"I'd like to have Jerry sign a copy of Take a Hard Ride and see the reaction on his face, since it is a FSM release."

Can somebody please clue me in to what Goldsmith's problem is with Film Score Monthly (or I guess in particular, Lukas Kendall?)

but let's face it: Film scores can be highly innovative, yet at the same time, be the most derivative or annoying filth on earth. it hardly seems the smart thing to do to bash Horner and then try to get an interview with him.

I mean, what questions would they ask? How would the interview go?

Here is my admittedly twisted vision, as if it was caught on tape:
------

FSM: Why does Apollo 13 sound like Braveheart, and why in turn, does that sound like Titanic, which sounds like Searching for Bobby Fischer, and why does that sound like Legends of the Fall which sounds a bit like In Country? Is it because you're doing a musical variation on the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?
And really now, are you British or American?

Horner: I'm an American and I write original music! I re-use nothing! I'm innovative! Just like John Barry and Hans Zimmer! You guys are a bunch of hacks! You do make good CDs though. Why won't you do my early scores?

FSM: Because you yourself said they suck, like Zimmer's music, and you won't give the rights to anyone. Thank you for the kind thoughts about our CDs, but do please go to hell, because you're use of the same melody in every score is getting pretty boring. If you're so innovative, why haven;'t you written an original score since Willow, Mask of Zorro notwithstanding?

Horner: I said I write original music. I'm out of here...bloody colonial tabloid!
(proceeds to strangle Lukas like Bobby Knight and/ or Latrell Sprewell)

FSM: Ford! save me!! oh wait! I hate you too! NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And how can someone like a guy who constantly make fun of film music buffs who wants complete scores being him a guy who's always involved in re-releases of scores with "We tried very hard to put the more amount of unreleased music on our release" label on it???

The guy's shooting his own foot and still thinks he's cool...

Can you imagine how horrible for a busy professional like Goldsmith to be forced to deal with such jerk?

*********************************************

HOWARD: O.K. Then maybe you wouldn’t mind answering a question. Tell me, what gives between you, Bond and Kendall and all of FSM for that matter?

JERRY (taken aback): What are you talking about?

HOWARD: Don’t give me the baby blues. A little while ago you tightened up like you had persimmon up your butt when you said "Film Score Monthly."

JERRY: Are my eyes blue?
(These guys are obviously made for each other)

HOWARD: You wanna play Casablanca, ‘cause if you wanna play Casablanca I’ll wake up Swash back there and both of us’ll Casablanca you all the way up to Stratford!

JERRY: Whoa-ho-oh. What do you mean "Stratford?"

HOWARD: You know damn well what I mean. I never met you or any of these guys before and I don’t know why, I don’t care—all’s I know is that somehow, some way we’re meant to be going up to Canada--me, them AND you.

JERRY: Huh, boy. And I was worried about the others.

HOWARD: Good. So what gives between you, Bond and Lukas?

JERRY: You are certifiably--what the hell business is it of yours?

HOWARD: Glad you asked.

JERRY: I didn’t!

HOWARD: Why you dirty sonofa—

JERRY: Hey—show a little respect.
(There follows a pregnant pause as both have reached a crossroad, of sorts)

HOWARD: Why didn’t you fly up? A guy like you can flit around anywhere he wants.

JERRY: I happen to like long drives. It relaxes me. I enjoy driving and listening to good music at the same time. (He notices Howard’s nod to himself, then--) Hey, I’m not all that insensitive. Bond and Kendall rubbed me the wrong way. You don’t need to know the details.

HOWARD: I just know the end result: me and everyone else don’t get to meet Jerry Goldsmith, even if it’s only by way of an interview.

JERRY: I’ve given other interviews.

HOWARD: It’s not the same.

JERRY: How?

HOWARD: How old were you when Bernard Herrmann stuck it to you?

JERRY: I think you know.

HOWARD: Around 30, right, or maybe just a little under? Not far from the Twilight Zone stuff—in fact, it was Studio One.

JERRY: You’ve done your homework.

HOWARD: He accused you of stealing his music.

JERRY: He was wrong.

HOWARD: Doesn’t matter. You were hurt.

JERRY: It wasn’t that big a—

HOWARD: You idolized him! Don’t kid me; "…that ended the relationship," in your own words.

JERRY: You’ve done your homework too well.

HOWARD: Your career was just beginning. So’s theirs. Give us all a break. It’ll be nice.—That’s it, it’s just a nice thing to do.
(pulling back--) Sorry. I’m really not like this. And I couldn’t care less if you did a hundred movies a year. Most of them stink and I don’t see ‘em anyway. (He hears Jerry about to start) --The movies, not you! Please, you're 70. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Let it go. Talk to those guys at the magazine. Is it really asking too much?

