In the good old bad old days (here he goes again) I used to tape all the main titles from films on TV onto cassette, and through constant exposure to the music of a reduced number of composers ended up being able to distinguish the styles of not only the big names but also people like Robert Drasnin, Paul Chihara and Robert Prince. That was part of the fun.

I think our tapes must have been nearly identical! I do indeed remember Robert Prince's end titles from Gargoyles (in fact I can hum it now after all those years), plus loads from the others you mentioned (Goldenberg, Cacavas and the wonderful Gil Melle).

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Does anyone really get excited seeing names like Gary Koftinoff or Ed Grenga up for a new film?

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I guess that's why I DON'T pay too much attention to that list anymore. I scan it and see tons of film titles, directors and composers I've never even heard of...and all I can assume is that they are the bargain basement garbage that goes straight to video...which is highly indicative of it's quality...

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In the good old bad old days (here he goes again) I used to tape all the main titles from films on TV onto cassette

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Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one, I always thought I may have been a little weird, when all my friends were listening to KISS, Eagles, and so on, and I'm running my main title/end title theme compilation tapes. (By the way, you know we probabply wouldn't be able to do this with current films, there are no main title themes anymore, and the end titles are now put together by the music editor, not composed by the composer; or is a bad pop song that's instantly forgotten - can you say Lost in Space?)

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TAPING OFF THE T.V.?!...now that does take me back

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And I wonder what that burglar made of the LP?! Probably he grabbed them expecting lots of pop music. Maybe he listened to it and liked it. Maybe you converted him to film music. Maybe he even reads this board and is going, "Oh my God, that was ME back in my criminal days!"

Maybe I'm losing my mind...

NP (in my head): GARGOYLES end theme.

Back on topic - more or less - I just discovered I actually have the end theme from Gargoyles on tape. I can probably send this as an MP3 e-mail attachment if anyone is interested. It's just over a minute long.

Graham, I know when you started this topic you didn't intend it just as a ticket to ride down nostalgia avenue (although that's an inevitable side effect of this particular subject) so I'll attempt to wrestle this back on course: I was watching a HBO movie recently, BUFFALO SOLDIERS, and it made me think that, if I was just an enthusiastic young 'un starting out on this film music lark, this is the kind of score that would have me on my knees in front of the TV with a mike clutched in my trembling paw. Joel McNeely's score is very effective, exciting in places, moving in others. I haven't heard much of his other work so I'm in no position to say whether he has that "individual" voice yet, and one cue did suffer from the curse of temp-track-itus (the climax of OUTBREAK crossed with "Bishop's Countdown" from ALIENS) but on the whole this reminded me of the kind of full-blooded REAL music that got me hooked in the first place.

And somewhere, probably, there is a youngster (or even oldster) who DID record this music, and is just now starting down the long road we've all travelled so far along. And it's that person who should ideally be joining us here on-thread to tell us about himself and his feelings about this new-found hobby/passion/obsession.

Where are you, brother? Chime in!

NP: Gargoyles, Frankenstein The True Story, PROBE, Hawkins On Murder (and other 1970s pleasures).