Once there were a few guys discussing Zimmer and James Newton Howard and I just wanted to gatecrash their conversation.

Another time, a woman spent, as I did, twenty minutes going through all the scores (I was watching what she was picking out for a closer look).

I know this is a strange thing to say but it makes me wonder who these people are and how they fit into the scheme of things when it comes to scores - whether they have a passion for scores or a looking for an item for a friend etc etc.

I think I get a lot of this from the psychology of supermarket shopping - you know when you're standing behind the person whose items are on the conveyor belt...

The next time this happens to me, I'm going to strike up a conversation just to see what happens. Or should I mind my own bloody business?

Has anyone else felt remotely curious about a score shopper? Or has anyone talked to a score shopper before?

Most of the time, it's at a place like Tower Records where there's a huuuuge selection, and I can't help but peer over at what the selections are of whoever else might wander over into the Soundtrack area (as it's almost always on another floor...if not simply in another area of the store, banished beside the "Folk Acoustic Polka" section).

Like anyone else, I guess, I'm a curious person by nature. The thing of something like Scores, though, is that there are so few people who are into it on any level besides 2 of my better friends, it's like I have a passion for something that's completely alien to someone else. So between curosity and the "Oh, that's a good selection" factor, like you, Rochelle, I want to say something but...usually I just figure nobody wants to be bothered. Hence: why I have to come to a Soundtrack Message Board to talk about this stuff.

Usually, someone else in the soundtrack section is almost always trying to find the BLADE 2 songs soundtrack - or, to my true bafflement, like the FRIDAY or CITY OF ANGELS soundtracks, which always makes me go "Where were you 5 years ago when the movie came out?" It's no secret that the bulk of people hunting the s-track section are looking for song-only albums (why the heck else would Tower or Virgin's Listening Stations have 90 percent song albums on them, much to the chagrin of us frustrated Varese Sarabande shoppers, though some of the newer ones actually have those 'scan a disk' things, resulting in my being able to listen to the JOSH AND S.A.M. score and purchase it to round out my Thomas Newman collection).

I just about have a heart attack when someone picks up a score album - it's safe to say - and i'm not joking - I have NEVER witnessed anyone buying a score album that I can think of, except at specialty shops/comic cons, etc. Weird. But when discussion comes up about "the movie wasn't big enough to warrant a score" or something, I always say to myself "What other person on the planet but ME is anxiously awaiting April 16th and the release date of the PANIC ROOM score?"

In any event, I just had to vent all that crap, b/c it's something that's occurred to me, too... But hey, Rochelle. Or anyone else. If you ever see me in the soundtrack section, we can rap about anything ya want! I'll be the guy debating whether or not to get the WARRIORS OF VIRTUE Don Davis score for 25 bucks or finally get the BLACK STALLION score instead

"Ask me about film scores!" or less positive:

"Songtracks Suck!"

I sometimes see people browsing the soundtracks section of Silver Platters or Tower and most of the time they are looking for compilations centered around a movie.

If they look like a geek, I assume that they may be a reader of these boards and I hide in Country or Rap until they go away.

Good Night

Jeron, you go make yer quarky film. Is "quarky" Texan for "quirky"?

I never did like that Texan accent. Of course, I am New Mexican.... death to all Texans. Including arses like JJH.

Rochelle, please PLEASE strike up conversation. If all goes well, you will eventually strike up discourse about the state of movie music on the net... wherein that case, you tell 'me "I've got two dot com words for you, mate. Movie music."

E-mail me, that short film could really work! I've had a similar idea- maybe we could do a cross-national collaborative effort!

It takes a very unique circumstance for me to strike up a conversation with a stranger, but that's just how I am. If I did strike up a conversation at the soundtrack section, given my luck, the guy would be a Zimmer or Horner fanatic, and I'd have to bite (sever) my tongue.

Years ago, we employed a 17yr old technician and when he started to rave about his favourite films he revealed his passion for TTRL and Zimmer's score (and Malick in general). He would know all the missing cues and then leap into a conversation about Brion's 'Magnolia'. To do this day, we are still friends.

The other guy that we had managing the store was about 24 and he wasn't adverse to scores either. He asked me to make copies of X-Men 2CD, Dragonheart, Gladiator, Speed etc etc and when I asked him if he actually listens to them, he replied "sure I do - in the morning when I do my ironing". Maybe that's his way of putting on armour to combat the world for the day.