JERRY (after barely a moment’s pause): Right now it may be.

*********************************************

In other words, I believe what we all have heah is failyuh to communicate.

PS
LK may be brutally honest to a fault and perhaps to his own detriment. That doesn't make him a mulehole, IMHO.

I want to read about the music. So if FSM prints bad reviews or slays a score, fine, it's just their opinion, and we all know were they stand. But if Goldsmith or Horner refuse to do interviews just because the editors don't like their albums, that's another matter. Goldsmith and Horner have been in this business for so long, they're professionals and used to hearing a lot of things I should guess. So getting cranky because of a bad review or two (or three), and doing the "talk-to-the-hand" thing to a magazine just because of it... that's bullocks.

I got my latest copy of FSM (The Phantom Menace Mania one) today, and enjoyed it very much. I don't think they have a "This time it's personal" attitude at all, they're just totally honest about their opinions, and the composers (or the fans) shouldn't start crying because of that.

I remember one day Kendall wrote lots of nasty things about James Horner on his site - none of them related to his music.
He said Horner was a prick because, among other ridiculous things, he humiliated someone of his staff by sending him to put money on the place he parked his brand new car just to be able to tell everyone that he bought a Porsche (or something like that).

And how Kendall knew all that? Because a friend of a guy whose nephew know someone who is friend of a person who happens to be brother-in-law to a fella who works on the studio said so...

Yes, it was a few 'off-the-cuff' remarks that were made that probably got Goldsmith's goat; but more than likely it was the 'highly opinionated' nature of the magazine in it's early desktop "zine" stage, which was pretty brutal to a lot of Goldsmith's work in the 90's.

Which, to be honest, was a quality of the magazine which was actually refreshing, that someone would dare to be somewhat critical. Yeah, at times they did go a little overboard with it, but as the mag evolved and matured (like Lukas and Jeff B.), most of the criticism became less snotty. (Although they still are a bit sarcastic,when warrented and I wouldn't want it any other way.)

For the record, and all your research papers, here's the actual text everyone STILL seems to get bent out of shape over:

"I dislike a good deal of Horner's work on a personal level because I simply don't respond to it. That's my gut reaction.
(Many of his works I do respond to, however: Field of Dreams, Sneakers, Brainstorm.) On a theoretical level, I
have a problem with many of his scores because I feel they manipulate the audience in very obvious ways: they paint
scenes "scary," "emotional" or "triumphant" in such a way as to create a mainstream, traditional reading of the film. (By
"mainstream" interpretations I mean that they reinforce traditional class, gender and racial roles which are by definition
oppressive; cf. Ransom.)

Simultaneously, even while pushing traditional buttons he has musically stripped his writing to bare essentials which I
find dull to listen to. In other words, I find most of his albums ambient and coloristic at the expense of the formal
musical structures and coherence which composers like John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith conscientiously create.

Interestingly, Horner has directly stated his intentions to this end in recent interviews--that he prefers to think on terms
of moods and colors and "paints" those to manipulate the audience in a subliminal way. He is very successful in this
regard, but I do not find his manipulative choices artistically interesting the way I find the choices of, say, Howard
Shore consistently provocative.

And furthermore, yes, I feel Horner has indulged in plagiarism of his own work and of the works of others in ways
which are not aesthetically or theoretically justified by his respective projects.

I do not personally loathe Horner although I will admit to a personal bias in that his representatives have been
deliberately unhelpful and nasty to me in the past. Such a thing should not be relevant when making critical judgments,
but as a human being sometimes it's impossible to help.

I point out Horner's fake accent and certain details of his background only in response to collectors who would make
incorrect presumptions. As fans it can be hard for us to believe that someone who writes music we love might not be
equally lovable in person. Many composers are "nice" people, many aren't. I know many details about Horner's
background and behavior--first hand reports from a variety of people--that would portray him as a very not-nice
person. (Real life story: assistant film editor is at workprint screening of Braveheart, Horner in attendence. Horner
beckons her over, drops some quarters in her hand and says, "Could you refill my meter? It's the Porsche"--and there
are like four floors of cars outside.)

I know, this isn't like he murdered someone, but I just wish people could spend some time with His Majesty and then
reevaluate. We're talking about someone who has systematically alienated and abused many people who have helped
him over the years; most recently, he dropped Shawn Murphy as his recording engineer because Murphy wouldn't
break a prior engagement to record Zorro.

Anyway... I wish we could keep our discussion on the music and not the man, but when I see people completely blend
the issue, refer to him by his first name, or by nicknames which he never actually uses, it makes me want to set the
record straight....

