But listening to this fabulous early Goldsmith score triggers some thoughts about younger soundtrack fans. Not much response over at that other board - I think there's a younger demographic over here.

Anyhow, as someone who first noticed Goldsmith in the 60's, with scores like "The Prize," the Flint pictures, and really got religion a few years later with the landmark "Planet of the Apes," I was able to follow
JG's musical development over the next 40 years, in chronological order. I wonder how it is for the younger crew here who first got to know Goldsmith through his full-blown symphonic "Star Trek" and "Total Recall" scores and now have to move BACKWARDS in history to early works like "The Prize" and "Studs Lonigan." These earlier scores are for me, and were at the time of their original debut, remarkable in their use of rhythm and percussive effects. Goldsmith was a unique voice who often did marvelously unexpected, inventive yet still totally effective things with frequently limited musical resources. "The Prize" is certainly fully orchestral and "symphonic," but there are strong elements of
the spare, creative scores he wrote for much smaller ensembles for "The Twilight Zone" and
"U.N.C.L.E." You can hear bits of many things to come (I swear I hear suggestions of "Star Trek TMP towards the end of "Man Hunt")(anyone remember Page Cook and his "pre-echoes" comment about "The Blue Max?"). For me, scores like "The Prize" are honestly MORE enjoyable than something like, say "The Edge," which I just had on the other day. Here's where it all started - the wellspring of creative ideas. This is what put Goldsmith on the map.
So... any of you young whippersnappers heard this yet - any reactions?

I had the old MGM lp of this for about 4 yrs, and loved what was on it, can't wait to get FSM's disc. I was a youngster at one time,who only
knew his older works were....older works. Never discounted them, but at the time didn't feel like going through the effort of finding out what they were, not to mention there wasn't as much of his 'classic' material available 5-10 years ago as there is now.
All that's changed now, but it is strange 'working backwards', as you say, through his catalogue. The sad part is when you've heard all thats out there, that's it
I hope certain people who think it begins and ends with ACASpider, discover things like The Prize, Rio Conchos, Patch Of Blue, Spiral Road,etc,etc ad infinitum, someday as well.

What I'm getting at, is whether soundtrack fans younger than 30 will be somehow "disappointed" by a release like "The Prize," or worse yet aren't really interested because it differs from their expectations of a Goldsmith score. I certainly hope that's not the case, and I think I already made clear that for me it's just the opposite. I think this is a fabulous release. But I recognize that the Goldsmith of the 1990's and beyond is a different Goldsmith than the one who wrote "The Prize."

So, since this is, after all, a discussion forum... discuss!

Mark T.

Are the supposedly "younger than 30" fans excited about any FSM releases? It generally seems that people my age would rather have endless Harry Potter releases, extra stuff from the latest Jerry re-hash, Danny Elfman "funfa," and similar things instead of scores that are a few decades old, possibly by a composer they aren't familiar with... I know I'm pretty excited over about half of the releases that FSM puts out. I'd love to have the financial means to catch up on the discs I want and to continue to support FSM by joining the soundtrack "charter club." Unfortunately, at $20 a pop and as a college student, that's not going to happen until the loans are paid off.

The 4 cues on the original MGM album are re-records, but awesome. One of these cues wound up on a Sony CD compilation. Some original music from THE PRIZE already showed up on Rhino's THE LION ROARS collection and there was a bad-sounding studio tape of it floating around years ago.

As for this whole young vs old debate, if young film music fans think this is Goldsmith they can't get into while liking all his lastest stuff, that's their loss.