At another store, the manager there loves Zimmer especially 'The Rock'(save your comments). You have to remember that these guys are your average Aussie blokes.

I started my Master's this year and I met this girl in my class. We started discussing 'Moulin Rouge' and she lamented that the soundtrack did not have any score. When we started talking about scores she told me about he passion for Mark Snow - especially Scully's theme which she downloaded from the net. A few days later, I gave her a copy of Armstrong's score and that night she started ring her friends interstate playing the music over the phone.

I won't even begin to mention my best friends who listen to scores.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I constantly find myself in situations where people are "score-friendly". In my first post, I mentioned people were looking at scores - they were definitely looking at scores because I was watching them. I can't help it....I'm so curious.

Who knows....maybe its this city. Melbourne is the cultural capital of Australia.

Finally, I was in a used store two weeks ago and I found a copy of Broughton's 'For Love or Money' and Armstrong's 'Plunkett and Maclean". This lady came into the store and started to look through a section I had just been through. You could tell she was on a mission. She began to look frustrated and so I said to her "I hope I don't have what you wanted"....she looked at the two CD's shook her head and then said "oh yes you have...that's the one I can back for".

So there you have it...that was my last score incident...and I really should have struck up a conversation.

I've probably missed a few stories but there'll be more, I'm sure.

Cheers
Rochelle

Now, men, are another matter completely. I think that most of them are afraid to talk to me as I always catch them looking at me, but as soon as I turn my head to smile, they immediately drop their eyes down to whatever CDs are in front of them! If I were to start talking to them, I don't know if they would feel comfortable talking soundtracks with me, or if something mutually unpleasant would occur.

the filmscore gal,
Galina

I always have such guilt/hate to ask about score stuff when I'm in a store. You should've seen the apparent earth-shattering hassle I caused the guy at Virgin when I was hunting down the DONNIE DARKO score soundtrack.

I guess anyone I assume is in the soundtrack section is pretty much trying to find a Broadway Show album or Song Only Soundtrack. Though I do like to take note when I'm at someone's house if they happen to have a couple scores tucked in between SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and the PULP FICTION s-tracks.

The post above re: the RUDY score, that's great! I think more people WOULD like scores if they listened to them. My parents, for example, cannot for the life of them understand my fascination with them and why I own so many, they never have.

I do have a couple really good friends who are into scores and that's nice, when you can jump in their car and go "Ah...Chris Young's THE FLY II, nice choice".

But in general, having never worked in a record store or anything, the only time I get to score-rap at all is at a convention or something, like at ComicCon when I blew like 200 something on a list-o-stuff and a few of the guys at the dealer tables knew what they were talking about.

I mean, a record saw me rummaging through some old LPs (I needed Mutiny on the Bounty you see) and out of nowhere started telling me the whole spiel about the Goldsmith rejected score for Legend. I totally made his day when I told him the damn thing had been on a Silva CD for a few years already.

Another clerk was telling me about how he wished that Where Eagles Dare could be on CD. I immediately told him about the Chapter III CD (which I STILL don't have myself). And he also talked briefly about Herrmann, Bernstein, Waxman, Newman, etc.

What I found so BLOODY UNFORTUNATE about their situation is that neither had access to a computer and the internet. They had no clue about all the great work of FSM, Prometheus, Intrada, Varese Sarabande, Screen Archives/ BYU, Percepto, etc., getting out previously unobtainable scores.

And all the review sites, which regardless of the quality of actual music reviews, do an outstanding job of getting the word out.

He hopped in the car, and when I turned on my stereo there was Shawshank Redemption playing. I asked him if he'd seen he film and his answer was an enthusiastic yes - he told me he had recognised which score that was.

I told him it was nice to give lifts to people who actually recognise scores once in a while, and he went on to tell me about how amongst all his rock CDs at home, he had 3 Morricone westerns (The Good the bad and the Ugly, A fistful of Dollars, Once Upon a Time in the West) and how he loved them to bits.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeron:
LOL. I could make a quarky little short film...

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Cool, can I edit it?

quote:

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Originally posted by Lancelot:
I'll write it...!

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Perhaps we could put our differences aside and collaborate.

