have this egomania you talk about and in three of his concerts, he used the same premise of having an actor narrate different parts of his music.

In conclusion, I really believe it was John Williams idea for the narration and if it wasn't I imagine he liked the idea so much to let it happened. I could almost gurantee had he said no, Sony or whoever would have not said another word about it.

Scott

Want any details?

Scott

Be that as it may, I continue to maintain my contention that Williams has an ego as big as Baltimore. For such a successful guy, he's capable of contemptible pettiness.

he is cool ain't he. Love the guy as well. Had a talk with one of the other instructors here. He hates Anton Bruckner. I just love his music. My students dig him as well.

Scott

first off, I don't want to get into a fight with you, but I have a couple of comments to make abut your post.

I have read the remarks of Clementes myself (a long time ago). I have never, ever witnessed that kind of behaviour from Mr. Williams at all, whether personally or in interviews. Yet I am not in the industry (yet). How much can the comments of other insiders be trusted though? I'm with Cole on this one. What Williams said regarding winning and loosing oscars can be interpreted in many ways. Would have to read the whole interview to judge that statement. This whole thing sounds to me like a jealousy act, the same we are witnessing with Bill Gates right now. Sad, truly sad.

In conclusion, why are you so hard on people. You don't like his humble behaviour and you complain about his so called ego? I have met the man and to me and my nephews he was the nicest guy in the world and as far as that is concerned that is all that matters. Is he always nice, I doubt it, but when you see him there are always people who come to greet him, some of his family adn some from the industry. The man hugs alot and displays a genuine love for people that should earn him an academy award if it is all play. Sure, I am to through out my own personal experience with the man for some industry nay sayers.

BTW: Who were the people who dislike Williams? No names are mentioned. As I said a while back, it is super easy to point the finger at someone...

Scott

(1) He hasn't written a good score since *The Fury* in 1978. Instead, he insists on boring me to tears with all that ham-fisted Straussian crap & Brucknerian bombast.

to point 1) it's a matter of taste yet i accept your comment.

to point 2) I am a believer of innocent until proven guilty. So, Tom would have to prove to me that Williams plagerized the ET theme, especially if you consider that Et is really vintage Williams style and is more in the tradition, style and note structure of Star Wars and Supermann. Gosh, I hope you'll never on a jury, you would convict on the basis of hear say only.

First off Luscious... "Williams has not written a good score since The Fury!"

I will just name a few... Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Hook, and many many more!

But, I guess you can have your own opinion.

Secondly, in regards to the plaigerism. I am a composer myself. I have composed over 175 works. At least ten of them I realized weren't that original and they contain themes from other pieces of music. It is something that all composers go through.

E.T is a great "score!" Score meaning, not only the theme. His score is magnificient and fits the movie perfectly, PLAEGERIZED OR NOT!

Thanks,
Aaron

Nevertheless, I have to say that I've never confused anything written by John Williams with anything written by anyone else.

Now, people, get off Lucious' back about what he thinks of Williams' music. He may not like Williams, whatever. He doesn't have to. You're not the soul of Satan if you don't like the score from "Raiders."

Myself, I love Williams' work. "Superman" is wonderful, everything I was hoping for. One of my favorite scores of his eludes me on record, however. That is his wonderfully avante-garde work with Stomu Yama****a for Robert Altman's minor masterpiece "Images."

I also noticed that the Japanese gentleman whose percussion effects grace the score from "Images" has a certain sequence of letters in his name that the board deemed offensive. You may disagree with me, but I consider such things more offensive than any word that would be edited out of a post. I didn't even curse.

NP: SUPERMAN Disc 2(Rhino)
[This message has been edited by Mark Olivarez (edited 19 February 2000).]

could someone tell me how to get a copy of Joy so i can listen to the darn thing myself?

Henry Mancini telling Baxter to sue Williams? Ehm,...details please?

just for the record (and I did not see your original post), the Japanese gentleman actually chooses to spell his name, in English, as Stomu Yamashta -- probably for that same reason your post got edited, although the nature of the Japanese alphabet doesn't allow for such changes. It's possible in the English alphabet though, and for obvious reasons, he adopts it. (Although I rather doubt that ACCURACY is the reason your post was clipped.)

Apart from IMAGES, Yamashta also scored the 1982 movie TEMPEST. There was an LP, but I don't know if there was a CD ever. (I do remember director Paul Mazursky's effusive liner notes -- this is a guy who really loves music. He also later raved about his collaborations with Maurice Jarre, who did supply him with a couple of nice scores. Although he also wrote that he hoped he'd work solely with Jarre ever after, and that hasn't been the case, I'm afraid.)

NP: INDECENT PROPOSAL (John Barry, only cost $3!)

just so some of you can get a feel for what this amazing score is like.

Someone as good as Williams doesn't need to steal. But even someone good as Williams cannot help but be INFLUENCED.

Williams told interviewer Irwin Bazelon (in the book "Knowing The Score" -- check yer libraries, it's a must-read, even as old as it is) that "Memory patterns are a big part of what we do" -- and since Williams played for a while in Baxter's orchestra, of course some of this was bound to rub off on him. (I've never heard anyone bitch about Williams' brief PLANET OF THE APES quotes in STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS -- any more than anyone should complain about GOLDSMITH'S occasional quotes of WILLIAMS. It's the nature of the work they do, isn't it? There are only so many notes on the scale to go around.)

Oliver Stone, no Mr. Sunshine himself, thinks the world of Williams (hey, they did three pictures together so far), while at the same time observing that Morricone can be quite a handful to work with. (I've heard more "Ennio's an angry boy" stories -- from a wide and weird variety of sources -- than I've ever heard about Williams. But as Mr. Goldberg suggests above -- though not about Morricone -- that doesn't make him any less talented.)

(Stone also speaks highly of Georges Delerue, although I'm sad to report that he and Goldsmith just could not get along on WALL STREET, and they wound up buying out his contract. No score was recorded, except perhaps for a demo or two Goldsmith would have done on synth.)

As far as Williams being a hard taskmaster, yes I think he strives for perfectionaism. Every concert I have attended, I have also had the opportunity to sit in on the reheasals. They can last anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. Yes, many cues are played over and over until John Williams is satisfied. But throoughout all the sessions, Mr. Williams never lost his temper, joked around and was always very respectful and curtious to the musicians, the staff and the ones present at the rehearsals.

Scott