Here is my official 20th century theoretician response to why I don't like Horner. Completely skip it if you hate this
stuff. If you read this and are confused or annoyed, it's your own fault!

I'm serious! I don't want hate mail! The following is analytical! You've been warned!

All movies are constructed. You are watching light on a screen. A movie's meaning comes from the ways we interpret
what we see and hear. James Horner as a composer tends to reinforce a patriarchal reading of the movies he scores:
he makes the hero good, the bad guy bad, the love scenes romantic, and suspense scary. You will probably say this is
what film music is supposed to do, and you'll be correct, but Horner, unlike composers like Goldsmith, Barry and
Morricone, is exceptionally un-ironic about it. We live in a 20th century world where many of the above tropes have
been identified and analyzed. They are a part of our culture and conditioning. It is dishonest to call upon them sans
acknowledgement--witness the irony of the James Bond movies, and even the irony through lack-of-irony to the Star
Wars films. Horner's music, with its shuffled plagiarisms and triumph of color over form, deliberately clouds the
identification of these tropes. It is a product of postmodern culture--but not art--that appeals to the lowest common
denominator of the viewing public, one that wants the thrills of these signifiers without the responsibility of knowing
what they mean and imply. " [in my op this last bit is some of Kendall's best writing]

sources: http://filmscoremonthly.com/articles/1998/22_Jan---Iceberg_Ahead_More_Titanic.asp
http://filmscoremonthly.com/articles/1998/05_Jan---Mission_Statement.asp

There's the FSM gospel as printed out for us. I remember Zimmer's interview in which he went off on "dogmatic" journalists (usually the ones who criticise Media Ventures scores) and raved about how Kendall's "Horner-bashing" was going to "inhibit" Horner from composing-- then he should join the clubhouse of people who get bad reviews (uh, that's just about everyone, especially the ones who put out commercial works for popular consumption). I can't find the site that published the interview, or else it was removed. Maybe someone has a link.

Nothing personal folks

True, I don’t always agree with the ratings attached to
certain scores. That’s O.K. I don’t always agree with
Ebert’s movie reviews, but at least critics give us
multiple perspectives and variable insights.

FSM certainly displays unique personalities, and at times
I do find them unnecessarily abrasive. Yet, I’m perversely
drawn to their peerless ability to manifest individual
dispositions. They never spoon feed us pabulum nor buckle
under to those in disagreement with their views. They
come across as authentic people, not blasé copy writers.
While at times disgruntled, I still appreciate their lucidity,
candor, foibles, and humor.

(Hey Chris, thanks. Now I know Timmer wasn't talking to me. I couldn't resist kidding him. Think back to that shirt that some women used to wear that said, "Watch out. I go from woman to bitch in five seconds." I never bought that shirt because it was FOUR seconds too slow! )

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chris Kinsinger:
...and while I'm always very enthusiastic about Andre Lux's work, it does trouble me the way he abuses his co-workers. For instance, when he was posing for his Member Profile photo, he actually forced the assistant photographer to use her own money to buy more sausages, because Andre had burned the original ones beyond recognition.
When she returned with Bratwurst, Lux belittled her in front of everybody, and forced her to eat one of his horribly burned sausages. She then wept uncontrollably.
I know this is true because Andre's assistant photographer is my brother's wife's supervisor where she works, and she heard about it all.

---

Ok. That's it!
I will never give you another of my pretty interesting interviews again!

You've hit the nail on the head.

First: I never burn any of my famous sausages since I'm the greatest sausage maker of the universe. Some people say I do my sausages the same way Boris Bonifácio use to do. Nonsense. I don't even know who this guy is. In fact, I've never heard of him, altough I dated his daughter for 2 years.

Second: I never said anything rude about Colesterol. He's a great apreciator of my sausages since the year 1936.

Third: this story about me and my grandmother is untrue, since she died before I born. Cause of death: poisoned by rotten sausages.
On the little girls subject it was only a misunderstood. Some histerical girls tried to eat my sausage without pay and one of my assistants stoped them. The girls got angry and called the tabloid Sausage Score Montlhy, specialized in gossips about the world of Sausage making edited by a guy named Linkas Linguiça, and that's how my reputation was ruined.

ah, they're knocking at the door with the puppies I need to drown in the morning ... (I never said *I* was perfect ...)

Andre, where's MY sausages? Send me a crate and I won't distribute the REST'a what I got ...

NP: BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES (FSM release -- I LOVE THIS SCORE!!!!!! BOTH VERSIONS! Like I said, the OST and the replication of the rerecorded score LP are like whole opposite works ...)