Mr. Music, Please

Movie music has always fascinated me. When I started collecting my first records back in the 70's, I began picking up the odd film score or soundtrack. The very first movie soundtrack I bought was Rocky, in 1976. I was twelve years old at the time, and I was on the brink of a home physical fitness regime. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Lee, and Rocky were role models to me. I was dying to get lean and strong. With weights, running, and calisthenics, I got the ball rolling. And that Rocky theme song became part of my "pump up" ritual... I'd play that tune as I was warming up for a run or weight workout to get myself in the mood for a good session. Gonna fly now....

The following year, a little movie called Star Wars came along and captured my imagination. The soaring and inspirational music of this space fantasy was magical to me. I added this double-disc album to my collection, and I played it constantly. From the character themes to the Imperial Attack, and later the Throne Room music - it was all entrancing. The delicate Princess Leia's Theme contrasted with the thrilling Last Battle and other pieces that accompanied exciting action sequences in the film. But the music was strong enough to stand on its own, apart from the movie. A great way - the only way - to relive some of the magic of Star Wars back before home video. 

Star Wars was the summer blockbuster in '77, but in late fall, another biggie came along, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. While I liked its musical score, I did not think it was something I wanted. Strangely, though, I was compelled to buy a bizarre record full of sci-fi movie themes - all done in a disco style. Really! And that record included a funky version of Close Encounters, as well as the Star Wars theme, main title, and cantina band ditties. There were also dance-floor variants of the themes from Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and various other dreck. But I guess as a young teen back then, I sort of loved it. 

Somewhere in the early 80's, I saw a freaky film called A Clockwork Orange. More than just a brilliantly ultra-violent look at a dystopian future, the movie also boasted a magnificent music soundtrack. Composed of both symphonic and electronic versions of classical music, the album introduced me to the world of one Ludwig Van Beethoven and his contemporaries. Sprinkled among the grandiose orchestral pieces were more modern tracks like Singin' in the Rain and I Want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper. Somehow it all fit together as a great listening experience. 

A Clockwork Orange's non-Beethoven tracks The Thieving Magpie, Pomp and Circumstance, and William Tell Overture all grabbed my attention, and I still love these works to this day. But it was the Beethoven music that stole my heart. Old Ludwig's Ninth Symphony was such a masterpiece, so full of power and emotion that it became not only my favourite classical work, but also one of my all-time faves, regardless of genre. Beethoven's Ninth would have to be on my short list of "desert island" albums, alongside the metal and dance that I hold dear. I even went so far as to hear the Ninth Symphony live at a Toronto concert hall. Now if that doesn't move you, nothing will.

My nerdy high school cohorts and I gravitated toward sci-fi and fantasy books and movies, so it was a no-brainer that we'd love the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal. It sure helped that I was a metal music fan, too, since the movie featured loads of my favourite bands. Not an original musical score, the Heavy Metal soundtrack was a compilation of various artists, including Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Sammy Hagar, and Nazareth. The funny thing was that some of the least metallic music on the album was the coolest, like nerd pop band Devo's Workin' in a Coalmine and Through Being Cool. And Journey's Open Arms, while not heavy or even all that cool to us young teens, was recognized as a decent song, even if it was a... ballad. 

It wasn't until about a decade later that I really started to pump up my CD soundtrack collection with a bunch of scores from horror and sci-fi films (like the old Universal and Hammer flicks) and loads of composer John Barry's work, which included all of the James Bond soundtracks, plus several of his other movie scores. Some other composers that I admired and collected were Bernard Herrmann (Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Day the Earth Stood Still, and other 50's and 60's genre film scores), more John Williams (the Star Wars sequels - but not the prequels - and others), Jerry Goldsmith (Planet of the Apes, Alien, etc), Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia), and of course, Henry Mancini's immortal Pink Panther (and other) music. Those are just the highlights. 

I don't buy many soundtracks these days, but the one film franchise that I follow fervently in every respect is the James Bond series. So I try to buy every one of those CDs, unless they are too terrible to acknowledge (like Die Another Day), let alone display on a shelf in my home.