Rochelle

Jz

after about 15 mins, they begin to tell me about their daughter who has done a filmaking course in LA and is now in London directing documentaries...

after about 30 minutes find out that the daughter has persuaded Patrick Doyle to do the underscore...

finally to realise that their daughter was one of my closest friends at high school and is now going to send me the Doyle soundtrack and possibly more.

So do it Rochelle, you never know where it may lead.

ALWAYS talk to those hunting in the soundtrack section! The worst that can happen is that they'll say they're looking for a song CD. Then again you could have an experience similar to mine...

After obtaining my resale license for Soundtracks Unlimited in LA I was looking in a used bin for some rare soundtracks and this nerdy fellow kept pushing me aside so he could see what I was looking at. I got annoyed so I went to the LP section just to get away from him (I don't have an LP player) and what do you know he comes over there and stands in my way to look at the LP soundtracks. So I said "You're obviously a soundtrack collector" to which he eagerly replied "Yes! I am!" and I said "Well, jot down your name and I'll send you one of my catalogues".

I was looking over his shoulder as he wrote
"C-H-R-I-S Y-O-U-N-G" and my heart sank because I'd been pretty abrupt. I asked if he was the composer to which of course he said "Yes" and then tried to make it up to him by telling him how much I loved his music.We became friends after that.

In subsequent experiences I've added a considerable number of friends and customers to my mailing lists, from LA to Perth, just by asking people about their interest in film music at CD stores.

Cheers
Rochelle

W H A T??? I'd bet there would be some debate on that from those living in Adelaide, Canberra or Sydney! In fact you'd better hope no Sydney-siders are reading that, or else you'll re-ignite the eternal debate of Sydney vs. Melbourne that would put the everloving Goldsmith vs. Williams debate to shame!

Quite apart from that, I've never been able to strike up a conversation with people looking in the soundtrack section. There's hardly ever anyone looking in the soundtrack section! When there is, it's usually a couple of teenage girls looking at the tracks of some songtrack to whatever teen movie is currently the in thing. And at my age, if I try to strike up a conversation with a couple of teenage girls, well, all and sundry would just look at me and call me a dirty old man!

Cheers,

Lancelot - you being American and me being Australian

Morpehus and Arthur - you hit the nail on the head. Since its such a small world, you never know who you will bump into at the soundtrack section. I guess that's why I'm so curious about who's lurking around the score section...and what's their story. These are questions that are always posed in these boards so why not instigate in real life. BTW - the place where I overheard the Zimmer/Newton Howard conversation was at a place (Discurio) that I doesn't sell a lot of song soundtracks.

John - three Aussies in one thread...... pretty cool! I knew I would strike a nerve when claiming Melbourne as cultural capital...we all like to think we are the best in that arena - only in our case its the absolute truth. As I recall you shop at JB Hi Fi - is that correct? I always see tons of people browsing the score section and I kid you not when I say they do look at scores. As I said, it in our case its true. Seriously though, JB in the city is always busy....sometimes too busy....maybe its because its highly frequented.

Cheers
Rochelle

Two days ago, a slightly-lost gentleman wandered up asking for a book on an obscure musician. I did an initial search, but turned up nothing. I asked what kind of musician. The gentleman explained that this musician was, in fact, a composer, but an obscure Hollywood composer, who had only composed for a few low-budget horror films. He could not recall the titles. (Somewhere after the words "Hollywood composer", my eyes lit up.)

Quite coincidentally, I had ordered a copy of the 1998 Dictionary of Composers for Film for myself, and it was sitting behind the counter. Together, we leafed through, noting the works of each various composer.

As it turns out, this gentleman whom I was helping is an oboe player, and had played in some ensembles. He once knew and associated with Miklos Rozsa, Dmitri Tiomkin, and other composers of the era. He had also thought once about becoming a film composer, but after talking with some L.A. based composers, was told that if you weren't related to or somehow good friends with the head of the studio, it wasn't a very good career move.

So I'm watching the shoppers and yesterday I'm thinking to myself... "oh this man looks like a score shopper".

Then I see him reach for 'Staying Alive'....followed by 'Saturday Night fever'.

Disappointing.

quote:

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Originally posted by Graham Watt:
Some years ago I worked in a record shop. A middle-aged man bought a Miklos Rozsa compilation (I can't remember which one). I blurted out "Oh, Miklos ROZSA, he's GREAT, you like MIKLOS ROZSA TOO?", at which he glared at me and left the shop in silence.

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That's a good one Graham...had me chuckling there....